(This was initially published in Bovine Practicum (turned Praise the Ruminant) in December 2019. Much of what is shared here provides sound principles for other ruminants like sheep and goats.)

“I want to raise cows. Where do I begin? What do I need to know?

You would be surprised at how many beginner farmers ask this question!

But there’s another question you should also ask: “Why do I want to raise cattle?”

This is the first question you should ask well before asking about everything else.

Why Do Folks Want to Raise Cattle? A Philosophical Look.

If you were to ask me, my reason is because I grew up around cattle. I’d love to get back to raising them again. I can’t because I’ve moved off the farm into a tiny, small prairie town that doesn’t allow livestock. But it’s the thought (and wishing/hoping) that counts.

I’ve been around them for over half of my life as I write this. They’ve always been my favourite farm animal. I’ve enjoyed hanging around them when I get the chance. I love listening to them grazing, how they sniff at something they act like they’ve never seen before, and how calm and quiet they are when I’ve hung out with them in the pasture.

They’re also intelligent animals and taught me plenty about them and me.

Plus, they provide highly nutritious food. Beef is a super-food, after all. And milk? Mmmm…

A downside for most is that they are big and powerful beasts. I know at least one friend who finds cattle very intimidating and scary. They can be fast, dangerous and unpredictable if you’re not careful. They’re not like dogs or horses in how they behave.

Yet, in their lumbering, tail-flicking, tough-looking way, they are humble, quiet, gentle and peaceful once you get to know them. (Not to be taken for granted, though. They have their moments.)

There’s a certain level of prestige and awe about them. Some folks think they’re cute. While they’re not like bison or horses, they have their own version of awesomeness.

That’s my somewhat philosophical reasoning. The practical side proves that they’re kind of like the Swiss Army knife of the farm. They provide all-natural organic fertilizer, natural grass pruning services, and enough meat to last a family for a year. They can make decent companions and be trained for draft work or even ridden!

Some Things to Know Before Getting Any Animals

Here are four main questions to ask yourself before getting any animals. I’ll discuss why below.

• Beef or dairy?
• What’s the best breed?
• What types to start with?
• How many animals do you get?

Your context matters far more than you know. This part of “why” helps form your decisions about the “what.”

I cannot recommend what you can do or what’s best for you because this website reaches an international audience. What works for me or someone else may or may not work for you. Folks may not like that, but that’s just reality. The basic principles, however, apply globally.

If you want to reach out to me (or other readers) with your questions, leave a comment below or visit my Contact page, and we can give you some suggestions.

Remember that if you ask five experienced farmers what to do, you may get five different answers. That’s not to say don’t visit them. There’s always a good gem or two to take away and apply on your farm. I also recommend contacting your local agriculture extension agent for guidance.

Beef or Dairy? That is the Question.

Both have their pros and cons. Inform yourself first about either one before making any decisions. Consult with your family as well to get their input.

About Beef Cattle

You have two options as a small beginner farmer:

1. Start with a stocker steer (better if two or more).
2. Buy a bred cow or cow with a calf at side. Or two. Or more.

Let’s start with the feeder or stocker steer.

The primary advantage of buying a steer or two (or five) at weaning is that they will be ready for “harvest” in about a year. This is a disadvantage for those looking to fill the freezer sooner. Pigs, chickens, or feeder lambs would be better if you’re impatient.

However, it’s a great way to get started if you’re a true beginner and want to take control of where your food comes from. It provides excellent food security, and the beef is much better than you usually get at the grocery store.

This is also a great option if you have a few acres and cannot afford to purchase (nor have the facilities for) a large amount of feed. However, it will be problematic if you do not have enough pasture to feed a bovine and the costs that go into purchasing feed to keep it healthy.

With stocker steers, you’re not committed to caring for them all year round, year after year. After they’ve been sent to slaughter, you can take a break before purchasing another group of steers or a different animal.

Most feeder or stocker steers are purchased just after they’ve been weaned. However, you can buy older animals, like yearlings. Yearlings take less time to feed up to slaughter than weanlings.

For example, if you purchased a 6-month-old steer weighing around 600 pounds (272 kg), it may take about eight months or so to slaughter him when he reaches 1200 pounds (544 kg). This assumes he’s on a good feeding program, including grain and good-quality hay or ample pasture, where he’s gaining at least two to three (1 to 1.4 kg) pounds daily.

If the steer was a yearling (around 10 to 14 months) and already at around 900 to 1000 pounds (408 to 454 kg), it would take only two to three months (more or less) for him to be ready for “freezer camp.” (Freezer camp = slaughtered for meat)

There’s a risk of losing that animal before he’s ready for slaughter. It’s not a significant risk, but it’s a risk. Careless feeding management, disease risk, injury, or any other unforeseen event can be a catastrophic loss for a family. But this is, again, a risk that can happen and must be factored in when deciding to raise your own beef.

Now, let’s look at the cow-calf pair.

When you purchase a cow-calf pair, the cow is still nursing that calf. If it’s male ( a bull calf), he can be raised for the freezer. (So can heifers [female calves].)

The downside is the wait between purchasing the pair and the young being ready for slaughter is much longer: over a year, maybe more. This depends on your feeding regime and what age and weight you intend to slaughter him.

However, IF you have enough land and feed resources, you can buy a feeder steer while you get the cow-calf pair. That way, you are guaranteed (if all goes well) to get some beef in the freezer sooner rather than later. Get a yearling if you do this, not a weaned steer.

A cow-calf pair is usually a beef breed (or mix). She has a calf at side and is pregnant with another. This means another opportunity to a) raise that calf for beef or b) keep it back for breeding if it’s a heifer. The main challenge will be getting her bred again. That is another post for another time.

A bred dairy cow is another option. If she births a bull calf, you can raise him for the freezer, too. Dairy beef has been hailed by many as good as “normal” beef. She can be raised for meat or kept back for breeding if it’s a heifer. That’s up to you.

About Dairy Cattle

Nothing beats home-grown milk straight from the cow. Raw milk also has notable health benefits. It only takes routinely going out once or twice daily to milk your cow.

Holstein is the most popular breed, followed by Jersey. Holsteins are known to produce the highest quantity of milk of all dairy breeds, whereas Jerseys have high butterfat. Brown Swiss, Ayrshire, and Guernsey are the following popular breeds but are more challenging to source.

Go with whatever breed suits your context. If you don’t need much milk for your family, settle on a breed that produces less milk. Dexters do well as milking cows, as do American Milking Devons.

If you want the butterfat for making butter, ice cream, or lots of cream, Jerseys are a wise choice. Miniature Jerseys are recommended if you find the standard-sized breed too much.

A significant drawback is the labour and planning involved. Your cow must be fed right to produce good milk (and breed back). Managing pastures so they get high-quality forage for good milk is also a must. Planning the annual reproduction and lactation cycle is crucial, too. Then there’s the calf to manage and care for, as you may have to implement a calf share program while milking.

A regular milking schedule is vital. Typically, if you milk twice daily, you must do it every 12 hours. That means getting up early in the morning and doing it again in the afternoon. Commercial dairy operations start milking at 4 a.m. and do it again at 4 p.m.

Once-daily milking is fine as long as you keep to a regular schedule. Your cow won’t be happy if you’re even an hour late for milking.

Then there’s the equipment and facilities. A milking stanchion is a must-have (or must-build). Hand-built (wood 2x4s) is cheaper and better for small family farms. They need to be under a shelter. They are designed to keep your cow from shifting around too much and occupied with a feed trough to eat from, so you can easily do your milking duties.

Everything needs to be stainless steel for easy sterilization. DO NOT get anything plastic. Buckets, lids, milk storage containers, milk strainers with disposable filters, and even the milking machine (if you don’t want to hand-milk) are a must. Other supplies include one-gallon mason jars with sealable lids, a milking stool (actual or homemade modified), teat dip with applicator cup, iodine solution, a mastitis test kit, and clean rags.

The physical process of milking will take some getting used to. There are pros and cons to hand milking versus milking with a machine. Hand strength and endurance are essential for hand milking. If you can’t hand milk, then a machine is ideal. However, knowing how to hand milk is still necessary if the machine fails.

Hygiene is of extreme importance. Clean the udder and teats before and after every milking. Dip teats in iodine solution before and after milking. Protect the pail with a lid to prevent foreign material from contaminating the milk. Straining the milk catches any unwanted debris before it goes into the jars. All this ensures it is clean and healthy for your family to drink and use for homemade dairy products.

After milking, you must clean and sanitize all equipment, from the pails to the machine and its respective tubing, O-rings, etc. Replace dirty rags with clean ones. Disposable filters should never be kept again: dispose and replace. Finally, keep milking equipment where it will remain clean and sanitary until the next milking.

Check your cow weekly for mastitis. If a quarter or two feels warmer to the touch than usual, monitor your cow’s behaviour. If she reacts more than usual when milking, she may have a sore quarter that needs attention. Mastitis can come when you least expect it. Take care of it immediately before it worsens and compromises the milk quality.

Blood and milk tests for other diseases are also essential. Diseases like TB (Bovine Tuberculosis), Johne’s Disease, and others are slow-moving but dangerous for the cow. TB is a zoonotic disease that results in quarantine and euthanization of the entire herd.

Finally, the calf. Conventional dairies utilize early separation. It is removed soon after birth and raised in a separate area with other calves. It is fed milk formula and starter grain mixes. You aren’t expected to mimic this to a T.

Calf-sharing is a popular method small farms use with their family milk cow[s]. It involves juggling when you can harvest milk and when the calf can get its share. It doesn’t mean the calf is with the cow all the time. Most farms separate the calf overnight to get morning milk. The calf stays with his mom for half the day before being separated overnight again.

Few operations do total calf-at-side milking, where the calf is always with its mother regardless of milking time. This works best if raising a dairy breed that produces more milk than her calf needs. It usually doesn’t work as well with lower-producing breeds.

What’s the Best Breed to Raise?

​A separate post was written on this topic. See the link above.

In a nutshell, what you choose largely depends on your context and choices.

Depending on your past experiences with these large animals, there are recommended ones to start with and others that are not recommended. Choose wisely!

For most beginners without prior experience, calm-demeanour, smaller-sized breeds are ideal. Large breeds and those notorious for being “crazy” are not. Herefords, Shorthorns, or British White are highly recommended compared with Charolais, Limousin, and even Simmental. Even Angus can be more challenging despite their popularity.

Remember the breeds that require more TLC (tender love and care) than others. For example, American Milking Devons are much hardier than Holsteins. However, Holsteins provide a lot more milk than AMDs.

Dexters are very popular due to their size, temperament, and ability to produce milk and meat, similar to larger-sized AMDs.

Besides doing internet and book searches, visit various farms to get a feel of the breed[s] you’re most interested in. Ask those farmers tons of questions. You’ll find it worth the while in the end.

But, in the end, it’s all up to you to decide!

What Types to Start With?

There are various options to choose from, as we’ll discuss below. However, there are a couple of principles that apply to all types:

1. Start with animals that are calm and docile. Avoid the wildies, the crazies, the ones that look to jump the fence if you look their way even if they look pretty! This doesn’t mean they have to be super-friendly and pet-able. It just means they’re okay with you being at least an arm’s or body’s length away from them.
2. Get at least one. Cattle (as with most ruminants) are social animals and do best when they’re not alone. Behaviour problems tend to develop with bovines that are kept solitary without any other herdmates. They will look at you to be their rough-house playmate or feeding buddy, which you won’t be able to be. They can do fine with goats or sheep if you can’t get another bovine.
   • Do not put your lone cow with your equines. This usually leads to a suffering bovine (getting thinner, not looking as healthy) because of the food-hoarding and food-aggressive nature equines tend to possess. Some equines may find it “fun” to constantly harass, chase, bite, or kick that lone cow. This leads to the cow (or cows) keeping as far away from their mean pasture mates as much as possible, eating the crappier quality feed or forage that they weren’t meant to be eating. The only time it’s okay to keep equines and cattle together is if the number of cattle you have outnumbers those equines, and they don’t [yet] know it’s fun to harass and chase them.
     • Donkeys make decent livestock guardians. There are exceptions, though. Jacks (male donkeys) have been anecdotally reported to kill baby calves. Jennies (female donkeys) that have young at their side also act aggressively toward those they’re supposed to protect.

First Beef (or Dual Purpose) Cattle

Above, we briefly discussed raising a yearling (or weanling) steer for beef, a cow-calf pair, or both. However, there are more options to consider.

Heifers

There are three types: weaned heifers, yearling heifers, or bred heifers.

Nothing is stopping you from taking this route. They’re cheaper than most cow-calf pairs and young stock that you can breed and sell as bred heifers (if purchased as weaned or yearling heifers), turn one or two into beef, or keep them back as your permanent breeding herd.

However, some caution is advised before going down this rabbit hole. Don’t bother doing this if you don’t know what you’re getting regarding quality breeding stock. There’s a big difference between culls intended as feeders for slaughter and breeders that won’t give you much in the way of issues.

Often, cull heifers are culls because they have poor structure issues, small pelvic sizes, bad temperament, are too small, or are “infertile” (or later maturing than a producer wanted). You’re most likely to find these heifers at auction marts (or sale barns.

The better breeding stock is found at private treaty sales (where you buy directly from another farmer), bull and heifer sales, or estate sales, where the cow herd is sold.

There will be no offspring on the ground from those heifers until they are at least two or even three years old. That means if you purchased weaned heifers at six months old, it would take three to five years before getting any beef in the freezer that came directly from your farm.

Here’s a time frame to consider:

• Purchase age: 6 months
• Breeding age: 15 to 18 months. Some prefer to wait until they are 20 to 24 months old.
• Gestation: 9 months
• Age at first calving: 24 to 33 months old, depending on when she’s bred.
• Age when she (or you) weans her calf: 2.5 to 3.5 years old
  • Most calves are weaned between 6 to 10 months of age
• Offspring’s slaughter age post-weaning: 12 to 24+ months old (depending on feeding/grazing program)
• Age your first heifer-turned-cow will be when their first offspring is slaughtered: 3 to 5 years old.

Are you willing to wait that long to get your own freezer beef?

Heifers pose another problem: they usually require more work and monitoring before calving. They are notorious for taking their time with calving and dystocia (calving malpresentation) issues. Sometimes you get lucky, though.

First-time mommas sometimes aren’t keen on bonding with their calf right away. (Some are, so it’s a role of the die). If she refuses to bond, you must intervene ASAP to ensure the calf gets its colostrum. Then, you must continue to monitor to ensure the calf is persistent enough to win over his/her momma’s stubborn nature.

If this doesn’t happen, prepare to put in the work for bottle-feeding.

If you plan to start your beef herd with a heifer or two (or more), I suggest adding one or two steers to reduce your wait time to harvest your home-raised beef.

First Milk Cow

WITHOUT QUESTION, AVOID STARTING WITH A HEIFER. This is extremely important!

Inexperienced you and an inexperienced cow/heifer is a terrible, very stressful combination. (It might be enough for you to reconsider having a family milk cow.) She will be stressed, and so will you.

You both will learn a lot but also make many mistakes. A heifer that doesn’t know what you’re doing to her will kick a lot, not give much milk, and require the epitome of patience and persistence.

Do you have that? If not…

Start with a mature, experienced milk cow instead. She’ll be much easier to work with, and getting accustomed to regular milking will take little time.

Also, she will be in milk a lot sooner than a heifer. Purchasing a yearling dairy heifer means waiting almost a full year before you can begin getting milk from her.

It is cheaper to purchase a heifer than a mature cow, but the price is often worth it by going down the mature cow route.

(Also, get your first milk cow vet checked before purchase to ensure she’s free of diseases like Johne’s, BLV (bovine leukemia virus), and incurable others. It’ll be an extra cost that you won’t regret down the road.)

What About Bottle Calves?? 

Bottle calves aren’t for the faint of heart. Sure, they’re cute, but don’t let that fool you. They’re delicate creatures. If you don’t know what you’re doing, they can get very sick and die on you.

Bottle calves are often just a day to a couple of weeks old. They still need milk and aren’t ready for hay or grain like their more mature counterparts. (You can start them on it, but don’t expect them to live off it immediately.)

They have a higher mortality risk than a weaned steer or heifer. Their immunity may be compromised because they didn’t get colostrum in time or haven’t been vaccinated (because they’re still too young) against the various viruses and bacteria that can make them sick. They can get scours (calf diarrhea), pneumonia, joint/navel ill, calf diphtheria, or other diseases.

Leave the bottle calves to those with more experience. It will be much less stressful in the long run.

How many to get?

First and foremost, assess how much land you have and how much your pastures (and your wallet) will allow.

If you have under five acres, you’re better off with small ruminants (sheep or goats). One cow may be a bit much.

A yearling steer on four or five acres may be doable if you’re okay with spending money on feed and supplements to get him up to slaughter weight. The extra feed will relieve pressure on your pastures and help him grow and get fattened.

If you have more than that, you’re better set up for having large ruminants.

Talk with a local agriculture extension specialist to determine how much your pastures can support. They will happily provide your area’s local or regional average stocking rate.

The generic “one cow per acre [per month]” should be taken with a big grain of salt. Your stocking rate may be well over or under that rule of thumb. That’s where your ag extension agent will point you in the right direction.

Also, ask them the estimated stocking rate for the poorest possible growing year, like in a drought. It may be a scary number, but it gives you an idea of how conservative you should be with the number of animals you should start with.

You may have ended up with a place that has a severely overgrazed pasture. This is a rough way to start, but there’s hope. The grass will grow back. It may mean starting with fewer animals than anticipated so the grass can grow back. It will also mean implementing a “rotational” adaptive grazing program to improve that pasture’s productivity.

The goal for your pastures is to maximize productivity with as little cost as possible. Use only your animals, fencing equipment, and a grazing plan. You will make mistakes and accidentally overgraze one or more paddocks, but that’s the learning process. Jim Gerrish famously told his audiences: “Don’t be afraid to chase grass.”

That extra grass that some old farmer may think is being “wasted” really isn’t. While it can be cut for hay, custom grazed, or even saved for dormant-season grazing, it’s like a savings account for your soil. It will die, lay down, feed the soil microbes, and new grass will grow through it later in the season or next year.

That extra “wasted” grass protects your soil and helps capture water, which is crucial if you suddenly face drought. It’s extra feed on the stem guaranteed for your animals during that tough time, which is much cheaper than suddenly sourcing extra feed to help keep your animals healthy and happy.

So, how many animals should you start with??

Every cattle (sheep or goat) person has told every beginner the same thing: Start small.

In other words, start with only two or five animals. (Some of you are daring and will begin with a few more. That’s fine.)

As mentioned above, cattle (sheep and goats) don’t like being lonely. They prefer to be with at least one of their own.

This way, you have a place to start and can build your herd (or flock) up from there with offspring or newly purchased animals.

Are you ready to take the plunge?

I covered quite a few topics here, and even more could be discussed beyond this post. However, these were just the basics for the absolute beginner, answering the most common questions that are usually asked when thinking about buying some ruminants!

Some things I didn’t cover include whether to have a bull or go with AI (artificial insemination), what to do about fencing and watering, what kind of feed to go with, do animals need to be kept indoors in a barn all winter, and so much more.

If you have any questions or comments, contact me or comment below.

To conclude, do your research, talk to other farmers for more tips and advice, start small, and don’t be afraid of messing up. It’s going to happen. A farmer friend of mine has this piece of advice for all: “Think of that mistake as a great learning opportunity.“

Words to live by.

Best of luck in your endeavours!