Hi all, it's nice to see more and more familiar names.

My husband's cousin has the land surrounding ours(soon). She said she'd buy 8-10 beef cattle if we'd raise them we have the barn, butcher one and split between us. Something we've never done before. We're planning on getting a milkcow and a couple goats, too.

Questions: Is it best to buy in spring butcher in fall? How do you raise them without chemicals? Feed? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-- Cindy (S.E.IN) (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 01, 2001

Answers

We've raised only a few beef animals, so I'm not an expert. But we fed them a little unmedicated range cubes twice a day (keeps them coming up to the barn.) They do eat lots and lots of hay if you keep them past the seasons where they can graze. So if you keep them through the winter, you want to be able to put up plenty of hay in the spring, early summer(now) when it is cheapest. Hay is very expensive to buy in the winter.

-- mary, in colorado (marylgarcia@aol.com), July 01, 2001.

This is our third year raising beef. The times before we bought weaned calves at the auction and fed them mostly on pasture with a little grain and hay to supplement. We have always kept them through one winter and butchered the following fall at about 18 months of age. Here is Western Washington there is lush pasture most of the year. We really only need to feed hay late Nov. through March. This year we got two newborn Jersey bulls from a dairy for $10 each and are raising them up on surplus goat milk from our Nubians. They will have pasture to eat all summer and fall. We will probably butcher late in the fall because we don't want the expense of feeding two beefs through the winter and being a dairy breed, the meat will be better when they are young.

You can get non-medicated grain at most feed stores. I do recommend that you vaccinate them. No need to use chemicals however.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), July 01, 2001.

Several years ago we bought 2 weaned calves at the auction barn. The Jersey mix was tame and docile. The rangy black one was a fence- jumper. I don't remember how long we kept them on pasture. The black one made her fatal mistake when she jumped the fence for the umpteenth time, went down the road to a neighbor and jumped his fence to be with his cattle. Bob went to the neighbor's with a BIG gun, found the black cow in the dark barn and shot her between the eyes. The neighbor had a front end loader on his tractor, scooped up blackie and put her in bob's pickup. He brought her home, hung her in a tree and butchered her. The meat was tough and not really all that tasty. About a month before he planned to butcher the tame one, he shut her in the barn and poured the corn and apples to her. When he was ready to butcher, he had a friend open the barn door, the cow came out and one shot to the head and she was down. Butchered her just like the first one and this was the best beef I've ever tasted. I know the lack of exercise and the corn and apples probably factored into that, but she was just a "beefier" type than blackie.

-- ruth in se Illinois (bobtravous@email.com), July 06, 2001.

Perhaps it would be better to have her buy one for you to raise and split.

-- ed (edfrhes@aol.com), July 07, 2001.

i was raised on a dairy and we raised all our meat and the best thing we feed to the ones we butcher is a feed called allgrain it is a sweet feed for cattle. and lots of good hay also. good luck i hope i helped you.

always countrymomma

-- sharon harris (countrymomma38@aol.com), September 05, 2003.

how bored are you fucks?

-- (wellRe@l.ly), May 25, 2004.

We just love cows. Man!

-- Tim (Dreamer4869@yahoo.com), July 21, 2004.