Hi …
Is there anyone that is interesting in raising beef cattle or has knowledge doing it?
It is something that I’ve wanted to learn more about for a while now.
It would be great to have a class taught around the subject if anyone is interested.
Thanks
I’d probably go to that class. There are probably some good resources available through USDA, local county farm agents, and other sources.
Backwoods Home has some great (even free!) information on these and other subjects.
I’d like to suggest that cattle are large, expensive learning exercises if not managed properly. My former boss has a herd up near Greenville, and has shared quite a number of stories with me.
Might I suggest starting out smaller? Chickens, for instance, for eggs and meat.
I plan on having chickens, geese, goats and ducks to start out. I would still like to get some experience with the larger animals. I’m looking for a way to get some experience with them before taking the leap. I’m not wanting to start out with 100 head but less than 5. I would prefer to find someone that has experience, so when I have a question or problem, I have someone to go to. I still think it would be an interesting class. I also like your Backwoods Home link. Perhaps, someone should start teaching classes around these topics.
If you are interested in primitive technology may I suggest this youtube channel …
And while I don’t intend to farm, I have a deep interest in where my food comes from and I have been learning a lot about farming of all types—enough to get compliment from the head of the Tex Farm Bureau and from farmers.
I would suggest some FB groups to you, There are quite a few that are ag based. Look for the ones that have less woo and BS and such.
Watch out for the folks that love to push ideas but that have not been successful at farming
Range to Range
My Job Depends On Ag
Food and Farm Discussion Lab
Look for blogs like The Beef Jar, Petterson Farms, Feedyard Foodie
If you are in this area, look a niche market. Something that is a ‘value added’ one. Heritage breed or a special breed like a Belgian Blue. That is if you want to make any money. A farm can be a lot like a boat, it can be a ‘hole in the ground’ where your money goes.
A heritage hog breed might be a market in this area
You may need to see what is in the area for a custom kill slaughterhouse also
A class about raising cows requires sections on…
• Building and maintaining barbed-wire fence
• Managing broken ribs (yours not theirs)
• Pavlov conditioning
• Herd dog training (not required but very handy)
• Managing breech births
Agree. Our neighbor raises Zebu’s. It’s a miniature breed that does well on small pastures.
Which brings me to my 2nd point, @Draco mentioned above he wanted to keep 5 cattle. Understand that the real money in raising cattle is from letting them graze and not having to feed them. Check how well the pasture does in your area but someplaces would require as much as 15 acres (or more) to support 5 full size cattle. If you don’t have 15 acres you might need to rent land, feed, or keep less cattle.
I forgot about an important local source of info, the Texas A&M Extension Center on Coit Rd, (west side of the UTD campus). It looks like more of their programs are for urban gardeners, but I am sure that a call to them, they can guide you to other resources.
Some of my farm friends suggested that you start with goats first, since they are smaller and need less land.
An odd idea I had, was if you were not into raising them for beef, would be to look at the miniature cattle (yep, Terrence’s mention of the Zebu’s sparked this) There are miniature versions of several breeds and they are just as cute as a bug. I have an idea that they might be attractive to some small acreage folks as pets/living lawn mowers.
Plan and educate yourself before getting them. There is a lot of info available, but beware of some of the ‘sustainable or organic’ sites. There is a major problem in that many of the folks promoting them are very passionate, but are often lacking in the experience of doing it. I have a FB ‘friend’ that was planning on touring and teaching classes on his sustainable farming ideas. This was a month after his co op had planted their first crop. He was from New York City and had never lived on a farm! The other day, a lady posted her You Tube of how to do ‘sustainable farming’. When questioned, she was still in college and her Y T was a graded assignment.
Lots of interest in small scale farming, but many are not successful.
If you are interested in raising any kind of livestock or just interested in where your food comes from, may I suggest that you check out a podcast called 'Permaculture Voices".
Specific to beef, look for Joel Salitin and Greg Judy. They have both been on the Permaculture Voices podcast, but search them out on YouTube also. Joel has written several books also. “Salad Bar Beef” is specific to grass fed cattle, but all his books are exceptional.
I can recommend several sources of info for both livestock and gardening, just come find me in the Woodshop. I’ll be the guy building a rabbit hutch, beehive, raised garden bed or something similar.
4-7ish weekdays or midday on weekends are my normal DMS hours
I would not recommending following Joel Salatin if you want to break even or make money.
I have investigated his claims, and he depends on unpaid interns and his speaking tours to keep his farm afloat. He sounds wonderful but it doesn’t work for folks. That is why I was suggesting more conventional sources.
BTW, Brian, I may need some help with a small raised bed. I just got some packages of seed from a Monsanto promotion and I am tempted to try my hand at gardening again. I know my soil is crabby for veggies, I am in Oak Cliff on top of a bulldozed hill with bedrock 2-3 ft under my yard. Very heavy black clay here, good for okra
You should look into the square foot garden technique. We started one last month & for the most part is going well.
Square foot gardening worked great for us. Bugs were a problem trying to go organic, but we ended up covering them in small hoop houses of some sort of sheer material my wife found. Used less water and kept the bugs off. But our jalapenos were “spoiled” in that they were shady and well cared for and didn’t end up spicy at all. 
I’m “raising” goats on 45 acres of forest. We’re only doing it for the ag exemption for now, and I only have 2 right now, so I can’t say I have a lot of experience or testing. But we’ve gone with high-tensile electric. I’m not sure that I’ve got enough wires to stop the goats, although the Kerr Center says it should work. I’ve still got to put in gates, fill gulleys, and run the jumpers at corners. But the advantage is that it is strong enough to take a tree falling on it and spring back up (but not three trees falling on it and staying there for 3 months while you’re out of town), and can handle cattle rubbing on it, whereas the normal tiny electric wires aren’t. And since it is electric, the cattle aren’t supposed to rub on it much.
It’s much easier to pull by hand than barbed wire, because you can leave the coil on a spinning jenny on one end and drag the lighter free end. On flat ground in a pasture, just putting a handle on a barbed wire roll isn’t that bad, though. It’s cheaper than barbed wire just on wire price, and you use half the line poles. And its safer than barbed if you get horses or something like that that you care about scratches and scars.
Also, if your ground is hard, or you are digging holes by hand, look into floating braces as well. High tensile requires deep holes. Floating braces let you use 1/3 of the holes. But you’ll still need h-braces for gates, as floating braces only push, they won’t pull. (They push against the force of the fence pulling on the corner pole, but can’t pull against the force of a gate trying to bend a pole over.)
You can make money with as little as one calf, depending on how you do it. I’ve got a cousin that just buys a calf every year, raises it up to eatin’ size, and then sells it. (Or gets it slaughtered and keeps the beef themselves, I can’t remember for sure. Either way, they were definitely profitable.) We’re thinking about raising one on our land, but I’ve still got to get someone from the county extension office to come out and make sure I have enough grass growing in all the trees to support one.
A good organic bug spray that I have used is to blend a habanero and a couple of cloves of garlic in a quart of water. I use this in a spray bottle. Best stuff I ever used.
Anything moist connecting the wire to ground reduces the voltage enough that the fence no longer repels cows. By “anything” I mean: tall weeds, fallen branches, bugs plus wooden post, shirt left hanging on the wire. In my experience, for containing cows, an electric fence consumes significantly more resources (time for maintenance, money for electricity, ecetera) than a barbed wire fence with no discernible benefit. An electric fence is a good way to keep cows contained for a few weeks. A barbed-wire fence is a good way to keep cows contained for 20 to 50 years.
As a fun added bonus, my father’s cows can easily tell when a wire is or is not at a reasonable voltage. Within an hour of a broken wire / short-circuit, the cows will be loose.
From Wikipedia:
“Weed burner” fence chargers were popular for a time and featured a longer-duration output pulse that would destroy weeds touching the fence. These were responsible for many grass fires when used during dry weather. Although still available, they have declined in popularity.
Dad says these really sucked to touch. They were out all the time fixing fences for neighbors, and there were a few of these out there.
The plans I’m using call for a non-electrified barbed bottom wire. That keeps the bottom hot wire up out of weeds a little more, which may just mean more time between weedeating, but doesn’t do anything with branches or trees. I also don’t think the wires are close enough, but the Kerr Center supposedly did a study on brush goats, and this kept them in. I still think I’m going to be running a few more wires eventually.