Q&A for How to Raise Black Angus Cattle

Gestation period is the length a female is pregnant with young. For cows, it's an average of 285 days, or 9.5 months.

Figure 2.5% of their body weight in dry matter feed per day. That's dry matter, with all the moisture taken out. Be sure to feed them so that they are not getting overly fat, but have a good body condition. Average daily gain should not exceed 1.5 to 2 pounds per day. Watch grain intake (if supplementing with grain) as well as the quality of feed. Feed can be too high in quality, causing too much weight gain, and too much fat deposition. Please talk to a beef nutritionist for advice on feeding your heifers.

They eat hay, pasture, silage, and grain.

The calf can be weaned at 3 months old at the earliest, and 10 months of age at the latest. The three month mark is because the calf is not born with a fully functional rumen. Rather, their rumen is the size of a pea, and their abomasum, the true stomach, is the size of a volleyball. The rumen grows and matures over time from birth to that 3 month benchmark period, until at 3 months old (or 4 months for some calves), it is mature enough to allow the calf to go off milk and onto full feed. But, because the milk from their dams is full of nutrition for growth and development, calves aren't weaned from their dams until they're 6, 8, or even 10 months old.

Cows stay on the farm to be re-bred to produce more calves to sell once weaned. Some cows may be sold for reasons ranging from attitude problems to teeth worn down, but usually heifers are kept back as replacements to keep the cowherd at the same size, or to help it grow.

Use temporary electric to move him around the pasture. You can go as small a paddock area as you want. It depends on how long to graze in each paddock before moving him on. Once he's grazed the whole area, and if there is not enough pasture left to graze, then confine him to the barn or stall or dry lot and feed him there. Make sure he's got access to water, feed, mineral/salt, and adequate space to move around. Don't go less than 80 square feet in the barn, or 300 square feet for a corral for this guy.

Unfortunate, sorry to hear this. If you are going to keep them for longer, they need good quality feed starting today, but what and how much you feed them depends on their breeding (if they're not Angus). Basically, focus on giving them good quality hay, protein pellets, and a little grain to keep them happy and get them growing and putting on muscle, but not getting fat. Keep doing this until they get around 900-1000 lbs (they'll be over a year old by then), then start upping the grain little by little so they gain some fat. Target for ~1200 lbs or so as a good weight for slaughter. They may be blind, but not totally helpless, so they'll be fine.

Feed refusal could be due to many issues. If the grain is still good quality, then it's time to visit the veterinarian about this. But it may not hurt to take a sample to a beef nutritionist to have a look at it too.

As long as you wish, and as long as he's not going to be a danger to you or other people who also work with your animals. You'll find most people recommend not keeping a bull for longer than 5 or 6 years, but he can be kept longer if you're careful about separating him from his daughters so that he doesn't breed with them when they reach puberty. A bull can still be a good breeding bull up to the age of 10 or so, again, provided he is not a danger to anyone.

Typically, yes. Any feed you give your animals, or pastures you graze, may not contain all the essential minerals your animals need to get by. There will be an imbalance of minerals that will need to be corrected with an improved feed program. This includes give them free-choice access to a mineral block.

A calf should be bred for the first time at 15 months, so that they calf when they are about 24 months old.

You can begin introducing him to these feeds now. He won't readily eat them right off the bat, because he'll be looking more to the bottle for his food for now than the sweet feed, but if it's there in his pen all the time he'll get curious and begin to sample them, gradually eating more as he gets older.

There is, but it's flawed. Stocking rate depends on your location, actually, so verify with a local agriculture extension agent/office where this property might be located to make sure that's what that rate actually is for your place.

Cows can be alright by themselves, but they do like to have company.

Yes, but if they're heifers, don't bother. Heifers are not for beginners because they are unpredictable as far as breeding ability, calving, and rebreeding is concerned. You're better off getting a couple of older cows instead. If they're steers, then yes, that's a good little herd to start, because you can feed all four of them up, keep one to slaughter for the freezer, and sell the other three.

It depends on where you live. In the U.S., Angus is the most common beef breed.

"Choice" is a good cut; a good beef grade. It's lower than "Prime," but better than "Select." Prime is the highest US grade for beef cuts, reserved for fancy restaurants. Choice and Select cuts are normally sold at grocery stores.

Do so by picking a date on which you want her to calve. For example, if you want her to calve on May 15, aim for her to be bred by August 9. Cows have a gestation period averaging 285 days, and gestation tables will help you pick your dates more accurately. A Google search on "gestation tables" will point you in the right direction.

An Angus calf born with horns that was supposed to be sired by both purebred parents? Sounds very fishy. The only way a calf can be born with horns is if a) the dam and sire are both carriers for the horned gene, b) the dam is a carrier for the horned gene and bred by a horned bull (not Angus), or c) the calf you bought came from a horned cow sired by a horned (or heterozygous horned) bull. Either way, that's clearly NOT a purebred Angus calf. That sounds more like a calf with Angus in the bloodline, but other breed[s] of prevalence such as Limousin, Simmental, Gelbvieh, Texas Longhorn, Holstein, Jersey, etc.

Not if it's watery. This is scours. Talk to a vet and get a fecal to see what is causing the scours. You may need to feed electrolytes as well.

You can. But to make sure the improved grass pasture has enough quality to help that animal achieve the gains needed for good meat quality, collect samples and send them to a feed lab, and supplement with pellets if necessary. Make sure your Angus has salt and mineral in front of them 24/7.

You may need to consider creep-feeding the calf a mix of grains to get that calf to gain weight, and alleviate his reliance on his mother for best nutrition available. If the cow is looking a little thin, she too may need some extra supplementation to not only provide more milk for her calf, but start putting weight on.

Yes, you can. The cow will act as a bit of a leader in teaching the calves certain things they may need to know later in life. But you may find some of the calves may try to suckle from the cow. This may not be good if she's going to be calving within a couple of months because she'll need to develop colostrum for her new calf.

The average age a heifer should be bred is at 14 to 15 months of age.

It really doesn't take much to get them to get butterball fat; simply feeding them excessive amounts of grain daily makes them put on a lot of fat at an early age. Fattening Angus cattle to finish requires a "backgrounding" period of six to 12 months, where weaned calves are grown on forage-dominant ration that includes pasture grasses, so they can put on muscle and grow their frames. The last three to four months is spent finishing them (conventionally speaking) in a feedlot. Non-conventionally, Angus cattle can be fattened in a matter of one to two months on really high-quality pasture; annual forages including legumes are best for this.

Two months at the most.

Sometimes the cow's udder will start to swell when they are close to calving. My family's trick is to run a hand between the cow's udder and thigh. If the cow is close, then you will have a hard time moving your hand around. If the cow is only a couple of months along, then you can easily move your hand. Another trick is to "milk" the cow, but don't actually milk her, just squeeze each nipple once. If she's in the early stages of pregnancy, then it will be a goopy, yellow liquid. If she is 8-9 months then it will be a rich, white looking liquid.

Absolutely NOT. Breed a heifer to an unrelated and younger bull with small birth weights (for more calving ease). DO NOT go into inbreeding if you have no idea what the genetic history is of the sire of the heifer and the heifer's dam (mother). You will be asking for trouble if you breed back a heifer to a bull with unknown history.

Raising one bovine for meat requires patience, and the right kind of feed. Angus need forages first and grain only if it's needed because the forage isn't supplying enough energy (and protein) in the diet. A calf just weaned (6 mo. old) needs around 14% protein, and only 10 to 11% protein as a yearling or older. At this age they should be gaining 2 lbs per day. Once the steer reaches around 900 lbs (@ ~14 to 18 months of age), you can start increasing the quality of the feed to higher energy, so that he's gaining closer to 2.5 to 3 lbs per day. Once he gets to a size you want to get meat from (say 1200 lbs), then you can have him slaughtered for the freezer.