Karin Lindquist
Animal Scientist
wikiHow's Editorial Process wikiHow partners with over 1000+ experts from a wide range of fields to ensure our content is accurate and based on well-established research and testimony. Content Managers conduct interviews and work closely with each expert to review information, answer reader questions, and add credible advice. Learn more about our editorial process and why millions of readers trust wikiHow.
Co-authored Articles (31)
How to
Tell if a Cow or Heifer Is Pregnant
Determining pregnancy in cattle has many benefits. You can get twice the meat then when the cow wasn't pregnant and a producer is able to know which cattle will be the keepers and which will need to be culled as soon as ...
How to
Slaughter Cattle
It's pretty obvious that beef is meat from cattle, but how does it get to the table? In order for beef to be served at dinner time in the form of, for example, a porterhouse steak, sacrifices must be made in order to ge...
How to
Tell the Difference Between Bulls, Cows, Steers and Heifers
There are many people worldwide who think they know what cattle look like but cannot properly tell the difference between a cow, bull, steer or heifer. Most of these people have not been taught how to distinguish between...
How to
Treat and Prevent Bloat in Cattle
Bloat in cattle is a serious problem—and a very old one—that is often associated with consumption of high quality feeds that are easily digestible and rapidly fermented in the rumen. (Bloat is not just a problem excl...
How to
Make Silage
Preserving feed for livestock doesn't always mean putting up sun-dried hay. Silage is also made as a chopped, fermented feed source, primarily from annual crops like corn, barley, sorghum, oats, millet, and occasionally ...
How to
Start a Cattle Farm
Cattle farming is filled with opportunities, from dairy and beef to selling calves for shows at local fairs. To start a new farm, you need a business plan, a plot of land, and start-up money. Build all of the features yo...
How to
Avoid or Escape a Bull
Bulls are very dangerous animals. They are one of the most dangerous types of livestock to own, let alone be around. They are not slow or dumb, nor are they clumsy or stupid. A bull can, from a stand-still, turn on a dim...
How to
Tell if a Cow or Heifer Has Been Bred
One of the things that are part of keeping and breeding cows and heifers is the art and science of telling whether a particular cow or heifer has just conceived or mated with the bull. "Bred" is what most cattle producer...
How to
Humanely Euthanize a Cow
Euthanasia is defined as "A method of killing that minimizes pain, distress, and anxiety experienced by the animal prior to loss of consciousness, and causes rapid loss of consciousness followed by cardiac or respiratory...
How to
Start a Farm
Starting a farm is no easy task. It involves many variables involving where you want to farm, how you want to farm, what you want to farm, and how big you want your farm to be. There are many things to consider, and ...
How to
Start a Dairy Farm
Dairy farms take a lot of money and capital to start up, way more than a meat operation does. Know what you're getting into and how you want to get into it before you decide to start a dairy farm. Even if you grew up on ...
How to
Make an Adjustable Rope Halter
A rope halter is good to have around for cattle, sheep and goats, and it's an absolute necessity around the farm and ranch. It's much cheaper to make an adjustable halter than to go and buy a horse halter from a feed st...
How to
Identify Water Hemlock
Water Hemlock (''Cicuta maculata'') is '''an extremely poisonous''' herbaceous forb (broad-leaf plant) to both humans and animals, and is also native to North America. It is often and easily confused with other similar s...
How to
Tell if a Cow or Heifer Is About to Give Birth
Knowing the signs of a calving cow or heifer is important in determining whether that female needs assistance or not, and what the physical and physiological signs are of a cow giving birth. How the calf is normally bor...
How to
Perform Rectal Palpation in Cows and Heifers
Learn how to feel if your cow is pregnantRectal palpation is a very common and highly popular method among all cattle producers in primarily performing pregnancy checks on cows and heifers, and also for checking the repr...
How to
Judge Conformation in Cattle
Conformation in cattle is one of the utmost important qualities that a cattle producer must know about and understand when raising a good, solid breeding herd of cattle. Conformation is the desirable and undesirable ske...
How to
Know when a Heifer or Cow Is Ready to Be Bred
Knowing when a heifer or cow is ready to be bred is important to a breeding operation. There are specific guidelines one must follow to ensure that a heifer or cow is ready to be bred. '''PLEASE''' remember these two i...
How to
Care for Cattle
Raising cattle can be really rewarding if you want to provide food for your family, but it’s important to know how to care of them before you purchase your first herd. If you want to get started with your own cows and ...
How to
Make a Crown Knot
A crown knot is a knot tied to the end of a rope that is double the diameter of the main rope. A crown knot is best used as a handle for something like the long end of a rope halter, but not for rope that is needed to be...
How to
Breed Cows and Heifers Naturally
It's as simple as this: Put grass in front of cow, put bull behind cow. In other words, natural breeding is simply putting a herd bull out with a herd of cows or heifers and letting him do his job for a few weeks or cou...
