Q&A for How to Raise Cattle

At the very least $20,000, but likely more.

You can buy a calf through auction, local classifieds or newspaper ads. You could also consult farmers in your area.

If you are feeding hay once a day, and in the afternoon, this can cause milk fat levels to increase at night. Fat levels decrease when you feed grain instead. So to get a better, more even spread of milk fat day and night, increase the hay in the diet and start feeding this, plus some grain, twice a day instead of once. More long-stemmed fibrous feeds in the diet encourage more milk fat production.

Not advisable. Donkeys, like horses, are going to be more apt to gang up and chase and harass that single cow for any small reason they can come up with. They will hog the feeding area those two are used to sharing and chase off the cow, leaving her quite hungry. Horses and donkeys can be mean to any animal of a "lesser species" than of the equine world, particularly if they outnumber that different bovine on at least a two-to-one ratio. Donkeys and horses are less likely to be as mean and harassing if they were the ones being outnumbered. So if you had four or six cows instead of one; that one cow, with her three or five other pals, will be much better off with those two donkeys.

The effluent shouldn't even be draining through your yard in the first place. If you can't talk to the neighbor about discharging the waste elsewhere or finding a way to not even discharge the stuff at all, it's time to start talking to the authorities and a good lawyer about this to get a fire under your neighbor's rear about cleaning up his act. You can only go so far with neighborly talk, particularly if it deliberately falls on deaf ears!

Yes, it certainly is. The feed of cattle are salt-deficient, as with most minerals, so it's important to make sure salt, minerals, and vitamins are made available daily on a free-choice basis. To make life easier, purchase a load of trace-mineral salt blocks or loose mineral (the latter more preferable) that will last you several months without you having to go out to give salt on a daily basis. Place the block or loose mineral in a place where it's easily accessible to the animal, but protected from the weather, like a mineral holder you can purchase from a local farm supply store.

If those heifers or cows have not given birth, or do not have a calf suckling on them, they will not be producing milk. Beef cows aren't exactly the most tamest animals to work with to get milk from either, and will need extra training and patience to get a cow to become a milking animal for you.

You can sell a full-grown cow any time, at any age. So the "when" is really up to you. There is no particular age a full-grown cow should be sold at.

Use milk replacer for calves, or whole cow's milk. Those are the best for young calves.

Yes, it is possible. You will need to do some looking though.

Yes. Cow's milk is the most popular type of milk that is sold for people to drink, also what is very commonly used to make dairy products such as ice cream, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, whipping cream, and even kefir. Goat's milk and sheep's milk is far less popular, not quite considered a "normal" milk used as part of a complex diet that we have like cow's milk.

Please talk with your large animal veterinarian about this. wikiHow is a global community where vaccination protocol for one individual may not be suitable for another, due to regional differences. For example, vaccination for TB is not necessary in Canada, but it is in the U.K. Again, your bovine veterinarian is the best person to ask this question!

The best time to fatten up dairy cows is when they're not lactating; or, when they're dry. Dairy cows will need high-quality feed that is high in energy and protein. Energy helps put on the fat; protein helps put on the muscle. This doesn't necessarily mean putting them on a high-grain diet; it can mean grazing them on high-quality forage and moving them so that they're only taking the top third of the plants (which is the best part to eat).

It's best to talk to a beef (or dairy) nutritionist about this, as it depends on what feeds you have available and what young stock you're raising, as in their ages, whether they're heifers or steers (or male feeder calves), etc. More information is needed in order to provide a more comprehensive answer.

It really depends on how good your grass is. If you have thick grass or decent grass and supplement with hay or grain you could potentially get away with one or two per acre.

Feed them out of a creep feeder. You want a 4-way feed with maybe a little more protein in the feed. Feed regularly.

Grain is best fed whole to lightly processed--rolled, steamed, cracked, or flaked--rather than ground to a fine powder. Grains as a fine powder are very easily digested and may cause digestive problems like bloat and acidosis, especially if the amount each animal eats is not restricted. Mineral salt is generally not restricted, making the powdered grain mix a bad idea. Better to feed loose mineral with salt as free-choice, and feed the grain separately.

On a very broad average, you need one acre per cow that weighs 1000 lb on a monthly basis. The drier the area, the lower the forage yield and the more acreage is needed. The opposite is generally true for areas with higher moisture, expecting higher forage yields in the pasture. How those pastures are managed also play a very important role.

No. Calves, especially young bottle calves, are more at risk for death by inexperienced people than experienced people. If you're new and just starting out, it's advised to start with a mature cow that is pregnant and suckling a calf. If you must start with younger stock, weaned or yearling heifers are still a better choice than younger calves that are still needing milk.

No, stalls are generally not necessary. An exception is if you are raising and milking dairy cows. The stalls should be designed so that you can easily access the udder at milking time, and the cow can be kept fairly still while being milked.

Dairy cows give an average of 25 to 30 litres of milk per day. Holsteins tend to give more than Jerseys, and dairy cows always give more milk than beef cows.