Whether for meat or milk , the cause for raising cows are many . In add-on to provide the comestible product they ’re most known for in the U.S. , cows can be used as work animals and a source of leather . Plus , they bring home the bacon plant food for your ploughland , and well - manage grazing can improve your forage , too . If you ’re on the fencing about whether to make cattle a part of your farming surgery , here are somethings you need to keep in mind .
Raising Cattle
Bos taurus are raised across the U.S. in dissimilar agriculture system of rules , include grassfed , grassfed and metric grain - finish up , cow - calf farm , and feedlot . You call for a lot of prop and upright water resources to set out a kine farm . A moo-cow spend up to 6 hours a day eating and each booze the equivalent to a bathtub - full of water a twenty-four hours .
Know Your Terms
Bulls , kine and calf all describe different members of a group of cattle . There are other terms also used to identify specific characteristics of cattle , including sex and age . Here ’s a breakdown :
Reproduction
When lift kine for intellectual nourishment , you require to realize their reproductive memory cycles . A heifer is ripe enough to engender at 15 months onetime and usually has its first calf when it is 2 years old . ( It does n’t reach full sizing until 24 months of age , though . ) Dairy sura are taken from their mother at birth and raised on an individual basis so the mother ’ Milk River can be collected for human coonsumption . boeuf calfskin are ordinarily elicit with their mothers on pasture and ablactate — or taken from their mother — at 8 to 9 month old . Two month before giving birth , a dairy cow takes a repose from give milk so it can centre its energy to grow her calf .
Determining Age
A cow ’s dentition is the No . 1 indicator age , which is good to know , peculiarly for a moo-cow you did n’t raise from nascence , for health care use and to make management decision . Aneasy - to - see chart to decide a moo-cow ’s age using its teethcan be found from the University of Nevada .
Start a Cattle Farm
If you imagine cow husbandry is for you , visit other farm to find out about the cattle breeds they keep , see their fencing systems , ask what they prey cattle , have how they handle cattle and more . Contact your accommodative extension agent , as well , because they usually have sluttish - to - understand information about both meat and dairy cattle that apply to your area . concerted extension and universities often host field days and workshops , too , where you may encounter other farmers and people wanting to start out a Bos taurus farm .
Dairy Cows
Like all mammals , cows used for dairy must be tincture in ordination to bring forth milk , so to start a dairy farm cattle farm , you necessitate to have a bull on your attribute , have access to a bull’s eye or turn with a veterinarian for unreal insemination . Most dairy farms sell the manly calves bear by their cows for veal yield or upbringing , count on character of the bull’s eye calf . These calf might also be sell for beef yield or keep to produce kick for the folk . Farms generally keep distaff calves to repopulate their herds as older cows ’ milk product is reduced , but this , again , depends on the timbre of the calf .
A cow typically stay on in the dairy herd until about 5 year old , though many are subject of remaining productive for 12 to 15 twelvemonth , according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency . The lead reasons oxen leave the dairy herd are low production , sterility , mastitis ( inflammation of the bag ) and lameness . pop out a dairy farm requires a lot of commitment because cattle need to be milked at least once , but usually double , per day at the same fourth dimension every day .
Because suckling command so much caloric inspiration from a cow , it ’s difficult to have a 100 - percent grassfed dairy ruck . It can be done but requirescareful management , the veracious cattle and the right climate . There are a numeral of strain of moo-cow used for dairy production . More common commercial breeds admit Holstein , Jersey and Brown Swiss , but there are also a number of inheritance cattle stock developed primarily as dairy farm cow , such as Ayrshire , Dutch Belted and Guernsey .
Beef Cattle
Cows used for meat are commonly Angus , Hereford , Limousin or Charolais breeds . Some heritage beef cattle breeds to check out include Highland ( especially for cold climates ) , Ancient White Park and Belted Galloway .
There are several ways you’re able to bug out a kine farm to raise Bos taurus for marrow :
Concerns About Factory Farms
Small - exfoliation , family farm and homesteading farms — probably like what you ’re considering — are managed differently than large - plate , industrial farm — also called “ factory farm ” orconcentrated beast feeding operations(CAFOs ) . Factory farms are called such because much of thefarminghas been admit out of food production in these business , and they are instead lock like factory with large concentrations of animals . manufacturing plant farms are defined as surgery with 500 or more dairy farm or beef cattle and can be problematic for many reason .
Dirty Water
creature waste is a elementary business organisation of manufactory farms , because with large compactness of animals comes large concentrations of waste material . Nonprofit environmental group Food and Water Watch estimates that the tumid factory farms in 2012 produced 369 million tons of manure — almost 13 times more than the waste produced by all of the masses in the United States . All of this manure has to go somewhere , so it ’s store in lagoon and spread on farm fields but often leaches into waterways , causing pollution .
Drug Use
Use of unreal hormones in cow used for dairy farm yield and moo-cow for meat is a concern to animal - welfare advocator and to human - wellness professionals . Recombinant bovine somatotropin ( aka recombinant bovine growth hormone ) is used in dairy husbandry to assert high milk yield . Approximately 17 percentage of dairy cow in the U.S. are injected with rBST / rBGH . The FDA states that no “ significant difference ” has been find between milk from treat and non - treated cows . The European Union , Japan , Australia , New Zealand and Canada have ostracise its use .
Since the 1950s , the FDA has approved lifelike and synthetic steroid - hormone drugs for consumption in beef cattle to increase the animals ’ growth rate and feed efficiency . Steroid - internal secretion drug pellets are place under the pelt on the back side of the animate being ’s ear and dissolve there . The FDA say the level of hormone that is in the beef is acceptable for human consumption and that core from these animals is safe for to deplete at any clock time after the brute is treat .
antibiotic are unremarkably administrate at low doses to keep animals from getting sick in these high - stress , often - crowded conditions . Antibiotic overusehas been a primary equipment driver in antibiotic - resistive bacteria that are touch on both animate being and human wellness .
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Inhumane Animal Care
Animal welfare proponent have concern about the way cattle are treated on industrial dairy farm farms and in beef feedlot . Large - musical scale CAFO cattle facilities are project for the maximal yield from the animate being , which can invest them under stress . consort to the nonprofit Sustainable Table , “ it also disclose the animals to high stage of toxin from decomposing manure and can make ideal stipulation for disease to distribute . Feeding animals an unnatural dieting rather than letting them graze and forage on open land just adds to their health problems . ”
The Difference Small-Scale Makes
low - ordered series , sustainably managed farms are unlike because more cow - favorable farming methods are used . With fewer animals kept in an area , the manure buildup is n’t as unmanageable ; the brute are generally not crowd together so do n’t call for to be keep on sub - therapeutic antibiotics to keep from getting sick ; and cows are more often able to move about , graze and generally be cows . Sustainable dairy farm and boeuf production dictate that animals are not give hormones and steroids ( of course , these cattle give rise steroids and internal secretion naturally in their own bodies ) , that there be a architectural plan to safely use or dispose of the creature ’ waste , and that antibiotics not be administered unless an fauna is unbalanced . Small - scale farm are more potential to be owned by family or cooperative instead of heavy - ordered series corporations , so they strengthen local economies and preserve traditional living , too .
Marketing Meat and Dairy Products
There ’s a farm market for small - scale , sustainably produce centre and dairy . constitutive squawk and organic dairy farm bring gamey prices than kernel and dairy without the organic recording label — they’re also more expensive to produce . If you were to set about a kine farm , you could trade your gripe or dairy products at once from your farm , at a wayside stand , through at community - plunk for agriculture program , at husbandman markets , and to locally have grocery and natural - foods stores .
The USDA and FDA oversee the sales event of gist and dairy farm product , and each state has its own law , as well . Check with your state department of agriculture for all you require to know .
Starting a cattle farm for meat or dairy is a large undertaking . There is no one direction to put forward cows for dairy farm farming or oxen for heart . Talk with others and begin your moo-cow - farming operation the path the works best for you and your oxen .
Interesting Cow Facts
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