How much does a cow eat?

[milkman636]

I picked up a whole cow today that was raised by a local farmer and processd by a local butcher. It is the third time I have bought beef through the same farmer and processor. It is lean all-natural beef, goooood stuff.

After unloading and stuffing the freezer to the gills, I was standing by my truck looking at about an unused acre of mowed grass to the north of my garage and thinking: "Some fence and a little lean-to shelter would look pretty nice here. I wonder how much it would cost to feed a calf up to butchering weight?"

Before I mention this notion for next year to my wife, can anyone here give a rough idea of how much a cow would eat from calf to freezer weight?

 

[beenthere]

Answers.com - How much grass does a cow eat per day

 

[richamor]

My uncle always said 3 to 5 acres per head. BUT, you could always cut hay on the acre one year, and put a cow in the next.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

There are acres and then there are acres. The best thing to do would be to take a hay crop off of the acre and weigh it, which would give you an idea of how much the land produces. Can you irrigate it? If so, you will get better production in the summer. Plants go dormant in the winter and won't produce anything from first frost to last frost. A cow would turn most of it into a mud hole.

Your acre is little more than a feed lot. Depending on the local hay market, that may not be a bad thing. If you can feed hay and finish with a grain supplement, you might come out OK. Figure 2 years from calf to slaughter, moderate quality hay for most of that time, with grain supplements, and heavy grain fattening for the last 3 months. Cows are herd animals. They do better in pairs. It's no more work to feed two than to feed one, and you can sell the spare to pay for the one you eat.

Talk to local farmers. Just because the newspaper is talking about $8 corn does not mean the farmer is getting paid that. Shipping is expensive, plus broker fees, dockage, etc. You might get a pretty good price on feed quality grain. Hay prices are best in the field.

Get a book. I think "Raising Livestock the Modern Way" is still in print. It won't do you any good if you kill the cow when it's 6 months old. The stomach is a third of the cow's body weight. A flush of green grass will kill it. You will need to know how to deal with bloat, clostridium perfringens, etc. Your shed will have to be big enough to store a lot of hay and grain. Cross fencing will help preserve the sod.

 

[moored4]

If the ?acre? is an acre in size it will not be big enough to raise a cow/steer on unless your going to feed it alot of extra feed. One acre Might be big enough for a couple goats or lambs but i think you would also have to feed them some.
My :2cents: for what it's worth!

 

[Joe H]

Think about what goes with a steer. A zillion flies, and remember what goes in mostly comes back out.

You're in charge.

Joe H

 

[beenthere]

And to add, if you have one it becomes a pet, and often gets a name. And many women will not eat a pet, let alone one that has a name. Just sayin....

 

[mad_planter]

I can pretty much guarantee it will cost you more to raise that animal than the value of beef you will get out of it. I would recommend you continue to buy from the farmer and benefit from his expertise and economy of scale. You won't get decent beef unless you give them some grain, minerals etc and you'll need a lot more acreage than that for even a single animal.

Son of a dairy farmer and don't miss the cows

 

[Western]

I wouldn't want to do it on 1 acre. I had to feed my cows on occasion and at the time I had around 74 cows on 378 acres. Grew my own hay , but bailing was an expense I still had.

I now only have 15.5 acres, all but maybe 6 acres is woods. I have thought about getting to stocker calves, but know I would have to feed and right now I don't want to get "the involved".

I would suggest raising something like a few goats as earlier mentioned, and sell them to offset your meat purchase, if you want to raise something that is.

 

[texasjohn]

Honest advice... don't mess with any kind of stock. They take fences, feed, vet attention, a trailer to load, pens, ropes/gear, water tanks/pipelines that don't freeze or dry up... list is almost endless....even for the experienced...and, if you had a lot of experience, you wouldn't be asking the question. Enjoy your acre..and, if you absolutely MUST have something to mess with, try chickens, cheap in, low outlay in facilities and you can walk away without having spend anything more than a small fortune. In any case, you'll NEVER "make money" on any legal livestock/crop on 1 acre, but you can be RICH in enjoying the place.