Beef are the most popular meat in the world, almost every group society allows to ear beef meat. You can also find beef in every corner in the world quite easily. Cows are one of the most popular animal to be farmed. From cows, farmers could get plenty of benefits starting from their meat, then milk, to their skin. Beef meat are commodity goods that have high selling price with constant demand. Having cattle farms sure have a quite good prospect for business. If you have some cash and land to spare, and intend to join the cattle farming industry, here are some tips of how to do cattle farming for beginners.
1. Make sure the facilities for your cattle are prepared.
To do cattle farming you need at least some facilities for your beef cattle. The basic example is fences and feeder in your land. It will be great for a beginners if you buy them second-handed, or in auction. Buy the most necessary equipment. As the time goes by, you will know what your cattle needs and be able gain some profit first before you buy another equipment.
One of the first thing you need to plan for beginners to cattle farming is planning your pastures to feed your beef cattle. Usually people begin with a soil map, then testing the contamination of your soil to determine how many minerals and others elements are there. If there the elements in the soil are on a good amount of the requirement, then your pastures is going to be perfect for the beef cattle. Don’t forget to fertilize your pastures and you have to manage it thoroughly. You need to mows your pastures at least twice a week, in order to keeps it tending from extra grasses and legumes. Just like how the beef cattle like it, and it will be save a lot of cost by growing your own grass to feed your cattle.
If you have a good pastures, then it will produce enough grass to feed your beef cattle. But if you leave in a country that have cold season that makes the grass go dormant, you need to think another plan to keep your cattle fed. You need is to seed your pastures with different varieties of grass, to help your pastures to produce grass worth for the whole cold season. When you have just one or two cows, you could just feed your beef cattle with hay on the cold season. The best way to stored hay is to protect them from getting wet, if your hay meet some water and become wet it will grow mould and could cause a poor quality products from your cattle.
2. Keep your cattle healthy
Much more like any other animals baby or puppy, baby cows or calves need a lot of nutrition than the adult cows. And so does pregnant cows in their last pregnancy months. Beef cattle also tend to eat more during the cold season. When you have calves, make sure to set up an eating area just for them. Usually, calves not only eat the grass from the pastures but also some grain and hay. The more older the beef cattle get, the less protein and nutrition they need. Beef cattle can survive in any kind of weather, just like any other animals or livestock.
While proper nutrition is one important thing for your beef cattle, keeping your beef cattle healthy is one thing you must do, in order for your farm to go on you need to prevent any sickness for your cows. Monitor your cow’s consumption, if they suddenly have decrease in appetite that is one early sign of sickness. Healthy cows usually have full and rounded stomach. Having a regular vaccination also help to keep your cows healthy. Vaccination is one key to prudent disease control. If there is a cow that stricken by illness or disease, you need to treat them immediately. Moreover, if they suddenly drop dead. You need to bury or move away their body far from the other living beef cattle. Track down the cause of death as soon as possible.
3. Clean water is a must for your cattle
The next thing you need to think of is how to give water to your cattle. Your cattle surely need a great access to a good and clean water. Because water is more important than their meals. You need to locate your waterer near the water source, because using a long hose could become troublesome especially if you live in the country where it has 4 seasons. Watering using a long hose could cause some trouble in winter. A few suggestion is to get an old bath tub with iron material for your cattle, instead buying a conventional trough. It will save a lot of fortune for your business.
For those who live in four season country, the best season to butcher your beef cattle is during the fall. It’s because when fall come the beef cattle is at their largest because they have been gaining weight from the long summer season of feeding on pasture. And when the weather is getting cold, their energy will use to keep them warm and usually it lead to weight loss. Bathing your beef cattle is a good idea, it will help your beef cattle remove all the dirt and germs in them. Those activity could help them produce a good quality product, and make them gain weight easier.
You can either start with local or some high quality bulls. Most people start with local cows, because when you make mistakes there will be less cost, especially when you are just begin to cattle farming. When you start with local cows, it usually can be manage with farmer who has less experience farmer, and the cows are usually available all the time. Local cows tend to adjust more faster, just like any other animals who raised locally. When the business is getting good, you might also buy a great quality cattle to be mate, then create a good gene from the great quality cattle.
Just like having any house pet, you should treat your beef cattle good just like the way they need to be treated. You need take you time to get acquainted with them, and give them good treatment. It also a good thing if you choose a beef cattle that have a track record of high production performance, the beef cattle also need to look healthy and ready to be mate and give birth.
If you treat your beef cattle right, and they tend to be happy all the time, usually all the product that they produce will be on a really good quality. The milk become more sweet, and the meat become more tender and juicy. But on the contrary, if you did not treat them well, the product they produce will become bad. You might want to read another animal owner tips for beginner here.