The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: Bramham Wiltshire Horns on June 14, 2016, 09:02:39 am

Title: anything i could do with cattle on 2 acres
Post by: Bramham Wiltshire Horns on June 14, 2016, 09:02:39 am
post says it all really

i am more likely to go with sheep

but have always wanted cattle but feel that 2 acres just isnt enough

maybe somthing like shetland or dexter

any thoughts
Title: Re: anything i could do with cattle on 2 acres
Post by: SallyintNorth on June 14, 2016, 09:38:00 am
Whereabouts?  Up here, no, nothing like enough.  In rural Dorset, just might manage a couple of Dexters if you can buy in hay for winter.  Not ideal, though - sorry.
Title: Re: anything i could do with cattle on 2 acres
Post by: Bramham Wiltshire Horns on June 14, 2016, 10:18:21 am
Whereabouts?  Up here, no, nothing like enough.  In rural Dorset, just might manage a couple of Dexters if you can buy in hay for winter.  Not ideal, though - sorry.

thanks we are in leeds the grass is decent
we have access to hay and my right hand mans father is a nutritionist for a feed comapny so we can get quality feed pretty cheap

Title: Re: anything i could do with cattle on 2 acres
Post by: oor wullie on June 14, 2016, 03:49:09 pm
Do you have somewhere to winter them indoors?
I find having them outdoors poaches the ground through the winter which really reduces the grazing through the summer (the grass in my winter field is just starting to grow now). 

If you have a shed to keep them in in winter then you should be able to have a couple of small cows with 2acres.  You would be buying in hay but most smallholders buy in hay anyway.
Title: Re: anything i could do with cattle on 2 acres
Post by: Bramham Wiltshire Horns on June 14, 2016, 04:25:50 pm
thank you both for your input we dont have sheds to over winter them
the field has an incline so what ever we decide we will rotate to winter at the top and then summer graze where it would get wet

thanks again