The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: Azzdodd on December 09, 2014, 09:34:17 pm
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Due to not much grazing I'm about to buy 2 cows 4 year old heroford X dairy sisters were 'pet' cows will keeping these 2 an there calfs me ok? There calfs will be sold at 7/8 months
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Two cows will be fine - three's better, of course, because if something happens to one there's still two, but two will be fine.
When you say 'not much grazing', how much are you talking?
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Well they will be being wintered indoors with a friend an his pure heroford indoors then mine in spring/summer/autumn be them on about 3 acres
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3 acres isn't a lot for two cattle plus calves, will you be able to give them hay as well?
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I will be given them hay/haylage/silage & some fodder also when needed im going to sell the calves when they cows are due to calf the next calfs
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3 cows is always best as the one cow ca see more than 1 cow and thus thinks she is in a herd... difficult to explain
but two with calves is still way better than one with a calf
I would be weary with two cows plus calves on 3 acres :thinking: even with hay can get pretty poached up even in the summer, I would devide it up, would be best to devide it all up into small paddocks, 1 acre paddocks? as three paddocks would be better than 2
and rotate to help with worm burdens, re growth and sward quality and of course prevent over grazing and poaching
Anything cross dairy is generally a long tall, heavy cow with a big appetite, even the hereford crosses, are they cross holstein or british friesian? or a different dairy cow?
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I have 3 Jerseys, with a few calves at foot which are weaned off at 7 months. The 3 girls (and calves for 7 months) are winter grazed on 10 acres and in the summer they are rotated over a total of 25 acres. I would seriously struggle with 3 acres for spring, summer and autumn. :cow:
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I don't know what condition your land is but even excellent land would struggle to keep 2 cows and calves on 3 acres .... could you rent any more land?
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It will all depend on what kind of ground you have and what your grass is like as there is grass and grass and every thing that's green isn't grass.
We aim for 1tonne of live weight per ac for summer grazing but if it burns up early we cam always move onto a hay or silage field. Some one further up the hill might struggle to stock 1 ewe per ac.
Plenty round here keep a horse or two per ac all year round so you should be fine as long as you can feed them if the weather goes against you.