Just starting to work it out.... first cow questions

canesisters

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I believe you said you were in Va, which is having a horrible winter according to the Va folks I talk to on another ag forum. Snow, ice, cold, wind, mud and rain. It needs somewhere to be able to have some respite in that kind of weather. They can stand cold--can stand wet, can stand wind--put all 3 together, it's hard on them. Roof and at least a place to get out of the wind.
Stall? I'll get to that in a minute*...

Right now it's terrible. That's unusual for us... but seems to becoming a trend.

As far your choice regarding maturity.

3. An older cow that is already lactating. Ding Ding! Ding! As WRB said in her first reply, this is probably your best bet.

:thumbsup

*If you get a bred heifer or unbred heifer and you have her bred, you will want somewhere to have her where you can watch when the time gets close--able to secure her when it's time for her to have her calf--somewhere to tie her up--like a stall. If she has trouble, and you have to assist, you don't want to be chasing her around an open paddock to pull that calf. (btdt, got the teeshirt and the dead calf..)
If it's an older or more mature animal that has already had 1 calf successfully, she can probably calve ok out in the paddock.

Well, that's something to take into serious consederation...
 

WildRoseBeef

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Sq. bale versus round bale---Square bales are great if you don't have a tractor with a front-end loader that is made for handling large bales. Round bales are impossible to handle by hand, you need a tractor to cart those 1200 pound puppies around.

When introducing cows, it's more like with horses. Even if you separate them for a few days and let them sniff each other through the fence, when you finally get to put them together it's going to be a bit of a shoving match to see who's Top Cow or Bull. Cattle aren't usually going to be like chickens, but you will see some fighting for the first hour or so of introductions. But once the pecking order is sorted out, everything is all fine afterwards.

Totally feasible idea to rent a bull to get your cow bred. A fair number of people do it, and it's much cheaper (and albeit safer) than owning your own bull. Consider AI (artificial insemination, JHM is the go-to-guy for that) as well, if you can't find a neighbour that is willing to lend you his bull for two or three months.
 

OneFineAcre

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Sq. bale versus round bale---Square bales are great if you don't have a tractor with a front-end loader that is made for handling large bales. Round bales are impossible to handle by hand, you need a tractor to cart those 1200 pound puppies around.

When introducing cows, it's more like with horses. Even if you separate them for a few days and let them sniff each other through the fence, when you finally get to put them together it's going to be a bit of a shoving match to see who's Top Cow or Bull. Cattle aren't usually going to be like chickens, but you will see some fighting for the first hour or so of introductions. But once the pecking order is sorted out, everything is all fine afterwards.

Totally feasible idea to rent a bull to get your cow bred. A fair number of people do it, and it's much cheaper (and albeit safer) than owning your own bull. Consider AI (artificial insemination, JHM is the go-to-guy for that) as well, if you can't find a neighbour that is willing to lend you his bull for two or three months.
I do round bales for my goats because it's soooo much cheaper and I don't have a tractor
I get one bale loaded in the trailer and one in the bed of the truck
I have a shelter( outside of the goat pen) that I can back up to and roll the bales off and roll on a pallet to keep off of the ground
I have big wagon that I peel layers off of the bale and put into feeders
One of those things for us while a little more labor intensive is much more cost effective
My father in law used to rent a bull when he had about 20 cows
He has about 70 now and buys a bull and keeps for a few years and then sells him and gets another
When he only had a few he did AI
If you just have 1 AI is going to make the most sense
 
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WildRoseBeef

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We did round bales too. So much better to store and feed than square bales. You can't store squares outside without having to put them in a shed or put a tarp over them. With round bales, you just need to stack them properly and in a well-drained area and they'll keep over winter. But the country I live in doesn't see as frequent or significant a rainfall as that much farther east. I've always just grown up with having a tractor to feed our cattle, but I know you can feed and unroll without a tractor: you just need one of those unrollers on the back of a truck to do the job.
 

greybeard

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I've very rarely used a front loader to move round bales--got a fork for the 3pt on the back of the tractor. Handles 1100 lb bales easy even without any weights on the front.
 

canesisters

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Wrench in the works..

This weekend I received one of my 'cow care' books and went to one of those 'all natural, chem-free' makeup, nutrition, skin care "parties". I had just started reading about how to pick a breed of cow and the basics of care when I sat through 2hrs of this woman telling us how terrible all things dairy were (among many other things).
I'm not generally not a jump-on-the-bandwagon sort of person, but now I'm confused.
I thought that milk was good for you?
I assume that she was talking about the commercial, processed milk and not raw milk?
And then, when I aksed someone the next day about raw milk, they told me that raw milk is dangerous and even backyard milk has to be pasturized .

HUH????
 

OneFineAcre

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Wrench in the works..

This weekend I received one of my 'cow care' books and went to one of those 'all natural, chem-free' makeup, nutrition, skin care "parties". I had just started reading about how to pick a breed of cow and the basics of care when I sat through 2hrs of this woman telling us how terrible all things dairy were (among many other things).
I'm not generally not a jump-on-the-bandwagon sort of person, but now I'm confused.
I thought that milk was good for you?
I assume that she was talking about the commercial, processed milk and not raw milk?
And then, when I aksed someone the next day about raw milk, they told me that raw milk is dangerous and even backyard milk has to be pasturized .

HUH????

Why did she say that all things dairy were terrible? Kind of hard to respond to that part without knowing what she said.

As far as the issue of raw milk, raw milk will contain bacteria. How the milking occurs and how the milk is handled is crucial. Many people use raw milk with no problems and swear it is better.
We sell raw milk to people who want it. I've drank raw milk my entire life. But, we pasteurize the milk we use ourselves now because my wife doesn't want to take any chance with our daughter. What happened was we went to a meeting on mastitis and a professor from NC State talked about all the bad bacteria. The thing is our daughter had been drinking raw milk for 3 years, but now we pasteurize.
 
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frustratedearthmother

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This is a decision you'll need to make for yourself AFTER doing as much research as possible. You will hear good and bad on all fronts. We drink raw milk (goat milk) every day and have had zero negative health issues. I am a believer in it, but as others have said - it must be handled safely. Study up, talk to others, read everything you can and then make your choice. :)
 

canesisters

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The woman at the party was talking about smoothies and nutrient absorption and said that dairy causes inflammation and bloating in adults. "Cows were made to drink cow's milk - people weren't." She recommended a digestion aid product to replace milk or yogurt in smoothies that has all the good bacteria without being 'dairy' - and that she happens to sell (red flag right there). The dairy issue came up several times over the meeting and everyone around me just nodded as if it was something everyone knew. I would have scoffed at the idea but I’ve been drinking smoothies for a few months now – lost weight – but have more belly… which got me wondering.
I am very much a ‘check it all out first’ sort of person. It took me a year to be ‘ready’ to get chickens – LOL So I’ve got a lot more learning to do before I’m ready to start shopping for a backyard cow.
 
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