New member - cattle and poultry owner.

farmerjan

Herd Master
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Shenandoah Valley Virginia
:welcome:welcome:welcome

I'm another Virginian chiming in... from the western part of the state, opposite from where @Mini Horses and @canesisters are. Since you said you are in New Zealand, could you add that to your location of Taranaki... because I will never remember that, when I look at it.

Have seen pictures of New Zealand and it looks beautiful... Tell us a little about the climate... northern or southern part... do you get much "winter weather? Snow or anything like that? Grazing season/length? moutainous or flatter land???

Here on my "side" of Va we have the Blue Ridge mtns and the Allegheny Mts... and flatter land in the valleys... mostly east of the Blue Ridge mtns it is much flatter to slightly rolling.

We grow a little corn for silage for the cattle and make a lot of hay. Graze as much as we can, do some rotational grazing wherever we can with fencing.... many places we graze are rented so you can only do so much...
We mostly have a cow/calf operation, and then wean the calves off the cows and put them on feed for 45-60 days average... it is called backgrounding and we put together groups of weaned conditioned(backgrounded) like sized calves to sell to others that run them as "stockers" grazing them on big tracts of land, and then they will put them into feedlots for finishing..

What kind of cattle? Beef or dairy primarily? Or like me, raise a dairy bull calf as a steer and kill for the freezer. Jerseys make exceptional beef...I have a couple of dairy animals usually too, and use as nurse cows to raise extra calves on...
My son and I have a beef cattle operation, mostly black angus and crossbreds... commercial cows but we do buy purebred bulls for breeding/producing calves. We are quite a bit larger operation than many on here...and I work with dairy farmers as a milk tester... I also have chickens, mostly purebred breeds for show and eggs and eating, some turkeys.... some sheep... and have raised hogs in the past.. Gardening for household food...
 

Crazy Chicken Keeper

Chillin' with the herd
Joined
Dec 10, 2025
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Location
Taranaki, Enzed
:welcome:welcome:welcome

I'm another Virginian chiming in... from the western part of the state, opposite from where @Mini Horses and @canesisters are. Since you said you are in New Zealand, could you add that to your location of Taranaki... because I will never remember that, when I look at it.

Have seen pictures of New Zealand and it looks beautiful... Tell us a little about the climate... northern or southern part... do you get much "winter weather? Snow or anything like that? Grazing season/length? moutainous or flatter land???

Here on my "side" of Va we have the Blue Ridge mtns and the Allegheny Mts... and flatter land in the valleys... mostly east of the Blue Ridge mtns it is much flatter to slightly rolling.

We grow a little corn for silage for the cattle and make a lot of hay. Graze as much as we can, do some rotational grazing wherever we can with fencing.... many places we graze are rented so you can only do so much...
We mostly have a cow/calf operation, and then wean the calves off the cows and put them on feed for 45-60 days average... it is called backgrounding and we put together groups of weaned conditioned(backgrounded) like sized calves to sell to others that run them as "stockers" grazing them on big tracts of land, and then they will put them into feedlots for finishing..

What kind of cattle? Beef or dairy primarily? Or like me, raise a dairy bull calf as a steer and kill for the freezer. Jerseys make exceptional beef...I have a couple of dairy animals usually too, and use as nurse cows to raise extra calves on...
My son and I have a beef cattle operation, mostly black angus and crossbreds... commercial cows but we do buy purebred bulls for breeding/producing calves. We are quite a bit larger operation than many on here...and I work with dairy farmers as a milk tester... I also have chickens, mostly purebred breeds for show and eggs and eating, some turkeys.... some sheep... and have raised hogs in the past.. Gardening for household food...
Nope.I want it to stay coonfusing - on BYC somebody thought it was in Japan:th
Where I live it is kinda humid but not bad, the farmland is good, we have a lot of sheep and beef farms as well as a lot of dairy farms. I live on a 800 acre farm. All is leased but for 9 hectares.
Silage we make too, one of our paddocks is growing long for it.
We have beef cattle, Angus mostly and one Speckled Park.
 

RR Homestead

Loving the herd life
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Welcome to the forum. Glad you've joined us. Look forward to learning more about your area and how things are there.
 

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