Cattle

Summary

Cattle are an essential part of my operation. Although I make more money per acre with sheep, cattle help regenerate the soil.

Goals

Currently, my plan is to transition to the South Poll breed.

My target is 50% of my AUs for cattle, with 1/2 cow-calf pairs and 1/2 steer. Currently, I have access to 80 acres, and at 2 acres per AU, that means I can raise 10 cows and 10 steer.

Why Cattle?

Wherever you find civilization, you find cattle. Cattle have been living symbiotically with humans for all of recorded history. They depend on us as much as we depend on them. We protect them from predators and provide them with fresh pasture, and they provide us with meat, milk, skins, and, in times past, work.

The meat and milk of cows are exceptionally healthy, as we are re-discovering. For a long time “scientists” told us to eat more grains and sugars and seed oils, but the evidence is overwhelming that we are better off eating meat and animal fats.

In this modern age, we are re-discovering that cattle are the key ingredient to turning wasteland into farmland. Their grazing habits and manure can convert deserts to fertile plains. The grass that grows to feed them will trap rain water, stop runoff, and build soil. Some people have seen inches of soil created each year in their pastures, thanks to cattle!

In North America, herds of millions and millions of buffalo used to roam the Great Plains. Those herds are gone now (due to disease) but we can use cattle to restore the native prairie grasses, and with that will come all the native wildlife that used to be so common. So not only do cattle restore soil, but they can rebuild the native Great Plains habitat too!

Why we keep cattle

The primary reasons we keep cattle are:

  1. We like to eat beef, and we want to raise our own beef. Plus, the beef raised on regenerative farming is known to be very much healthier than meat grown at industrial scales.
  2. Cows are great for building soil and pasture. More soil and more pasture means we can graze more animals and make more money.
  3. Cows keep me busy and in the field all the time.
  4. Cows pay for themselves and require very little inputs.

Lifecycle

We run a “cow-calf” operation. This means we keep cows, breed them with bulls, and then raise the calves until they are about a year old. At that point, we have to decide whether to keep them or to sell them.

The cows we keep are kept for one of three reasons:

  1. Breeding cows are kept because they give birth to calves. They not only do all the hard work, but are self-sufficient and even feed the calves for us. They also provide protection to a degree from predators. Cows can breed for a very long time, decades even, under the right conditions. We aim to provide those conditions. When a breeding cow fails to deliver the results we expect, it’s time to cull the herd and make room for other cows.
  2. Heifers (female cows that have not yet had a calf) are kept either to replace our cows or to expand our herd. They should be 24 months old when they give birth to their first calf.
  3. Bulls (male cows that have not been castrated) are kept either to breed or to grow faster before getting castrated. Bulls are virile at a young age, but are most effective at breeding by age 3 and beyond.
  4. Steers (male cows that have been castrated) are raised to weight and then slaughtered for meat, which takes about 3 years. If they are finished on grass, they can take longer than grain-fed steer. Steer grow faster than bulls and provide the kind of meat most people are familiar with. Bull meat tends to have a flavor to it, while heifer meat is not as tender or plentiful.

Herds

  • The Cow herd contains all of the breeding cows and their young calves. Bull calves must separate from the cow herd before 8 months old as they may breed with the cows. The heifer calves can stay with the cow herd until sale. Because we only have the bulls with the cows for a few months, we are guaranteed that the heifers won’t breed too early.
  • The Bull/Steer Herd contains all of the breeding bulls and steer. The steer and bulls are given the best land and grass as the goal is to put as much weight on them as possible in as short a time as possible. It is important that the bulls do not mix with the cows outside of breeding season. It is fine for the steer and cows to mix, however.
  • During breeding season, we can bring the two herds together.
  • We can mix the herds with the sheep however we like, but I prefer keeping the rams with the cows and the sheep with the bulls and steer, because the numbers balance out.

Breeding Cycle

We follow the current regime as best as we can:

  • March: Neuter bull calves for steer. Prepare heifer calves for sale.
  • April-May: Calves are born.
  • July-September: Put the bulls on the cows.
  • September: Separate / wean bull calves.

Breeds

So far on Lazy Cow Farms, we have a combination of Texas Longhorn, Corriente, Angus, and Angus crosses (with various breeds.)

My goal is to produce South Poll cattle. I purchased a South Poll bull in 2024 to begin that process. It will take many years before I am producing purebred South Poll calves.

We do not raise milk cattle at this time, though I do have an interest in getting one.

Long-Term Goals

We hope to have half of our animal units (AU) devoted to cattle, and the other half to sheep. (See our Sheep page.)

We expect that we can support 80 AUs on our farm, and so we will have about 40 cow-calf pairs going forward.

If we can find a market to sell our steers directly, then we will keep all of our bulls and raise them to weight for slaughter on our farm. If we do this, then we can only support 30 cow-calf pairs.

I plan on developing the genetics of my herd rather than trying to breed pure-bred cows. I’d like to see what my weird combination of cows turns into over time.