Question:  Hi Famer Jen, I was hoping to pick your brain, we are just about to move to a 5.4 acre property and my husband has always wanted a cow we have been recommended the Galloways for their easy nature and that they are great for novices, what are your thoughts on this and what do I need to know about them for their ongoing car, we would prefer young babies as they would be pets but how young should we be looking at. We have no experence with large livestock but I have breeding and exhibiting dogs for going on 25 years and we have raised our chickens for about 20 years so we do have some experience with domestic animals, we are not in a hurry but thought we would do our research first. Many Thanks Julie

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My answer:  Hi Julie I think if you’re kept other animals, you’ll find your way around cattle fairly quickly.  They are very easy for maintenance – annual drenching and vaccinations – and other than that, just keep an eye out for anything that might arise.

Be aware thought that cattle eat a LOT of food – so depending on where you are, two or three may be all you could comfortably keep on 5 acres in an area with low to average rainfall.

Cattle are really easy to train – they respond as well as my beagles to food!!  If you can take them a bucket of dairy meal every day for a couple of weeks you’ll have even adults following you around in no time.  If you decide to get youngsters instead of older cows, it’s just a matter of making sure they’ve got enough weight gain already to be weaned from their mums.  When our cows are on good feed, weaning would take place somewhere between six to 9 months of age.

We have Belty and Angus steers available now if you are interested.

belty_in_yard

Hope this helps and good luck with it!

Jen