There are three main fencing options for cattle:īarbwire is best if you’re fencing acreage. If there’s a hole in your fence, a cow will find it. One of the most important things you’ll need in place before raising cattle, no matter the size of the herd, is good fencing. You don’t even need a lot of land to do it-as a rule of thumb, you can keep one cow-calf pair per every 2 acres of pasture for 12 months.

Raising a couple cattle can feed your family and then some for the year.

I encourage you to consider raising your own grassfed beef because once you experience it, you’ll never go back. And the flavor-we could barely eat it.įrom that moment on, my husband and I vowed to raise our own beef and never purchase it from the store again. It had an odd odor even though it wasn’t bad. I couldn’t believe the amount of liquid and fat that came out of the meat, even though I’d purchased lean. For the first time in my life, I purchased store-bought hamburger.

During our first year as newlyweds, we purchased a quarter of beef from my father, but we ran out of hamburger about three months before butchering time in the fall. When my husband and I married, we both agreed we wanted to be able to live off the land as much as possible. At that time, grain-fed beef was preferred, but where I live in the Pacific Northwest, we didn’t have acres of pasture to grow our own grain, and grain was more expensive than grass hay. My parents raised our own beef because it was cheaper than purchasing it in the store. My father, having grown up during the Great Depression, knew the reality of not having food to eat if you didn’t raise it yourself. I grew up on grassfed beef long before it became the cool thing on the market. If you’re anything like me, you want to be able to feed your family wholesome food that is raised according to your ethical and health standards. If you’ve ever listened or watched one of the news reports about antibiotics used in meat production or yet another food recall, you’ve probably cringed and thought, “There is something seriously wrong with our food system!” When substances used to grow our food cause potential harm to the livestock and to ourselves, there certainly appears to be a problem.

Raising holstein bull calves for beef