how to raise one cow for our family

[talina]

Greetings. We are raising a cow (for butchering) on our 1/2 acre land. We have our small house and small work shop on the property also. It is sloping with one steep area. Will this be enough room to keep it on till it is 1 1/2 or 2 yrs old? We will let it graze when possible and feed hay/grain as necessary. We will also section it off into three areas so we can rotate the cow as the grass grows back-also removing the dung as needed.

[GREEN_ALIEN]

Greetings. We are raising a cow (for butchering) on our 1/2 acre land. We have our small house and small work shop on the property also. It is sloping with one steep area. Will this be enough room to keep it on till it is 1 1/2 or 2 yrs old? We will let it graze when possible and feed hay/grain as necessary. We will also section it off into three areas so we can rotate the cow as the grass grows back-also removing the dung as needed.

You do not say where you are located and that is a fairly critical bit of info. You can keep the cow in that small space and it won't do any good to fence it off into small sections. The result will just be a bunch of tromped down areas instead of one large one. You will need to feed approx. 12 lbs of protien and 18 lbs of roughage daily as there will not be enough forage available. You will only need to keep the critter for a year to butcher, should be right around 1000 lbs.

Ted

[talina]

We live in Western North Carolina.

[palerider]

now that you've got the skinny on the input, I gotta ask, with only 1/2 A what are you gonna do with all that OUTPUT. I think a 1/2A total house, barn etc, is too small to raise a beef cow opn. Man, your neighbors are not gonna be happy. As far as I know, on good pasture 2A is just about right per cow. Is this your first experience with animals? I think you're gonna be real surprised by the poop factor.