Since I have been very happy with my cattle, I want to encourage others with an interest in starting their own herd to take the first steps necessary. I started seriously planning for cattle in 2010 with the purchase of baling equipment in order to bale the Sawmill property. Before purchasing my cattle I had only limited experience working with cattle as a farm hand and having other peoples cattle around growing up. Keakwa the Jersey bottle calf was my first cow which I purchased in 2012. For this post I will start out with the dirt basic steps to start your own herd.

I will not claim to be a cattle expert, but I hope to be able to help those with even less experience to muster the courage to take the first step. The first steps are acquiring the supplies needed to care for the cattle.

Long story short I wanted to be sure to be able to feed my cattle before acquiring them. I made sure I had bailing down before acquiring my first stock. While I still believe that is the optimal approach, buying feed is the approach most people take to get started. Baling your own hay however can make your operation more independent and profitable.

Cattle are easy, here is what you need at the most basic level: Water, food, a way to contain the bovines and shelter in extreme temperatures. Before acquiring cattle you need these things setup in advance. I will discuss these one at a time.

Water

A pretty obvious one, cattle need clean fresh water just like you do, although cattle are much less picky than the average human, and more durable as well. A lot of cattlemen rely on a simple pond or a stream to provide this. Cattle can drink straight from a pond given proper access, but it is best for the pond and the cattle to control this access. City water will work fine as a water source.

My first method of watering cattle was a barrel cut in half with a float valve fed by 1/4″ line. I still use this system at the corral and in the fields close to a spigot. As my herd grew I invested in several stock tanks and use an IBC tote in the back of my truck to fill these.

One of the biggest challenges in keeping cattle is providing water in freezing conditions. Cattle care during the growing season is easy and cheap compared to winter. Most cattle need access to their fill of water at least once a day. Last winter I used a 3’x8’x2′ 294 gallon steel tank and chopped the ice and tossed it out every freezing day. I wasn’t within range of a electrical outlet, and didn’t want the expense either. The electrical stock tank heaters are pretty expensive to run, at $.10 a kilowatt the one I tested with my kill-a-watt would cost a little over a buck a day to use.

Luckily when we purchased the farm it had a couple frost free water drinks at the back of pond dams. They work by being partially buried into the pond dam and having a valve to open in cold weather to swirl the exposed water. These work great and don’t cost anything to run, but are expensive to setup initially.

Food:

This is what I love about cattle, they eat grass. How awesome is that? A critter that is worth a good chunk of change that can live off grass and multiply. The biggest concern with feeding cattle is maintaining your pastures and providing food in winter. My cattle are grass fed. Hay, grass and mineral is what they get with an occasional treat to keep them well trained.

You do need a pasture with enough quality forage for your stock, but in many parts of the US this isn’t hard to come by. Even the rocky and hilly areas of Missouri are often well suited for use by cattle.

I rotationally graze my cattle using electric fence, switching paddocks about once a week. It is best to at least rotate some, leaving cattle in one area is a sure way to lower the quality of your pastures unless very minimally stocked. During the winter I continue to rotate taking advantage of stockpiled forage. In the heart of winter I also supplement with hay.

During the winter many cattlemen use a sacrifice lot and feed hay in that one area. This may make your job easier, but it often becomes a muddy manure lot. I prefer to spread my cattle’s impact by continuing to rotate during winter.

Feeding cattle in the winter is usually the single biggest expense of keeping cattle. Even if you don’t bale your own hay there are ways to lower this expense. If you have enough land researching stockpiled forage is time well spent. Even with a good stockpile you are probably going to need some hay. The best time to buy hay is when it is being baled, don’t wait until you need it, if a farmer has to sit on his hay for several months he is usually going to ask for more. In a lean year waiting to buy hay until winter could make the job close to impossible.

Shelter

While further north shelter may be needed, where I live in Missouri a good stand of trees is all that is required. Trees provide shade in the heat of summer and a windbreak in the winter. You could go fancier, but this works for me. In the coldest or hottest part of the year you don’t want your cattle to be suffering in a treeless field. In colder parts of the country this may not be enough, or you may need a more cold tolerant breed, but here in Missouri with Dexter cattle it works.

Containment

This is often the most expensive piece of the puzzle initially. No need to acquire cattle if you cannot keep them where you want them. To do this job I have a few boundary fences on the property line but rely on electric fence to do the work. My setup is pretty simple, a $5 Parmak 12v fence charger I bought at a flea market, a 12v battery from a junk car, some fence posts and cheap wire.

I have tried various types of wire, starting with galvanized steel, then aluminum before deciding the fiberglass wire with stainless steel conductors works best for me. I started with galvanized wire but found it bulky and hard to deal with. I switched to the aluminum wire as suggested by Joel Salatin but found it would often twist into loops while rolling it up. These twist would then break as the bending action weakened the wire. These weak points would cause breaks and shorts every once in awhile. I think the steel or aluminum wire would work well as a permanent fence. I however will no longer use it for temporary paddocks.

The fiberglass wire is very easy to work with, light and relatively durable. In my area the cheapest wire is marketed under the brand name Pasture Pride, or MFA’s Rangemaster. This wire will work fine, but isn’t as durable in the long run as many other brands.

I went through several different styles of step in fence posts before settling on the sungaurd fiberglass fence posts. I also use metal fence posts for my corners and anywhere I need to take a sharp turn. If you have rocky or hard ground you may need to use the steel posts, they can be used in areas no step in post could handle.