Anyone farm beef cattle?

Z

zoon

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 November 2008
Messages
2,342
Visit site
Looks very unlikely that I'll be renting the field next to my land, so looking at the other surrounding land. One of the fields directly over the lane is used for cattle. The grass is very lush and the cattle seem to be in short term - so assume it is used for fattening up beef cattle. It has been empty for about 6 weeks now.

What is the likelihood of more cattle going in? Will it be a seasonal thing (not sure about farming for beef!) Or will cattle go in all year round? It is a massive field and I'd love to pop my 3 horses on it for a few months over winter to rest my own land and help fatten up the skinny old one as he drops weight over winter. Don't want to ask the farmer if he's going to be using it all year round or if he is unlikely to let me use it.
 
I live at a friends farm where we have beef cattle. All ours are in the shed now for the winter, as are all the other neighbouring farms. Most famers bring cows in for the winter to stop them trashing the grass but there is one guy near us who has cows out all year round as he has enough acerage to do this.

Not much help I guess, I would pop over and politely ask. He can only say no....or geerroofff mii laannnnnd! :p
 
Hiya :)

I'm not an expert on the matter, but my grandad is a farmer, with beef cattle.
Us and all the farmers we know bring their cows in autumn/winter and take them back out spring/summer. one piece advice though if you do use the field that has had cows in - make sure you're up to date with your wormers :) Hope this helps x
 
It very much depends what is the farming programme... Our cows are still out and won't be coming in for another 2-3 weeks, they will go out in March again. We bring them in to save the ground and to keep better condition on them in the winter weather, so there is no way I would rent their fields for horse grazing.
But, it's always worth asking.
 
its quite possible he has brought them all in for the winter now, but, not many beef farmers are keen on horses on their grass! Horses have a reputation for trashing fields and he'll probably want to turn his cattle back out there in the spring onto rested refreshed grass not 'horsegrass'. Go and ask anyway though, definatly worth a go, the worst that can happen is he'll say no! He might even know of somewhere else for you.
 
There are about 7 acres (at least - I'm bad at estimating that sort of thing!) plus an additional field of about 4 or 5. Over the summer there were a dozen or so cattle there and they slowly went down to zero as they were sold/went to market/slaughter or whatever beef cattle do.

I assume he keeps the main herd elsewhere as there are only every a small number on the land. I'd only want to use it for a short period to rest my land a little, and with my 3 horses, I doubt they'd trash it.

Seems very unlikely though that he'd let me. It takes vast amounts of courage for me to approach people as I'm very shy, so really don't want to now! One more plot of land next to mine that I could enquire about though.
 
Oh well. Might ask him if he knows of anything next time I see him over the road, you never know and that is a little less daunting than directly asking if I can rent his field
 
I think the main issue is the use of round feeders etc and leaving them in the same spot for weeks, you no doubt know what i mean. I think they can still be used but have to moved regularly to stop the poaching.
 
You might be OK for a few weeks up until Christmas, but the grass doesn't grow much, if at all, until the spring so once they have eaten off the long grass it won't grow again and the field will become poached.

Cattle come off the grass in the winter so the field doesn't become damaged and they eat less in a shed and put on more weight. So they will go back out at some stage, or maybe the farmer will take a crop of silage or hay first and then put them out when the grass grows again.

Mine go out into an area of permanent grass once the cattle have come off to give my tiny paddock a rest. They have plenty of room, and the field is a little way from the house so I hope that no-one can see all the hoof prints and skid marks all over the place! I am always amazed at how the grass recovers.
 
jrp204 said:
I think the main issue is the use of round feeders etc and leaving them in the same spot for weeks, you no doubt know what i mean. I think they can still be used but have to moved regularly to stop the poaching.
Click to expand...
Yes, I know what you mean ;) :)
Don't use feeders anyway, I bring them in when it looks like they might need a lot of hay (don't feed silage either), otherwise just spread bales around in the fields. We are on sand, though, so poaching is pretty much non-existent.
 
I would definitely ask the farmer. The cattle will more than likely be in for the winter now. My horses always used the main grazing for the winter when the cattle were in the courts. Never heard of that regulation....!!

Up here the cattle are usually turned out again around March time, so you may get a little while off it. Butter up the farmer and promise to look after the fences etc. Always worked for me :D
 
Cattle are starting to come in for the winter now. Farmer in question may not want horses on his field all winter churning up the ground. But ask him anyway, you don't know until you ask and if you don't ask, you may not get anyway!!!
 
My landlords cattle share grazing with my ponies all year round.:)
Next week they move up the road to a different set of fields.
Thankfully my landlord and his dad had horses years ago and is not bothered by my 3 sharing with the cattle.
The cows,this years calves and the charolais bull are out all year and get fed silage in the feeders and his cattle pellets. The ponies will move to another field purely as I prefer feeding them hay or haylage! and Easier to feed their horsey mix without inquisitive calves getting chased by the shetland pony!:D
 
3 horses on that amount of acreage couldn't do too much damage for a couple of months so worth asking, especialy if they are off well before the grass starts growing again. P.S. Ignore the comment re worms - cattle and horses don't share with the exception of one worm species which is really not much of a problem in the UK.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top