Rant!!!! and Safety with Cattle

shy_boy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-k4JHrUew&feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJEGJp8dhhg&feature=related
as a few of you will know im relatively new to the farming scene(Tillage only) i have little experince wit livestock i dont do much commenting on Threads but am incline to ask the odd question or two on my own thread thanks for all the comments i got back by the way!!. Im going to run on a little bit here now anyway

I find very hard to get information out of farmers(not you guys though)when i ask the odd Question.Even my Dad,I am flogging him lately with any idea that comes to my mind about getting stock, my dad had cattle and sheep before i came along,(we only run tillage now), i am really excited about the future but get stuck sometimes with depression. I have the Dairy Farm mapped out in my head with wind turbine and the hole sebang or sheep enterprise i have that mapped to o yeah and, the Bull Beef system i have that mapped out to.

I know it will take alot of scrapping at the start get up and going in which ever enterprise, but after the scrapping i tink in my own opinion that run efficently a farm can make a profit:eek:

I aim to try and build up a herd a suckler herd with out getting any loans ive started by getting 3 weanlings heifers (you have to start somewere) and plan on keeping buying more as the money allows and putting in calf keeping heifers and selling bulls, selling a few put in a cheap and cheerful Milking Parlour in an already there outbuilding, i dont expect i return but i do expect to do this as cheap and cheerful as possible building and building as fast as money will allow also we have NOTING so will be trying to buy trailor that can bring to the mart,
and also need to sow grass in small patches over the next couple of year, Fencing and everything else so starting from Zip, lucky enough do as i have the land, Few ould sheds, cattle crush to start with.
WoW did i jus write all that:eek:

Anyway there,s a reason i put up them links I want to know if any of you guys have a story of an Incident which you found yourselve in with cattle or some advice on handling cattle safely for me
How Dangerous ar they??

p.s ADVICE on my BIG Rant ABOVE would be nice to

grazeaway

Well at least you have an interest in farming that's a good start so keep working on the ideas in your head. To answer your 1st question working your way through a suckler herd is a good start. My advice to you is to start simple with them and take from there. By that mean get an easy calving bull like an Angus. For small numbers you can AI them when they come in season (start bulling). Nothing more depressing then seeing your cows lose a calf. Hard to give advice on people starting with cattle as we always had them so I have 30 years experience. Id ease off on the milking cows for a bit though its not a matter of doing it cheap and cheerful as there are a lot of regulations that need to be met for milk producing.

As for the issues of dangers with animals yes there are plenty of issues. When it comes to handling animals you need plenty of patience and good handling facilities. You can never have enough pens and gates.

bob charles

the expert showing how to load in the first clip hasnt loaded many animals in his time me thinks. his technique is pretty wishful. It was far easy to load the tractor as they only put 9 animals into a 26ft trailer,

grange mac

bob charles wrote: »

the expert showing how to load in the first clip hasnt loaded many animals in his time me thinks. his technique is pretty wishful. It was far easy to load the tractor as they only put 9 animals into a 26ft trailer,

Pity my cattle werent loaded that easy....they just refused to go onto the lorry door....lets just say his little stick wouldn be much good on big bullocks...cant beat the white thorn

Dont be daft

grazeaway wrote: »

As for the issues of dangers with animals yes there are plenty of issues. When it comes to handling animals you need plenty of patience and good handling facilities. You can never have enough pens and gates.

Have to 2nd that.
If you want to pick up a few tips when building up handling facilities travel around to the marts and look at how they handle cattle with regards to gates and pens.

We took a few ideas from various marts and built them into out own facilities when we upgraded to handle the bulls.

As for the farming system you want to pursue I'd make one suggestion that you should probably stay clear of bulls for the 1st few years.
Bulls can be challenging to seasoned operators, so I think you'd be jumping in at the deep end.
Its not just the danger in handling them, there's also the injuries they pick up, the problems you can have trying to keep them quiet out the field and they can be weak enough when it comes to viruses.

yellow50HX

Dont be daft wrote: »

Have to 2nd that.
If you want to pick up a few tips when building up handling facilities travel around to the marts and look at how they handle cattle with regards to gates and pens.

We took a few ideas from various marts and built them into out own facilities when we upgraded to handle the bulls.

As for the farming system you want to pursue I'd make one suggestion that you should probably stay clear of bulls for the 1st few years.
Bulls can be challenging to seasoned operators, so I think you'd be jumping in at the deep end.
Its not just the danger in handling them, there's also the injuries they pick up, the problems you can have trying to keep them quiet out the field and they can be weak enough when it comes to viruses.

yeah, kept bulls to finishing a few years ago, expensive lesson. they had the whole place rooted up and knocked fences also was a bit wary feeding them in the field too. neighbour has them every year but he has old telegragph poles for fencing and finished them indoors with a electric fence over the pens to stop them jumping, plus he's a strong hure too.