Take Care of Cows

So you bought your first cow or herd of cows and have already set up your fences, shelter and watering areas. Congratulations! Now comes the challenge with taking care of them. Taking care of cows differs between which cows you own: dairy or beef cows. Typically dairy cows involve a lot more responsibility and hard work than caring for beef cows, because you have the added duty of regular milking. With beef cows, though, the most you should worry about is if they are raising a calf or not and if they have enough to eat. Read the following steps below to find out the best way that you can take care of your cows for years to come.

Steps

Caring for Dairy Cows

  1. Feeding your cows is the first and most important part of taking care of dairy cows. You have to feed them to help them produce milk. Without feed, don't expect your dairy cows to be producing much milk. You can feed them hay, grain, silage or even let them graze grass if there is plenty of grass for your cows to eat. Be sure that they have constant access to clean water; cows should never go without water, especially when they are being raised for milk. You should try to feed them every day or as many times as necessary per day or week depending on how you are feeding them. If they're on pasture, you need to ensure they have fresh pasture. If they are on a rotational grazing schedule, you will need to switch paddocks every day, or at least as many times per day or per week as necessary.
    • If your dairy cows are on feed, make sure they are getting a formulated ration that best suits their needs as they are producing milk. This means feeds high in calcium, phosphorus, protein and energy, which will both help produce high-quality milk and keep them in good health.
    • Be sure to allow your cows free access to loose mineral as well.
  2. Maintain a good herd health program. This means keeping up-to-date with vaccinations and de-worming/de-licing programs. If you haven't already, please see your local large animal veterinarian for certain vaccinations and de-worming or de-licing products that are best for your herd.
  3. Check your cows regularly for any signs of illness or injury. Dairy cattle are highly susceptible to mastitis and lameness issues, which may need to be attended to as soon as possible.
  4. Keep the stalls where they live or go to be milked clean with fresh bedding. This will need to be done every day. Replace dirty bedding (in the form of straw or sawdust) that has been soiled from manure with clean bedding. If you fail to do this you may invite higher cases of mastitis in your dairy herd.
  5. Maintain and regularly clean the milking supplies. This is so that they do not pose a risk of mastitis to the cows when you milk them, and it also ensures that the milk you get from those cows is kept clean. Milk that is contaminated with dirt pose a high risk of having E. coli, Streptococcus, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Clostridium spp., etc which can pose a health risk to humans if consumed.
  6. Milk them. Dairy cows need to be milked twice a day, once every 12 hours, approximately. Depending on how many cows you have, you may have to milk them by hand or by machine. It is best to have machines milking them if you have more than three cows to milk.
    • The conventional standard is milking them twice a day, but small-time milkers or those with only one family cow have no problem with milking their cow[s] once a day.
  7. Maintain a breeding program. In order for dairy cows to be productive in producing milk, they need to be bred once a year to produce a calf. See the article How to Breed Dairy Cattle for more information.

Caring for Beef Cows

  1. Feed or pasture them according to the seasons. Beef cows should be let to graze out on pasture during the times when pasture is available. If pasture is no longer available or you do not have enough area to allow stockpile grazing, then you will need to confine them to a "sacrifice area" where you have to feed them hay regularly, preferably by bales.
    • Make sure you cut the strings or netting from the bales before they're fed to them.
    • Beef cows should be fed according to what stage of reproduction they're in, their physiological needs, and their body condition. If cows are lactating with a suckling calf at side, they'll need good quality hay and supplementation if they are losing too much condition on just hay alone. Dry (non-lactating) beef cows that are in good condition do fine on lesser-quality hay. Thin cows need good quality hay and possibly supplementation to put on weight over the winter, but fat cows can do with poor quality forage to lose weight.
    • With grazing, opt for rotational grazing to keep your pastures healthy and more productive than if you were to allow all of your pasture for grazing.
      • Annual soil samples and regular harrowing, if you do not have chickens or dung beetles you can rely on to spread the manure around, will also help keep your pasture and paddocks productive.
    • Always ensure your cows have access to clean water and loose mineral.
  2. Maintain a good herd health program. As mentioned above with Dairy cows, keep up-to-date with vaccinations and deworming/de-licing throughout the year. Certain vaccines for your cows may only need to be given once a year, whereas with deworming and de-licing, more applications per year may be necessary. See your vet for best vaccinations and de-worming products that are best for your cows, if you haven't done so already.
  3. Check your cows regularly for signs of illness or injury. Beef cows are a bit more tougher and less reliant on humans than dairy cows are, so less checking can be done with these girls. Many people who raise beef cattle don't check on them daily or more than once a day, unless they're rotational grazing them; they often only check them once a week or every two weeks to give then fresh mineral or switch pastures.
  4. Maintain a breeding schedule. This is for those who opt for a defined reproductive cycle of their herd, with a defined breeding, calving and weaning period. However, there's nothing wrong with deciding to have a year-round breeding program if you want to have the option of selling weaned calves throughout the year.
  5. Keep a regular check on fences. Though you may have built some good solid fences, it doesn't hurt to check them occasionally to see if one of your herd as attempted escape to freedom, or if you had a call from someone telling you your cows got out. If that happens, then it's very important to check your fences to see where they got out and to fix the break they made.

Tips

  • Keep your veterinarian's phone-number on hand in case of an emergency.
  • Feeding is the most important part of keeping, caring for and raising cows.
  • Keep water, mineral and feed available for your cows at all times, for the best of their health and for your peace of mind.

Warnings

  • Never get complacent around a mother beef cow and her calf.

Things You'll Need

  • One or more cows
  • Regular schedule
  • You'll need to have already had shelter, fences and water supplies ready before getting your cows.

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