New member and farmer questions

3 posts
Mon, 06/04/2018 - 19:50 #1

Member for

6 years 6 months
Whitehousefarms
Last seen: 06/07/2018 - 15:48
Joined: 06/04/2018 - 19:46

New member and farmer questions

Hi, new member and farmer. I have access to approx 60 acres and considering running a couple dozen hereford for beef production, I'm wondering if this is the best starting point financially and experience wise or should we be looking at sheep?
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Wed, 06/06/2018 - 10:12 #2
admin
Last seen: 12/23/2024 - 11:42
Joined: 02/28/2011 - 14:19

Hi Whitehousefarm,

Welcome to the small farms forum, nice to have you as part of the community.

The good thing about starting out with sheep is that they are a small animal and tend to be easy to handle/manage. This makes for a great starting point for someone wanting to learn some livestock skills and husbandry practices. If you want to have cattle and need experience I would start with a minature breed (lowline) or buy in weaners (180kg) and sell them before they get too big and difficult to manage. For farmer's with no experience i dont think it is a good idea to start with cows due to the size of the animal and the risk of something going wrong. 

Sheep tend to be more work than cattle, although the shedding sheep make fly strike and shearing less of an issue.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Charlie

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Wed, 06/27/2018 - 09:34 #3
Willowdale
Last seen: 06/27/2018 - 09:34
Joined: 06/27/2018 - 09:26
Definitely agree with Charlie. Start with sheep to gain experience and less financial outlay. once experience and confidence gained, move into cattle. regards Russell
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