financially. Raising cattle can bring myriads of benefits. For example, cattle can feed on those resources that have otherwise no suitable use such as cattle can feed on land that is not permissible for raising crops and crop residue.
We know you’ve already looked up its benefits if you’re willing to start your own cattle ranching farm. But, before you go on with this, there are a lot of things that you need to keep in your mind. That is why we have come up with this ultimate beginner’s guide that will unleash everything you need to know to start your own farm.
Things You Need to Consider Before Starting a Cattle Ranching Farm
First thing first, before you step into the cattle ranching business, there are three most important things to look out for:
- Your resources
- Availability of the land
- Your level of skill and interest
Your resources are the first thing that you need to assess. How long can you go with your resources? Secondly, you need to examine how much land you’ll require to cover all your resources. Last but not least, how much you are interested in raising your cattle ranch and how many skills you have to do that impeccably.
All of these things are easy to understand if you’ve done your research properly. If you want to be a successful cattle ranch farmer, you need to gather as much information on cattle as you can. If possible, you should also acquire some practical experience to see if you’re fit for the job.
What Can You Do to Kick Start Your Cattle Farm Business?
In countries where the land is abundant but lacks food, starting your cattle farm business can be very profitable. However, if you don’t live in such countries, a well-developed cattle farm can still make you earn thousands of dollars.
It is very important to produce high-quality meat that meets both local and international standards. Now, there are a few basic things that you can consider that can kick start your cattle farm business.
- Select the Location of Your Farm
To start your cattle farm business, you’ll need a piece of land at first. Now, selecting the right land is a very crucial process. Firstly, you need to look at if your selected area permits you to raise your cattle ranch. If it does, you can move on to analyzing if your selected area provides you with all the additional facilities such as good transportation, etc.
It is better to use an existing piece of land rather than buying. But if you don’t have your own land, you can buy it from any vendor but it will be hard on your pockets.
- Select the Breed of Your Cattle
The next thing you need to look into is the breed of your cattle. You need to choose your cattle breed based upon its purpose. Let us simplify this for you. If you want to step foot into the dairy business, you need those cows that give you milk such as Brown Swiss, Jersey, Ayrshire, Holstein, and some others.
However, if you’re more drawn towards using cattle to produce meat, your cattle breed should be of Hereford, Shorthorn, British White, Red Poll, or Galloway. If you want them to do both – producing milk and meat – you can choose a combination of these dairy and good beef cattle breeds.
- Build a Shelter for Your Cattle
If you want to keep your animals safe then a shelter is a must. If you’re using dairy cattle, you’ll need to build a few buildings as well as a milking parlor with stanchions. As for the beef breed, they don’t need many facilities but they do need shelter to stay out of the pasture and be safe. Therefore, you will need to build a barn and bard necessarily. Don’t forget about calves. They’ll also need their own barn and calving facility.
- Provide Water and Food to Your Cattle
Just like humans can’t survive without water and food, cattle also need an undisrupted flow of water and food to survive, keep them disease-free, and maintain high yields. However, there are two things that you need to keep in mind when it comes to the food of your cattle. The food should not only keep your animals healthy but it should also meet the farming requirement.
On average, each cow requires 0.61 to 0.81 ha (1.5 – 2 acres) of pasture area per cow-calf pair. This kind of area can provide roughage for your cattle all year round. However, make sure that you don’t leave out too many cows on the pasture because they will devour all that grass. So, it is better to keep them on rounds.
As far as water is concerned, cattle need a huge amount of water to stay hydrated and your pastures to stay green. Therefore, you need some good water irrigation systems that can fulfill this requirement.
- Keep a Track of Everything
A cattle farm management software is required to keep a track of everything that’s going on in your cattle farm. This management software will look after all your finances, the number of cattle present, vaccinations, sales, purchases, and much more.
Apart from this, the cattle ranching farm software will help you analyze how much profit or loss you’ve encountered over the years. In this way, you can decide your next strategy.
Starting a cattle ranching business can bring a lot of profits if you do it in the right way. Choose the land and the breed of your cattle wisely because these two things can make or break your business. Once you’ve done this right, the rest will follow. Plus, don’t forget to incorporate cattle ranching farm software to keep records of your business
