My Cattle Experience

Raising Cattle in the US

Raising calves is something I've been doing sense I was a young child.  Below and above you can see two different ways we kept calves that we bought from dairy farmer.  These calves are the bulls calves so the dairy farms like to sell them.  When it is warmer outside we kept the calves in hutches (pictured above).  In the winter when it was cold and snowy the calves would be raised in the barn (pictured below).

Because the calves are purchased right after they are born, they have to be bottle feed twice a day.

Through 4-H I was able to show and sell many of these calves. My sister and I raised feeder and beef steers for the youth shows.  Below is a picture of my grandparents and me after they bought my steer. 

Me and my cousin.

Going of a swim in our pound.

Here you can see that training does not always go as planed.

4-H was a great experience and allowed me to learn many skills when caring for cattle.  I also learned the responsibility of taking care of another living creature.

My family raises beef cows that have there own calves.  Beef cattle can be much easier to care for then dairy cattle. They do a good job of taking care of them selves.  Don't get me wrong there is a lot of work involved but there is no need to milk or bottle feed calves every day.

I also worked on a dairy farm, milking cows, for about 4 years.  This can be a monotonous job but I had great bosses.  The farm was also well managed and the cattle were well looked after. 

Cattle in Germany

We have about 40 to 50 head of organic beef cattle in Germany.  I don't have much contact with them in general.  My boyfriend and his father does most of the work with them.  But I enjoy taking pictures of them.