How to start Cattle farming Business

Cattle farming is another prolific and sort after business in

Agriculture with so much potential and wealth.

Cattle farming can be defined as a type of farming that involves large
tracts of land along with facilities that are needed to raise
livestock. It is potentially appealing to people who have the
necessary land and available resources to make it pay well. Cattle
farming is mainly carried out in a ranch or a spread farm.

 

As usual on this Blog

I'd be opening your eyes to opportunities that abound in agriculture

and various farming business that anyone can kick-start and make

maximum profit thereof; 

in Cattle farming business, there are some

important steps and procedure that must be followed in other to

achieve our goals. Raising cattle can be easy and tedious at the same

time but with consistency and interest the profit is endless.

 Cattle remains one of the highest source and producer of animal protein in

the world and it is widely consumed and demanded for its meat(beef) and

milk(dairy). Milk gotten from cattle is widely consumed all over the

world and this is so because they produce excessive milk beyond what

the calf needs. If you want to venture into Cattle farming or Cattle

production business it is easy with the following steps in place:   

*. Proper Planning: Cattle is a big thing and the farming is pretty

tedious and demanding than any other kind of farming business and farm

animals, if you must be successful as a cattle farmer you must

consider proper planning so as to get it right from the on set. Meet

with the other cattle farmers who as more experience than you do or

probably learn spend up to 6month in a cattle range or farm to have a

hand full of experience and exposure on how to handle the animals   ,

manage the farm and how it works generally. It is pretty easy when you

meet up with experienced cattle farmers.  

  *. Define your motive right: be as specific as you can before venturing into this Great business, there are so many sub-categories in cattle farming and you can easily profit from the business if you're focus and specific in

your goal. 

* You can be a range man (managing and dealing with the

range land - pasture where the cattle feeds and live). 

 * You can focus on Diary farming (production of milk from cow) only.

 * You can venture into production of cattle concentrate feed and roughage. 

* You can focus on production and processing of cattle skin for

industry uses.

 * You can venture into reselling of calves and cows for

farmers.

 * You can raise cattle primary for butchers and meat

production.  

* You can focus on processing of cattle skin and hair.

The list goes on and on but in this post i will be focusing my writing

on those who wants to raise cattle for meat and diary the overall

management practices and lots more.

 * Location and Land: Cattle farming requires a large hectares of land to embark on as the animal has a large body and surface area thus, they feed on varieties of green plants and pasture so you need to consider a large land with quality green pasture for housing them and for grazing. If you're able to get good land for grazing and ranging with good pasture and green plants

available for the animal to eat all year round you are going to make

profit with your cattle production.

 * Determine how many year you are going to use | Time frame: Its important you do this, cattle farming is

a continuous process it requires a large time schedule you don't

venture into it and back off in 6months or so no! It doesn't work like

that you've to schedule a longtime let say 5 to 10years business plan.

After which you can consider your profit and lose and know whether to

move on or stop but if its well managed and  properly carried out

Cattle farming is a business that ca employ you a full-time in a

lifetime.

 * Get good Breeds fore your Production: there are so many

types of cattle breeds and not all of them are good for business

purpose, getting good breed is like securing your investment because

it will make the business to do well on the Long run, If you are into

dairy production though, the most best and most popular breeds for

dairy are Holstein, Jersey and Brown  Swiss. 

Guernseys and Ayrshiresmay also be popular for you if you are not located in North America. If you are into Diary and Meat you consider Ndama kuri Jersey and Brown swiss amongst others. In Nigeria the common meat producing breed that is raised by the Normadic herdsman are the type with an hump back (where fat is stored) but if you want to focus and profit from your

business you need to get those breeds without hump as they tend to

convert feeds to meat faster and they are efficient enough.

 * Pasture | Grazing of cattle: cattle feeds generally on Green plants - forages planted or grown on pasture feed primary meant for animal feeds, they also feed on folder crops and processed concentrates with roughage

and crude nutrients, cattle feeds on green plants because they are

ruminant with 4 chamber stomach system and they have the ability to

convert green plants to meat.

 * Record keeping: Cattle business is a huge investment that requires lots of cattle ranging from thousands to millions of dollars, if you are venturing into cattle farming business to profit you must keep records accurately to determine your expenditure profit and loss.

Proper record keeping will help you to determine progress in your
cattle farming business, 

the Records to be kept includes Date of
purchase, 

Numbers of cattle, 

Financial record,

 Health expenditures,

miscellaneous expenses, 

profit from sales, 

customers request,

 numbers of male animals,

 numbers of female animals, 

number of newly born calves,

 number of the total cattle both cows and bull, 

feed and feeding schedule for a month and year as the case maybe,

 numbers of staffs, 

farm equipments and facilities. 

* Health management and vaccination: Cattle are big animals that one cattle can supply a family with meat for the next 3months as big as they are, the can be infected with sickness and diseases that can run the entire farm
within a month or less. 

They graze on green pastures and thus, they eat so  many kind of things but good and bad but they can be prevented from sickness and immune from diseases, there are lots of important vaccines that must be administered to them while they are very young to immune their system and build them up against infections and pathogens or vectors that might attack their health in the future. Its important to consult a able Vet Doctor to handle the Cattle health properly so that they farmer won't run at loss.

  * Breeding Management : Cattle generally reach maturity in 6 to 7months after birth but for maximum and safe delivery/safe health, most farmers breed them at the 7th month, the Gestation period of a cattle lasts for cattle is about 283 days. 

During the gestation period, the cattle is allowed to feed
in the ranch in order to take some exercises. About eight weeks to
parturition (Calving - Giving birth), the cow is put on a special (rich
and high quality) diet to set all her organs in good order for milk
production after birth. 

This special system is called "Steaming Up".

Before the cow/helf gives birth there is need for important
preparation to be put in place in order to safeguard the health of the
calf/calves. 

There are much practices and steps in cattle farming but
this is a general introduction to this subsequently we will be
updating our Blog with quality information on how to venture into and
run a successful cattle farming business both in Nigeria and other
parts of the world.

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