Tethered cow? and other questions from a newbie on a small acerage

I have about 1.5-2 acres of meadow - grass and herbs (plantain mostly). I don't currently have any grazing stock, and my poultry is in runs due to foxes. We will be getting some geese but not enough to keep the grass down, we will also be getting pigs but only a few and plan to use a paddock shift system to get them tilling up some of the meadow to be converted to vegetable growing. In the distant future (a few years at least) I would like to keep a few dairy goats but this is subject to life making that possible! In the meantime, I want to keep my meadows, as meadows, but my goodness that's a lot of work! We had guest sheep grazing it down for a few months in the winter, but now I am laboriously mowing it by hand with a scythe and trying to find someone to help me out with a mower. I am also trying to get the guest sheep back but because I've planted some trees around the edge and stuff, the shepherd thinks fencing etc will be more trouble than it's worth for the amount of grazing he will get. He has suggested that I consider a cow because they could be tethered, reducing the need to protectively fence small trees, and they are less likely than Welsh mountain sheep to go scrambling over the bank into our garden. At first he was trying to convince me to get a Jersey so we could have a dairy cow but I don't think we're ready for that commitment. Then he suggested getting a couple of young male calves to fatten. I am completely clueless when it comes to cows. Are either of these a realistic possibility? If I got young males, how much additional feed would they need? How much shelter? Could they really be tethered all the time?

Cows on teathers work great. I have a yearling heiffer on a teather in my front yard as I type this. Definitely dont try goats or sheeps with ropes, they have an instinctual death wish. Wont end well.

So long as you move the teather frequently enough, you would not need any supplemental feed. Just kelp and salt for minerals, and a tub of water.

Plantain is excellent cattle feed, much superior to grass, IMHO. Your animal will graze roughly based on body weight, so for your size pasture, one animal unit would work well. I would get a yearling steer (800 lbs or so), otherwise you would need two young ones to get the job done. For me, two animals on teathers starts to feel like a job, one animal is great.

Dairy cow on a teather is a beautiful thing so long as you keep moving her to fresh grass regularly, like three times a day I would reccomend. Dont underestimate how awesome a milk cow is! But definitely not as simple as a beef steer.

Do be aware that if you dont move frequently enough, you will trample your pasture into mud if it is at all moist, which sounds like an issue in your area. I know I sound like a broken record, but frequent moves is key with animals on teathers. good luck!

Thanks very much for your reply! I really hadn't heard much about tethering before so that's very useful info. Our area is indeed wet (understatement!!). The meadow has tons of plantain, clover, and other goodies. Sadly it also has ragwort, which I am weeding out as best I can. It's adjacent to the house so visiting the animal 2-3 times per day would not be an issue.

What about shelter? Do you leave the animal tethered outside at night (only predators are foxes, nothing big), or do you need to bring it into shelter at night? We do not have a barn.

If I got one or two young males, with the intention of using them to eat the grass as I raise them for slaughter, how long would I expect to keep them before slaughtering (I appreciate that there's an element of, how good is the grazing as to how quickly they fatten up, but I mean very roughly - are we talking months, or a year?)

surely some of the softer-hearted among us might cry, but cattle wouldnt need any shelter in Wales.

as for slaughtering age, it does really depend, but isnt exacting in any way. bigger animal makes more beef. a smaller animal, less mature in stature, will yield a lower percentage of beef per body weight, because their body is more bone proportionally. but keeping it simple, you could harvest the beef when it is convenient for your needs, no problem. really, IME, cant lose with backyard beef. make sure your abbatoir dry ages the meat for optimal flavor and tenderness. this step is as important as everything you do when raising and feeding the animal.

a really good resource for you would be 'grassfed to finish' by Alan Nation. definitely worth purchasing and reading to give you an understanding of why to do what.

I should warn you that in the UK people tend to assume tethered animals are neglected and call the RSPCA.

Brace yourself for complaints, no matter how ill-founded.

Getting only one bullock ( steer ) is never as good as having at least two. They thrive much better together.
A solitary cow is ok, for half the year she will have the calf anyway, and she will be fine foe the rest on her own.

thank you everyone for those thought-provoking replies. I will get on some more reading and talking to people. The tethered animals would be clearly visible from the road, so nosiness might be a problem. However I am already registered as a smallholder and with stock would need to have visits from the animal welfare people anyway, so as long as they are satisfied I assume that would give me sufficient protection from unfounded complaints (I might be naive though!). As with everything I do I would be talking to my neighbors and the village before hand anyway, and though people think I am a bit nuts they do stick up for each other around here especially with regards to authority, so hopefully that wouldn't be too much of an issue.

I definitely see beef cattle out on the land all year round out here - the harshest part of last winter was snow on the ground 6" deep for around 2 weeks, otherwise it hovered between -3 and +5 celsius. To the best of my knowledge the local small dairy herds do tend to stay indoors for at least a couple of months over winter, but I'm pretty sure people with 'family cows' don't keep them in all the time.

In any case I think I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here but it's another fascinating avenue to explore, thank you again!

I am the very first house outside the city and we share a fence line with a trailer court. There are only 2 trailers nearby and the rest are on the far side so see don’t see them. We get a lot of power walkers and just people wandering back towards our way who are likely unfamiliar with homesteading. Unfortunately, we had someone call animal control on us bc our cow is tethered. She is always next to water and food and our entire back of our house is a great room with windows where we watch her. She is a 6 month old holstein heifer and she has been trained to her tether. She never makes a sound unless one of her favorite barn cats passes by and she is greeting them or if she gets tangled around this one tree in her range. If this happens, we go right out and get her. We homeschool and are always home with her when she is outside. She has a shed, trough of water and feed at all times so I am chalking this up to someone not understanding livestock. However, animal control drives by about weekly now to check and I got a letter with what to feed a cow and saying she needs food, water, and shelter at all times. I called them and had to leave a voicemail and never heard back. I’m frustrated and confused, but my cow is very well cared for, eats all the time, is out grazing and has pellets and hay with her minerals, salt/selenium block, water……what else could they need? She goes up in bad weather and she actually prefers to stand out in the rain over being put up. I guess I am just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what I need to do.

This is the latest in livestock fencing and management, some are using and liking it in our area. Don't know if I would trust this in a high traffic area but in a more remote setting it may be just right. For temporary grazing of cover crops and the like this is a neat option to fencing providing it works well.

https://www.halterhq.com/en-us

Tiffany Becker wrote:...However, animal control drives by about weekly now to check and I got a letter with what to feed a cow and saying she needs food, water, and shelter at all times. I called them and had to leave a voicemail and never heard back. I’m frustrated and confused, but my cow is very well cared for, eats all the time, is out grazing and has pellets and hay with her minerals, salt/selenium block, water……what else could they need?...

First off, I suggest that you consider that these animal control people are likely used to *only* dealing with city animals? Most people nowadays, have never met a cow, let alone are aware of how Industrial Agriculture treats them. You are likely dealing with any combination of: 1) I'm bored, let's drive out to visit the cow, 2) I know nothing really about cows, but I don't want it hurt on my watch, so let's go check on it, 3) Hey, you're new here, have you met our local cow, yet? More options?

Second, some questions: Do they just drive by and have a look, or are they stopping and actually visiting the cow? Is it always the same people, or a variety, or frequently new. My initial response to reading your post was to think - make friends with them. One *big* risk you have with your location is people letting dogs out unsupervised and them ganging up on your cow. Being besties with a few Animal Control people could be seen as a benefit, rather than a problem - that's the permaculture way!

As to your treatment of the cow, I will wait for some of our cow people to speak up - I only have a passing knowledge of them through neighbors. You've come to a good place for advice, and I hope you poke around the site and learn more. ( we even have a homeschool forum under education ) Welcome!

Tethering is great.  We have only had experience tethering cows.  Our sheep we roam around in electric net during the summer.  But our cows we love to start off tethered.  It is so easy to transition from tethering to being able to lead them around.  We tie them to fence posts or use a T-post and migrate that around.  It is more work because you have to move them often and bring them water, but it is worth it.  With that labor you get a very awesome distribution of manure spread evenly through the pasture, and it's easy to tame them.  I give seven thumbs up to tethering animals.  I think it would work very well with goats if that is what you wanted to end up doing after cows.  I've worked with neighboring goats and they tame up very easy, I think you could have easy success with goat tethering if that is what you wanted to do.  Sheep would be more challenging, but likely possible.

I laugh now and then moving the T-post around, I think I've built miles of fence just tethering cows around the pasture.

I thought tethering was not allowed in the UK, but it seems it is in conventional farming. However it doesn't appear to meet organic standards; I think as they should be able to free range. file:///home/counter/Downloads/soil-association-farming-and-growing-organic-standards-GB.pdf gives the soil association standards. Of course this may be different in the US, but I think we should aim for 'or better'

I have seen animals thrive on tethering.   I also had a co-worker have a tethered horse ripped apart by coyotes.   I don’t tether.

John F Dean wrote:I have seen animals thrive on tethering.   I also had a co-worker have a tethered horse ripped apart by coyotes.   I don’t tether.

It would be wise to consider whatever predators you may have nearby.  We have coyotes and more nearby.  Less than a week ago my wife and I both went outside to try and bolster one of our dogs and scare the coyotes.  They were probably about 200 feet away from us when we went outside with a lantern.  The light, dogs, and us combined seemed to push them away.  I'd recommend outside dogs for anyone who has predators around that could eat your tethered animals.  We keep our smallest animals close to home to try and protect them.  So far we have not lost any animals and I hope that continues.  We have one guardian dog out near the sheep and one mutt who roams around (often singing with the coyotes.)  

It is something to think about and strategize around.  But still, it is well worth it to tether.  If you can have a roaming dog throughout your property and tether inside that you'll likely be in good shape.