The Backyard Homestead

by Carleen Madigan

  Guernsey. Guernseys are fawn and white, with yellow skin. The cows weigh 1,100 to 1,200 pounds; bulls weigh 1,700 pounds. Guernsey cows have a good disposition and few problems with calving. Their milk is yellow in color and rich in butter fat. Heifers mature early and breed quickly.

  Holstein. Holstein cattle are black and white or red and white. They are large: Cows weigh 1,500 pounds and bulls weigh 2,000 pounds. A Holstein calf weighs about 90 pounds at birth. The cows produce large volumes of milk that is low in butterfat. Holsteins are the most numerous dairy breed in the United States.

  Jersey. Jerseys are fawn colored or cream, mouse gray, brown, or black, with or without white markings. The tail, muzzle, and tongue are usually black. They are small cattle: Cows weigh 900 to 1,000 pounds and bulls weigh 1,500. Jerseys calve easily and mature quickly and are noted for their fertility. Jerseys produce more milk per pound of body weight than any other breed, and their milk is the richest in butterfat.

  Milking Shorthorn. These cattle are red, red and white, white, or roan (a mix of red and white hair). Cows are large, weighing 1,400 to 1,600 pounds; bulls weigh 2,000 pounds or more. They are hardy, noted for long lives and easy calving. Their milk is richer than that of Holsteins but is not as high in butterfat as that of Jerseys or Guernseys.

  Dairy Breeds

  Ayrshire

  Brown Swiss

  Guernsey

  Holstein

  Jersey

  Milking Shorthorn

  Choosing a Beef Breed

  Beef breeds in the United States are descendants of cattle imported from the British Isles, European countries, or India. Many modern breeds are mixes of these imported breeds. The first cattle came here from Spain, but they were soon outnumbered by British cattle.

  British Breeds

  British breeds are those that originated in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

  Angus. Angus cattle are black or red and genetically polled (always born hornless). Smaller and finer boned than Herefords, Angus are known for ease in calving because they give birth to small calves. This characteristic makes them popular for crossbreeding with larger, heavily muscled cattle. Angus are noted for early maturity, marbling of meat, and motherliness. Angus cows are aggressive in protecting their calves and give more milk than Herefords.

  Dexter. Dexters are probably the smallest cattle in the world and are used for milk and beef. The average cow weighs less than 750 pounds and is only 36 to 42 inches tall at the shoulder. Bulls weigh less than 1,000 pounds and are 38 to 44 inches tall. Dexter cattle are quiet and easy to handle, and the cows give rich milk.

  Galloway. Galloways are hardy and have a heavy winter coat. Galloway cows live a long time and often produce calves until 15 to 20 years of age. The calves are born easily because they are small, but they grow fast. Most Galloways are black, but some are red, brown, white (with black ears, muzzle, feet, and teats), or belted (black with a white midsection). All Galloways are polled.

  Parts of a Beef Animal

  Hereford. The Hereford is well known for its red body and white face. The feet, belly, flanks, crest (top of neck), and tail switch are white. Other characteristics of the Hereford are large frame and good bone (heavier bones than those of many breeds). The Hereford has a mellow disposition compared with that of the Angus or some Continental breeds.

  The Polled Hereford is identical to the Hereford except that it has no horns.

  Scotch Highland. These cattle are small, with long, shaggy hair and impressive horns. These hardy cattle do well in cold weather. Their shaggy coats provide protection from insects, and their long forelocks protect their eyes from flies.

  Shorthorn. Shorthorn cows have good udders and give a lot of milk. They have few problems with calving. Even though the calves are born small, they grow big quickly. Shorthorn cattle can be red, roan, white, or red-and-white spotted.

  Continental (European) Breeds

  Many European beef breeds are raised in the United States. They have become especially popular over the past few decades, adding size and muscle (and sometimes more milk) to crossbred herds in this country.

  Charolais. Charolais are white, thick-muscled cattle. Cattlemen in the United States like Charolais for crossbreeding because they are larger than the British breeds.

  British Beef Breeds

  Angus

  Hereford

  Shorthorn

  Chianina. Chianina are the largest cattle in the world. They are white in color. Due to their size and color, they make impressive oxen.

  Gelbvieh. Gelbvieh cattle are light tan to golden in color. The calves grow fast, and the heifers mature more quickly than heifers of most other Continental breeds.

  Limousin. The Limousin is a red, well-muscled breed. Cattlemen like the Limousin’s moderate size and abundance of lean muscle. The small calves are born easily and grow fast.

  Continental Beef Breeds

  Charolais

  Gelbvieh

  Limousin

  Salers

  Simmental

  Salers. Salers cattle are horned and dark red. They are popular in the United States for cross-breeding because of their good milking ability, fertility, ease of calving, and hardiness.

  Simmental. Simmentals are yellow-brown cattle with white markings. They are known for rapid growth and good milk production.

  Tarentaise. The Tarentaise is a breed of red cattle with dark ears, nose, and feet. They are moderate-sized animals that are used for milk and meat. They reach maturity early and have good fertility.

  Other Continental Breeds. Many other Continental breeds are available in the United States today, such as Maine Anjou, Pinz gauer, Piedmontese, Braun-vieh, Normandy, and Romagnola. In general, Continental cattle are larger, leaner, and slower to mature than the British breeds.

  Breeds from Near and Far

  Some of the beef cattle breeds in the United States originated in places other than the British Isles and Europe.

  Brahman. Brahman cattle, which originated in India, are easily recognized by the large hump over the neck and shoulders, loose floppy skin on the dewlap and under the belly, large droopy ears, and horns that curve up and back. They come in a variety of colors. Brahmans do well in the southern part of North America because they can withstand heat and are resistant to ticks and other hot-climate insects. They are large cattle, but the calves are small at birth and grow rapidly because the cows give lots of rich milk.

  Murray Grey. The Murray Grey is a silver-gray breed from Australia. Murray Greys are gaining popularity in the United States because of their moderate size, gentle disposition, and fast-growing calves. The calves are small at birth but often grow to 700 pounds by weaning.

  Texas Longhorn. The Texas Longhorn is descended from wild cattle left by early Spanish settlers in the Southwest. Long-horns are moderately sized and are well known for ease of calving, hardiness, long life, and good fertility.

  Brahmans do well in the South because they can withstand hot temperatures.

  Beef Breeds from Near and Far

  Brahman

  Texas Longhorn

  Grazing Cattle

  Beef cattle can graze on land that won’t grow crops. More than 90 percent of the 810 million acres of cow pasture in the United States is too rough and steep, too dry, too wet, or too high to grow food crops. Raising beef cattle is a good way to use these lands to create food.

  Crossbred Cattle

  Crossbreeding is a useful tool for the beef producer. There are nearly 100 cattle breeds in the United States. Cattle men often cross them to create unique cow herds with the traits they want. For example, cattle are raised in a wide variety of environments, from lush green pastures to dry deserts and steep mountains. Each farmer or rancher tries to create a type of cow that will do well and raise good calves in his or her situation. No single breed offers all the traits that are important to beef production.

  Hybrid Vigor

  The most effective genetic advantage in cattle breeding is hybrid
vigor, which results when two animals that are different mate. Hybrid vigor — displayed by the offspring of such parents — increases the fertility, milk production, and life span of cows and the robustness and health of young calves. With careful crossbreeding, the rancher can develop crossbred cows that will do better than the parent breeds. Good crossbred females make the best beef cows.

  Well-marbled meat comes from cattle that have reached puberty.

  Composites

  Composite cattle are created from different breeds that have been blended into a uniform type of crossbreed. Several composites have been created in the past few decades, and new ones are being formed all the time. Nearly every breed registered today began as a composite. Brangus, Santa Gertrudis, and Beefmaster are examples of successful composites. More recent blends are the Hays Converter (a Canadian breed made up of several beef breeds combined with Holstein, a dairy breed) and the RX3 (a blend of Hereford, Red Angus, and Holstein).

  Butchering a Beef

  If you’re raising a calf to butcher, you will probably want to let it grow to good size. Some folks like baby beef (from a calf at weaning age), but if you have enough pasture to raise your calf through its second summer, you will get a lot more meat for your money by letting it grow bigger. The ideal age at which to butcher a steer or a heifer is 1½ to 2 years. At that age, the animal is young enough to be tender and is nearly as large as it will get. Butchering at the end of summer or in the fall, before you have to feed hay again during winter, makes the grass-fed beef animal economical to raise.

  The breed of the animal can be a factor in determining when it is ready to butcher. Beef animals generally do not marble until they reach puberty (or in the case of a steer, the age at which he would have reached puberty if he had been a bull). Different breeds mature at different ages. Angus and Angus-cross cattle often reach puberty at a younger age (and a smaller weight) than do larger-framed cattle, such as Simmental, Charolais, and Limousin.

  An Angus-type beef calf may finish faster and be ready to butcher when it is a yearling or a little older. If you feed it longer, it may not get much bigger, just fatter. A Simmental calf, in contrast, may still be growing and not fill out (carry enough flesh to be in good butchering condition) until it is at least two years old.

  Beef Cuts

  Thus, the ideal age at which to butcher your beef animal depends on its breed and on whether it is grass fed or grain fed. Cattle will grow faster and finish more quickly on grain, but at greater cost. Whether you feed grain depends on personal preference (some people prefer grain-fed beef to grass-finished beef, and vice versa) and your situation. If you have lots of pasture, raising grass-fed beef is usually most economical.

  You can take cattle to a custom packing plant to be slaughtered and butchered or you can do the butchering yourself. (See Resources, page 340, for recommended reading.)

  Raising Pigs

  Most folks start thinking about hog ownership as a way to provide quality meat for the family table at moderate cost. When you raise your own hogs, you select them, feed them to an exact slaughter weight, and direct the processing.

  Feeding out a hog for slaughter is finishing a hog. This gives you an assurance of quality and wholesomeness that you can have in no other way. And along with quality control, there is much that you as a home finisher can do to contain costs. Granted, a pig is not all chops, but when it is raised and processed to order, you can expect to maximize the cuts and quality you and your family prefer in meat and meat products.

  So where do you begin? Chances are you’ll start with one or two feeder pigs — young pigs between 40 and 70 pounds — which you’ll feed out to market weight. A 40- to 50-pound feeder pig should reach a harvest weight of 240 to 260 pounds in 120 days or so. If you’re getting started in cold or wet weather, look for a pig that’s closer to 70 pounds; a larger pig will be better able to cope with harsh conditions. Like many other herd animals, pigs are much more content when they’re raised in groups, so you might consider raising two pigs instead of one.

  Although they’re often portrayed as living garbage disposals, pigs are healthier and produce better meat when they’re fed a balanced ration and are given food scraps only as a supplement. Amazingly, a healthy young pig will eat roughly 3 percent of its body weight in food every day, amounting to 10 to 12 bushels of corn and 125 to 150 pounds of protein supplement.

  Thinking about Space

  One of the first things to consider is where you’ll raise the pigs. Some small-scale hog producers finish their pigs in small “finishing units.” These buildings are made up of two parts: a small house and a slatted, floored pen fronting it (the “pig patio” or “sunporch”). The house provides shelter in inclement weather and keeps hogs off the ground, which eliminates or reduces mud and, in the process, keeps parasites in check. The slatted pen allows wastes to work through the floor and away from the hogs.

  Other pig owners prefer to keep their hogs on the ground. If this is your choice, you’ll need to provide at least 150 square feet of pen space per pig to keep mud problems from developing. In very wet, low areas, that space amount may have to be tripled. Hog lots become muddy not from the rooting activity of the pigs, which can be controlled with the use of humane nose rings, but from excessive foot traffic and those sharp, pointed hooves. You’ll still need a house for shelter (since it will be the animals’ only dry retreat in wet or raw weather), not to mention fencing made of hog panels or electric wire.

  Hogs in the Garden

  Letting pigs into the garden may sound like a recipe for disaster, but not if they’re put there with a plan. Where space permits, many pig owners will maintain two separate (often adjacent) garden plots; one will be used for a season and the other will be left fallow. In the fallow plot will go a small hut and one or two growing shoats (young pigs). Their rooting activities will improve soil tilth and help turn under any crop residues, and their wastes will enrich the soil. Spent bedding from the hut can be thrown out for them to work into the garden soil, also. A pig patio can be set up adjacent to the garden, so that spoiled vegetables, spent plants, and other garden wastes can be thrown into the pen as a boost to the pigs’ ration.

  Tips for Buying Feeder Pigs

  • The greatest variety and highest quality of pigs is available in the 40- to 60-pound weight range.

  • Crossbred pigs are generally more vigorous and faster growing than purebreds.

  • Male pigs should be castrated and healed.

  • Buy pigs that have been treated for internal and external parasites.

  • Buy pigs that are well past the stress and strain of weaning.

  • Bear in mind that while females (gilts) may grow more slowly than barrows (males), they will generally produce leaner carcasses and can be pushed harder with more nutrient-dense rations.

  Pig raising is simplest and most efficient in climates without great extremes in temperature or precipitation. The grow-out period will normally be between 90 and 120 days, depending on the starting weight of the pig or pigs, and can usually be fit into the spring or fall season to avoid the weather extremes of a Missouri summer or a Maine winter. Small producers with simple facilities following a seasonal plan of production can realize two litters per sow per year without taxing their time or resources. And it is reasonable to expect those litters to have a weaning average of eight or nine good pigs.

  Traits of Popular Breeds

  Modern Swine Breeds

  The three most popular breeds of swine in the United States now are the Duroc, Hampshire, and Yorkshire. They and their crosses are the backbone of the pork industry. Their development and preservation was the loving work of generations of small and midsize family farmers.

  A distinction of sorts is now made between colored and white breeds of swine. The colored breeds are noted for their vigor, faster yet leaner growth, and meatier carcasses. The white breeds, on the other hand, are strong in the traits needed for successful pig raising. They milk better than do col
ored breeds and, as a group, tend to farrow larger litters. They also have the docile nature you need when you are raising and weaning large litters.

  Minor Breeds

  Other swine breeds found in the United States are termed minor breeds, and sad to say, some of them have to be considered truly endangered. They are a valuable group because they include some of the hardiest of all swine genetics and are often among the leanest of the purebreds. Some of these are the Tamworth, a light red breed of English origin with erect ears; the Wessex, a hardy black-and-white breed with drooping ears; and the Hereford, a red-and-white-patterned breed (like the Hereford breed of cattle) with drooping ears and a slightly smaller frame.

  Breeds of Pig

  Berkshire

  Chester White

  Crossbreed

  Duroc

  Tamworth

  Butchering

  Today’s hog breeds can be fed out to as much as 260 pounds and still have quite lean and high-yielding carcasses. A hog will normally yield about 70 percent of its liveweight in pork and pork products. A family of four people may find that feeding out two hogs a year will fit their needs: one pig for slaughter in late winter and another for the fall.

  With your hog fed out to the desired weight, the next step is the harvest, or slaughtering process. As with any large animal, this is a process that requires a certain level of skill to be accomplished quickly, cleanly, and humanely. For backyard hog raisers, perhaps the best solution is to find a nearby slaughter house (consider how the hog will be transported) or an experienced local butcher.