I have 10 acres but only 2 are flat & that is where my house & barn sit. The other 8 acres are steep wooded hills. Could I put cattle on the 8 wooded acres? Would they find enough to eat? Would predators get them? I'm just looking into it . I got chickens so now I want some steak...I mean cows.
What would they eat in the woods? Leaves? Sticks? Is there any grass at all? They'd definitely need to be fed.
There are some clearings here & there. Maybe an acres worth but mostly woods. There's prolly a half acre of grass around the barn. I guess they would have to live mostly on round bales & grain. Sounds expensive. Prolly more suited for goats but I don't know if I like goat meat.
We let cattle run in the woods sometime, not if they are close to having a calf though. they will clear the brush out and eat leaves from the trees as far as they can reach. really need to supplement with hay. Grain can wait unless you are feeding them out to harvest.
Check out Scottish Highland cattle. Mine love to browse in the woods but they do have access to plenty of pasture and round bales in the winter.
Quote:If you've got 8 acres of steep wooded hills, I can gaurantee there's already steak walking around out there.. Seriously, though.. Might be worth a call to your extension agent. They should be familiar with stocking rates for your neck of the woods and can probably give you a pretty good idea as to what your options are. I'll say this, too....sounds like GOAT COUNTRY to me! I'm a lil bit biased, though.
