If you breed bulls for meat, then there are positive aspects to this: simplicity and good payback. It is important to know how to properly run such a business, which bulls to buy, how to feed them and other important points. Even if meat calves are bred for personal consumption, the farmer must know the basics of care, maintenance and fattening of livestock.
Calf Purchase
First you need to decide for what purpose the bulls will be bred, there may be many options:
- for yourself;
- for continuous implementation;
- for delivery to cafes and restaurants;
- distribution to friends.
Once the goal is determined, it is worthwhile to engage in the purchase of calves. It is best to turn to special agriculture, which specializes in growing bulls. Among the best meat breeds of gobies, the following breeds are noted:
- Russian hornless;
- Devonian
- shorthorn;
- Galloway;
- Aberdeen Angus.
When buying calves, pay attention to their body weight, whether it matches the estimated weight. The general condition of the animal and the presence of the disease, the productivity of the parents. It is best to buy gobies, whose weight varies within 100 kg.
You can save on purchase by purchasing a milk calf, which must be fed with cow's milk before the age of three months.
Buying calves is best in late spring, so in the fall you can get a cash reward.
This video tells how to choose gobies, how to keep them and whether it is profitable to breed them for meat:
Weight rate
The weight of a newborn calf depends on what breed it is, and the weight of a grown bull will depend on how it was fed and maintained. The approximate weight rate is provided in the table:
Age in months | Weight in kilograms |
Newborn | 20-30 |
1 | 50-60 |
2 | 70-80 |
3 | 90-100 |
4 | 100-120 |
5 | 120-130 |
6 | 130-170 |
10 | 200-240 |
12 | 250-400 |
The weight of a bull is directly dependent on the quality and quantity of feeding, walking method and content. Also, the weight depends on the breed of the goby, some species are not famous for their great weight, while others, on the contrary, delight with their gains.
Care and maintenance conditions
If a person decided to breed bulls, then he should not only provide them with rational and proper feeding, but also with proper care and maintenance. Animals should not freeze in winter, and in summer is in a stuffy and little ventilated room.
The following recommendations should also be followed:
- It is important to choose the right leash, if the animals are planted on a thin rope, they will quickly break it. It is best to use a metal chain made up of rings. To prevent the neck from being damaged by metal, soft tissue should be placed under the collar.
- During the maintenance of observing the nature of the animal, aggressive and restless need to be discarded. This can be dangerous for the rest of the bulls, as well as for the owner.
- For safety and convenience at the age of one year, it is recommended to insert a ring into the nose.
Young growth must be kept separate from adult individuals, and for calves it is better to build a small shed. Bulls with cows can be kept together, this makes their character softer.
In the summer, the bulls can be kept outdoors without a roof, but then the corral should be equipped with plastic booths. Room cleaning should occur three times a day after feeding.
The territory where the bull-calves walk takes place, should be fenced off with strong material, and you can only bring them to the pasture with a stick and a leash. At the same time, walking cows with bulls or young animals with them is not recommended.
Room preparation
To build, you need an empty area, where a structure for keeping bull-calves will be built. It can be built in the yard, in the country or mini farm. You should also leave free space for walking animals from the corral.
In the summer, the bulls have a good weight gain and they need a constant walk, because in the stall they will start to hurt, aggressiveness and decline in weight will increase.
The area should be calculated 10 square meters per head, this number also includes the place where the feed will be stored. The facade can be made with either brick or slab. You can consider such an option as renting livestock.
Bulls and cows are clean animals, so you need to make the floor so that it can be easily and quickly cleaned. Also, the floor should always be dry, otherwise the animal may become infected with hoof infections.
The main characteristics of the barn are:
- temperature not lower than 8 degrees;
- ventilation;
- the possibility of frequent ventilation.
The main thing to prevent drafts is a direct source of disease. If there are more than 10 goals, then it is better to arrange a feeder and a drinking bowl with automatic feeding. It is not advisable to put a feeder and a drinking bowl on the floor, the optimum height is 8 cm from the floor, but there should always be accessibility.
It is better to use straw inside the building, because it absorbs gases and ammonia. You can fill it both on tracks and in boxes.
Animal health
When breeding bulls for meat, it is important to monitor their health so that the meat is tasty and safe for humans. In order for the goby to not get sick and not infect the rest, it should:
- timely vaccination and monthly preventive examination;
- constant monitoring by a veterinarian will allow timely notice of an infectious disease, and this will save the bull from serious complications or even death;
- grazing by a bull is possible only after morning dew has fallen;
- it is important that the barn always has a dry litter, good lighting, there are no drafts, and the air temperature is not lower than 10 degrees;
- grazing gobies is better without a leash.
Cold gobies
The best and most effective way to keep the gobies for meat is to keep it cold. A bull-calf, which turned 24 hours old, is placed in a house where there is an aviary and they are kept in the open. Such houses are not insulated, so it is important to take care of a warm litter. Experts say that cold content has many advantages:
- The livestock receives a large amount of vitamin D.
- With the cold growing method, all stocks are spent on their growth.
- Infectious diseases are nullified.
- The body develops correctly, animals quickly gain weight and height.
In addition to the positive aspects, there are also negative ones:
- Spent finances to build individual boxes.
- In cold weather, calves drink 25% more milk.
Bulls can be converted to cold keeping at any time of the year, as many farmers do. It is important, before moving the calves to the boxes, you must make sure that they are healthy. Material for boxing is better to use plastic, houses should be moved from time to time so that bacteria do not multiply in their place.
Castration: Pros and Cons
If the bull is castrated, then his sexual function will be impaired, and with it a hormonal failure will occur. For this reason, the metabolism is disrupted, their fat layer increases, and muscle growth, on the contrary, is slowed down. Therefore, non-castrated individuals have much better meat quality than castrated ones.
If the calf is not castrated, then its meat will be harsh and lean, and in castrated it will be tender and fat, the taste of the latter is better. If the second version of meat seems to be the best, then at 2 months of age, castration should be carried out, this will be done exclusively by a veterinarian. The operation should be carried out before the grazing period, if the age of the bull allows it.
The appetite of castrated calves is higher than that of uncastrated calves. As for muscle mass, in the former it is weaker. Therefore, it should be understood that after the operation will require a greater feed consumption.
Fattening process
The correct feeding of calves and bull calves is very important. Both quick weight gain and taste of meat depend on this. The following foods should be present in your daily diet:
- corn silage;
- wheat straw;
- meadow hay;
- salt;
- pulp;
- meal;
- bone and fish meal.
It is best to contact a specialist who will write a daily menu for growing bulls for meat.
Calf fattening
Up to 20 days from the moment of birth, the calves eat breast milk, after which the farmer must monitor the quality of their nutrition. At this time, their digestive system becomes stronger and can perceive ordinary food. Feeding some roughage alone can lead to poor digestion, so the calf should be given enzymes in parallel with them.
If it is not possible to feed the calf with mother's milk, then this must be done artificially. A liter of boiled water is mixed with 2 tsp. salt and two eggs, this will replace him with colostrum.
Enzymes will not only allow proper digestion of food, but also accelerate weight gain, but will also soften the stool, preventing constipation. In terms of a smooth transition from breast milk to hay, grass and cereals, starting from 3 months of age, you can add feed, which contains a lot of protein.
Residues of feed must be discarded, as they can become sour and have a bad effect on the gastrointestinal tract. In addition to the above, calves are recommended to give oatmeal jelly. To prepare it, you need 1 kg of oatmeal with 2.5 liters of boiled water and mixes well. After which it is necessary to let it infuse for 45 minutes, then it is filtered, a little salt is added and heated to a warm state.
More about feeding calves is written here.
In the table you can see how much calf should eat from 2 to 14 months:
Calf age in months | Hay in kg | Straw in kg | Root crops in kg | Silo in kg |
2 | 1 | — | — | — |
3 | 1,5 | — | — | — |
4-5 | 3 | — | 1 | 1 |
6 | 4 | — | 3 | 3 |
7-10 | 4,5 | 0,8 | 5 | 4 |
11-14 | 6 | 2,5 | 8 | 6 |
Fattening gobies
Depending on the season, the diet changes. In the summer there are more opportunities to feed the gobies with fresh grass, and in the winter, more concentrates and hay are added to the diet.
The table shows a list of food for bulls in different seasons.
Summer | Winter |
2 kg of concentrates | 21 kg of succulent feed |
35 kg of green juicy grass | 5 kg of hay |
1 kg of feed | 4 kg of straw |
3 kg of feed | |
50 g of salt |
If necessary, then animals can be given supplements that replenish the body with useful substances. Water should always be clean and in an accessible place.
In addition to the main food, it is important for animals to give the following foods:
- fodder beets;
- carrots with potatoes;
- corn;
- food waste.
When the live weight of the bull reaches 300 kg, the rearing ends and fattening begins. If before that the daily gain was 800 grams, then during the period of feeding it reaches 1300 kg.
Meat sales and customer search
There are many options for marketing veal; for starters, you should search the Internet, go shopping and find out the price of veal by your friends. After that, a person will already know at what price you can sell. For example, in a restaurant they will buy meat more expensive than in the market, but they will check the meat in veterinary medicine for the presence of diseases and other pathologies.
If meat is sold at large points, that is, to shops, restaurants, etc., then business registration is required.
You can also negotiate with the store and systematically supply veal, or you can enter the market yourself and sell meat. It would be nice to find a certain point, to be sure that the meat will all be sold and that money will be in hand immediately for all products.
The meat selling business is certainly profitable, but it has a lot of competition, so the task of a person is to find an innovative approach, unusual ideas and most importantly to monitor the freshness of meat. It is important not to overcharge, so there will be more customers than competitors. You need to know that during the period of fasting, the purchase of meat products is reduced.
If you decide to trade veal yourself, then you need to choose a place where there are no butcher shops or stalls nearby. For this, sleeping areas are good if there is no butcher shop nearby. A place near the metro or near bus stops, where there is a constant flow of people, is also well suited.
Is this a profitable business?
Of course, from the first day you will not get rich, in order to get a good profit, you should invest in a business. If there is a private sector where you can build a barn - this is good, otherwise you will have to buy a small plot, build a room for the bull-calves.
Further, the following manipulations should be carried out:
Tasks | Expenses |
Set up a barn | Feeding troughs, drinking bowls, covering. |
Purchase young bulls or calves | The cost of one bull from 5 thousand rubles to 20 thousand, it all depends on the breed. Approximately 100,000 rubles will be released for 10 calves. |
Buy food for the first time | At a cost it will come out about 50 thousand rubles for 6 months in advance. |
Set up a corral and stalls | 50 000 rubles |
Purchase of necessary equipment | 80 000 rubles |
A total of approximately 280,000 thousand rubles will be released, possibly more, and possibly less. We also calculate the time spent:
Expenses | Amount |
Salary of hired workers 2-3 | 40 000 rubles in 30 days |
Periodic Veterinarian Calls | 20 000 rubles in 30 days |
Land lease | 10 000 rubles in 30 days |
It is possible to kill gobies when live weight is approximately 500-600 kg, the animal reaches such weight by 20 months. It is at this age that the bulls reach the desired live weight. The yield of meat from one animal is from 60 to 70%.
For example, a goby weighs 450 kg (not very large), 270 kg of meat will come out of it. A kilogram of veal costs an average of 300 rubles. It turns out that from one not large bull, it will turn out 81 thousand rubles. If you multiply this figure by the number of livestock, you will get a very impressive amount for meat flesh. You can implement other parts of the body:
- head;
- hooves;
- internal organs;
- tail.
This will still bring a small profit. Thus, the business will fully pay off in a year. And after 3 years, the business will spin up. If the meat will be delivered to large points, then registration of activities and passing quality control of meat products will be required.
In the video below, we are talking about feeding gobies at home and the costs that are required to feed the gobies for meat:
Problems that may get in the way of the farmer
Farming is only at first glance an easy thing, in fact it is hard work and investing not small finances. In addition to the positive aspects, some problems may arise:
- You can get an underdeveloped or sick calf by inexperience.
- During the sale of veal, competition may appear, then you will have to look for another place of sale.
- Particular attention is paid to the sanitary maintenance of gobies and veterinary control.
- The seller (owner of the livestock) must be registered as an individual entrepreneur (IP), otherwise the sale of meat will be illegal.
Advantages and disadvantages of business
Any business is good in its own way, the same applies to breeding bulls for meat, which has its pros and cons. Among the advantages, the following can be noted:
- a large selection of meat products;
- if there is equipment and there is already a building for keeping bull-calves, then the costs at the initial stages are small;
- you can independently control animals;
- there is a fairly large selection of marketing products;
- quick payback.
Now about the disadvantages:
- a large investment of physical strength or the hiring of workers;
- It is important to find a point of sale so that there is no leftover meat;
- competition in the meat market is possible.
Breeding gobies for meat is a very profitable business, but it is important to understand that in such a business there is a lot of competition. In order for there to be a demand for veal, bulls from birth must be properly looked after, fed and kept clean.Vaccination of gobies is also important, because without it the animal can get sick, and the quality of the meat can suffer.
Posted by
0
Russia. Krasnodar city
Publications: 34 Comments: 0