Need some advice and information on cattle farming? Look no further… here’s a collection of our articles on cattle.
Livestock production – How to evaluate beef cattle
Use your eyes to assess cattle condition
The value of body condition scores
Becoming a better livestock farmer
How to prepare your cattle for auction
Ten tips for the restoration of livestock farming
Top farmer Mecki Schneider has excellent advice for extensive cattle and sheep farmers.
Part one
Part two
Part three
HEALTH AND BREEDING
How to prepare your animals for breeding
Get the best from your new bull
Artificial insemination not a lot of bull
Cattle – how to record and manage a calving cycle
Dealing with placenta that didn’t discharge
Why would cows not calve every year?
Why are some of my cows dry after calving?
Weaning calves with nose rings
Reducing risks to calves in feedlots
Primary health care for livestock (1)
Cattle recovering slowly after drought
(Video) Methods of medicating your cattle
Where to vaccinate your cattle
Eliminate the ticks on your cattle
Vaccinate your cattle – it saves lives and stops the spread of disease
Now is the time to look out for Rift Valley Fever
Watch for the tick-borne diseases
Ticks and tick-borne diseases – East Coast Fever
Know you enemy – East Coast fever
East Coast fever and the brown ear tick
Dipping to control East Coast fever (part 1)
Dipping to control East Coast fever (part 2)
East Coast fever – vaccination to combat the enemy in Africa’s cattle herds
More about ticks for stockmen and women
Know your ticks and the diseases they bring
Dealing with lumpy skin disease
Livestock production: Check and revise vaccination schedules
Selective and sensible use of antibiotics avoids microbe resistance
How to control fly-borne diseases
Bovine viral diarrhoea and your herd
How do I know if a calf has been dehorned correctly?
How to deal with warts on your calves
NUTRITION
How to mix creep feed for calves
A cow need special feeding attention before and after calving
Pasture management: Get the most out of natural or planted pastures
Save on feed costs with arrow leaf
DAIRY
Milking indigenous cattle breeds
Brahman crossbreed a popular dairy cow in Namibia
Success with dairy cows and oxen from one herd
Improve milking with small tweaks
HANDLING
Mobile cattle and sheep handling facility a winner for any livestock farmer
If large parts of your farm are inaccessible and you practice ultra-high stock-density grazing, then you’d better have plenty of good ideas – just ask livestock farmer André Lund!
Less workers needed to handle cattle in wheel-shaped feedlot
Up to 300 head of cattle can be handled in a day by just three workers in this feedlot – a carefully planned wagon wheel set-up.
Lift cattle easily with hip clamp
This ingenious hip clamp makes quick work of lifting up sick or injured cattle too weak to stand on their own.
A well-designed cattle handling facility
Cattle handling facilities that are properly designed make handling such as dosing, sorting and veterinarian examinations more effective, prevent stress and injuries to workers and animals and require minimal manual labour.
Handling system makes working with cattle a breeze
A farmer’s perfect cattle handling facility (or kraal, as it is known in South Africa) took three years of research and thousands of kilometres of travelling. Using just one worker, more than 700 head of cattle can be handled in a day.
Crush makes managing calves easy
Every farmer who works with cattle in a crush knows the frustration of using the same crush for large animals as well as calves.
Crush pen and basic handling for more than 10 head of cattle
We discussed the essential crush pen as an absolute requirement for a stockowner with fewer than 10 animals, in a previous issue of africanfarming.com. Now we look at expanded handling facilities for bigger groups.
Less workers needed to handle cattle in wheel-shaped feedlot
Up to 300 head of cattle can be handled in a day by just three workers in this feedlot – a carefully planned wagon wheel set-up.
Every cattleman needs a crush pen
A crush pen is an essential piece of infrastructure on a stock farm; without it the farmer cannot treat injuries, vaccinate, dose, inspect at close quarters, check hooves or deliver a calf when the mother is in difficulty.
Livestock production during drought – guidelines
Getting the basics right to make it during drought conditions.
PATENTS
Ensure that livestock never go thirsty with this dam plan
The provision of sufficient water for livestock is an ongoing headache but this farmer has devised a clever plan to ensure that the level of his dam never falls below one-third.
Livestock Farming – Practical, affordable feeding troughs
Dr . Dave Midgley, stock health expert and farmer, shares inventive, practical ideas for designing feeding troughs, which he has seen over many years of visiting farms.
Feeding and drinking trough solutions
Gawie Stoltz has perfected a method of turning old tyres inside out and repurposing them as feeding troughs. He also devised a smart way to clean livestock drinking troughs.
PROFILES
Mega cattle farm in Botswana requires hands-on management
A cattle farm with more than 5 000 animals on 65 000 hectares can only be successful if the farmer’s management is impeccable and he ensures that everything is in place to keep things running smoothly.
Mr. Mababe, a farmer from Mumbwa in the Central Province, spoke to africanfarming.com team editors, Chris Burgess and Albertus van Wyk, about the beef cattle sector of his mixed farming operation.
Meet Kleinjan, the emerging farmer who became South Africa’s Cattle Farmer of the Year
Kleinjan Gasekoma is the first black farmer in South Africa to be named Cattle Farmer of the Year. He went from communal farmer to successful commercial farmer in just 13 years.
Botswana’s Brahmans for Africa’s future
One of Botswana’s leading Brahman breeders has set up his own AI (artificial insemination) and embryo station in Gaborone after spending time in Canada. He selects for cattle that excel and thrive in Africa’s punishing climate.
Young dairyman talks pastures and people
Leonard Mavhugu, a dairyman from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, talks to africanfarming.com about managing large herds and releasing the potential of farm personnel.
RECYCLING
Alternative energy: Turning waste into energy
Cassim Bilali, director at Care for the Earth Centre in the Rarieda district in Kenya, told us about this alternative source of energy they built at the Centre.
The power of dung – turning animal-waste into clean fuel
In a departure from the standard ‘brain drain’ that takes so much young talent out of the continent, these young Zambians have chosen to invest their brains and their energy into contributing to the development of their own country.
Engineers invent mini biogas plant for small dairy farm
Two engineers, Wallace Bester and Francois van Tonder, made a clever and simple plan for their friend – a dairy farmer – to generate electricity from biogas for his small dairy and to save cost in this way.
