Karin Lindquist

How to

Tell if a Cow or Heifer Is Pregnant

Determining pregnancy in cattle has many benefits. You can get twice the meat then when the cow wasn't pregnant and a producer is able to know which cattle will be the keepers and which will need to be culled as soon as ...

How to

Slaughter Cattle

It's pretty obvious that beef is meat from cattle, but how does it get to the table? In order for beef to be served at dinner time in the form of, for example, a porterhouse steak, sacrifices must be made in order to ge...

How to

Tell the Difference Between Bulls, Cows, Steers and Heifers

There are many people worldwide who think they know what cattle look like but cannot properly tell the difference between a cow, bull, steer or heifer. Most of these people have not been taught how to distinguish between...

How to

Start a Cattle Farm

Cattle farming is filled with opportunities, from dairy and beef to selling calves for shows at local fairs. To start a new farm, you need a business plan, a plot of land, and start-up money. Build all of the features yo...

How to

Make Silage

Preserving feed for livestock doesn't always mean putting up sun-dried hay. Silage is also made as a chopped, fermented feed source, primarily from annual crops like corn, barley, sorghum, oats, millet, and occasionally ...

How to

Treat and Prevent Bloat in Cattle

Bloat in cattle is a serious problem—and a very old one—that is often associated with consumption of high quality feeds that are easily digestible and rapidly fermented in the rumen. (Bloat is not just a problem excl...

How to

Start a Dairy Farm

Dairy farms take a lot of money and capital to start up, way more than a meat operation does. Know what you're getting into and how you want to get into it before you decide to start a dairy farm. Even if you grew up on ...

How to

Start a Farm

Starting a farm is no easy task.  It involves many variables involving where you want to farm, how you want to farm, what you want to farm, and how big you want your farm to be.  There are many things to consider, and ...

How to

Avoid or Escape a Bull

Bulls are very dangerous animals. They are one of the most dangerous types of livestock to own, let alone be around. They are not slow or dumb, nor are they clumsy or stupid. A bull can, from a stand-still, turn on a dim...

How to

Tell if a Cow or Heifer Is About to Give Birth

Knowing the signs of a calving cow or heifer is important in determining whether that female needs assistance or not, and what the physical and physiological signs are of a cow giving birth. How the calf is normally bor...

How to

Tell if a Cow or Heifer Has Been Bred

One of the things that are part of keeping and breeding cows and heifers is the art and science of telling whether a particular cow or heifer has just conceived or mated with the bull. "Bred" is what most cattle producer...

How to

Get a Cow With Nerve Damage to Her Hind Legs from a Long Birth or Hard Pull to Stand Up

Sometimes after a long, hard birth where a cow tries to have a large calf without help and it's in the birth canal too long, or after a hard pull with the pressure of a large calf coming through the pelvis affects the ma...

How to

Identify Water Hemlock

Water Hemlock (''Cicuta maculata'') is '''an extremely poisonous''' herbaceous forb (broad-leaf plant) to both humans and animals, and is also native to North America. It is often and easily confused with other similar s...

How to

Know when a Heifer or Cow Is Ready to Be Bred

Knowing when a heifer or cow is ready to be bred is important to a breeding operation. There are specific guidelines one must follow to ensure that a heifer or cow is ready to be bred.'''PLEASE''' remember these two i...

How to

Make an Adjustable Rope Halter

A rope halter is good to have around for cattle, sheep and goats, and it's an absolute necessity around the farm and ranch. It's much cheaper to make an adjustable halter than to go and buy a horse halter from a feed st...

How to

Humanely Euthanize a Cow

Euthanasia is defined as "A method of killing that minimizes pain, distress, and anxiety experienced by the animal prior to loss of consciousness, and causes rapid loss of consciousness followed by cardiac or respiratory...

How to

Care for Cattle

Raising cattle can be really rewarding if you want to provide food for your family, but it’s important to know how to care of them before you purchase your first herd. If you want to get started with your own cows and ...

How to

Breed Beef Cattle

Breeding beef cattle involves producing offspring that are primarily used for the beef market. Fundamentally, it's all about getting cows bred to produce calves to sell either for beef or replacements.

How to

Make a Crown Knot

A crown knot is a knot tied to the end of a rope that is double the diameter of the main rope. A crown knot is best used as a handle for something like the long end of a rope halter, but not for rope that is needed to be...

How to

Breed Cows and Heifers Naturally

It's as simple as this: Put grass in front of cow, put bull behind cow. In other words, natural breeding is simply putting a herd bull out with a herd of cows or heifers and letting him do his job for a few weeks or cou...