What are the advantages of cattle farming?
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Compared to sheep or goats, cattle need much less by way of fencing - once they're trained to it, a two-strand electric fence will keep cattle where they're put.
Cattle generally don't graze as close to the soil surface as sheep and goats - they tear the grass rather than biting it off short. On the wrong soil, of course, they can tear the grass out roots and all, but if the soil is reasonably cohesive the cattle will do less damage to the plants. You do have to stop them pugging wet soil, but they don't get footrot from walking in mud as easily as sheep and goats can.
In areas with predator animals, cattle are much better at defending themselves. Young calves tend to stay close to their mothers, and it would take a brave or desperate pack of feral dogs to take on a herd of horned cows.
Economically, sheep and cattle tend to be much of a muchness - most farms are able to run both, so if one starts to be worth more than the other the supply will adjust to match demand.
Individual cattle are harder to steal. They don't fit in the boot of a family car.
All grazing animals turn excess plant matter (that would otherwise be a fire hazard next summer) into manure to improve the soil and thus increase the production of tasty plant matter, but cattle manure breaks down particularly easily. The big pats are appealing to dung beetles, and a bit of undigested grain will also attract birds - I like to have free-range chooks in my house paddock, and they scratch the cow pats apart into tiny pieces that just soak into the ground in the next rain. Goat manure starts in pellets, but it takes a lot longer to break down from there.
Of course, there are also the nutritional benefits. With a choice between eating enough green leafy vegetables every day to get my iron needs, as a woman of child bearing age, or letting a bunch of cattle eat green leafy stuff all day and I eat their meat, I know which I'd rather. Same goes for calcium from milk. My cow can raise a calf and provide my family with milk without any difficulty. My goats produce more young for meat, but they don't have a surplus of milk for my children.
Environmentally, my cattle and my goats graze natural grassland, sharing their home with kangaroos, echidnas, lizards, snakes, frogs, and a myriad of other critters. Trying to turn that space into a garden to grow vegetables that humans could eat directly would devastate all those other lives. The soil type isn't suitable for most vegetables, anyway. I'm intending to build a little vege garden adjacent my house, because there are a lot of nutrients we need from vegetables that we don't get by eating meat, but that's a small area of very intensive horticulture, building good soil on top of the existing profile, not converting a whole paddock.
Cattle generally don't graze as close to the soil surface as sheep and goats - they tear the grass rather than biting it off short. On the wrong soil, of course, they can tear the grass out roots and all, but if the soil is reasonably cohesive the cattle will do less damage to the plants. You do have to stop them pugging wet soil, but they don't get footrot from walking in mud as easily as sheep and goats can.
In areas with predator animals, cattle are much better at defending themselves. Young calves tend to stay close to their mothers, and it would take a brave or desperate pack of feral dogs to take on a herd of horned cows.
Economically, sheep and cattle tend to be much of a muchness - most farms are able to run both, so if one starts to be worth more than the other the supply will adjust to match demand.
Individual cattle are harder to steal. They don't fit in the boot of a family car.
All grazing animals turn excess plant matter (that would otherwise be a fire hazard next summer) into manure to improve the soil and thus increase the production of tasty plant matter, but cattle manure breaks down particularly easily. The big pats are appealing to dung beetles, and a bit of undigested grain will also attract birds - I like to have free-range chooks in my house paddock, and they scratch the cow pats apart into tiny pieces that just soak into the ground in the next rain. Goat manure starts in pellets, but it takes a lot longer to break down from there.
Of course, there are also the nutritional benefits. With a choice between eating enough green leafy vegetables every day to get my iron needs, as a woman of child bearing age, or letting a bunch of cattle eat green leafy stuff all day and I eat their meat, I know which I'd rather. Same goes for calcium from milk. My cow can raise a calf and provide my family with milk without any difficulty. My goats produce more young for meat, but they don't have a surplus of milk for my children.
Environmentally, my cattle and my goats graze natural grassland, sharing their home with kangaroos, echidnas, lizards, snakes, frogs, and a myriad of other critters. Trying to turn that space into a garden to grow vegetables that humans could eat directly would devastate all those other lives. The soil type isn't suitable for most vegetables, anyway. I'm intending to build a little vege garden adjacent my house, because there are a lot of nutrients we need from vegetables that we don't get by eating meat, but that's a small area of very intensive horticulture, building good soil on top of the existing profile, not converting a whole paddock.
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