With a little more pasture available than OZ our rule of thumb is one head of cattle per acre depending on the age spread. You can basically double the number for weaners but by the time they are yearlings you need to stick to the one for one. In winter it's best to run the numbers down otherwise you'll be feeding out a lot of hay.
My philosophy this year is to totally run down the number of head to zero in the winter, as long as they are bringing in $1.56/kg, the same price as 5 years ago, and the recoup cost is $2.00/kg then I will refuse to subsidise the supermarkets who price out steak at $22.00 +/kg and control the auction prices to less than recovery costs.
I've stopped breeding them and haven't bought any for 2 years, when they go thru the gate they are not replaced. Lots of beef farmers are doing similar or changing to dairy where the money is.
Lots of sheep farmers doing the same, 10 sheep farms a week are closing down.
If it doesn't change for the better I'll plant more trees and ride my bikes more !
Spot the cows !
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Ride on !
We only have 28 acres and plan to run about 10 cattle with a bull and on sell the ones that we don't want.
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