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What a pretty pastoral scene…Beautiful white cows, with distinctive black ears, eyes, and noses, contentedly grazing with their frisky baby calves on the lush green grass of spring pastures. These rare British White cattle are a calm, gentle breed, which makes them a good choice for small livestock producers. Their gentle nature makes it easier to move them and work with them. This breed is noted for calving ease, thus less time is needed to help with difficult deliveries. They adapt well to different climates and feed resources, so can easily be raised almost anywhere. We have sold our British Whites to many breeders across the US with good results--states as far north as the Dakotas and Minnesota down to Texas and from Vermont & Florida on the east coast to the western states of Nevada and Arizona.
Our herd grazes on native grass pastures during the summer months, using a rotational grazing system which allows the herd to access fresh grass every 3 to 10 days while allowing other parcels of grass to re-grow undisturbed. These paddocks range from about 8 to 15 acres each (we have about 9 to 12 paddocks in each pasture) which are separated by a two wire, high-tensile electric fence powered by a low impedance electric fencer. An underground water line supplies water to a portable 150-gallon tank, which is moved to a new paddock each time the cattle are rotated to fresh grass. We have found that we are able to graze more cattle per acre using this system than we could before we divided our pastures.
After harvest the cows graze the corn stalks and soybean stubble. These crop residues provide their nutritional needs, energy from the corn stalks and protein from the soybean stubble. The cattle will be able to graze the stalk fields until February or March if the snows don't cover the forage. If the snow is too deep in the fields for the cattle to find enough forage, we have to feed the cattle the stored hay and corn silage produced on our farm.
Calving starts around the middle of March. About two weeks before calving we start feeding the cows in the evening around dusk. We have found that this encourages the calves to be born during daylight hours. We enjoy walking around these gentle cows during calving season and playing with their inquisitive babies.
Our Open House and Quiet Auction is held annually usually about the second Saturday in April. Customers are welcome to come either the day before the sale or the morning of the sale to check out the cattle and have a donut & coffee. We serve a lunch of British White Grass Fed Beef Burgers around noon and follow up with the sale. We usually have about 30 to 45 British Whites listed for our sale each year. We sell yearling bulls, open heifers, and bred heifers and young cows. Our sale catalog is posted on the Internet on our web site http://www.britishcattle.com/bulls.htm We also occasionally sell our British White Cattle private treaty at other times during the year.
Our cattle are all registered with the British White Cattle Association Of America, LTD. For more information go here: http://britishcattle.org
About the Author:
Bohaty's British White Farm is located in east central Nebraska on the fertile Platte River valley near the small town of Bellwood. Walter and Nancy grow irrigated corn, soybeans, and alfalfa as well as British White cattle. We run about 100 head of registered cows, making us one of the largest breeders of registered British White Cattle in the US. Walter & Nancy can be reached at 1371 42nd Road, Bellwood, NE 68624 or by telephone at 402-367-4741. Web site: http://www.britishcattle.com
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British White Cattle Thrive in Nebraska