Adding the First Animal to your Homestead

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In the spring of 2022, we set about getting the farm ready for animals. I wanted a homestead, and even though we were renting, we felt we could get started learning about the care of animals.

Grandpa, who we were renting from, was on board with putting the farm back in order. He was willing to put down some start-up money so that we could start getting some animals on the farm to help provide meat for the whole family.

Our First Animal

It was still late Winter when I got to work cleaning up the barn for what I thought would be our 1st animal, pigs. Jonathan had raised pigs before we had gotten married and so we thought they would be a good option when it came to our 1st animal on the farm.

A Cow named Kuh

There's one thing about my grandfather when He starts thinking about something specific, there's no real stopping him. It was not but a few weeks after I had gotten confirmation from him to start work on the barn when he pulls into the drive and his Minivan.

“Come see what I bought at the auction!” He says.

I followed him out to his car and there wedged between the back seat and the back door was a cow. A one-month-old bull calf to be precise. His nose rested against me against the window and his tail flicked against the Out there side of the car.

I can only imagine what the people at the auction thought when they went to help grandpa load this calf into the car!

I wish I could have taken a picture of him wedged in the back of that car! His Brown eyes stared through the windows at me.

We named him Kuh (Coo-h), which is German for cow, a few days later.

But The Barn wasn't ready

I had been preparing for pigs, not a cow. The barn still had big holes in it and the nights were still getting down to freezing or below.

Something had to be done.

A Home for Kuh

While my mom went to the store to buy a bag of calf milk replacement, we got busy and constructing a warm area for Kuh.

Our barn is divided into 2 separate Sides by a long hallway. The South half was a dairy barn containing stanchions and unfortunately was full of junk. The north side, which we had been cleaning out, still had large holes in the wall from years of neglect and lack of use.

So into the hallway, he was put in a stall made from gate panels and straw on the floor to keep him warm. One of my brothers hung a heat lamp as my mom got back with the milk replacer. But like so many new things on a Homestead that was only the beginning of our troubles, After fighting the bottle for what felt like forever the poor little cow went to bed hungry.

Don't worry, the next morning he was hungry enough to learn to drink out of the bottle.

He would stay in the hallway stall for 3 more weeks. Going out to the chicken lot to run and play when the weather was warm.

The Basic Necessities

Animals aren't hard to care for, but they do have a few specific needs. The best thing you can do is be ready before you bring the animals home you are finding yourself with the need to care for an animal that you are not quite ready for here are the things thing you need right away.

Shelter

The first thought I had when I saw his sweet face threw the van window was "It's too drafty to put you in the barn. However contrary to my first instinct cow are extremely hardy animals.

Cows have been known to give birth in snowstorms! However the smaller the animal, the easier it is for them to freeze in below 0 temperatures. If you find yourself bringing home a small animal far too early in the Spring, get them out of the direct wind.

Pigs, goats, and calves need a place they can huddle away from the blowing wind. A heat lamp can be used to keep the little ones warm or raise the temperature by a few degrees in cold temperatures. However, I never once saw Kuh laying under the heat lamp even when it was down below freezing several nights.

Straw or wood chips can be used to insulate and warn the area where they stay. It also makes cleaning up their manure much easier!

Walls or fences are necessary to keep them from getting away. When they are small, animals don’t need a lot of space, but as they grow it’s good to give them room to move around.

If you are in the middle of any other time of the year besides winter, the only shelter you have to have is against the rain. And even then you will sometimes see that your animals prefer to stand out in it!

Food

All animals need food to survive. After the pen was built my mom made a run to the local feed store and came home with a bag of milk replacer.

Kuh wouldn't take a bottle at first. Being separated from his Mama to go to an auction was a big day for him. Hunger caught up to him soon and then he learned quickly. However, the change in diet caused him to have runny stools. Our Vet recommended giving him a raw egg mixed with his milk. This helped tremendously and we continued feeding the egg until he was weaned.

Another question to ask one’s self is “Where will I be storing my extra feed?” A large trash can with a lid is a great option if you are buying a bag or 2 of feed at a time.

If your new animal is not a baby you need to think about where it will be fed. While it’s not the end of the world if you don’t, it’s nice to have a covered area so you do not have grain cake or hay mold that you have placed out for them.

Water

Did you know just like human babies, newborn baby calves do not need water? You can introduce water when they are a couple of weeks to a month old. Keep the water available, but don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t go down very quickly. that will come in time. If you are getting a grown animal this is much more important. Full-grown dairy cows can drink as much as 31 gallons a day in warm weather!

Are You Ready?

It is helpful to have your facilities ready before you get your first animal. Do yourself a favor and don’t look at craigslist, marketplace, or auction houses until you are ready to bring your first animal home. You might be missing a "good deal", but it’s not truly a good deal if you are not ready for them yet.

What animals do you have on your place? Is there anything else that you recommend a beginner gets for their animals? Join the discussion in the comments below!