Small cattle for small farms

An Okmulgee County man has the solution for raising more cattle on fewer acres. As News on 6 reporter Rick Wells explains, it's easy, you've just got to get smaller cattle. <br/><br/>Rick O'

Thursday, March 23rd 2006, 10:14 am

By: News On 6

An Okmulgee County man has the solution for raising more cattle on fewer acres. As News on 6 reporter Rick Wells explains, it's easy, you've just got to get smaller cattle.

Rick O' Mara of Okmulgee raises a special breed of cattle on his Morning Glory farm. "So that's three, eight, ten, twelve, 12 head." 12 head of cattle on his small farm, because they are small cattle. "These are lowline Angus, they come from Australia."

It was a government project in Australia started back in the '20's, an effort to produce a more efficient breed. They are perfect for a small farm. â€œI knew I wanted to have cattle and I was worried that I'd only have one or two."

You can put more of these on fewer acres, fulfill your dream of raising cattle, but do it on a smaller place. "There a very short animal as far as cows go." Maybe 35 to 41 inches tall at the shoulder weighing between 500 and 700 pounds. They've got short legs, he says that's ok. "There ain't no steak from the knee down." So a higher percentage of their body weight is usable meat, that's good.

For the Oâ€™Maraâ€™s, lowline cattle was a good idea. He says they're easy to handle, very docile, they look like their bigger cousins, and theyâ€™re just short. But they don't know that, nothing to compare themselves to. "Dot is such a pig." Dot is the first cow born on the farm five years ago; she's kind of like a pet and will never end up in the freezer. "No, not if my wife has anything to say about it." People have tried to buy her but she's not going anywhere, nice going Dot.

Want to know more about lowline Angus cattle? Check out this website.