FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Questions readers ask about this site, how it is put together, and how to use it. For a question about a particular species, the guides answer those.
If yours is not here, write to contact@livestockfarming.org.
Last reviewed: 10/03/2026
About the site
Who runs LivestockFarming.org?
LivestockFarming.org is operated by Jumma Programs. Five people research, write, verify, and edit the guides, and each one covers a defined area. You can see who they are on the About page.
Do you keep animals?
No. Nobody here owns a herd or a flock, and nobody reports results from their own animals.
We read what university extension services, USDA, and FDA publish, organize it by species, and name the source next to each figure. That is the whole job.
Why do articles say “Editorial Team” instead of a name?
Most guides pass through more than one person. Research, drafting, verification, and editing are often split across the team, so crediting one author would misrepresent who did the work.
The team members are named on the About page, with the area each one covers.
Where is the site based?
The company is registered in Bangladesh. The guides cover raising livestock in the United States, which is where the research we cite comes from.
Sources and accuracy
Where do your figures come from?
University extension services first. Land grant universities run trials on their own forage, in their own climate, and publish the results.
After that, USDA NRCS for soil and forage data, USDA APHIS for animal health, USDA NASS for inventory and production statistics, and FDA for feed and medication rules. Manufacturer documentation covers equipment.
Our editorial policy lists them in full.
How do I know a number is right?
Look for the source in the sentence. Any figure that changes by region, species, breed, or system names the service that published it.
If a number appears without a source, that is a mistake on our part. Tell us and we will fix it.
Why does your stocking rate not match my extension office?
Because stocking rate moves more than any other figure on the site, and both of you can be right.
One cow and calf need roughly 1.5 to 2 acres of pasture for a season in Georgia. In the Nebraska Sandhills it is 8 to 12. In western Wyoming it can be 25 to 40. We give the range and name the service rather than averaging it into a number nobody recommends.
Your local office knows your county and your soil survey. Where we disagree with them, follow them.
Do you ever get things wrong?
Yes. When it happens we fix it and say what changed.
Corrections go to editor@livestockfarming.org. Include the page address and the figure you are questioning. Naming the publication you are comparing against helps a lot.
How often do you update articles?
Guides citing a medication label, a withdrawal period, a mineral requirement, or a feed rule get checked at least once a year.
Articles on settled material, such as how long a ewe carries a lamb, get reviewed when a source changes or a reader flags something.
Can I trust this instead of my extension office?
No, and we would not want you to.
Your extension office can walk your pasture, run a forage test, and tell you what parasite pressure is doing in your county this month. This site saves you reading through dozens of publications. It does not replace someone who can look at your ground and your animals.
Animals, vets, and the limits of a web page
Can you tell me what is wrong with my animal?
No, and we would be guessing if we tried.
A photo and a paragraph cannot separate bloat from grain overload, or pneumonia from lungworm, or a dozen other pairs that look alike from the gate. Several of them kill quickly. A large animal vet who can examine the animal is the only right answer here.
If an animal is down, in trouble lambing or calving, bleeding, or getting worse by the hour, stop reading and call your vet.
Why do you not publish drug doses?
Because getting it wrong costs an animal and can put residue into the food supply.
Many livestock medications in the United States require a prescription or a Veterinary Feed Directive. Withdrawal periods for meat and milk are set by product and by species. Dose and withdrawal come from the label in your hand and from your veterinarian, and we are in no position to improve on either.
The mineral bag says sheep and goats. Is that a problem?
It can be, and it is worth reading the tag carefully.
Goats need copper in their mineral. Sheep accumulate it and die of it. A mix labeled for both is formulated at a level that is safe for sheep, which usually leaves goats short over time. If you run both species on one place, that is a conversation for your vet or your extension office, not a guess at the feed store.
Every mineral figure on this site names the species it applies to, for exactly this reason.
Do you cover castration, dehorning, and the other hard parts?
Yes. Those are real jobs on real operations, and leaving them out would make the site less useful.
We describe what the research says about timing, method, and pain control, and we name the sources. Where a practice is legal but hard on animals, the article says so. Where a less painful method exists and the research supports it, we say that too.
We do not write procedure walkthroughs for anything that needs a vet or needs training to do safely.
What about remedies people swear by online?
If a practice has published research behind it, we cover it and name the source. If it does not, we leave it out.
Livestock forums carry a lot of confident advice that has never been tested. Some of it is harmless. Some of it has killed animals. We cannot tell you which is which from here, which is exactly why we stay with what someone published and checked.
Products and money
How does the site make money?
Some pages carry affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission, and you pay the same price.
Our affiliate disclosure covers it fully.
Do you test the equipment you recommend?
No. We do not buy, use, or field-test anything we write about, and we have no animals to test it on.
Coverage comes from manufacturer documentation, published specifications, and patterns across verified buyer feedback. Where a point rests on owner reports rather than a spec sheet, the article says so.
We state this plainly because some sites imply testing they never did.
Then why should I trust a gear guide here?
Because of what it does and does not claim.
We explain the decision first: what job you are doing, how many head, what specification actually matters for that, and what usually goes wrong. Then we name products that fit each answer, with the evidence behind each point.
If you want hands-on testing, sites that genuinely do it exist. We are not one of them.
Do companies pay you for coverage?
No. Nobody can buy a mention, a rating, or a place in a list, and no advertiser sees an article before it publishes.
We do not accept sponsored posts, paid guest posts, or link placements.
Why do you not show prices?
Retail prices change constantly, and a price typed into an article is wrong within weeks. Any price you see comes from the retailer at the moment you click.
A lot of livestock equipment carries no link here anyway. Chutes, head gates, scales, and trailers come from dealers, not from an affiliate catalog.
Using the site
How is the site organized?
Three sections.
Animals covers the six species: beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses. Each one breaks down by stage or enterprise, such as cow-calf, stockers, and finishing.
Managing covers decisions that cross every species: grazing and pasture, feed and water, breeding and calving, herd health, housing and fencing, and manure and nutrients.
Gear covers equipment, grouped by the job it does.
Where should I start?
With land, not with animals.
How much your ground grows decides how many head you can carry, and nearly every other decision follows from that number. Start with grazing and pasture, then sort water, then fencing. Buy animals last.
How do I work out my own stocking rate?
Your county soil survey holds forage production figures for your soil types, and USDA NRCS publishes it. Your extension office can translate it for your situation.
Our grazing guides explain the calculation and where each figure comes from. The honest number for your place still comes off your own soil, not off a national average.
Do you cover grass-fed, organic, and pasture-raised systems?
Where the research does. Extension services publish on all of them, and we use that work the same way we use everything else.
We do not take a position on which system is better. Each one has conditions where it works and conditions where it does not, and the figures are what they are.
Do you write for smallholders or for commercial operations?
Both, and the guides usually say which figures apply at which scale.
A mineral budget for eight goats and one for four hundred cows are different calculations from the same recommendation. Where that matters, we give both.
Can I share or reprint your articles?
Link to any page freely. Quote a short passage with attribution and a link back.
Republishing full articles needs written permission. Our terms of use set this out.
Do you have a newsletter?
Not yet. If that changes it will be announced on the site, and subscribing will be entirely optional.
Getting help
How do I find my extension office?
Every state runs a cooperative extension service through its land grant university, with offices at county level. Searching your county name plus “extension office” usually finds it.
Many states also have a livestock or small ruminant specialist who takes questions directly.
How do I find a large animal vet?
Do it before you need one. Large animal practices are thinner on the ground than they used to be, and some will not take a new client in the middle of an emergency.
Your extension office, your local sale barn, and nearby producers all know who is taking clients. Get the after-hours number and put it somewhere you can find it in the dark.
Can I suggest a topic?
Yes, and we read every suggestion. Write to editor@livestockfarming.org.
We cannot promise to cover everything, but requests tell us which gaps matter to people.
Do you accept guest posts?
No. Everything here is written and verified by our own team.
How do I contact you?
editor@livestockfarming.org for corrections, sources, and topic suggestions.
contact@livestockfarming.org for everything else.
We aim to answer within three business days, and corrections move faster. Nobody here watches an inbox for sick animals, so a vet comes before an email.