Our Cattle

At the time of this writing, Ayavalla is home to about 650 beef cattle. These cows are managed in a way that mimics the beneficial impacts of buffalo herds in the wild. The herd is fenced into relatively small pastures for short periods of time to create the herd effect that is so beneficial to the soil and grass. Most of the time, each herd is moved daily to a new pasture and depending on conditions, they may be moved up to four times per day.

Since 2014, we have been integrating African Mashona genetics into our herd.

The Mashona cattle, originally from Zimbabwe, are very well adapted to our climate and our vegetation. They are heat tolerant, parasite resistant and nutritionally adapted to subtropical forages. They even like to browse the bushes. The importance of this adaptation is that our cattle are also chemical free. They receive no hormones, vaccinations or parasite medication. This means their manure is organic fertilizer and that is how we manage the land with no synthetic fertilizers.