Author Topic: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...  (Read 3173 times)

Offline dcwolcott

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #15 on: March 19, 2017, 07:38:04 PM »
On our farm as a child, we "ate our pets" !  That's what several of my friends have said about me, when they call me a "farmer" when I make the hard decisions concerning life and death sometimes.  I remember playing as kids in the pasture with the little ones, eating lunch between the legs of our cows, playing with the calves, leading them around etc.

My father "cured" our attachment to them by making the declaration that all babies have "food names".  So we had little "rump roast", "sirloin", "chuck", "hamburg" etc.  We just knew that ultimately they'd wind up in the freezer of family -- ours or my aunt's (We had 2 families living on the same 100 acre farm -- so had quite fun growing up close with cousins). And back then, as I'm sure you know, you didn't argue or complain with parents. They ruled, and you obeyed. 

And we didn't process the meat ourselves, one day we'd come home and a steer was missing, and we knew what that meant.

I went from Arabians (as a child/young adult) to Peruvian Paso's actually.  I raised them before the miniatures.  And getting into miniatures was because I had a bad accident and broke up my hand requiring surgery and plates and pins and a bad concussion after a serious riding accident (not with my horses, but with a friend's horses on a group ride).  My kids decided I didn't heal quite as fast "at my age" and insisted I get rid of the horses.  To keep the peace, I did that......but not quite.  I decided to be a little tricky and instead get into miniatures.  They couldn't say I would get hurt because of how big they were, and so my life with miniatures began.  I became fascinated with the Falabella Breed in the first few years of miniatures, after studying them and Chianti being imported to the US with Menelek going to England.  I found it all very interesting.

I've always loved appaloosas -- just never had one as a riding horse.  When I got into miniatures, my cousin who grew up on the farm with me said why wasn't I raising appaloosas now?  She knew my fascination with spots, and so an appaloosa breeder was born. Then, after a bunch of research, and finding how few pure Falabellas there were in the world, and their story, I had a farm of American appaloosas and Falabellas and loved them both.

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Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #16 on: March 19, 2017, 08:36:54 PM »
Yes, our butcher steers, if named, have food names.  Chocolate (white charlois steer), Sprite, T-Bone, I think we even named one Chicken.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline Silver City Heritage Farm

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #17 on: March 19, 2017, 09:02:51 PM »
"I've read on a couple forums about friends that each raise a butcher steer, then swap at processing time, so they aren't eating their "friend". "

What a nifty idea! I know someone I might do that with. Or even a couple of someones.
Silver City Heritage Farmstead

Specializing in Heritage poultry, vegetables and cut flowers. Miniature horses for the everyday family, until they're ready to move up to the rated shows and programs!

Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #18 on: March 19, 2017, 09:14:35 PM »
"I've read on a couple forums about friends that each raise a butcher steer, then swap at processing time, so they aren't eating their "friend". "

What a nifty idea! I know someone I might do that with. Or even a couple of someones.

Would probably need to be a trustworthy friend, so that you both raise the same quality steer.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #19 on: March 24, 2017, 12:28:34 AM »
I have a bottle calf...  set of twins this morning, second has noodle legs, so not steady enough to stand and nurse a cow, and cow only accepted first.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline dcwolcott

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2017, 05:35:20 AM »
Awwww....
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Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2017, 01:12:09 PM »
He's a bit stronger this morning, but still noodley.   Loves his bottle.  Being a twin he's fairly small, so gets three small meals a day.   
I'll feed 1ish before I leave for town, and again before I go to bed tonight.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline dcwolcott

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #22 on: March 26, 2017, 08:25:19 AM »
Can you post a picture? Is he outside or in the house?  I remember having 4 baby goats living in a playpen in my kitchen for weeks being bottle fed!  Glad he's doing a bit better.

Sorry I was away most of the day yesterday, and read some threads on my phone, but too hard to reply there.
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Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #23 on: March 26, 2017, 10:09:40 AM »
He's in a stall at the barn.

This morning we have a calf in the tub warming up, cow picked a big wet mud hole to drop him in.   If it turns out, I took a picture of Tink watching him in the tub.  Missed her dipping her paw in the dirty water and licking it off.  She prefers to drink from the tub, than the cat water dish.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline Silver City Heritage Farm

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #24 on: March 26, 2017, 10:42:57 AM »
Chanda, do you find that the current trend to "Black Angus....the BEST in the world!!" has negatively affected your operation? With beef prices in the market (store) being what they are, would it be about the same cost for someone to raise their own steer and have it processed for home consumption? Most particularly, I'm interested in if it would be equivalent to purchasing products that are labeled organic. If it's about the same, surely a dork like me could figure out that my new steer ("Carne Asada" for example) is for the table. I can be pragmatic when I need to be.  ::)

Also, do you know anyone who has experience with miniature cattle breeds? Or with the International Miniature Cattle Breeders Society and Registry? Since my place is, and I plan to always keep it, small I'd like to keep everything in scale. I'd like to show my community the benefits of local, sustainable and homegrown.
Silver City Heritage Farmstead

Specializing in Heritage poultry, vegetables and cut flowers. Miniature horses for the everyday family, until they're ready to move up to the rated shows and programs!

Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #25 on: March 26, 2017, 10:56:41 AM »
Chanda, do you find that the current trend to "Black Angus....the BEST in the world!!" has negatively affected your operation? With beef prices in the market (store) being what they are, would it be about the same cost for someone to raise their own steer and have it processed for home consumption? Most particularly, I'm interested in if it would be equivalent to purchasing products that are labeled organic. If it's about the same, surely a dork like me could figure out that my new steer ("Carne Asada" for example) is for the table. I can be pragmatic when I need to be.  ::)

Also, do you know anyone who has experience with miniature cattle breeds? Or with the International Miniature Cattle Breeders Society and Registry? Since my place is, and I plan to always keep it, small I'd like to keep everything in scale. I'd like to show my community the benefits of local, sustainable and homegrown.
Locally, Black Angus have always been preferred at the sale yard, so we haul our calves to a sale yard a bit further away and get better sale prices even with shipping costs figured.   We still raise Angus cattle, they are just Red, but for some reason buyers around here think the color of the hide influences what's on the inside.    You can't fix stupid or stubborn.
I know little of Miniature breeds, other than what I've read in the American Livestock magazine (caters to the more exotic: miniature cattle, llamas, alpacas, zebu, Watusi, etc and include miniature hroses and donkeys)
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #26 on: March 26, 2017, 11:01:04 AM »
Ok, so as promised here are a couple tub pics.   Now I get to clean the tub, corral muck is pretty gross in the tub.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline dcwolcott

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #27 on: March 26, 2017, 04:41:43 PM »
OMG how cute!!! 

Will momma take him back do you think?  Or will he now become the buddy to your bottle fed baby?

Yes, stupid, unfortunately, can't be fixed!
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Offline Chanda

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #28 on: March 26, 2017, 10:09:19 PM »
OMG how cute!!! 

Will momma take him back do you think?  Or will he now become the buddy to your bottle fed baby?

Yes, stupid, unfortunately, can't be fixed!

Yes, she'll take him back, might take a day or two in the barn of him nursing and getting her milk through his system for her to recognize him fully.
And, I have another twin to buddy with the bottle bum.  That's 4 sets of twins this year already, not the usual for us; lost one from the first set, Noodle is from the second, third set is on a new cow, and now the fourth is on a bottle.   We rarely leave twins on the cow as they don't seem to keep track of two very well and it works better for our pasture system.
Chanda
HC Minis

Stallions: Little Kings Cat on Top, Paper Mache`
Mares: Misty, Tana, Sophia, Bliss, Bonny, Dolly and Baybe
Geldings: Dakota, Monte and Manny, Spotty
Donkey: Tilly

Offline dcwolcott

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Re: Calving season has started - just for you Diane...
« Reply #29 on: March 27, 2017, 05:35:36 AM »
4 sets!  WOW!  In all our years of breeding we only got 1 set.  Congratulations....except for the extra work for you!
'Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.'