 |
| Aeryn and McKinley napping after the excitement of picking up our new babies. |
Spring time is such a wonderful time on the farm. Even early spring, where thanks to the random snowstorm a week ago, we still have snow on the ground. A year ago today a cow that Aeryn and I had been thinking about buying had her first calf, and her second. Within a month we became the owners of what we consider the four most wonderful heifers ever.
Now here it is March of 2013 and we have brought home yet another four animals. (We seem to enjoy doing everything in fours) After some negotiation with Jay, as well as a fairly local farm. Some may of heard of
Echo Farm Pudding. The owners are old 4-H friends of mine and they happened to have some bulls that they were looking to get rid of.
So here is our experiment. We brought home four beautiful shorthorn bulls. Historically shorthorns were known as a duel purpose breed. Settlers often had them for milk, meat, and work. More recently they have been breed into a pretty much dairy breed. However, it is my estimation that their bulls are going to taste very nice when they are put into my freezer. I will let you know when they get big enough for that to happen.
So, by seven thirty this morning mom was dropping off Aeryn and I so that we could meet up with Jay and Lilly. We hopped into the big truck and drove the few towns over to Echo Farm. Our intention was to pick up three animals. However if you look very closely at the pictures, you will see that we ended up with four. What is one more animal right? The more the merrier.
Now, sitting here I can do nothing but smile. Our four boys are tucked away safely in their barn, along with our four ladies. On the way home we took a quick swing by the vets office for some shots and castration. (Surprisingly the calves were still very affectionate even after this ordeal) The real work will start tomorrow however as Aeryn needs to get all four of them halter broken without neglecting her other animals.
One of the joys of the new babies is that we can do some things differently than we did before when we brought the heifers home. The first thing that we did when we brought the girls home was let them out into the pasture to run. Some of you may remember the time that we had catching them again. For the first couple of weeks the boys are going to be safely in a stall in the barn. This will enable them to get used to daily care and handling so that they will not be shy when Aeryn needs to halter them.
We also may try training a pair of them as working steers. This is something that Aeryn has been interested in trying. I will keep you posted on how this endeavor turns out.
And now, to introduce the new babies of Long View Farm.....
 |
Goliath
|
 |
| Atlas |
 |
| Hercules |
 |
| Zeus |
So here is our experiment. We brought home four beautiful shorthorn bulls. Historically shorthorns were known as a duel purpose breed. Settlers often had them for milk, meat, and work. More recently they have been breed into a pretty much dairy breed. However, it is my estimation that their bulls are going to taste very nice when they are put into my freezer. I will let you know when they get big enough for that to happen.
Now, sitting here I can do nothing but smile. Our four boys are tucked away safely in their barn, along with our four ladies. On the way home we took a quick swing by the vets office for some shots and castration. (Surprisingly the calves were still very affectionate even after this ordeal) The real work will start tomorrow however as Aeryn needs to get all four of them halter broken without neglecting her other animals.
One of the joys of the new babies is that we can do some things differently than we did before when we brought the heifers home. The first thing that we did when we brought the girls home was let them out into the pasture to run. Some of you may remember the time that we had catching them again. For the first couple of weeks the boys are going to be safely in a stall in the barn. This will enable them to get used to daily care and handling so that they will not be shy when Aeryn needs to halter them.
And now, to introduce the new babies of Long View Farm.....
No comments:
Post a Comment