Evie

[airedale]

Born on Christmas Eve a little Irish Dexter heifer calf the wife named Evie. Had to bring her inside as the weather was horrible and she would have had a tough time making it down in the barn. Nothing new around here as over the years I have had to bottle raise calves on several occasions, consequently I am well prepared. Set up a stall in my garage so it is fairly easy to just go out the back door and feed her and clean her stall, luckily the "Storm and Strief's" favorite animals are cows so Evie has it made. LOL

Al

[New York Hillbilly]

Love it! 

Me and my wife have been talking about getting a couple beef cows for years now. But with so much else going on have never been able to actually act on it. Other than a summer working on my uncles daily farm as a young teen and all that comes with it, my knowledge or experience keeping and raising cows is extremely limited. 

Over the past couple years we have been getting more serious about building up our "homestead". The garden getting bigger each year, and canning really taking off.  I finished building a chicken coop, and have a nice building for a goat shed, so they were to be next.

And, now that you have outted yourself as our resident "cowboy" : ) I hope I may call upon you for your advice from time to time if/when we act on the cow adventure. 

[First-light]

I have the perfect setup to get a few cows but I'm scared to death I wouldn't be able to send them to the Processor when the time comes. 

[wolc123]

57 minutes ago, First-light said:

I have the perfect setup to get a few cows but I'm scared to death I wouldn't be able to send them to the Processor when the time comes. 

I never felt right about that, back when we used to raise beef cattle.  That might be the main reason why I like venison so much more than beef.  There’s no “deceitfullness” with the venison.  Those deer know that I’m out to get then from the get go.  I don’t ever pretend to be their care-giver or provider. 
 

It also helps, that I can still get my venison for close to $ 1.00 per pound, after subtracting input costs.  We never got close to that for beef, 40 years ago, when that dollar went a lot further.  I think it would be tough to produce small quantities of beef these days, for much less than $ 5.00 per pound.  

Today, with very high deer populations, liberal tag allowance, and relatively few hunters, I couldn’t imagine raising beef for food .  My wife gets grossed out whenever she fries up ground beef, after being “spoiled” for so many years, by lean corn-fed venison.  
 

If deer are properly fed (clover and corn) and handled well  after killing (gut quick and age carcass) then that meat tastes as good or better than the finest beef, in my family’s opinion anyhow.  

[airedale]

4 hours ago, First-light said:

I have the perfect setup to get a few cows but I'm scared to death I wouldn't be able to send them to the Processor when the time comes. 

Evie has nothing to fear from me, I raise livestock for my own pleasure and fun and for something to keep me busy, when things get too crowded, I sell excess animals to other small farms. What money I do make buys meat from the market.

Al

[First-light]

19 hours ago, airedale said:

Evie has nothing to fear from me, I raise livestock for my own pleasure and fun and for something to keep me busy, when things get too crowded, I sell excess animals to other small farms. What money I do make buys meat from the market.

Al

So you say have a couple of special animals that will live their life on your farm and also have a few you sell to buy meat. That could work, thanks!