Proccessing Steer *WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES!*

This is not a sweet and fuzzy tale. But it is a fact of life. "The story of grass fed beef" dun-dun-dun.

 This was Vindicator my sweet, darling little Hereford/ dairy cross calf.

He was so sweet, and small. My mom got him, and another calf for beef steers. Then he got sick, so sick he wouldn't move. She expected him to die. We prayed over him, I took care of him, making sure that he got fluids, medicine, moved around, and forced to eat. I pretty much stayed in his pen 24/7 caring for him until he got better. Thats when I claimed him. "I saved him, he's mine." I thought I would train him up to ride (yah, people really do ride cows, just like horses). I halter trained him. Taught him to pick up his feet. I would sit on him when he was laying in the pasture, but he never mellowed out enough to ride. He liked to bounce around like a calf, and was very headstrong (like a typical cow). And he grew, and grew. My health insurance ended and my parents said "No trying to ride that cow!" We moved the cows over to the neighbors 4 acre pasture. And he grew, and grew some more. Then he started jumping, and smashing down fences! So it was time for him to go. He was to big for me to feel safe handling, and was doing damage.  He was over 2 years old now. There is only one place for a steer to go, and thats the freezer.

If you do not feel comfortable seeing pictures of how a steak ends up on your table, you better stop reading.

 Here he is lounging in the neighbors pasture.

We brought him home the morning of... I groomed him up, which he greatly enjoyed. I think it is cruel to stress an animal out before butchering. I think they should be happy till the end. We let him graze on the grass around the yard and gave him lots of alfalfa.

 

He was taller than me.

 Containers to put the unwanted innards in, that will be buried.

 The butcher backing in. That's when I shut myself in the bathroom, turned on the vent for noise, and waited for it to be over. I just couldn't be there for the shooting. My mom came in and got me after he was shot, and the head was removed. She said that he never saw it coming. He was happy eating when he was shot, and instantly killed. The actual skinning, and cutting up the body process didn't bother me at all. In fact I found it rather interesting how they do it.

I started photographing again when my Mom reminded me. So some of the process is missing.

 Frank (the butcher) removing the hide. Can you believe he's 76. He told me his Grandfather was a butcher, so thats how he learned.

 They were gathering the intestines. Cutting them into sections as they removed them. Then the assistant rinsed them out, and took them home.

They said they taste good. I guess waste not, want not.

 Chablis didn't care at all about what was going on. She layed around watching the whole thing. But gave me a snotty look for taking her picture.

 Cutting it into quarters to fit it in the truck.

We should get the meat back in 2 weeks after being cut and wrapped.

Frank said Vindicator weighed about 1800 pounds, and his hanging weight should be about 800 pounds.

 I did not want to let the hide go to waste. But it would be about $700 to have it tanned. So me, and my Mom are giving tanning a try.

 I washed off one side, then my mom helped me flip it over and I washed the other.

 He even left the head and ears intact on the hide. We cut it off though. It would have been to hard to defat.

He sure had a beautiful coat pattern.

My Mom helped me flip it over onto the tarp. Then we cut as much fat, and meat off as possible. I could hardly keep Sumiko the cat away, before I started defatting the hide. As we cut off pieces of fat and meat we tossed it on the lawn and it instantly dissapeared thanks to Petunia, Vicky, and Sumiko. Then we drug the hide on its tarp into the shade of the mulberry tree in the backyard, and began salting it. It took 150 pounds of salt. Hopefully we will do a good job, and not screw it up. The tanning books say to start with something small, like a rabbit skin. Haha thats for babies! Just kidding. I will try to do a post on the rest of the tanning process. That is if we didn't already fail at the salting, and drying part.

Kimberly

Rhett and Scarlett

We have been looking for a livestock guardian puppy (LGD) since buying the dairy doelings, and Thursday we found what we were looking for. My mom ended up getting two, with the idea that they would play with each other, so they wouldn't try to play with the livestock. They are 3/4 Great Pyrenees, and 1/4 Mastiff. In our experience mutts are healthier dogs, and don't have the genetic problems of a lot of pure bred bloodlines. Having 1/4 Mastiff in them created a shorter coat than a pure Pyrenees. So they should pick up less stickers, and require less grooming.

For 11 weeks old these puppies are huge, but very sweet and intelligent.

 Rhett

 Scarlett

A couple of love bugs. They are so soft and squishy.

Massive paws.

 Regardless of their size. Teddy Bear wasn't the slightest bit afraid of them.

Kimberly

And..... Two More Doelings

Last Thursday, my Mom and I headed out to Susan's farm again to pick out the last two doelings. Although I got to do all the selecting of the previous doelings, because I am the family goat caretaker. This time it was different. I was picking out MY OWN! They were a gift from my Dad. It was even harder making the decisions. After quite some time, I finally picked them out. Here are MY little darlings.

Dandelion

She is a LaMancha cross. Very dairy with loooong legs.

The pictures really don't do her justice. She is white with light brown and gray patches and strip down her back. She is expected to get darker as she gets older.

Daffodil

She is LaMancha crossed with Boer. Very sweet, but also hard to get a good picture of. She is always on the go.

She has a cute little black nose, and a small black sock on her back hoof.

I had a lot of fun figuring out names for all the kids. My Mom and I, decided on Kanga for the little buckling, because he was hopping on his back legs like a kangaroo when on a leash. Then the first four doelings, I though would be good to name after the characters on Keeping Up Appearances. Hyacinth, Rose, Daisy and Violet. It was so easy to pick which one was going to be Hyacinth. She is VERY demanding about getting attention. We continued naming all the newcomers with flower names. Tulip, Lily, Dandelion and Daffodil. AND If we get a LaMancha buck he will be named Onslow of course : )

So I will close with a question. Are you a fan of Keeping Up Appearances?

Kimberly

Dehorning

If you are squeamish do not read. Farm life is NOT all hearts and flowers.

Why did we choose to have our goats dehorned?

1. The goats get their heads stuck in the fence quite often. If we do not keep a PVC pipe taped to their head, they can be stuck in that fence for quite a long time. I check them morning and evening, and sometimes more. But that still leaves a large time frame for a goat to sit there with its head stuck in the fence, vulnerable to predators.

2. We have never dehorned our goats, because we mostly have fiber goats, and they need their horns to keep their body cool. But we also have LaManchas, and crosses between the two I call a Llama Goat.  I have had the LaMancha's, and Llama Goats break and rip out their horns in the fence before. Breaking off a horn isn't so bad. There is some blood, but the animal doesn't seem to be in a large amount of pain. It just won't be butting heads with anyone for a while. Ripping out a horn is much worse. One of my Llama goats named Peaches ripped her horn out when she was about 6 months old. She broke her horn about half way down, and then ripped it almost completely out, leaving it only attached by some flesh. When I found her she was standing around eating calmly, but the moment the horn moved some, it created a large amount of pain. She would not let me remove the horn. So I did my best and coated it with Blue Kote and then sealed it up with black tree sealer to protect her from flies. This lasted until she knocked it again about a week later. Then it was time to remove it. That was a two person job, and not enjoyable to say the least.

3. With the number of dairy goats we are adding to our herd it would only make sense to save the animals and ourselves from going through all of this. The dehorning is not a pleasant experience, but neither is breaking or ripping out a horn.

I have to admit, I thought I was going to be tough and not let this dehorning process upset me. I am a very sensitive person and when I see an animal, or anyone for that matter in pain, I start shaking. It's not a good trait to have. I hope and pray that in time I will get better about this. I had prepared myself to help.  When Susan (the lady we got the goats from) and her friend, showed up. Susan and I each grabbed a goat, and her friend began shaving their heads. Then we each sat down with the goats in our laps, and her friend began dehorning the one Susan was holding, thats when it was all over for me : ( I knew I would not be able to restrain the little doeling because I started shaking.  I knew that the moment it was my doelings turn, I would start crying. Did I forget to mention I am a cry baby? Thats when I looked at my Mom and said " I don't think I'm going to be able to restrain the doeling for this". I thought that my mom was going to do it. But she was upset too. Susan immediately said "thats alright, I can hold them".  What a relief, sort of. I didn't want to run off into the house. I wanted to at least stay in the area, and try to desensitize myself a little if possible. So I made myself busy in the area, and brought out and retrieved goats for the process. Susan told us its a hard thing to get used to, and it takes several times dehorning, before you get used to the process, and you can only do so many in a day before you are emotionally drained. She's human too you know. When it was over my Mom and I were amazed at how fast they bounced back. They were wanting to play and acting as though nothing ever happened within minutes of being dehorned!

The next day when we took them all out to play after their bottles they were playing, butting heads! I was totally amazed !!

Here are some pictures of there dehorned heads, and romp.

King of the Lawn Buddy

 

 

Head butting

More head butting

Leaping for joy! I love this picture.

Kimberly

More Kids

 Susan (The woman that we got our goat kids from), came over on Sunday to dehorn all the kids for us, and brought along two more additions.

 Nubian/ Alpine/ Boer doeling

Nubian/ Alpine/ Boer doeling

I think she looks like she is wearing Uggs : )

I will be writing about the dehorning in another post. But for now here are more baby pictures.

Kimberly

Apricot Blossoms

Then God Said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.

Genesis 1:11

Our apricot tree has been blooming. So I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and snapping lots of pictures.

 Looking to the sky

One happy bee 

Kimberly

Welcoming The New Kids

After keeping our goat herd closed for about six year now, we have been needing to add some new blood, and wanted a good dairy doe or two, but haven't had any luck finding a adult LaMancha doe in milk. So we ended up getting some LaMancha cross bottle babies from a lovely woman named Susan. We had a fun time visiting at her farm, seeing all of her goats, talking to her about guardian dogs, and of course picking out baby goats.

This is perfect time for us to raise up these little ones, because our goats won't be kidding till May. Here are some pictures of the little darlings.

 LaMancha/ Alpine/ Nubian/ Toggenburg doeling

 LaMancha/ Alpine/ Nubian doeling

 LaMancha/ Boer doeling

 LaMancha/ Boer doeling

Mini Oberhasli naturally polled (meaning hornless) buckling

It was not easy getting individual pictures as they were all fighting over my moms fingers.

Now, could you look at all those pictures and resist smiling?

Kimberly