It just wouldn’t be fair to not introduce you to our animals. They make this farm lively. Even though there are headaches associated with livestock, for the most part they light up our lives. Most fitting to be introduced first would be the steers.
Meet Ferdinand. He is the biggest pain in the rear EVER. When we first met Ferdinand, before he was officially ours, he was the most personable steer. He came up to the fence, said hello, tried to lick you, and was somewhat sweet. I was sold and after our initial meeting I kept thinking about the red steer who reminded me of the little bull from the book “Ferdinand”. In our transaction of the farm we were originally going to get two Holsteins. But then I met Ferdinand and asked if we could have him instead. And he became ours.
Ferdinand is part Brahma, which means he has a twisted side to him. He is not like Ferdinand from the children’s book. He runs and bucks when he wants to intimidate. He is also very sensitive to motorized vehicles, which makes him psychotic. So psychotic he recently jumped a fence to take out the tractor with the Mr. on it. Into the pasture that conveniently houses the chicken coop and feed. Oh Ferdinand had a heyday that Saturday. Eventually Ferdinand was moved back into his pasture with help from our closest neighbor, much to his dislike. Since then, Ferdinand has really taken to mooing. If he sees anyone, he moos. He is mooing right now. Mainly because he wants corn. It’s like candy to him. And was used that day to lure him back to his field.
This is Pepper. He is a Holstein and his speckled nose reminded me of the seasoning. Pepper will likely be our pardon cow and hang around for many years, unlike Ferdinand. Pepper pretty much does whatever Ferdinand does, which really isn’t a good thing. In general, Pepper is very mild mannered. The only incident to note was he did not like Henry, our rooster, and chased him around the pasture, causing Henry to sleep outside in a tree that evening. But that’s about it. Pepper is pretty mellow and uneventful. Which is a nice balance to our psychotic red steer. Our hope is to acquire more Holsteins in the future. In general, they have a great temperament and produce really lean meat (this is what we hear – I don’t even eat red meat – oh the irony!). We are going to try our hand at bottle feeding with some calves in the Spring, so wish us luck. Yes, I am sure it will make for some great stories.
Recent Comments