One of the things my husband did when he worked for the custom harvesting crew in Kansas was take care of the cattle. He loved that part of his job as much as any of it, and more than a lot of it. His favorite part of taking care of the cattle was helping when they are calving (having babies). At our old house he had a small cow/calf operation started, but we moved before he was able to really get it where he wanted it. He’s been dreaming for years about getting back into something like this but didn’t imagine his dad would ever let us use the property around our yard for it. A simple act of asking his dad answered that, and my husband came home with a gleam in his eye last weekend.
“I’ve been looking at some cows on craigslist, wanna build a pen for them this weekend?”
I didn’t think in my wildest dreams that we could actually accomplish something of that magnitude, but agreed. This was Saturday evening, and by Monday this is what it looked like:
(Clearly my husband has dreamed about this for a while, as he made this gate panel years ago and knew exactly where he wanted to use it here!)
Late Monday morning we headed to the livestock auction with his dad’s livestock trailer in tow. We stopped on our way there and looked at the bred cow. She was a nice looking animal for a great price, so we agreed that we’d pick her up on our way home. We ended up with 2 young heifers and steer from the auction along with the cow from craigslist.
Our kids were ecstatic when they saw the animals, and even more thrilled when they heard that we get to bottle feed our heifers for a month or so. (As if they do the work- bottle feeding is hard work, especially when two calves both want the one bottle you have!)
It is awesome to see the joy on my husband’s face when he looks at our cattle. It is even more exciting to know that it is OUR cattle. Even at our old house, the cattle have always been owned by my father-in-law. This the first of two relatively large endeavors that we are taking on for ourselves this year. It is nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time!
And without further ado, time to meet our new animals:
This is Bossy. She came to us named Horny, but we thought it would be better if the kids didn’t take that name to school and share with their classmates! She is a mix of Hereford, Angus, and Simmental. She is a bred cow, which means that she is/should be pregnant. She is 3 years old, and has had one calf so far. We’re hoping to tame her down a little bit. She hasn’t been aggressive, but is very skittish around people.
This is Eddie. He is a Brown Swiss. He is a steer, which means he is a male that can’t breed (he was castrated, which is done to keep him from getting too aggressive). He was about 220lbs when we bought him, which means he is a couple of months old and will hopefully be done growing in 2-2 1/2 years.
This is Hero. We thought it looked like the Superman outline on her forehead, but couldn’t give her a boy name! She is a Holstein, which is generally a dairy breed. She will be very lean, and being grass fed will make her very lean beef. She is under 2 weeks old, and will be bottle fed until at least the beginning of July. We could possibly keep her for breeding, but as she isn’t a typical beef breed we likely won’t.
And last but not least is Brownie. She is our other bottle baby. She is a Jersey, which is breed used for dairy or beef. We hope to raise her to be a cow that we keep and breed. She is feisty and playful and loves attention!
Here she is sucking on my boot and headbutting me because he bottle was gone!
They are so fun, and we are excited to teach our kids about caring for animals.
I can’t waif to see how this new endeavor unfolds for us, and I’ll share details about out other new adventure later in the summer!
~Leslie
My Husband Feeds Your Husband 