Farewell To Our Calves

I've been reflecting on our beef over the past few weeks and just how far we have come with them.  Last month we sold our calves - all 7 of them to allow their mothers to "beef up" some more - so to speak, and prepare for the arrival of their new babies.  That's if Bullet the Bull did the bizzo.

I have to say, I've learned so much from these calves and I blogged about it in NEW ADDITIONS - PART 3.  Their wellbeing improved tenfold feeding off their mothers and I can honestly say that when we sold them about 3 weeks ago, they were about 10 months old, and one of them was still getting milk from her mother.

Our neighbour has been keeping an eye on our beef and made some initial enquiries.  He was particularly interested in one of our bull calves which I knicked named "tipi bum bum".  Mid way through May, my husband Gig asked him if he would be interested in buying all the calves and he jumped at the chance.  Within a couple of days, our 2nd addition to our beef whanau were gone.

 

Gig still believes that the balance of our beef versus the size of land/feed we have is not quite right and now our summers are more dryer and our winters less wet, it is taking it's toll on the land/feed.

 

We know for sure that a few of our cows produce some really good size offspring so the plan with the next lot of calves is to review the mothers and look to cull the numbers back.  We currently have 8 cows and 1 bull and realistically I think we should look to have no more than 5 cows and 1 bull.

 

Right now though, the focus is to ensure the new up and coming addtions expected in a couple of months, go well and I'm excited but nervous at the same time.

 

Happy living peeps!