What's in the Feed?

We believe that God intended cattle to live on grass.  After all, they are ruminants, grazers, grass eaters.  Because of this, our calves are pasture raised.  That means that they will be free to roam their pasture grazing on grass or eating hay until the day they go to the butcher.  This is not common practice in today's industrialized meat market.  Cattle usually are sold to feed lots at 700 to 800 pounds. For the last 180 days of their life, they stand on piles of manure eating grain filled with antibiotics and steroids.  Filling them with these antibiotics is the only way they can keep them alive in the feed lots and steroids bulk them up for more profits.  But do we really want to eat that in our meat?  Desiring something better, we have chosen a different destiny for our animals.

Our calves are raised on grass

and quality bermuda hay.

Along with that, they receive a little grain.

This keeps them coming in twice a day for us to make sure they are all healthy.

It also adds just the right amount of marbling in their meat.

The grain does not have medications in it. 

A local feed mill has helped us develop a plan for feeding them.  The percentage of corn will increase as we go along but the basic ingredients will stay the same.

And their feed won't exceed 2% of their body weight which keeps them in prime condition.

 So, what's in the feed?

Corn

Alfalfa

Molasses

Soybean Meal

Calcium

Cotton Seed Hulls

&

Grass ~ lots of grass.

The piglets arrive

6 crossbreed pigs

all brothers

5 weeks old

They are pretty little

& pretty cute!



J2 shows one piglet where the water is.

They will have to grow a bit before they can eat out of the big feeder and drink out of the new waterer.

They will grow though.

Boy, will they grow.

Jonah just loves pigs.

We're glad someone on this farm does

because we all love pork!



Preparing for Piglets

With fall coming on, it's almost time to get piglets.  Jonah can't wait.  Our country vet raises show pigs and has promised him any that don't make the grade.  But since we don't know when he will call and say "come get 'em" we needed to be ready.

Jonah raised 3 pigs last year and found that feeding time

 would be much easier with proper equipment:

1. a new double feeder that will hold 100 pounds of feed

The pigs push the flaps up to eat.  That way the food stays clean and dry.

2. an automatic waterer so they won't tip it over and wallow in the mud

3.  a new gate to match the others on the farm.

Notice we added 3 boards at the bottom to create a barrier for them when opening the gate.

4. Mom added a fresh coat of white paint to the fence and pig house.  We don't know why.  They are just going to get it dirty.  I mean, everyone knows, a happy pig is a dirty pig!



Pond Dry

Because of the the extreme drought, the pond has dried up

and the grass has turned brown like it was fall already.

We had to bring in a water tank.  Some on the farm think it's swimming pool.

The calves can't figure that out at all!

Home on the Range

The end of June ~ the land was leased, the fence was fixed, and we were ready for our calves.

Off to the ranch down the road to get them ~ 10 Black Angus steers.

they were penned up ready to work

We did the talking, the helping, the learning, and the paying.  Boy, was that a lot of $$!

making decisions about what shots to give

in the chute

Rockin' 3-J Ranch eartags

Jared didn't like the castration part

the calves didn't feel sorry for him at all!

All worked over and ready to come home.

Unloaded.

They're our calves now.

Welcome home, boys.

Expanding

Being very happy with the money from the sale of the heifers,($1.10/lb on the hoof), we offered to repay our grandfather back his initial investment.  He encouraged us to reinvest it in something else.  We wanted to buy more cattle but with only one acre designated for calves, we wouldn't be able to expand.  What we needed was more land.

heifers being sold

 Our dad happened to mention what we wanted to do to a neighbor of ours. A week later he came back with a proposition.  His father owns the land directly behind us, 17 acres, which he was willing to lease for a few years.  It would take a lot of work though because the fence needed fixing.

Time for a family talk.  Mom and Dad made sure that we knew this was "our deal" meaning we would have to make the deal and do the work on our own.  Not knowing how to put up a barbed wire fence would require research and time.  We would also need supplies which took money that wouldn't come from Mom and Dad either.  Luckily, a few people heard about what we wanted to do.  It turns out that people like self-motivated kids that don't mind breaking sweat.  The land owner's son taught us how to stretch barbed wire and oversaw us doing the work, even working along side us sometimes.  And the rancher whom we would by the cattle from, blessed us with 80 T-posts and a roll of barbed wire.

What came next was a couple of weeks of hard work.  Up at 6, out the door at 7, working 10 hours somedays, covered in poison ivy.  We learned a lot in those weeks and built some muscle too!

clearing brush

drilling post holes

finishing off the holes

It was a lot of work but we were on our way to ranching.

before

before



after



Three Little Pigs

Jonah liked the cattle but really thought he would like to raise pigs.  So he bought three little ones which he appropriately named Bacon, Sausage, and Pepperoni. (It's a good thing to name them what they will be because it reminds you everyday what they are for.)

They were really fun when they were little.  Jonah put together a hay bale house and pen until a permanent shelter and fence could be built. He spent lots of time with those little pigs.


And they grew...a lot!

Pigs like two things ~ food & dirt!

In the end, they went with the steer to the butcher.  We all thought Jonah would be sad but he knew what the pigs were for and was good with that.  We kept two of them for the freezer and he sold the other as pork.  Pig raising was something he wanted to do again, for sure.