Jane is a growin’
July 28, 2010
Jane – 9 weeks.
Is it possible to have a crush on a calf? I certainly do. It doesn’t hurt that she is almost the spitting image of her mama.
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She’s losing her “calf face” and getting a “cow face”! Hard to explain, but I think you know what I mean. What a beauty!
Peggy, I do – and she’s all business when it comes to eating, the most important thing for a cow!
Wow, she is getting bigger! She is lovely.
Tami, she wonders why I slip and call her Alejandra sometimes…
Hope your summer isn’t too crazy!!
Love it!:) Summer is great, lots of canning getting done, we had such a cool, frost-free spring that the fruit trees are really producing. We’ve been in the upper 90′s and low 100′s for weeks now so the garden is loving it…all in all it has been a wonderfully uneventful summer!
She is a beautiful calf. She sure seems to love her grass! Quite understandable to have a crush on her!
Indeed she is beautiful and so like her Mom : )
Beautiful girl. I have a 10 month old Jersey heifer who was never trained to the collar. Do you think it’s too late to try? Sure would be handy to be able to lead her out to better (but unfenced) pasture so she could eat there.
Thanks,
Brad at Mulberry Hill
Brad, no it’s not too late, but it is easier when they are little. Teach her to tie first, then work into leading. Tie her to a stout post though, down low so she can’t break it or pull it over. And stand back because she will fight it, but she will stop when she figures out that if she takes off the pressure it isn’t so bad. Watch her so she doesn’t get choke herself, but plan on leaving her a few hours so she realizes she can’t just go when she pleases.
I use a collar for tying, but a halter for leading, it gives you control of their nose, and they follow their nose
I just LOVE her eyelashes…. what a beautiful calf she is.
Jane is getting so big! Yes she’s loosing her baby face…aww but she really is a beautiful animal. I’m glad she reminds you of her momma. I hope you’ve been getting good weather up there. Enjoy your day and your critters.
She is so sweet!
Gorgeous calf!
You’re allowed!
She is beautiful…her Momma’s last gift to you….with love.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Oh you put a smile on my face!
Jane is so cute and gettin so big! I’ve got a crush on her for sure!!! But I have a feeling in a couple months, I’ll have my own calf to have a crush on too!!! 
She’s getting so big! And she’s such a gorgeous cow!
Nita, she’s really, really beautiful. Easy to understand why you have a crush on her!
Wow she really has grown! She is absolutely beautiful!
I’m another with a crush on her. Thanks for the JANE FIX!
She is beautiful!
Awwww. What a beautiful girl!
Wow, she is amazing… we so want our own milk, but have a small homestead and are exploring goats.
I can’t believe how much she has grown! She is absolutely in the Della category of beautiful.
I know the weeks are ticking by, but wow, she is growing. And she is so beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Emily in So. TX
Hi Nita, being my main resource on animal husbandry I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on the following link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/25/miniature-cattle-environmentally-friendly-beef
I definitely appreciate the blog – hope you’re having a good summer. Hello to L and L as well.
Hi Josh, I am not too enamored with the mini-cattle. Usually the person making the money is the one selling the seed stock. To make cattle a viable enterprise or even hobby you need the cow to have a calf every year, either so you can harvest the excess milk or so the cow can raise her calf so you can sell it either as meat or breeding stock. So that requires a bull, which most people don’t want to keep, so then AI (artificial insemination) is required and that requires expensive semen for mini-cattle and a skill-set most don’t have. Couple that with cows that may be grazing on minerally challenged land, they don’t cycle, can’t be bred and bingo, you have a meat cow which is only worth what the sale barn will pay you – usually around .75 a pound on a good day. The usual marketing buzz words used with mini cattle are: they eat less but that means also they produce less. They are smaller and won’t hurt you like a big animal will, but to tell the truth, weight and height have nothing to do with temperment. A 400 – 500 pound cow or bull with an agenda is still a 400 – 500 pound cow with an agenda. Our farrier absolutely hates doing mini-horses and ponies because many times they are not taught basic manners and flight zone restrictions because they are so cute. I can imagine it is the same with cattle. All that being said, I do believe cattle can be an asset to a small farm or a large farm. They can build topsoil if managed correctly, and like we’ve discussed before, a family cow of moderate size can provide enough fertility for a small market garden in addition to raising her replacement, or the family’s meat, and dairy products to boot. I kept Della pretty busy keeping the headlands around the gardens mowed, saving me the headache of mowing. Even in a co-op setting one dairy cow could provide quite a bit of protein and essential fats for several families. I read an interesting paragraph in a grazing article a while back – the grazier had added goats to his mix of cattle and sheep, and was stocking the goat numbers light, because parasites are a huge problem with goats unless they are fed properly – which means browse, and the rule of thumb he was following according to Holistic Resource Management was to make sure the goats had food above their knees, meaning if the goats had to resort to eating grass or hay they would be parasite laden, if he had enough browse and brushy weeds the goats would compliment the enterprise, otherwise they became a liability. I am not thinking of goats, I just thought hmmm, that is why everyone’s goats need worming so often, so many are expected to graze grass and eat alfalfa, and provide milk and meat. I got off track there, but I don’t automatically think goats are the answer for many acreages, and I don’t believe cows are either. You don’t really have to look too far to find old style cattle that are hardy, and easily kept. My mutts do just fine on what our mountainside pastures can provide, with only minerals to give them and the land a boost.
A friend of mine has just been through the mini odyssey herself. She was attracted to the small stature, smaller feed bill & high sale price potential, but once she got used to the dairy products, she wanted more, and it is hard to get enough milk for the calf, the family and for cooking too with a small or dual purpose breed. I was patient with her even though it took several years, she now has two full size Jerseys and they don’t seem so intimidating now, and she is loving the extra milk. Her vote would be mid-size, or moderate sized cattle, but she still misses her mini’s because she knew them, not because they were mini’s.
All this rambling probably didn’t really answer your question, I guess…I hope Skyline has had a little better weather than here and that the crops are doing OK! Be well.
It does answer the question, and well. I especially like the side note on goats.
Weather wise, crazy year. Things look decent now, but I’m not sure many of the summer crops will ever catch up. I’m always optimistic though, maybe we’ll have a hot, long fall. Even then there’s limited light and not much we can do about that. Seems like it’s been an amazing grass season though (I just see that through the mowing side, not sure what it’s like for the grazing folks).