Knowing Your Meat: Lots of questions for the farmers here

Ok, I think I'm about the only farmer left around here (sir Mike, where are you? LOL!). I'll try to answer some of your questions.

I don't raise pigs, but it is my understanding that one born this past spring will be fine for this winter. I have a friend whose daughters show pigs for 4-H. After the fairs in August/September, he fattens them up and has them butchered in late October.

Hefford. I haven't heard of a breed called that (not saying it doesn't exist, just not what I'm used to). Now, there are Herefords (also a town in Texas called Hereford). Or, if you are trying to say heifer, in which case you wouldn't be saying bull after it because a heifer is a female. If you DO have a bull, first thing you need to do is have it castrated. You don't need a vet to do this. We used to just use a pocket knife and cut the balls out (we used to also save them and fry them up for dinner. Rocky Mountain Oysters! Good with ketchup or ranch dressing). But the way we do it now is with a bander. When we brand them in a branding chute, we have thing that just looks like a huge rubberband and tie it around their balls with a special tool. In about 2 weeks they just fall off. It's less stress on the bull that way.

Hereford cows are good for meat (not sure if that is what you have or not). Better than Holstiens (which is a good choice for a milk cow, but not much for a beef cow). I raise Red and Black Angus (really good for beef, it's what a nice steakhouse advertise they have). They are not purebreds, there's some hereford mixed in there. Herefords are usually red with white face, polled or not (meaning, some have horns, some do not. We dehorn all of ours when we brand).

Side note: want to see a good ol' western about a hereford bull, rent The Rare Breed. Has Maureen O'Hara (can't go wrong with her!) and Jimmy Stewert.

How old is the baby calf? If it is weaned now, it MAY be ready this winter. But newborn, maybe not. We keep ours out in pasture til about 2 months before we want to process it. Then we bring him in and feed more corn ration and hay to fatten him up a bit. We usually name him after a restaurant (LOL!). Now, Lynn is going to say that just hay/grass fed is best. And for her health reasons it is. But if you want a good quality, good marbled beef, go with some grain and corn. I'm sure your farmer friend knows what's good up there.

When you have it butchered, the folks doing it will ask how you want it. How big you want your roasts, how thick your steaks, how lean you want the ground beef. They may also offer to make premade hamburger patties. We did that this year and I won't do it again. They are too small and remind me of McDonald's burgers. I like to make my own patties and freeze them as I need to. When you have the pig done, they may ask how hot you want the sausage, if you want german sausage (we call it bull dick. LOL!), cured hams, etc.

And this cow and pig should not only last your family of four throughout the winter, but possibly a whole year. Make sure you have plenty of freezer space. My 15cubic foot freezer was big enough for a bit over half a beef (we split one with my inlaws), but there was NO ROOM for the pig and I had to buy a smaller freezer for it.

Ok, hope that answers some of your questions. A couple of links for ya:
The bander to castrate:
http://www.nobull.net/bander/index.htm
And a link to a branding we have on my own website:
http://www.jandjessary.com/cattle
(go ahead and look around my site! Cattle is the small part of our income, as we only have about 50 head. Farming is our bigger part, we farm 1,500 acres this year, and I have some recipies and sewing projects I have done as well. And of course, lots of pictures of my 4 kids).

Calf starter is simply baby cow formula. If you can wait til he doesn't need it, great! If not, well, it's fun to bottle feed a calf. When my oldest was 5 she was bottlefeeding one (it ended up dying from what it's mother probably died of a couple weeks later). It's up to you if your kids get to know the cow or not. We tend not to spend too much time with ours, but it's mainly because I don't have time to spend. With 4 kids and all their activities, and the baby that is into everything. DH usually takes care of most the animal stuff and the farm, and I run errands, keep the books and focus on the house and children. I've just learned not to get attatched (which is why if we name the cow, it's after a steakhouse, or we simply call him Menu).

Some herefords are black with white face, but it's probably because of breeding with black stock (such as angus, or possibly limosine or some other black breed). They aren't a number 1 choice for milking because they are bred more for beef. Holstiens have great milk production, Jerseys do as well (and Jersey's have a higher butterfat content, making better quality milk. A few of the dairies here keep a few Jerseys in their herd to raise the butterfat levels). Jerseys are a beautiful brown cow with huge eyes that just melt your heart. Holstiens are black and white all over (think the California Cheese commericals). They aren't very pretty, IMHO. I'd love to have a Jersey just for a pet (HAha!).

Also, my suggestions may be regional. Here in the southwest, we don't have as harsh winters as you may up north (aren't you in NH or Maine?). Even our bales of hay are different. Alfalfa hay is the best, but expensive, especially here right now. We used to raise it, but with our water table dropping, it was costing more to pump the water out for the hay than the profit we were getting for it (it was irrigated land). We have switched to totally dryland crop, and we grow haygrazer hay right now. It's thicker stalk and not near as rich, but its more cost effective to grow. All you got to do is pray for rain once it's planted. Alfalfa comes back every year and you can get 4-5 cuttings off of it. But man, it takes the water! Here, alfalfa is running about $230/ton. Haygrazer about $100/ton. Our bales of hay are 1 ton bales (well, they end up weighing about 1600-1800 pounds or so. Alfalfa is what the dairies like for their milking herds. Haygrazer is more for their non-milkers or feedlot. Fine for beef cows, too.

Land is another big difference here. We have alot of it, but it isn't worth as much as land is where you are, like $300/acre. I have 1,200 acres of ranch land alone. We bought the place, with a 2,000 sq ft brick home and a couple of barns, in a foreclosure auction on the courthouse steps. We got it so cheap, that the money we make off selling the calves every year pays for their feed and for our entire mortgage on the place every year. We put the cows out and may not see them for a couple of days. They totally live off the land, coming in for only water (unless the tank out in the pasture is full). Even in the winter. Every couple of days or twice a week in the winter we will cake them. Cake is feed we have hauled in by the ton. If grass is running low out there or there is snow, we bring in hay for them. But for the most part, they are pretty self sufficient.

A chest freezer is great for bigger cuts of meat! Roast, bricuit, hams. I don't have an upright, but think one would be good for organizing better.

Not eating pork every day, a pig at Christmas lasts us well into the next year. We're still nibbling round the edges of a pig from two Christmases ago. Which reminds me, we're out of lard...

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

Backwoods Magazine has an article online on how to raise your own beef. There are also articles there on how to safely can your pork (and butcher it yourself, too for that matter).

Mother Earth News has a couple of articles, too, Backyard Beef and Raise Grass Fed Beef.

What an adventure! Let us know how your hamburger and sausage on-the-hoof are doing!

Anhata
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