I got a new girlfriend..........

Yeah... Sure... My luck! NOT!

However in goat talk.... Charlie seems to be making a complete turn around... Normally Charlie is a goat that runs from me, I got him as an older goat and as older goats go, building trust with him has been a long drawn out ordeal hindered by trying to raise a pair of cows. Last night Charlie for lack of a better way of putting it, in goat speak, Charlie was courting me. Not necessarily good for many reasons... They can do what ever things they want kept between themselves. He was blubbering, tongue flapping and tapping me and the ground with his foot eagerly expressing his interest at me... Now that is bad in that can quickly turn to attempts to mounting and even head butting from aggression.

Ferdinand & Ricardo - Expense & Statistics Report

Weights Via Weight Tape, therefore are estimates.

Age at purchase: ~1 Week
Final weight: ~754 Lbs
Length of stay: 438 Days

Known Costs Breakdown:

• Calves, 2 @ $50: ($100, 6.65%)
• Vet, 3 Visits/Calls: ($297.00, 19.75%)
• Bags Milk Replacer: 5 ($234.75, 15.61%)
• Bags Calf Starter: 23 ($292.89, 19.47%)
• Bales Of Hay: 21 [10 4x4 & 11 4.5x4] ($552.00, 36.70%)
• Mineral ($27.40, 1.82%)

Total Known Cost of Rasing Calves: $1504.04
Net From Cow Sales: $802.96
Investment Loss: $701.08

Ferdinand:

• First Recorded Weight: ~91 Lbs
• Weight Gain: ~663 Lbs
• Average Daily Gain: ~1.51 Lbs

Ricardo:

• First Recorded Weight: ~85 Lbs
• Weight Gain: ~669 Lbs
• Average Daily Gain: ~1.53 Lbs

Got the cheque back from Carolina Stockyards Co...

Looks like they sold as Holstein Feeders...

Combined weight 1545Lbs @ $54.00/CWT amounting to $834.30

Deductions were:

Yardage $2.00

Beef Checkoff $2.00

Insurance $1.34

Commissions $26.00

Deductions totaled $31.34

Net $802.96

Not bad. Price was a little softer than I expected.

Perhaps it could be said that I have gone to the goats. I stopped by CVS yesterday and got them a hairbrush... Tried TractorSupply, but they did not have what I liked. Still think something like a paddle would have been better but they seemed to like what I bought well enough... Mac is fairly tolerant nowadays and charlie does okay sometimes, holding on to their collar helps! Their feet are still crap... with the cows gone I may hopefully be able to make better progress correcting that... Toes may actually not be that bad, but I think I am dealing a bit with a case of high heel syndrome. I try paring the base of the foot down but surely not enough... I don't know what a good vs bad foot looks like... nothing to compare to.

Cows are gone....

Ferdinand and Ricardo... not the best picture.


Sad, sad day... The cows are gone... I know I'll miss them... I should know soon enough what price they will bring... Things I'll miss.. Oddly enough, their putting their nose up to me and letting out a burp! And givin scratches. Sitting with them... Having them rest their (big fat) head on me.

Found out the truck would not pull the trailer I got after I put the cows on it... Not surprising really... the truck I am using is a Ford Explo(d/r)er... Basically a Ford Ranger chassis with an SUV body... NOT suitable for pulling a trailer... Not even sure about pulling small stock trailer with that. Gotta give it credit though... Pulled a little utility trailer with a mid-size (5Ft? roll) hay bale (500-750+ Lbs range)... Did fine... No problems.

It had been a long hard road raising the calves... I would love to have a hand in raising many more... Cannot do it here though for many reasons... mainly too many animals on not enough land. My adventures in agriculture had also had frequent incidents of creating family friction.
Not sure where to go from here... Leasing property is kind of off the radar... Although I do not have high hopes, I am open to and looking for cattle share opportunities. For now I have no choice but to resume with the goats... At least I know where to find does now! Thank you craigslist!

Oh Krap...

Looks like I be entering the blogger world... Who'd a thunk it? Don't expect much you! A little late to be braggin about my calves/yearling cows, they will be heading to auction tomorrow.

I am a Pennsy yocal... Brought into this world via the folks at Crozier Chester Medical Center, one February day in the year of 1977. Raised in the city of Aston and lived there till the day we moved in late November 2004.

Always had a soft spot for stuff like horses... Never took enough of a chance to find out why until having moved to the Carolinas where I spent the last four years of my life working with those wonderful animals! And since then I have taken on Guinea Fowl, Goats and rasing a pair of calves... Even managed to spend a few weekends observing at a dairy farm before they decided to quit milk production.

So? What shall ye find here? Too early to say... Perhaps a little bit of everything.... Maybe nothing! My interests carry along many topics... Horses, Agriculture (Goats, Cows, Dairy, Grazing), Computers (Hardware/Software/Programming)... Pull up a seat if you dare and set a while, rest yer feet if ya dare!

BSE.