Raindrops are falling on my head

Travis you are so right on the many things that can cause the chewiness. Feed fed, amount of room to roam, length of time the meat hung in the locker plant (not in the package but on the hook). Jersey, better yet, that Jersey/Angus cross is in my book THE premium meat. Jersey has so little muscle mass it creates tender meat automatically. I realize your holstein might be half the cost of a beef calf, but it will cost at least twice to get it to same size. They are not efficient meat producers and also are very wasteful in their eating habits. If your field is fenced, after your farmer harvest the corn, put it out on the stalks. For a couple of months it is good roughage for cattle.
 
Travis you are so right on the many things that can cause the chewiness. Feed fed, amount of room to roam, length of time the meat hung in the locker plant (not in the package but on the hook). Jersey, better yet, that Jersey/Angus cross is in my book THE premium meat. Jersey has so little muscle mass it creates tender meat automatically. I realize your holstein might be half the cost of a beef calf, but it will cost at least twice to get it to same size. They are not efficient meat producers and also are very wasteful in their eating habits. If your field is fenced, after your farmer harvest the corn, put it out on the stalks. For a couple of months it is good roughage for cattle.

You make some good points. I might look into getting a beef calf of another breed, but the pull is pretty strong still for the Holstein. Just go over to the barn, pick one out and raise it. Considering these are "drop calfs" or male calfs that are worth at most 50 bucks and destined for Veal, its tempting. I mean I won't pay that, I'll get one or two for nothing, but they male Holstein cows on a dairy farm are not looked at with fond regard..in other words, pretty much useless to a farmer.

I am not disagreeing with you at all Jon, so don't take it that way please. You are right in that Holsteins are and will only be, milking type cows. I did have success in raising Steak though,and his cost was pretty nil since I had the hay and pasture already. Really only the grain cost money,along with the slaughtering. From what I understand, their bone structure is what's a killer. Since slaughter houses go by live weight, and their bone structure is high, you are paying to have less meat butchered.

As for the Jersey mix, we had plenty of those cows too, well the Jersey's not the Jersey mixed cows anyway. Nice small cows for sure, with plenty of butterfat in their milk. I remember my Grandfather skimming milk all week long, then on Saturday mornings we would watch cartoons and "crank the butter churn", to make butter and sold it at the local store. I am forced to eat marginene these days by the Mrs, but give me good old butter any day. I don't care what they say, I think real butter is better for you. I do know this, margerine burns off the frying pan in a black, sticky mess. Butter never burns and keeps things from sticking. Oh yeah, give me real butter any day!!

As for the Jerseys themselves, I like their overall look,and their smallish size, but good golly they are some skittish animals. We used to herd up cows on the loose by touching off the rifle. The sound would start them in another direction, and hopefully back into the pasture. One time my Grandfather held the rifle too low and the bullet got the cow. Down it went...dead. He quickly called up the cattle dealer and said "hurry up and get over here." It took some explaining but he finally believed our story and took it to the slaughter house. As everyone knows, slaughter houses are not supposed to accept a dead cow. In this case though, they understood "things happen." It was an honest to goodness mistake.

As for the crop ground Jon, I am not sure if I am understanding you right or not. I don't think grazing cows on our corn fields would amount to much. Here we plant cow corn, and when we chop it, we take everything. The stalk, the leaves, and the ears of corn. Everything runs through the chopper and gets blown into trucks and fed to the cows. Our new chopper chops everything up to pieces about ¼ inch in size. That fine size helps the cows make more milk believe it or not. The only thing that is left in the fields after we are done is the stubble, or roots of the corn.

I looked for a picture of this "stubble" but could not find one Jon.I do have a few other pictures though. The first is of my "Davis Place Field" which is growing corn in the picture. The other picture is of our chopper picking up hay and chopping it into haylage and blowing it into a truck. What a nice, nice machine. Last year I drove it while knocking down 12 feet high corn. Every six minutes we knocked down an acre of corn. The machine, a 400 hp chopper was bogging down it had so much corn it was chopping (six rows). That's pretty good when you are taking the stalk and all.

Davis_Field_Over_Rocks2.JPG


Haylage.JPG


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I am forced to eat marginene these days by the Mrs, but give me good old butter any day. I don't care what they say, I think real butter is better for you. I do know this, margarine burns off the frying pan in a black, sticky mess. Butter never burns and keeps things from sticking. Oh yeah, give me real butter any day

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

ahh ok now that I have my composure again :D
You haven't ever been in a margarine plant before have you ? They put chemicals on the seed to speed up the oil extraction process, Since they aren't adding it to the margarine the don't have to list said chemicals on the ingredients. But the chemicals turn the margarine, black, so then they bleach it to get it white, then they add food coloring. I think your wife is trying to do you in Travis, you got a big insurance policy ? :rofl:

I made one thing clear when I got married, if you bring margarine in my house, i WILL throw it away. The wife didn't believe me. she brought some home, I threw it out the door :D That happened 3 times till she figured out I was serious. :D I will eat dry toast in a restaurant before I will eat margarine.
 
Okay...add another nasty organic food/drink to the list. Organic Carrot Juice. We bought Alyson some, and yet she wanted nothing to do it with it. After drinking it, I can see why. YUCK!!:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

ahh ok now that I have my composure again :D
You haven't ever been in a margarine plant before have you ? They put chemicals on the seed to speed up the oil extraction process, Since they aren't adding it to the margarine the don't have to list said chemicals on the ingredients. But the chemicals turn the margarine, black, so then they bleach it to get it white, then they add food coloring. I think your wife is trying to do you in Travis, you got a big insurance policy ? :rofl:

I made one thing clear when I got married, if you bring margarine in my house, i WILL throw it away. The wife didn't believe me. she brought some home, I threw it out the door :D That happened 3 times till she figured out I was serious. :D I will eat dry toast in a restaurant before I will eat margarine.

Do you make your own butter Mickey?

As I mentioned in previous post,we used to. My Grandparents had Jersey Cows at the time and he used to skim the butterfat all week long, then churn it into butter on Saturday mornings. It was no big deal, but a lot of hand cranking.

A few years ago she sold the old butter churns to a antique dealer. She asked me if I wanted them, and I kind of did, but its hard when fuel is so high and your 84 year old Grandmother is going to Canada so she an afford to take her heart medication. Besides you can't keep everything in life that gave you fond memories. Better to have the memories then everything tangible I guess.

Anyway, around here Antique Dealers are considered lower then whale drool. Now if there are any antique dealers on here, I can't apologize. They are ruthless people that will do anything and everything to buy antiques off the old timers for little or nothing, knowing full well they need the money. Just seeing one in my grandmothers driveway makes my skin crawl.

One guy came and she told him she was not interested, and yet he kept coming back. She told him not to go over head in the attic either,and yet he did anyway. She told him it was not safe up there,and yet up he went, digging around until he finally fell down, with his foot through the ceiling. Now this got my Grandmother right sideways mad. She took her broom and kept poking at the guy. Now if you can picture this, you can easily see where she was poking him. She might be 84 years old, by by golly she is an old farm wife, who is pretty tough. A few months ago she threw her back out lugging a 50 pound sack of potatoes down into her root cellar. I am she jabbed that broom handle up into the ceiling hard enough to poke the guy because he hasn't come back. As I said, antique dealers here anyway are lower then whale drool.

I guess the only real reason not to make your own butter is because that would require dairy cows. Now I know how hard that is. Dairy farming is not for the lazy that is for sure. Three milkings a day, 24/7,365...not to mention having to be a vet, an industrial hygentist, businessman, carpenter, electrician, laborer, mechanic and heavy equipment operator all rolled into one. No thank you. I did that for 20 years, I think I would rather be a Antiques Dealer!!:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
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Maybe you live in the wrong part of the country for this, but we have, and still do, make our own ice cream. It is the best...better then anything you can buy at the story, and yes that includes Ben and Jerry's.

We had an old hand cranked ice cream maker for years, but now have a modern one that is electric powered. Still it takes a good 20 minutes of churning to make ice cream.

They claim the "ice King", a guy from Boston, went down to the Carribean with ice cream and gave it to the locals down there as a way to drum up business for the ice he cut and sold on the Kennebec River. I could see why people would get hooked on it, especially if you use your own cream skimmed off your own milk.

They say pasteurizing and homogenizing milk is better for you, but I think nothing of making ice cream and chocolate milk right from the bulk tank on the farm. (I even gave some real milk to Alyson right from the tank, but don't tell her mother or she would kill me.)

As for making your own butter, good for you!
 
Not to knock this post off topic but :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I got the okay from my dad to get some beef cows. We were at Sunrise Service this morning talking over life's challenges and I mentioned getting some beef cows. He said that was funny as he was thinking the same thing.

Our land is separate so I guess I don't need his permission to get them per se, but its always good to have a back up person to feed the bovine if you are away from home. Better to have the person to help you out, agree to the whole idea then it is to have them involved grudgingly.

I guess that means my hackmatack tree plantation will be harvested this year and fence posts planted instead. No big deal really. I am looking forward to both doing some logging this Spring and getting this old farm back into cow raising status again.:thumb:
 
Yeah it will be interesting that is for sure. I am not used to Dad being around that much, so him being retired now will change a lot of stuff.

I went for a long walk in the woods this weekend, and while the snow is still way to deep to cut, I could not believe the amount of wood growing on me. The Firewood Market dissolved, so I was looking at cutting some softwood. Four foot spruce and fir pulpwood is going for 100 bucks a cord roadside, so I was looking to see what I had.

There was plenty of big stuff. One spot that we call the "Bowl" because its hard to get to because no matter how yo pull it, is uphill has nothing but big fir that has to be nearing the end of its life cycle. Another area is teeming with it too. That is easier to get to, so I might snag that.

I am not sure how much Dad will be able to help me in the woods. He is 62 and might not be up to the rigors of logging, but his forced retirement does change everything.

I have a friend that raises beef cows. He only has 5 cows on 47 acres, but seems to do well at what he does. I am going to talk to him and see if I can get a market for the cows before I start. I got a few months before Spring arrives (the real Spring, no snow, no mud) so there is no hurry. I'll get my ducks all in a row and then go from there.

About the biggest expense I see is fencing. I am not sure if I will go that route, or just use a rope and a swivel like I did on the last bull we had (steak). That worked out quite well, and he never got loose...my biggest fear with all the kids we have "on the hill". That is what we call this place.

What are your thoughts on fencing?
 
Back when I had Steak, I made this metal stand that I put into a hole. Its hard to describe, but it had this big metal swivel at the top and I buried it in the ground. Attached to the swivel was a rope and that went to his neck chain. Since the swivel was at ground level, and pivoted, he never got his rope wrapped around anything. He would pull his guts out, but could not pull it from the ground.

The great thing was though, I could hook onto that metal stanchion with my tractor and by picking it straight up, it would pull right out of the ground. Every week or so I would move him, and he would get new grass to graze on.

It would not be as good as a fenced area, but I am really worried about him getting loose. Maine does not have Free Range laws so if he gets loose, I would be held responsible for car damages or crop ground losses. That wouldn't be good.

Still an electric fence would be easy enough to buy and install though. I got plenty of cedar for fence posts too.:dunno:
 
Kind of tempted to get into pigs too. I actually like pigs. A lot of people think of them as nasty and dirty, but they actually prefer to be clean...its just that no one allows them to be.

We did as a kid. We had this pig called Mr Bacon. he was a cool pig. He would follow us kids around, wait at the edge of the lawn for us to get on or off the bus and just play with us when we could. He honest to goodness thought he was a dog, and I think he was gosh darn close.

About the only bad thing he did, was kill our slide. Yeah my brother went down the swing-set slide and Mr Bacon followed him. He was getting to be pretty big then, and boom, that old metal stamped slide folded right in half!! It was pretty funny.

Of course one day Mr Bacon was no longer around. It was not until quite later on in life that I found out what happened to him, and why we suddenly got an influx in bacon and porkchops about the time he disappeared. :)
 
Oh yeah, and speaking of funny pig names, we had a pig named Lassie too.:rofl:

I grew up around animals, and enjoy them now, but growing up on a farm, you quickly learn that animals are there for a purpose to. You get attached to them, but also learn the circle of life, and the heirarchy of the food chain.

If I seem callous about it, I don't mean to. Its just that I grew up playing with a calf one day, and the next day, because our barn was really cold, you would end up taking it out for coyote bait (the calf would die in the cold barn during the night). Its just the way it was.

Okay, I might have accidentally done one calf in. She was tied up by the hay barn door. As you came in with two haybales in your arms, she would wait, then at the last second, swing her wet and poo covered tail up and slap you side the face. With your arms holding the haybales, you could not defend yourself.

Well one day I came in, then waited...and waited...and still no tail swinging. So I made a step, and pow....wet and poo covered tail right upside the kisser. Oh I was mad, so I dropped the haybales and grabbed this hammer that was by the haybarn door. I did not even hit her hard, just a smack on the noggin with the handle. Well the handle hit that poor calf right between her horn bumps. She went down, did the chicken in convulsions and died. I was mortified. Plus I knew my Grandfather was going to take the axe handle to me for killing a heifer calf. For a dairy farm, you build your herd with heifers calfs. My Grandfather was pretty hard on us growing up, and as many of you know, his favorite form of punishment was taking an axe handle to you. You generally tried to stay on his good side. He never did find out though, so my rib cage was safe, but I never hit a calf with a hammer again either. :(
 
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The article said there is only 8 people doing it that way, but I know of two right off the top of my head,so I think the numbers are not accurate. I am pretty sure more people then that are farming grass-only cows.

Its certainly not my thing, but in re-reading your post from awhile back, it did make sense in that farmers feed their crops, while organic people feed their soil. Just a different way of looking at farming and doing it different.

One thing I did not mention that I should...is that being Dairy farmers we don't use a lot of chemical fertilizers. For instance, while farmers out in the mid-west depend on Annihydrous Ammonia, we don't use it at all. We have never used it. We got way to much bovine tailings (holstein poo) to fertilize with. We do use Urea though, and fly ash. I guess fly ash is considered okay for organic farming, but myself I would not consider that organic. We do NOT use sludge (untreatable human waste from waste water treatment plants) but do use fish guts.

Being on the coast, there is an abundance of fish guts coming out of of the fish processing plants and we do use that. The Dept of Environmental Protection (DEP) actually pays to have the guts injected right into the ground so there is absolutely no smell. It makes for wonderful fertilizer though, but I am on the fence about whether that is organic or not. Its really not chemically changed or derived, really the modern equivalent of when the Native Americans showed the pilgrims how to put a corn seed in the ground, with a lobster right beside it as fertilizer, so I really don't know. :dunno:

If my father and I do go ahead with our plans to raise cows, I could in good conscience say they were grass-raised because they were. I could not put a certified organic stamp on them because my ground isn't certified, but it certainly could be. The fields we have in trees right now have not been sprayed or fertilized with anything since 1994. Even then it was only Roundup to kill the grass for two years to protect the seedlings from grass competition.
 
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