T-Bone, Sirloin, Roast, Ground Round

One of the best parts about raising your own critters are the freezers full of fresh, home grown meat. It's why we do what we do~ brave the elements 365 days a year, commit our every waking thought, muscle, and dollar into building up this old farmstead and arrange vacations around the neighbors schedule so he can worry about the critters for a weekend. But the payoff is worth it, especially given the fact that I wouldn't be happy without more than a dozen projects going on and critters to care for. We have been raising our own beef for over 12 years now. In the beginning we were given a free little jersey bull calf to raise which led to a legacy of jersey Hanks. Hank became a 4 letter curse word after about the third year when Hank III decided it was lots of fun to play catch every other day with me and 3 little children chasing him. There was never a better tasting steak than that year, and I don't think we have raised a jersey calf since.

Then we got the brilliant idea that the farm might actually make some money by raising calves. Being we had become experts at raising these finicky little buggers why not fill up the barn with them? So off to the sales barn we went and filled up the truck several times that summer. By the end of the summer we had a nice bovine graveyard going on and were planning an archaeological dig for the following spring for home school. We were introduced to shipping fever, pneumonia, scours and numerous other farm and auction related illnesses times 12. We were discouraged but not defeated. This crazy calf obsession eventually lead us to purchasing 2 beef cows and this old run down farm and 40 acres to keep them on. Beef cows~ now that was the answer to all our problems. But what we learned the hard way was that momma beef cow ate her weight in hay and grass which also ate up any profit we would hope to gain since we could not produce our own grain or hay yet. Throw in a bad birthing experience, a premature calf, a couple of cows that wouldn't conceive, big bulls, and it was back to the bottle babies for us.

Of course our standard 3 calves weren't enough now that we had 40 acres to make use of. Why not raise 12? So 12 it was. Of course every other year before that one had been a great year to sell calves, but now that we had 12 the market took a nose dive and we ended up nearly giving them all away last year. So this spring I limited myself to our standard 3 calves again. Three because one calf just does not do well on it's own and with 3 we can cover our expenses to raise them all, our meat becomes virtually free other than our time and labor, and we make a couple of other families happy as well.

In our neck of the woods you need to schedule a butcher date at least a year in advance. Somehow last year this minor detail got overlooked and we have been on a waiting list for our big boys to get shipped this fall. Well, praise the Lord, the locker plant called over the weekend and they could pick them up on Monday morning! Now usually I am happy to help move critters and get them loaded if need be. I am pretty good at standing around with a stick and giving orders, but this year I was stuck in bed with the flu so Rob handled it very well all by himself again. My favorite cow loading story is from last year when Rob went out to make sure the steers were situated before the truck came at 6:30 A.M.. It was raining cats and dogs and being he really didn't want to be out there loading cattle in the rain he prayed that God would stop the rain long enough so that they could load the steers. As soon as the truck pulled into the driveway the rain stopped, the steers loaded easily, the truck pulled away and the rain started again. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.... He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain {James 5:16-17}

Along with the big steers (which for the record were huge this year given the extra time and weighed in at an average of 600# of fresh beef, which means they were about 1,200# steers) we also have 2 farm fresh hogs in the freezer to get us through until next falls butcher dates. They keep trying to talk me into butchering the baby billy goats but I just can't find the heart to do that yet. I have gotten over the fact that we are eating Michael the Cow and can just enjoy a steak dinner. Now, onto next years farm plans..... see, I am the ultimate optimistic and really believe that next year it will be worth it to raise 12 calves. Or maybe just 8. But then we would have to keep more goats so that we will have more milk to raise more calves to bale more hay to feed them all and then raise more corn and build more fences and another barn....... Three calves might not be so bad after all. Chickens, now that's the way we should go~ maybe 50, maybe 100?? Why not a couple hundred?? What can go wrong with chickens??