Cows!
Today's post is on our Cows.
We have had them for three years, when we first bought them we had about fifty head, and then that winter, quite a few of the cows calved, and we had just over sixty head.
The Cows we got were Scottish Highland Cattle, which are commonly mistaken for Yaks; with their long hair, and big horns.
We Pasture raise and Pasture finish our cows so they get no grain, which is better for the animal's health, and our health as well.
Scottish Highlands live a long life, some have been known to live into their late twenties, and still Calve every year, although this happens, it is not always the case, so, the next year we began thinning the herd, we had several Cows who were in their twenties, that had not calved the year before, we also got rid of the old bull, his name was Shane, and he was sixteen years old, we had a younger bull, he was three at the time, and his name was Guinness, he was a black Scottish Highland bull.
All of the land we graze our cows on is leased land, so that year we also looked for land to lease, and got a few leases underway.
Along with the leases we bought an Irish Black Bull, his name is Jameson,(we call him Jammie) and he is quite the gentle giant, at the time he was about two years old, then our Bull, Guinness, got Bottle jaw, and that left us with just Jammie.
The following year we continued thining out the herd, we had already thinned out a lot of the older Momma's but we still had some that were not Calving, it was that year in January that our Cows got pneumonia, and we had a few of the older Cows die, and a Calf, but the animals that were left behind were strong, and we had caught it in time to make sure the animals got the medicine they needed.
Later that year we got our first calves from Jammie, Pig, and J.J., they were born in May and June, and because they are a cross, by the time they were a year old they were already as big as our two-year-old Highlands!
Moving into this year we had thinned our herd down to about twenty head of good young healthy stock and had a good strong calf crop.
Me, with Dechlin and Jessa at one of our lease properties.

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