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Nat(wasIxy)
ParticipantJerseys are hardy! I think people get mistaken because they look so deer-like but they are tough little cows (or at least, the british ones are). They calve to anything, have good feet, heat tolerant and cold tolerant down to -20C. The calves are the most lively I’ve reared. Ours live out like all our cattle do and never give us a problem.
As for busas – here dexters are the bulk of our business and they are the smallest native breed. Customers love the meat because it’s fine grained and in joints more like what today’s smaller family needs – we get a lot of business from young couples and pensioners who only need to feed one or two people at a time. It’s also easier for us to respond to demand because we can keep more beef ‘on the hoof’ rather than in the freezer.
March 25, 2011 at 8:45 am in reply to: not with round staves, just for feeding the folks here…. #65717ParticipantOur horsey neighbours are mostly a form of amusement – whenever a jet goes over their horses go mad while our cows just sit cudding. And if I work the oxen, the horses go crazy – bucking around with excitement or hanging over the fence STARING, as though they can’t believe a cow could steal their job! Very funny.
I would like to talk to them, and perhaps ride with them…but they are very shouty grumpy people.
ParticipantOh no not yet, my woodwork leaves a lot to be desired – will have to talk to my stepdad very nicely!
Participant@bivol 25871 wrote:
oh yeah, i’m thinking of making a visit to central europe,
Pffft! CENTRAL Europe? That’s no good! :rolleyes: The western islands are much better 😀
ParticipantHow do you get these on and off? does the bottom bar come off completely or do the cattle have to come in from the side maybe???
ParticipantThanks for the simmental pictures! Angus is half simmental 😀 Here simmis are definately beef cattle, although with plenty of milk for a calf. Angus has always taken after his dairy parent more though, so although he is chunky he’s not overly so, which I’m glad about although he wouldn’t make as much at market!
I loved the story, and the picture – my kind of ambulance 😀
ParticipantI think I see what you mean..I’ll pass it on to the technical department 😉
ParticipantI’m not sure how it works with him yet – I’ve not driven him with the sledge, usually working alongside his head and when I’m ground driving, I haven’t tried standing without me holding the reins – that’s the next job!
ParticipantMy problem really was that if I’m pulling the sledge, it’s really low down and there’s nothing to wrap the reins around – I like the idea of tucking them in and being able to grab them, and presumably you can tuck them quite tight so the pressure is still there – he might think I’m magically holding them! 😀 lol
ParticipantThanks for that – I think our harness is lacking a ‘spider’ but something can be fashioned!
Participant@dominiquer60 25246 wrote:
Certainly a 10 gallon a day cow is not meant for the woods, or to last long as a dairy cow either. A neighbor down the road here used to milk cows, he said that they didn’t really hit their prime milking until 9-10 years old. He never pushed, never asked for 10 gallons a day, he said that type of cow doesn’t last long. With many enterprises slow and steady can get the job done, time and time again and with any luck, for many years.
Erika
Certainly agree with this – our jersey cull is steady away on the yield front but she’s 9yrs old and got in calf on her first AI service again this year. The people I milk for could not believe it, they struggle terribly trying to get their 3yrs olds in calf after many servings!!!
ParticipantAge of Angus when he gave up jumping? Can’t remember exactly but between 18months and 2yrs I think? Angus is a biiiiiig heavy animal though, no wonder he doesn’t want to jump 😀 I do however have my heifer Peach and think she should retain better activity levels longer…whether we’ll jump I doubt as I’m not too keen on it myself! But I think she will take more riding for longer.
The udder is a problem no doubt, I still debate whether to breed Peach or not and then whether to hand milk/let her rear the calf. At the end of the day she might develop a big udder no matter what, and if it seems to hurt her, we’ll call it a day. Ibizza is in such good condition though and has a nice udder so far – she looks much better than most of the cows I milk, despite her workload! Amazing, really, perhaps a tribute to german holstein breeding?
I didn’t think you were questioning whether cows could run and jump charly, just urging everyone to think on a bit about what cows are capable of in general – they’re not always the slow, dopey lumps we think in our modern age of them loafing in barns and being transported in trucks everywhere 😀
Participantfantastic, they look great – would love to drive 4 one day myself! I have the worst mismatched bunch of oxen in the world though so it could be a while yet 😀
ParticipantBeing realistic, a little canter is nothing to a cow! We say they are not ‘athletic’ but yes, they are – they are still prey animals, and have been given the ability to run – cattle can beat a horse in a sprint, and look at the levels of athleticism cattlehorses have to reach in order to work them – isn’t that how reining was developed? Endurance – what about your longhorns being driven thousands of miles, 25m/day. Ours will happily pop gates taller than themselves if they want to, from a standing start!
Now, Angus hates jumping with a passion, but he managed to make this quite clear when he’d grown out of it – when younger, he’d jump loose alongside my brown swiss I was training, just to get a treat – but then one day, he’d gone off it and instead of jumping, kept crashing through the jump and nothing could persuade him to pick his feet up – how could I? They don’t even have a fear response to work with like a horse, I could’ve lit fireworks under his feet and beat him black and blue and I know for a fact he still wouldn’t have jumped! 😀
ParticipantThe same could be said of making them pull weights before they are Xyrs of age. People advocate having them yoked and pulling weight for comparitively long periods within months of birth. Mine never pull anything heavier than a tyre before 18months of age, but yes, I will sit on them for a few seconds, to get them used to the weight.
Talking about ‘natural’ when it comes to oxen is a waste of time IMO – after all, they were born with the natural ability to gallop and jump, not with ploughs and logs trailing behind them, and yokes sprouting from their necks 😉 . We’re happy to take them away from their mothers, castrate, dehorn, ring their noses, train their horn shape, use electric fences on them, train them to perform tasks for us, milk them and so on….and then we talk about ‘natural’?
Ibizza and all these cows look in far, far better condition than the majority of the cows I milk in commercial dairy herds that never get above walking pace!
Cruel is a very strong word.
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