Raising Cows - The Basics (Fencing, Weight Goal, Vaccinations, and more)

we're in Casey County I love Casey yeah some of the friendliest people I've ever met her in Casey County I'm not kidding you this is Todd horn now we're out here today on your beautiful farm good time of year it's gorge on here you know we're out here for a reason today first of all we've been talking on the phone we finally met I wanted to cow dr. Donald harder Donald's getting his started he's kind of let me know okay he came looked at my property and said you need to do this you need to do that he said I'm gonna find you somebody's got a cow that's the next step now there's a lot involved in here you don't just say hey I want a cow and you put it in your and let it rip right there's a lot to it and I'm going to ask you questions about that today we're going to follow up later at the house but the reason we're here today is because we're going to visit the cow and the calf that I'm about to purchase we're gonna bring back up on my place first of all let's talk about the fact that you're doing something unique here this isn't your typical this is your creation right of the most part tell us about what you're trying to do with the black King Angus and the old milk Calvin short all right in 2011 Kim I liquidate my cow herd had 34 Black Angus cows took the lecture money I had out of that and bought by five Brown Swiss cows now why Brown Swiss okay one Brown Swiss was cheaper because they were a dairy breed number two I was using them as nurse cows so I was putting multiple calves on each cow I would go to the stockyard local stockyard over in Campbellsville and purchase calves that were pulled off of maybe some old cows or what they call downer cows cows that's on their last leg and I would buy that baby calf and graft it on to that cow so that first year of having five Brown Swiss nurse cows I was able to raise probably somewhere between 25 and 30 calves that year because I would keep the calves on for three months take those calves off put a new group of calves on I would get three rotations or her milk cycle it's how I started my base herd so I took the brown swiss cows crossed them with a Black Angus bull and started from there basically working towards an animal that's got plenty of frame plenty of milk very docile and I'm taking that now my goal is is just get the meat added back to that frame it's working so far I'm enjoying it having a good time doing a lot of artificial insemination on these cows I do that myself and have enjoyed it so it's kind of neat being that I have sheep and there'll be some times when I'll probably introduce those together and let those run right now sheep really greatest things down so I've got different areas where I can move everybody around but what donal recommend it for what I'm going to do is add a more docile animal and with that with what you have here you know I already touched on those right you know you have to get to know your cow lows don't have to be careful with you know I'm short but I want something that I can move around not have to worry about running me to ground right this to me is and I've talked to a lot of people who are talking about your your your milk out there who say that's their favorite cow to eat mm-hmm a lot of people sure I've got a jersey up here that I'm fattening and I'll tell you why Tim I can buy probably three jerseys for what one of these black calves is going to sell fourth the stockyard I can go and buy the Jersey rig yes they're not going to have quite as much meat that you're going to get as far as way they're going to cut out they're not going to cut out quite as much but the quality and the taste is just I don't know if it's better than Angus to me as far as taste and I almost hate for that to be on camera but it is the truth because there's probably some Angus people right now that that might have clicked the station off but I've been fattening a Jersey calf every year and grain-fed I'm not a grass fed person I like the flavor that the grain brings to the to the meat yes the grass-fed is more like eating deer it's probably healthier but I just soon died you're too early eating something the combination of that can you give him some it'll let him eat grass and then your ups probably can yes and I'm not pushing I'm not pushing like a feedlot would I'm not pushing but he'll have pretty much all the all the grain he wants just Brown Deer corn and some distillers grain right like good mineral um you say she's trained 1-wire so I can probably put a very minimal short expense yes in that fence yes now I've got to get me a good unit where I can you know keep her in and you say she needs pretty good zap yes so she's like it's that thing on or all right I don't want her you don't want to go in there right I don't want yeah I wouldn't want her she's been running this field you can see in the background along the fence along the wood line there is one strand of electric wire that I just put an electric box on because of those calves the cow stayed in the calves are wanting to get out so I just bought a solar-powered unit from southern states and put on there 2 or 3 weeks ago just to keep the calves in how long is it going to take this little guy you said you said at any point you can eat this turtle but ideally if I want to really put a bunch of meat in the freezer for the winter when do you think would be an ideal time and what should I shoot for weight wise to get him up too before I eat I think you need to I think you need to kind of target around 600 pounds at least get to 600 right one the cow will have no problem supporting that animal supporting that calf to get it to 600 pounds milking as much as she's going to there will be no problem there and that's six 650 range if you want to pull it off and just and finish it a little bit on feed you can do that but we as as kids we used to kill a milk-fed calf right off the cow every year and you can't beat the taste and it'll be tender enough to cut it with for now me hobby farmer I want to raise one a year for me okay all right what do I need to think about to take care of that dead cow what do I need to look out for what kind of shots do we need what does what does what are some things are we really going to watch out for you'll have different opinions about this my my brood cows I usually just give them an IVR shot which is a respiratory virus inoculation keep them from getting some respiratory issues and then I use a dewormer that's all they need you can change your tags if you need your ear tag comes out you can put a new deer tag in but it's as far as anything additional nothing needed there for the calf blackleg an IVR shot I'll take care of the castrating him before he comes to yes and D warming him maybe a couple times okay the worms are just going to rob him from his growing capabilities anything anytime there's often well I have to do that once once it's taken care of here at about maybe 300 pounds or so and then maybe again it may be 500 pounds and they actually make some that you can just add to think oh so no shot needed on that so that would be no problem for you they're one of the one of your one of your biggest concerns is going to be getting this cow bred back here in a couple months explain that to those who might not okay you want your cow to calve basically every year so sometime around April next year you want you want another calf on the ground because you're going to eat this other one up and need another one so that's what you need to focus on here sometime in June we need to be looking at getting a bull getting to introduce that Cal to so you can do one of two things take the cow and calf to the bull or bring a bull put it in there with the cow and calf leave it in there for 45 days heat cycle on that cow 21 days every 21 days they're going to come and heat that bull will pull that Cal and heat natural thing that'll be your next biggest challenge is getting her bred back got your dumb and get ready for next year's calf let's take a walk and look at some hair short come on when called correctly they cannot resist it they're going to come running look at ya come on girls yeah come in here so here's one of my foundation cows okay 901 that means she was born in 2009 the other Brown Swiss coming up back there that she's got that red calf there that that is one that's a twin her other twin calf is in the end lot I went ahead and pulled one calf off now that calf will get all the milk the other one will be on eating feed it's just amazing how you can take something and just custom-fit to what you can doesn't aggravate you that the process takes breeding cycles yes yep which is here next a year your don't matter no matter how well you like it you can get a dud this whole thing is yeah you know there's a there's gonna be a little bit of a break here I have I have to do this terrible I gotta go to southern Florida and fish hate it for you rare things I have to do this show just make me mad sometimes time but I've got to get through that once I struggle through that process we do a little seafood cooking a little stuff like that it's terrible we're gonna come back and then we're you're coming up the house I can't wait to actually have you know like I said I'm not going to be a big operation short but I would like to get point eventually where I can milk a cow to write you know and then have some coke for us yes the whole thing's just fascinating thank you so much for talking with us to the other problems see I see where you're going with this yeah very interesting it's been fun I've enjoyed it families enjoyed it there's nothing like walking out here and seeing something that basically use you've created on your place yeah on my place let's turn it on cool that's right you

Channel: Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen

Views: 780,574

Keywords: Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen, Tim Farmer, Country, Kitchen, Kentucky, Old Fashion, Recipes, KET

Id: sEXD7PxOMqk

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Sun May 22 2016