From chickens, pigs, sheep, cattle, goats, and now
Peat (the #doginsheepsclothing)... we've had a little of it all.
In The Beginning...
When my grandparents bought the original farm in1928, they started with one milk cow, a garden, some chickens and pigs to raise. Not too long after, they started their family with their first child (my Aunt Arline) being born, followed a couple of years later by my Uncle Richard. But the 1930s brought the depression and drought, and my grandparents had to find a way to survive. They bought piglets to raise and sell, and those piglets helped keep the farm going when many others were being forced to let their farms go.
While sheep and cattle were both incorporated into the farm, all the sheep were eventually sold in 1998. We've been a cow/calf operation for as long as I can remember. That means that we raise our own replacement heifers. So when a female cow has a calf, that calf becomes the next generation in our herd if she has the characteristics that we look for such as docility and good maternal qualities.
Because of that, you really have to think about and carefully observe the cows frequently. My grandpa was an all-around amazing cattleman, stand-in vet, and businessman. My dad carried on the tradition of knowing the animals. He understood what was going to happen with the temperament of the cow almost before the cow knew herself.
I feel like I got the best of both worlds from watching my grandpa in the business, understanding the land, and being willing to take a leap; and learning from my dad what to watch for in the cattle.
About The Cows
There are a lot of factors to think about when choosing what kind of cattle to raise. We started with Polled Hereford in the 1930s. History declared that 'Herefords won the west' in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They don't require a lot of supplements to do their job, and we like that. They are great mothers, grow nice sized calves on grass, and don’t have horns (hence, polled).
We pay close attention to things like how easy it is for a cow to calve, how well she's feeding the calf, her milk supply, is she calm enough to handle, and how well her calf is growing.
We've used bulls to infer additional traits that we're looking to enhance and we want to be sure that first time mommas (heifers) are going to be able to birth a calf without help. Sometimes the calves are too big to birth easily, which is dangerous for both cow and calf. We look to have our calves come out easy, grow quickly, and marble well on grass alone without supplementation to fatten them up.
The 'Other' Animals
The other animal fixtures around Osage Orange are my two Weimaraners, Pistol and Carl, our jagterrier, Jack, some goats, and the newest member of the family, Peat the Sheep who is a dog in sheep's clothing.
Contact Us
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