Yesterday morning over coffee, Kenny said, "Honey, why don't you pull up some ads on that computer of yours and lets look for some cows." We have been looking for a month or so and had only found our milk cow Belle and a little Hereford cow. I had seen an ad for "9 bred Longhorn cows - $375 each" for a couple of weeks, but we didn't call as at that price I was expecting flea-bitten bags of bones. Kenny said try it anyway, and we ended up going to see them.
I can't believe how good they looked or the deal we made on them! It ended up being $350 each and they all look to be bred! At that price, we can sell the calves next spring and end up with free cows!!! It was a cattle company we bought them from and they didn't know what they were bred to. They said they assembled the herd over the last month from different individuals and auctions, so Lord only knows what they're bred to. Wouldn't it be nice if atleast some of them are bred to Longhorns? And many of the calves are heifers?! They wouldn't be related to our bull, so could be added to our herd with no problems at all!
They all seem pretty much gentle and docile. There's one that gives me pause ~ her horns have been tipped and what comes to mind immediately is that was done because she's a troublemaker. It could be that she was owned by a skittish person and they just did it to be overly cautious, but it's more likely that she has been a problem for someone else. Regardless, we're keeping a close eye on her. All of them actually. Even though one of them comes up and lets you hand-feed her and "kissed" Kenny, we realize they can still do some serious damage if we're not careful.
We also got a young, tested Charolais bull. Every time I look at him I see ribeyes, porterhouses and great big rump roasts in his children! YUM! We were told he won't get as big as some Charolais do ~ only about 1800 lbs. (he's 1045 now so that sounds right). Kenny wanted a Charolais, but unless we bought Charolais cows, I was afraid it'd be hard to find cows big enough to breed/calve with ease (I'm not fond of pulling calves). This bull came from a man in South Texas who selectively breeds for small stature and docility. He hand feeds them as well. I believe what they told us as he's as cool as a cucumber! The pic I've attached here was taken about an hour after we unloaded him from an hour's trip where he rode packed in a 14 foot trailer with the girls.
I'm on cloud nine! I've attached a collage of pics. I took them all from a fair distance, so a couple are a bit fuzzy, but you can see them pretty well. Our little bull let me come right on up and he posed nicely, didn't he? ;-)
