My Savvy Life This Week - Where's the beef?

My savvy life this week was filled with a little more excitement than usual when our cow had its calf.  Aww - so cute (except for the piles of manure, flies and other grossness).  Before you start getting all googly-eyed at these cuties remember that some day they could my dinner.  Yup - just like the 13 chickens I have running around the yard, I also currently have 2 cows, not to mention horses and cats. Anyone want a FREE Kitten - I'm serious!

#48, as my husband calls her, was one of our first 10 Holsteins and was also a twin.  Twin cows, with one male and one female,  are free-martins and apparently the chances of them having babies are pretty slim.  (But good 'ol #48 proved em wrong I guess.)   However,  sweet Tim The Toolman, unoffically Tim the midwife, decided that 1 week out from having my third child we ought to invest in 10 calves, including free-martins, and wouldn't it be so fun for the kids.  It wasn't really an investment, he said, because they were being given to us for free and there was also almost no cost for the hay in our fields.  He did forget to tell me the part about the back breaking labor of hauling hay! (On a side note, have you ever had to bottle feed an animal?  You guessed it, just like a baby they need to be fed constantly at all hours of the day and night. )

Tim, #48 and Baby Heffer

My husband was such a proud papa as he hooked twine around the calf's hooves to help birth the baby.  (I won't show you those pictures).  He exclaimed in delight how much milk that momma cow could give now.  "That's so nice" I said - "but who's gonna milk it"?  Not me! Seriously folks - not me!  Cows and chickens are his idea of food storage and frugal living while they're my idea of a hay devouring, poop making, fly storage living.

Truthfully, it is actually more expensive to raise your own beef than buying it at the store and I really can't tell the difference in taste - not a beef connoisseur I guess.  One might call me a city slicker.  And guess what, the calf is a girl and girls are more valuable! YAY GIRLS - except girls have more babies, which means more poop, hay, flies... you know the cycle!  So I've been wondering, can you "fix" a cow without your husband noticing.  Hmm, an idea worth looking into!