Feeding a Family From a Garden

I stupidly opened my big mouth one day and remarked that I always wanted a Longhorn to my DH. Dumb thing to do. Three weeks later I was gifted with a beautiful red and white speckled bull for my Hereford/Beefmaster cows. I was in love. :love So were the cows. :love Meanest darn bull, would run at me, paw, shake his head, chase the horses, but his specialty was jumping the fence. He could clear the fence like a deer. :rant The Sheriff's department was always calling me to put him up. :somad I carried a piece of galvanized water pipe and took a "batter up" stance when that darn bull charged at me. About the time he got to me, I'd wallop him on the nose as hard as I could. He's stop, shake his head and before he could decide to run at me again, I beat him all over his head with that pipe. :he I fell out of love with him pretty fast. :lau The kicker came on a cold dark rainy nasty night when, for the 2nd time, he was out on the road and I had to chase him up and down the road like the idiot I was. I was finally DONE.

I sold him to a friend and that bull nearly started a range war. He jumped the fence and went up the road to a neighbor's pasture and serviced all his registered Angus cows. :gig
 
OK, back on track with gardening........ :lau last night for supper, we had butterbeans, collard greens, (from the garden) and cornbread (cornmeal from corn I grew) and it was DELICIOUS!!! Tonight we are going to have leftover cornbread and butterbeans, along with an old stew hen that is simmering in a pot......dunno what I will make with her yet. Soup......chicken salad.......dumplings...... :idunno
 
We have an elderly old couple about 5 miles from us that raise Texas Longhorns. I think they call their land "Shermanwood Ranch" or something like that. We buy all of our beef from them. We have been invited to a convention of theirs that they have yearly. We didn't stay long though, kind of awkward being the only non Longhorn - keeping people there! They all looked like ranchers too, we unwittingly came in our "city" clothes. The cattle would come up to about 15 feet of the fence and just stand there and look for a minute, then run like horses back out to pasture.

I'm sure they'd be different if you were right up in their territory, though! You must be tough ole lady to smack one with a pipe, Bay! :lol:
 
TheSeedObsesser said:
I'm sure they'd be different if you were right up in their territory, though! You must be tough ole lady to smack one with a pipe, Bay! :lol:
Click to expand...
:lau Smack 'em or git smacked! :lau
 
now y'all stop badmouthin longhorns - especially you bay. they're the prettiest darn things ever. I'm sure if I had any - they'd be sweet & easy.
I can just see mean ole bay w/that pipe & standing probably all of 5'2 holding her ground as a 1400 lb hunk of mad bull comes in on her. now that girl is what Texas is all about.:lau
 
I like Bay's style! But then I like "spirited women" Just ask my wife :D

Cows as pets? What's next you going to tell me there are people who don't eat meat?!

One of the things I think people fail to evaluate & continue to reevaluate is the cost. Not just financial, but time too. How much does it take to get _____ meat, or milk or other product? Is the $ per lbs worth what your getting back? Is there a better way or a more efficient way? Also how much are they using? Do they have too much? Could they get by on less?

Maybe it's better to make your own sex links instead of pure breds so you know which chicks to sell to people looking for layer chicks, and you capon the others for home consumption.

Or maybe you add a layer that has a different colored egg than your sex links so you know which ones to incubate & which are for eating. So you have that many more eggs total. I know I'd rather have a buckeye x Barred rock chick in the bator to raise to process instead of a buckeye x leghorn cross to accidentally raise. So when collecting eggs I know eat the white ones & hatch the brown ones till I've got the incubator full.

Just how I look at it
 
All interesting ideas - even dodging the Long Horns :eek:!

Let me try a few ideas about animal protein: To start off, if they are eating the same thing you are, or what you could sell at a good price, they are too expensive to eat!

Here is another idea: if you don't have to kill them, they are cheaper. By that I mean, a milk cow will produce tons of protein (& calories). She loses a lot of nutrients just keeping herself alive. The animal nutritionists call that "maintenance." Raise her until she could be a productive milk-producer and then kill her?!! Criminal! Well, it would be a mindless thing to do. But, you could almost say the same about raising a chicken for 12 months and killing him. All those nutrients for extra months of maintenance are just going out the window :/!

There are reasons why milk protein costs are so low and beef protein costs are so high. Why egg protein costs are low. Why fryers are cheaper than beefsteak.

Steve
 
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