It has been a few weeks since we posted, not for a lack of activity on the farm, but rather because of how busy things have been!
First and most importantly, two weeks ago we welcomed a beautiful and healthy baby girl into the world. Mom and baby are doing great and we are letting our joy suffice in place of sleep!
Second, we are getting ready to take our first four head (two Devon steers and two Angus heifers) to the butcher tomorrow morning! We are excited to see how this 100% grass-fed beef turns out and expecting some really flavorful and tender beef. Grass-fed beef sometimes has the reputation of being “gamey” in flavor and really lean. This can be the case; I remember reading somewhere the comment from a beef connoisseur that the best steak he’d ever had was grass-fed and the worst steak he’d ever had was grass-fed. That being said, we are optimistic based on how the animals look physically, how and what they’ve been grazing, and the low-to-no-stress life they’ve had that this beef will be in the running for the best beef you’ve ever had.
I will be loading up the four cattle around 5:00 AM tomorrow morning to get to the butcher around 6:00. The beef will dry-age for about two weeks to help with the tenderness and flavor. Then the sides will be custom butchered as our lucky first customers have requested. Then we’re headed back to the butcher with coolers to pick up the meat.
Our third bit of excitement was another day of trailering the cattle up the road to a new field to graze. It was a bit of sprint to get all the perimeter fencing in place, but we got it done. Our friend, Chelsea, came through again on her day off to help me load and unload the cattle. This time we were in for a bit more of an adventure. We had loaded all the big cattle and just had the eight calves to go. We wanted to take them separately so that they didn’t get trampled in the trailer.
Well, the calves were much more reluctant to step on up on the trailer than their older counterparts. We eventually settled on my picking each calf up and Chelsea opening and closing the trailer door as I came and went. All well and good until the last calf decided to make a break for it. It snuck under one of the loading panels before I could dash around the other side to block it. I made a diving effort and managed to grab one hind leg only to have it spring forward pulling and twisting me through air before I landed with a thud on my back! Not exactly the 31st-birthday gift I was looking for! It took us about 45 minutes to get that calf back in the corral.
With the trailer finally loaded with all the calves we made our way to reunite the calves with their mamas. As the calves tumbled off the foot-off-the-ground trailer floor the cows started running from the other side of the paddock mooing loudly. As we started to pull out the field with the trailer in tow we stopped to take one more look. There were all the cows standing quietly with all the calves nursing. Finally we could get our own lunch!
More to share, so look for another update next week!