[Homesteadingfamily] Re: Farmstead animals

Hey Melody!We are in the NGA mountains. I raise gentle Jerseys that love
people. We are a humane farm,too. I break them to milk by hand and then
put them on the machine so that they are used to either or both. We
don't have "kickers" either. We do remove horns at two weeks old for
safety down the road, unless asked not to. We have smaller standards,
too...about 40" - 44". We halter break each gal and name her. I register
some and others I sell as pure bred, but both parents are here on the
farm. I do DNA type each calf, too. Most homesteaders want a gentle cow
that can be around kids and other animals and livestock. So, that is how
we treat them here.
I also firmly believe in disease free stock, especially if eating raw
dairy, which we do. Therefore we test our cattle, beef and dairy, every
other year, for Bovine Leukosis (cow leukemia), Johne's Disease (causes
Crohn's in humans) and Tuberculosis. I do not vaccinate after the 6
months shots because we maintain a closed herd. I only raise my
replacements from the stock we have, to perpetuate what we have strived
for over the past 15 years. Most of our girls will produce about 4-6
gallons per day for the first month that they are fresh, which we feed
the calf from and then they reduce to about 2-4 gallon per day. The
cream is to die for! We are a grass fed only farm. We do feed certified
organic alfalfa pellets for milking time, no soy here at all. The
animals get free choice minerals.
If you'd like to see a few pics of some of our stock, go to:
www.whitestarhighlandcattle. com Most of the Highlands are there, but
there are a few past Jersey calves there towards the back, but most sell
before we have time to put them on there! If you are interested let me
know...we have calving season in the next month of so here for the dairy
girls! You'd still get a good freezer beef from that Hereford...and just
because they are small does not mean that they cannot go to work! LOL
Trust me, they do! LOL Thanks for inquiring about them!~deb
--- In Homesteadingfamily@yahoogroups.com, Melody Peterman <ptrppl6@...>
wrote:
>
> Deb,
> Where are you? I would love a small Jersey, even if not actually
miniature, for milk and breeding for meat. We have a mini-Hereford bull
locally, for breeding her, but his calves are very expensive and aren't
for milk!
> Melody in NE IL
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Nov 8, 2010, at 6:33 AM, "Deb" debsbread@... wrote:
>
> > I don't know anything about sheep, since I don't have time to learn
> > about weaving or making yarns....but I would be interested in mini
dairy
> > cattle....particularly mini Jerseys. Most that we see on the
internet
> > are way overpriced and no guarantee that we won't get something
which
> > has been crossbred only to get smaller sizes and are genetically
> > defective sometimes. I like them about 38" - 42" for milking. We
have 5
> > standards which are smaller and a bull and have purchased a reg mini
> > bull to begin breeding smaller farmstead type dairy cattle for small
> > acreage, but not have to pay those huge prices for them. I don't
> > necessarily care about registries, either. I know that these
> > should/could show the animals heritage, but if DNA is not done
before
> > registering, it is a person's word and that's all you have. And the
mini
> > assn allows all kinds of "percentage" cows to be entered, so who
knows
> > what has been crossed with what and how much, just to get smaller
> > sizes?? The more they are messed with genetically, the more chances
for
> > breeding problems and defects, like stillbirths and not breeding at
all
> > (or the Bulldog gene).
> > Why is it that when one has something like this, they charge
thousands
> > of dollars per animal? Don't they know that who they are
> > designed/marketed for cannot pay such prices?? LOL Smaller
farmsteaders
> > usually don't have money like that for a single cow that one doesn't
> > even know if it will breed successfully?
> > We want to raise AFFORDABLE mini cattle to help people....it is not
> > always about $$$. I want to not only raise them, but teach buyers
how to
> > care for a cow as well as how to milk...teach good husbandry. And we
try
> > to match personalities of the buyer with the animals, so both will
be
> > happy in their lives. Most nowadays are only in it for the big
> > dollars..and that is sad for the animals.
> > So, if anyone knows of any mini's for sale, we'd be in the market.
And
> > we appreciate anyone who takes the time to learn and raise animals
for
> > the farmstead to do it "right"....thanks!~deb
> >
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> >
> >
>
>
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