Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

Forgive the potentially dumb question, but what kind of deer live there? We are surrounded by apple trees so the deer love it here. We usually hunt on our property. Last year I looked out my window on the last day of hunting season and a buck was munching in the backyard. My husband ran out and got it before we even had our coffee! It was funny.

My husband aims for younger bucks because the taste gets a bit strong for me with older ones!

Anyway there's nothing that tastes better than veggies from your own garden, milk and meat from your own animals. You are going to love it. For all the frustrations I wouldn't have it any other way!

MARKETING!!!!......Those jersey bull calves here are worth 20.00 if that, and it will cost in the neighborhood of 100 to 150 to get them to weaned size. They are bringing maybe .60 lb at the stockyards right now for anything from 200-600 lbs. Thing is, none of the dairy breeds will do well without grain/protein inputs of some kind until they are in the 500 lb. range. We have bred the dairy animals for concentrated feed inputs for so long in this country that they do not do well without it until they have some size. I do not turn out any calves on just grass until they are in the 500+ lb range. Most all beef calves are not weaned off their mothers until 500-650 lbs. They get all the milk from the cow, learn to eat grass and anything else they want to try, and get a more balanced nutrition until their gut/rumen can handle strictly roughage. If you were to wean them at 90 days, then put them on grass, the rumen would not be very well developed and they would get a "pot belly" that would be hard to overcome for at least a year. We call it "hay gut" here and is a sign that a dairy, or even a beef calf, did not get a good start on a cow or fed enough concentrated feed to actually "nourish" the body. They are often stunted and "poor doers". Honestly, you would be better off finding a couple of steers or even heifers in the 5-6 wt range or even bigger, if you wanted something to graze. I would suggest in the spring, and not too early as prices are often higher earlier, get a couple of even bigger calves 6-8wt. that you can feed for the season and then sell one in the fall and kill the other. Right now they are bringing in the 1.00 lb range+/- and heifers are less. Find out what is the more popular breeds, but stay away from anything that has much brahma influence as the meat is not as tender. Around here herefords and red cattle are discounted and you can buy a red one for .20 less per lb than a black one. This is angus country....Maybe get with greybeard as he is from TX somewhere I think, and he might be able to help you to get something that would suit....he referred me to the cattletalk forum and I have really learned alot about prices and things in different parts of the country. We ate venison also as kids, and I like it just fine but my son doesn't care much for hunting and I don't so rely on the generosity of some of the farmers around. I like it, especially stew and marinated steaks and mix the burger as it is often dry for my taste. The jerseys have spoiled me.

We have white-tail deer here, there are actually some elk in southwestern Va also. Mixed opnions on them, re-introduced and I have heard pros and cons from people. There is also a big bisn ranch that sells alot of animals; breeding, butcher, meat...they are awesome but don't make them mad because they will go through anything...

bisn=bison!!!

Bison are more than a little intimidating! My husband's cousin likes elk but he's one of those big game hunting obsessed people! He swears he heard one in the woods in NH one day...

There was a small herd of elk in upstate NY years and years ago, and they have been successfully reintroduced to TN, KY, and western VA. They could have easily migrated north into PA. They were native to the east coast back before the big western migration of the white man. So it's not entirely out of the question that there "could" be elk in NH/VT western MA and even ME. As big animals, it would be tough for them to survive as they would get poached quite readily for their meat/antlers. The thing is, as human density increases and gun control freaks ban guns and hunting, it actually becomes much easier for them to expand and spread their range, much like several other species have done... read black bears, coyotes, wolves, mountain lions, etc. Elk are primarily grazers and actually prefer prairie over mountains but hunting pressure and loss of habitat pushed them "up" into the mountains. In the evenings, they tend to come out of the woods into meadows to graze.

In East TX is white tailed deer. Out west they have both White Tail and Mule deer. In some areas, there are cross breeds. Most cross are white tail buck and mule doe as white tail bucks actively chase does in heat and mule deer bucks don't... So I guess you could see how that would work out. I actually love elk meat. It's much more tender and mild tasting than typical venison, though still very lean compared to beef. And bison, well, they are soooooo much tastier and healthier for you than beef. They are also, IMHO, tastier and more tender than venison or elk. But yeah... you really do NOT want to piss one off. virtually no fence will stop one when it sets its mind to go somewhere. is right!

Thanks for the heads up Jan. Greybeard had already said he would intro me to some breeders/cattle folks he knows and I'll go that route. It's really funny to me that the animals are judged by the color of their hide, red vs black etc... but it seems that happens in other areas of reality as well. Not going there, just a thought. I think I'll stick with a beef breed or cross that leans that way and buy one (them) a little larger.

I can buy a day old Jersey bull for 4.00

@Latestarter, if you have never had "home grown" beef you are in for a treat. I bought some from a friend of my sisters and from one other person and it is butter knife tender right out of the pkg. We do use all the cuts of beef we can get but I draw the line at organs...I don't eat any of them. But the tongue... Bar-b-qued tongue is delicious.

NH homesteader said:

Bison are more than a little intimidating! My husband's cousin likes elk but he's one of those big game hunting obsessed people! He swears he heard one in the woods in NH one day...

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My parents are in monroe NH along the CT river and they have seen moose and a couple of years ago one of the neighbors got one and he used the boom on the logging truck to get it up high enough to work it. They say that you don't want to get them mad either....

Nope you sure don't! We see them fairly frequently actually. My husband was just telling a story right before I read this about how they used to wake up to all their horses in the front lawn because a moose would run through the field and take out all their electric fencing!

Also we have a friend who, when he was younger and dumber, happened upon a bull moose in the road. He didn't move, so our friend honked his horn. BAD PLAN! Moose charged him, he had to floor it in reverse to get away!

NH homesteader said:

It is an interesting thing in our country these days. I am one of those people that cares where my food comes from but can't afford those prices. So my family very rarely eats beef. We raise and eat pork, chicken and turkey and we eat venison stew instead of beef stew. No plans to raise cattle here so we will have to see if we like lamb and/or goat meat!

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Sounds like you need to get a mini beef cattle breed Not that I have even a millionth of a second of experience with same:

https://bigpictureagriculture.blogspot.com/2015/12/10-miniature-cattle-breeds-for-your.html

farmerjan said:

bisn=bison!!!

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There is an edit function on your posts, you can fix errors found after posting and we would be none the wiser