The Calves Come Home
This weekend we picked up our two bottle-baby calves for the spring. Adorable! And one has blue eyes, the first I’ve ever seen on a calf. So of course, his name is Blue. The other, a sweet delicate reddish boy, is named Brownie.
This little darlin’ has big blue eyes and an even bigger voice! He kept us up all night mooing for more milk.
Brownie has ears like a bunny and a tiny delicate nose.
Every spring and fall we go to our dairying neighbors and buy two baby bull calves to bottle and raise for beef. At roughly the same time, we send the two eldest steers in the pasture off to the butcher. So we always have six or so steers of varying ages. Blue and Brownie will spend a month or so in tandem hutch-pens while they’re still on milk and then go to join the big boys in the fields, grazing for about 18 months before feeding us. In the meantime, we’ll thoroughly enjoy their sweet personalities, clumsy lumbering antics and gently lowing voices. They’ll enjoy fresh grass, a nibble of corn each morning, sunshine, and room to slowly roam throughout their days. And, of course, a vigorous daily scratch under the chin. There’s nothing I like more than a warm heavy cow face laid on my shoulder while I administer a brisk neck rub.
We are particularly excited about these calves, because they came from a nearby dairy that primarily grazes, unlike most that keep their cows confined in large free-stall barns. This dairy also forgoes daily antibiotics and hormones, which should make the transition to living on our farm easy for the calves, since we use neither. We are just thrilled to have discovered a local source for such healthy calves.
The breeds are new to us, and we are anxious to see how they grow. Blue is a Normandy and Brownie is an Ayershire. Both are ancient breeds, the Ayershire from Scotland and the Normandy from France, better suited to free-ranging than the modern Holsteins generally available in our area. We’ll see how they do. So far we’ve experimented with Holsteins crossed with Angus and Hereford, pure Angus, pure Holstein, a new American breed called Bulingo, and the very pretty Brown Swiss. In 18 months we might have some sense of what we are doing here at Circle M!
Blue and Brownie have moved into these little hutches right next to the house, which will make the pleasurable task of bottle feeding that much easier.
cindy nicholson said,
April 12, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
Awwww. Pretty darn cute. That’s how all babies are, I suppose, whether they are baby humans or baby animals. When I have grandbabies, I will love sitting at the computer with them at this time of year and showing them the pictures as they learn their words. And we will enjoy coming up and seeing them live and in person. It may be a few years away, but anticipation is half the fun!
kriss said,
April 12, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
My gosh, Cindy, you know it won’t be long at all! You’ll be a great grandmama.
k
bree said,
August 20, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww they r soooooooooo cute but how could u just send them of to the butcher to get cut up and put on the market. I couldnt even dream of doing that to my little babys, I would want them to die happy of old age or something not at the butchers…..........................
bree said,
August 20, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
I hope that my comment has changed that little something that pessed u into killing those poor littlr inocent calfs. How could u not see how cute they r. they would be better as pets…...............................dont kill no more plz….............I am a big big big animal luver. If u want to send back a comment to me plz contact me at bree-Kahli19@hotmail.com thanks
astottara said,
March 2, 2009 @ 12:19 am
http://www.meetyourmeat.com
this is just bloody murder.
Hare Krishna.
kyle janoska said,
April 7, 2009 @ 7:42 am
the whole purpose of raising cattle is so they provide food u guys dont have a clue.
Kriss said,
April 7, 2009 @ 2:20 pm
I’m with Kyle here. However, I do think it is very important to Meet Your Meat as the previous reader suggests. That’s one reason why I raise my own food, humanely and thoughtfully, and why I invite my customers here to do the same. The truth is, these sort of animals would be extinct if we didn’t use them for food. See slowfoodusa.com for more on this idea. For the species sake, these kinds of animals have evolved to be cultivated for our use, in exchange for care and evolutionary survival. The truth is, we care for each other in a certain way. I respect those who simply can’t stomach eating other animals. I used to be a vegetarian. But I do see the value in a small, symbiotic farm relationship between domesticated animals and their caretakers.
Erica said,
March 25, 2010 @ 2:13 pm
Good luck with the calves! They are precious! My father and I also have a blue eyed calf that was just born on our farm last Thursday. I was looking on google to see if blue eyed babies were common and discovered your site. Farm raised beef is the best!
Kriss said,
March 25, 2010 @ 11:18 pm
Oh, fun! What kind of cows do you have? I just love calves. They are so sweet and clumsy and they smell so good. Have a great spring!