Where does your beef come from: Commercial, crossbred and purebred Cows

I have mentioned before that the Boy and I raise Hereford cattle. This year one of our bull calves was born on our Florida cousin's birthday, so we named him Parker after the birthday boy. One of the first questions Parker asked us was would we keep Parker or would we be eating him. This is a question we get quite often so I came up with a few pictures for you.

In the cow business there are two types of cattle: commercial (sometimes called crossbred) and purebred (sometimes called seedstock). Commercial cows are made up of multiple breeds of cattle and are typically bred to purebred bulls. If the cow has a bull (boy) calf 99% of the time the calf is castrated and turned into a steer. These steers are then weaned and fattened and will eventually enter the food chain. (Commercial cattle can be any color).

If one of those commercial cows has a heifer (female) calf that heifer calf will likely be used as a breeding female, as long as she is the quality the farmer or rancher is looking for. She could stay in the farmer or rancher's herd or be sold to another cattlemen for him to use as a breeding female. 

If the quality isn't there or the farmer or rancher isn't keeping females that year the heifer calves could also enter the food chain. Clear as mud?!

Purebred cows are made up of one breed, and lots of them have a registration paper with a pedigree similar to a purebred dog. If the calves from a purebred cow are the quality that we are looking for the heifer calves are used as breeding females. The bull calves will also be used for breeding. However, if the quality isn't there then they may enter the food chain just like a commercial calf. 

The cows that you see at most cattle shows are purebred cattle. Some people buy cattle from purebred breeders like the Boy and I to exhibit at shows before those animals become breeding animals. 

What is boils down to is that most of the beef you are eating is from commercial cattle. Even more important is whether the animals are commercial or purebred they are both quality beef for your family. And finally to answer the initial question Parker the bull is not going to be eaten!  

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I am Not a Mommy Blogger but I have Influence

I am not a mommy blogger. I think that exact phrase was first coined by Brooke Clay on her blog. It is no secret that through my blog I want to give people a glimpse of what life on a farm is really like. It's hard, and frustrating, and some days we make money and some days we lose a lot of money. And many days I have cow poop on my shoes or clothes, but I also am probably wearing MAC lipstick. That is what farm life is.

I am a multigeneration farmer. I have been doing this my while life. I have two degrees in agriculture. I know my stuff. But yet somedays I feel like I don't have credibility.

Awhile back Trent Loos interviewed me about my blog and path to share agriculture's story and he asked me if I communicated much with mommy bloggers? My response was, "No."

You see it seems like until you have kids other people just don't trust you as much when you are talking about food. It is was even worse when I was single. At least now I am married. That somehow seemed to give me more street cred. And I am not alone in my thinking.

Dr. Jude Capper, an amazing rancher and scientist and lady behind the Bovidia blog, wrote a post asking "Do Moms Have Instant Beef Credibility?" Dr. Jude is expecting her first child and she confirmed what I have always suspected. She and other mothers are more credible than me, and all those other young women that are either too busy chasing their dream or just plain not interested in having children.

However, that doesn't mean I don't have influential. If you have heard me speak before there is this great book out there called The Influentials. And in it discusses how one in 10 Americans tells the other nine what to vote, where to eat and what to buy.

You have influential no matter what stage of life you are in. And you have to decide how you are going to use that influential. I hope I can influence you to believe that farmers no matter how big or little their farm is, whether they use GMO seed or only do organic, if they use antibiotics or not, they are all good people that care about the food they are producing. And if you are confused about why and the world would a farmer do that you would ask one or ask me and I'll help you find the answer. And two if you are going to invest in a longwear lipstick it should be MAC Pro Longwear Lipcreme.

One of the Hereford heifers we raised. 

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We leave a lot up to Mother Nature, and Mother Nature never takes a day off.

Other than updates from the Boy I have been pretty removed from the farm this past week. My agriculture office job has taken me to Kansas City and Fresno, California this week helping market the products I represent (they are a vitamin and mineral supplement for livestock cattle VitaFerm and Sure Champ.)

The Boy has been fighting against the weather as they try and finish up the last little bit of corn harvest. Another inch of rain has delayed things again today. Although, Mother Nature is creating an inconvenience she isn't in threatening mode yet. 

So why I am really brining up Mother Nature? Because of this video I saw today about a new movie called Farmland. It gave me goosebumps. I hope that's not just because I am a farmer, but because this story will resonate will all people. Even though you might not live on a farm or even know someone that lives on a farm trust me agriculture still impacts you. 

I hope you'll take a minute to watch the Farmland trailer. And this spring maybe we can all have a virtual viewing party. 

 Photo credit Don Holtz

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Winter is Coming - Time for Silage

With the crazy winter weather our friends to the north of us had, I think in Iowa we are all aware the winter could come anytime now. During the summer our cows get to graze on grass. However, in the winter that grass is dead and covered with snow, and trust me cows don't do so well on snowballs.

Two types of feed that famers commonly feed their cattle in winter are hay or silage. On our farm we feed some of both. Hay is grass that was cut during the summer, dried and then baled into round or square bales. For the first time last year, we also fed our cows silage. Silage is the corn you see in the field chopped, leaves, corn, the whole darn plant, into small pieces. It is then packed into a pit of a bag where it "cures" so that during the colder weather it will be ready for the cattle. Silage can also be made made out of other times of crops. 

The boy and a silage crew worked on putting up the silage for our cows this week. This is a neat YouTube video he made showing just a little bit of the process. 

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Momma don't let your calves grow up to be bulls

For the past couple of weeks I have been seeing all kinds of posts about kiddos headed back to school. I think there has been a mix reaction of relieved parents and bittersweet moments as moms and dads watch their babies grow up.

On the farm our baby calves are also growing up, and that means it is time to wean them from their mommas milk. This can be a stressful time for the calves and their moms, so the Boy and I try to do whatever we can to make the transition easier.

Introducing the Quiet Wean. That piece of plastic in that bull calf's nose is called a Quiet Wean. When the calves are ready to be weaned we place those clips in their noses. The Quiet Wean prevents them for nursing, but still allows them to eat grass and grain. This means that the calves get to stay with their moms (which reduces stress) while they become used to not nursing.

It also prevents the bawling (crying) that lots of people associated with weaning. It is much quieter around our house since the use of the Quiet Weans.

Someone on my Instagram feed asked what is the cows reaction? Using the Quiet Weans means less stress for the moms too. Even though the calves can't nurse, and their udders do become swollen for the first couple of days, the cows seem to eventually forgot about that and start grazing again. Food solves most problems for cows ;)

After the Quiet Weans have been in for 4-14 days we take out the clips and separate the cows and calves. And that is it. Those little babies are on their own and the moms are focusing on the new calf that is growing inside of them.

We spent Labor Day removing the Quiet Weans and now we have a nice group of calves behind of barn. I guess these guys can call me mom now.

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Why We Use Antibiotics on our Farm

There has been a lot of talk about antibiotics in the news again lately, especially with Panera's horrible EZ Chicken marketing campaign that implies those farmers that use antibiotics are taking the easy route.

A couple days ago we noticed one of our cows, Cici, had a swollen eye, that way very irritated. Her symptoms implied that she likely had pinkeye. Pinkeye in cattle can occur when the eye is irritated by long grass, dust or flies, and if not treated it can lead to blindness.

Just looking at Cici's eye you can't tell that it is hurting her? If you were in pain like this or a family member was would you opt for an antibiotic treatment? 

Cici's treatment was a two step process. First we gave her a injection of Penicillin. Since Cici is a cow raising a calf right now so she won't be entering the food chain. However, if she was, we would have to wait 10 days withdrawal period (these instructions are found on the bottle and this Beef Quality Assurance chart) for any antibiotic residues to leave her system so that the any meat entering the food system would be safe.

Next we prepared a patch for Cici to wear so that nothing (wind, flies, dirt, grass) would continue to irritate her eye. 

Old worn out jeans make the perfect cow eye patches.

Cici the "Pirate" cow is now on the road to recovery. 

I don't think any of what the Boy and I did to Cici was lazy or irresponsible. Instead we are making sure the animal health and welfare of our herd is closely watched. There is tons of misinformation and fear tactics that groups like Panera try to use to market a product. If you have questions about antibiotics ask a farmer or vet for some help sorting out the answers. We are the ones that are raising the food that is feeding our family and our communities. 

If you are looking for more information on common questions like antibiotics, GMOs, hormones, corporate farms, etc, check out this awesome website called Finding Common Ground. Tons of great resources! 

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Your thoughts on Panera and Antibiotics

Panera, you just had to go there. Using slick marketing terms like Chipotle to try and convince the consumer that you are doing the "right thing" in terms of the food you are serving in your stores.

Completely confused about what I am talking about? For awhile Panera has used the statement that they serve antibiotic free chicken in their stores. This statement in itself is confusing as all the meat that you consumer, whether it comes from a farmer's market, Wal-Mart, McDonalds or Panera, is antibiotic free. There are strict withdrawal times that farmers and ranchers must adhere to. It is illegal to sell meat that has antibiotic residues.

Now there is a difference in how livestock can be raised. On our farm we only administer antibiotics when a calf or cow is sick. I don't want to see them suffer and I don't want them to infect other calves or cows.

Now back to Panera and their claims. Yes, what they are posting on their menu upsets me, but what infuriates is their new marketing campaign. Introducing Ez Chicken.

EZ Chicken is the new character that Panera Bread has created. He portrays that farmers want to take the easy route aka too lazy to do its Panera's "right way." 

As blogging friend and dairy farmer Dairy Carrie points out...

She/he seems to be guilty of sloth. I mean who knew that they even made chicken sized hammocks? Of course chickens aren’t really out there holding up pharmacies to get drugs. Even if they somehow pulled off looking intimidating, chickens can’t get the pill bottles open. While you can order some chicken fingers with your fries, chicken thumbs aren’t on the menu. It doesn’t take a genius to understand what you’re really saying here.

But wait you say, Panera isn’t calling all farmers and ranchers lazy! They are just calling the ones that use antibiotics lazy! I used antibiotics to help a sick calf get better last week, my friends the organic farmers had a cow with pneumonia and they gave that cow antibiotics to make her better. They had to sell her, but she lived. Does that mean we are lazy? Is it lazy to take care of our sick animals?

Panera let me tell you one thing: Even though the boy and I choose to farm conventionally (use antibiotics) we are not lazy! I hope you will read Dairy Carrie's entire blog post about Panera, the Ez Chicken and antibiotics as she makes some really good points. And as consumers I hope that you continue to seek farmers out and ask questions about where your food is coming from and what these marketing campaigns really mean. 

Update (7/25/13): Thanks to Carrie Dairy kicking off this speak up campaign and all those who followed Panera Bread started removing all the references to Ez Chicken on their Facebook page and deleted the Twitter account! When we speak up together we are heard. 

Update: (7/25/13): Carrie Dairy was promised that someone from Panera Bread would contact her and that has not happened. They almost have only removed a couple of the Ex Chicken pictures. If you want to show support to farmers of all kinds use the hashtag #pluckexchicken whether you are on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Let's continue to make our voices heard! 

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Fresh Prince Fresh from the Farm

Remember those good old Kansas farm boys, the Peterson Brothers, that made headlines with their I'm Farming and I Grow It video? Well they are back and this time they are sharing a little more about what happens on a typical farm. The Boy and I rap all the time like this too ;)

Now this is a story all about how 

Our life is spent wiping sweat off our brow

And we'd like to take a minute just to stop and say

What goes down on the farm in a typical day

So you might not see a musical performance like this from the Boy and I, but with Instagram now hosting video you certainly will see more video from see. Can't wait to get home and start making our cows even more famous. To find me on Instagram search CrystalCattle.

p.s. To watch more Peterson Brothers video click here. 

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