Update on Parker the Hereford Calf

Fridays are meant for cute calf pictures. 

I can't believe Friday is already here. It was an amazingly productive week, but I am really glad the weekend is just around the corner. So to help put a smile on everyone else's face let's look at a cute calf.

Last weekend we gave Parker, the Hereford bull calf that was supposed to be a girl, a new earring. Technically, that big white thing hanging from his ear is called an ear tag and we use it to I.D. the different calves. Yes, when you only have one it is pretty easy to tell who is who, but as we get more it is important to be able to identify them.

The 3Y is his mom's number and Rev stands for Revolution and that is his sire (father). 

Oh and that cute boy is my husband. 

Parker and his mom 3Y aka Teardrop chilling. 

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Will it be a boy or girl?

Babies are arriving. 

Not our babies. Our cows are calving! A few weeks ago one of our favorite cows calved, Teardrop. Remember her glamour shot from this fall?

This picture was taken shortly after the Iowa State Fair.

Teardrop in her working clothes. 

Teardrop was artificially inseminated (A.I.). And we used sexed semen. Yes, not only can you A.I. your cows, but you can purchased sexed semen. Reproductive companies have the ability to separate out the sperm that will create a heifer (female) calf, from the little boy swimmers. Only the heifer producing semen is frozen, as the little bull swimmers aren't strong enough to go through the freezing (to preserve it) and thawing (so farmers can then use it to A.I. their cows). This is a a pretty cool illustration on how it works.

Teardrop was bred with sexed semen. So, we were pretty excited to get a heifer calf. But, wait if you have been following on the blog, Facebook page or Instagram you will remember Teardrop had a bull calf. With sexed semen there is still a 7% chance you'll get a bull calf. We were part of that 7%.

Meet Parker, the bull calf that was supposed to be a heifer calf.

Why would we want a heifer calf rather than a bull calf? Teardrop is a really good cow, and we are hoping that we get some daughters out of her so we can have more of her genetics in the cowherd. In other situations heifers out of a certain cow or bull maybe be worth more. In the dairy industry sexed semen is used a lot because heifers are worth a lot more than bulls. We can only get that milk from the cows, right!

Next time you are stuck for dinner table discussion you can bring up this blog post!

p.s. I am excited to be speaking at the Kansas Young Farmers and Ranchers Conference in Manhattan, KS tomorrow. Maybe I'll meet some of my blog friends in real life!

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Pregnancy Options: Artificial Insemination

Breeding time. 

You can see our farm logo
on the front of the tank.

Artificial Insemination (A.I.) isn't just for humans. On our farm it is one of the three ways that we get our cattle pregnant. 1. being natural breeding with a bull, 2. we also can implant an embryo into a surrogate mother called a recip and 3. using artificial insemination.

A.I. is a great technology for us to use on our small farm. Purebred herdsires can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $100,000. However, people will freeze semen from these bulls for people to use in A.I. These straws of bull semen can cost anywhere between $20-$250 a straw, which is considerably less than buying the live bull, and a great help to small breeders like the Boy and I.

This frozen semen has to be stored somewhere though. Enter the semen tank.

For our wedding we actually were given a semen tank (along with our stock trailer makeover). Trust me it was on our wish list along with our Pottery Barn furniture and KitchenAid Mixer!

At the old ranch there were lots of semen tanks. One of these large tanks can hold 500 straws of frozen semen. Each dose of frozen semen looks like a coffee stir stick. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of that. 

The semen is kept frozen with liquid nitrogen. See those colored tabs? They are each a canister to keep things organized. When you pull them up it looks like this...

This is one canister. All of those things with the white tabs are canes and contain multiple semen straws in each cane. The numbers and letters are codes so you can make sure you are getting the right straw of semen. 

To review why in the world do we do this?

1. It allows us access to better genetics that we might not be able to buy outright

2. Better genetics we can improve the quality of our cattle

3. A.I. technology allows smaller breeders to have access to the same great genetics larger breeders have access to. 

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A new way to farm

And having a little FUN while we do it. 

Last week I was featured on a website called www.FarmOn.com. They are an amazing resource for particularly young people in agriculture. The website is full of interviews, videos, workshops and more for those who are looking for advice on making your farm more successful or getting into farming. Topics include time manage, business plans, marketing through farmer's markets, social media advice, the list goes on.

In my post I shared information about the crop side of the Boy and I's farm. In additional to our Hereford cattle we also grow corn. However, we farm a little differently than most of our neighbors as we are involved in a farming group called Farmers United Network aka FUN. It has been an awesome way for us to grow our farm, learn from others, and not overextend ourselves financially.

I hope you'll check out the article and be sure to let me know if you have any questions.

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Hunk of Meat Monday: Bacon Shortage Looming

No more bacon?! 

The bacon for my corn
chowder soup

With the number of food items that we can now get bacon included in chocolate, ice cream, bloody marys, and oh lets not forget the traditional BLT, plain old fried up bacon or my corn chowder with bacon (recipe below) what would we do without one of America's favorite foods?

Britain's National Pig Association is reporting that because Europe's annual pig product decreased this past year, and producers are decreasing their herd size due to high feed costs that we could see a global shortage of bacon.

What about our farmers in the U.S. what is their story? The U.S. Department of Agriculture showed in its monthly outlook report from August, that we are also seeing a decrease in the number of pigs in the U.S. Again this is due to the high feed costs from poor corn and soybean crops (that is what hogs mostly eat). Plus, add in the fact that we are exporting more and more of our pork, China has seemed to catch onto the trend, will we be standing in line for our bacon ration?

No, probably not. In this Minnesota Public Radio report Iowa Farm Economist, Steve Meyer, stands that no one in the U.S. or around the world will be standing in line for bacon. However, you can expect to pay more for it next year due to lower availability. To be exact you could pay between 6-10% more for your bacon.

Honey you better start bringing home more bacon, or we aren't going to have bacon.

Corn Chowder

2 cups diced potatoes (I like using red with the skin on)

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 cans kernel corn with juice

1/4-1/2 bacon, fried and crumbled

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Sauce 1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup flour

4 cups milk 

Just cover potatoes, ohio and celery with with water (I actually like to use chicken broth) and cook until tender. Now add corn with juice, bacon, salt and paper. To make sauce mix butter and flour, over medium-low heat, and then slowly add milk. Stir until thick. Add sauce to rest of ingredients, stir and serve. This will make 8 to 10 cups. 

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A week of Instagram: Bills, Hot Rollers and Cows

Crazy about those little square pictures. 

I love Instagram. For those of you who are wondering what this little word I am talking about is let me give a quick run down.

1. Instagram is a photo sharing social media site. You use an app on your phone to do it.
2. You can post, follow, like and comment of photos
3. You can add color filters (think of photoshop) to your photos
4. It is awesome and I am going to start posting a little recap each week using Instagram photos.

This was supper last night. Grown-up nachos. My side contains veggies and the Boy sans veggies. Had to get my protein fix before my run. That's right I am still sticking to the running. 

Tuesday was bill day at the farm. We paid a feed bill, vet bill, crop insurance bill, lumber bill and more. Good thing we sold a heifer this weekend. 

Have you noticed the Christmas stuff out in Walmart! I was really tempted to buy these recipe magazines. Some one said there are less than 100 days until Christmas. Not sure how I feel about that!

What do you do on a Thursday night while waiting for the laundry to finish. Dig out your old hot rollers, of course. These are from my high school days, and I used to use them almost everyday. In the mornings I would go feed cattle, come back in, throw these in, and while they were setting do my make-up and have breakfast. They curl didn't hold too well this time. I think I need a setting spray. 

Of course the week wouldn't be complete without cows. These were a few of the heifers we watched sell in Illinois. I posted a video of a different lot selling for $25,000. Yes, $25,000 for a cow. 

If you are on Instagram let me know, and you can find me by searching for @crystalcattle

p.s. Anyone notice you can't search for Instagram people via Twitter now. Annoying. 

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Cow sells for $25,000

I'm not joking.

This weekend the Boy and I made a trip over to Illinois for a couple Hereford cattle sales. It was a great weekend catching up with a lot of friends. The only not cool part - driving through Galena twice and still not getting to stop. Who wants to meet in Galena and drink wine? Pick me.

Back to the cows. These sales are special because they are put on by purebred cattle breeders. What are purebred cattle? Think of a purebred dog. They have a pedigree, registration paper and are typically worth more than mixed breeds.

For example the heifer that started the sale on Saturday brought $25,000! Below is the video of her selling.

$25,000 would make pretty expense steak, however this heifer (female cow) won't be eaten. She instead will be using for breeding and likely shown. Eventually, she may go onto raise a bull calf, that could then go on to sire (father) calves that end up in our freezer. Clear as mud?

So why are some purebred cattle worth more than others? It has to do with three things - genetics, phenotype (how they look) and marketing. In some parts of the country more emphasis is put on certain traits, and a lot has to do with personal preference. The Boy and I raise purebred cattle and definitely have an idea about which ones can make us money and which ones can't. Because no matter how much we love our cattle we they have to make us money because that is what pays the bills. (You can see some of the marketing that we do for our farm on our JJB Cattle Co. Facebook page.)

On a side note. It is hard for me to explain how much I love cattle. I was thinking about this as I was sitting watching the sale. Yeah I had on my new Ily Couture bracelet, designer jeans, J.Crew shirt, sound a little like you? But how many of you have ever had the thought running through your head "I love cattle so incredibly much I have no idea what I would do if I couldn't be around them or have them in my life." Weird? Maybe. But they are my passion, and I think about how much I love cows daily.

If you do have questions and things are still clear as mud comment below or email me. You can find my contact information on the About tab. Have a great Monday!

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What is the government talking about?

And is it important to you?

My good friend Chelsea recently this link about the words that both Republicans and Democrats used during each of their national conventions. I actually watched a good chunk of the Republican Convention and some of the Democrats. I will tell you that I quite enjoyed listening to the speakers that weren't part of the prime time slots. During the Republican Convention a lot of personal stories were shared about Romney from church members and people that worked for him or with. I have a whole new outlook on the man.

What words were used in the speeches at the national conventions.  

Obviously things like employment, health care, taxes and immigration (I'm actually working on my U.S. residency right now) are important to me. However, food and agriculture are also really important because 1. that is my livelihood, 2. I want safe and nutritious food sources and 3. it scares me that eventually government won't trust what farmers are doing and will regulate us out of business.

Using the Word They Used Comparison this is what I found. (Click on each of the pictures to enlarge).

Agriculture was spoken:

Well that doesn't look promising. Zero, zip zilch. 

Farm was spoken:

The Republics did a little better here. It was brought up twice. 

Food was spoken:

Thus, far the most popular term I searched. 3-2 for the Democrats.

Environment was spoken:

Only 1-2 for the Republicans. I thought this term would have been a lot more popular. 

So what does all this mean. I am not sure. But it is interesting. Here's to hoping that a candidate who really understands 98% of farms are family owned and we can't feed the U.S. and all those other countries that depend on us on from gardens.

Use the comparison link yourself and let me know what you found out. 

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