Ready for the Dog Days to End...

It is still HOT, but a bit cooler today.  In the high eightys with humidity due to the recent rain.  Our turkeys are doing great.  They have made it to their free-range freedome and are now ranging on the front pasture.  The picture to the right is Tom, he is about 4 months old and is very friendly.  He likes to display when we come to the farm and waits calmly for me to bring him some grain.  We really are enjoying the turkeys and do not know if they will be Thanksgiving dinner or not...


We finally were able to separate out the two steers to wean last weekend.  They are 6 months old and we put them with our yearling heifer Beyonce.  Beyonce is a daughter of Christy and she is sired by a really nice black angus bull.  We bought the cows and they were pregnant with the two steers by the same bull. 

I believe in gentle weaning.  We wean by putting the babies in a field next to their moms.  They can see each other, touch and chat with each other, but they can not nurse their moms.  Moms are less stressed as well because they can see their calves.  There is very little hollaring and stress to either calves or mom.   Moms of course swell up with milk and will have to dry off.  But that is part of the weaning process.  We can feed some grain to the calves to help with their weaning.  Beyonce is big sister to both.  The calves and moms are pictured below.

Beyonce was named after the beautiful black singer, Beyonce of Destiny's Child.  She is beautiful and when she is 16 months, she will be joining the regular herd and honey mooning with Brutus.

We plan on raising up the steers and selling them as home grown beef.  We will raise them between 800 and 1000 pounds (a year to a year & 1/2 if age) and sell them for $1.25 per pound live.  We will transport them to Reed's in Clanton for processing.  Our Clients will pay the processing fee and pick up their beef. 

 We are currently taking reservations for whole or halfs.  We will raise the calves on pasture with Corn and Soy Bean Hull pellets to finish them out and they will be great eatting.  We are taking reservations now.  Call us at 334-327-9252.

The steer above is Christy's calf, full bother to Beyonce.  He is half Angus and half Shorthorn mix.

The steer to the left is Beauty's steer calf who is half Angus and half Angus/Beefmaster mix.  Both steers are going to prime out quite well for home grown beef.

The picture to the right is Beyonce and the two weaned steer calves.  The short one is Christy's calf, Beyonce's brother and the taller one is Beauty's steer calf.

We have been enjoying the steer we had processed in July.  We have eatten more steaks then we have eatten in a long time.  The quality of home grown beef has no comparison to the hormone grown junk in the store.  I plan on doing a blog about beef cattle implants to inform people as to what they are getting in the store.  The Veterinary supply catalogs have 2 pages of different types and brands.  We refuse to use them and our beef is not raised in confinement and handled gently.

Since we are on the beef subject, I must show a recent picture of Brutus.  The photo makes him look blue.  A unique effect due to his black coat, the shade and lighting.  We will see how his calves look before long.  Daisy is pregnant by him and both Beauty and Christy are bred back to him.

Brutus is a Beef Master Bull, almost 3 years old.  He has been on just pasture all summer and looks great.

Have to show a cute picture of a Boer Kid and a couple of Boer Mixed kids having a king of the mountain session going on in the hay wagon.  The young Boer billy was holding his own for awhile.

One more picture of Athena's 100% Boer Kids sired by The Rock.  Two Buck kids, pictured at a week of age.  They are meaty, little tanks.  They are offered FOR SALE with the Boer Group.  See the Goat Sales page on our website at:  http://www.oldesouth.citymax.com/, or call us at:  334-327-9252. 

Dog days of August...

Yes, it is still Hot, 115 heat index and we were crazy enough to hay last weekend.  But we must hay and do the best we can.  We cut the hay Thursday and let it dry until Sunday and baled around 10 am, took a break at 230 because it was sooo HOT! Then came back at 630 pm and finished picking up hay and stacking it in the trailer.


PJ was in the Tractor with the AC running while he baled the hay.  It has been real dry and the hay cured perfectly.

The picture to the right is the old New Holland square baler putting out the bales.  This is an old but good baler.  It can make really large bales or whatever size you want.  I prefer bales 50 to 60 pounds.  These were a bit large and we will adjust for smaller ones when we bale the other fields.  We cut and baled two fields.  One field had sheep on it all winter and it was the thickest hay on the farm.  The sheep manure did the grass good.  The other field had cows on it all winter and it was good, but not nearly as thick as the sheep field.

There is nothing nicer then the smell of fresh cut hay and seeing the bales out in a field before picking them up.  They look even better once put under cover.

Kyle & Ken are Mr Paul's grandsons from Ill.  They have come down south for a couple of weeks to visit and wanted to help with hay.  The heat was pretty tough on them, but they worked hard and we got the hay put up.

Grizzly thinks he is a big farm dog and was with us every step of the way.  He is a bit hot and ready to take a break in the shade.

I also took a quick trip to South Carolina this past weekend to pick up a couple of nice goats to help improve our milking herd of Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats.  The picture to the right is NC Promisedland SIA Sunra, sired by NC Promisedland SS Sam I am *S, her dam is GCH ARMCH NC Promisedland Sunni-Beau-No 3*D AR 2063.  This doe has one leg of her championship, ADGA GCh doe as a first freshener.  She is pictured dry and we plan to breed her to Mr General for early 2011 kids.

We were also able to purchase a yearling doe, NC Promisedland PayOff.  She is pictured below.  She is sired by NC Promisedland Paypal *S, her dam is NC Promisedland SS Peepshow 2*M 2*D,VG 87.  This is a very nice yearling and we plan on breeding her to Oldesouth Mr Marine.  We are slowly adding new bloodlines to our herd to produce more milk and be competitive in the show ring.

We are committed to producing some of the best milking Nigerians in the south.  We will be offering some adult does as family milkers shortly.  We will be reducing our herd to make room for new stock and up coming young does sired by Mr General who will be freshening this fall.  Keep an eye on the sales page as we post adults and new kids.

We are offering both Little Tot's Estate Olde Bubba For Sale and Oldesouth Loud Politician For Sale.  Both are proven bucks we have used for some time now.  We need to bring in new blood lines and offer these boys to new homes.  Take advantage of our Herd Reduction Sale and pick up some nice bucks.