LOVE is When TWO TRAILERS Come Together - The Bull Is HERE!
The Bull Is HERE!
He's a tiny little thing. And he's mature. Now, he will get bigger, just not taller.
Meet Vindicator! He is our new little mini Hereford bull on loan for the next month or so to keep Truffles, our mini Jersey milk cow company through the rest of the cold winter weeks that remain.
Vindicator is the name of a full size Hereford bull that is featured in the 1966 movie, The Rare Breed staring James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara. In the movie, they are transporting this Hereford to a breeder in Texas so that they can introduce the hardiness common with Herefords into the blood line of the Longhorns of Texas. The trail of course is full of danger and they are constantly being challenged at ever turn. It's a great family and kid friendly movie that I'm sure you will enjoy!
Our Vindicator looks exactly the same...just smaller!
The family who lent us Vindicator was located about two hours away and much closer than my alternatives. I had explored using AI (artificial insemination) but found the cost around here was much to high and finding any real experts who wanted to take on the job was even harder. I did find a mini Jersey farm but it was about 5 hours away and they would never really return my emails and the phone number on their website was wrong.
Finally I got to talk with Zach Fletcher, a turkey farmer who had this mini Hereford which is an excellent meat breed. And even though they can reach enormous sizes in adulthood, the Hereford calves are born small and would be a great mix of meat and milk for a small family homestead.
So we jumped on it!
Truffles seems ready to meet her new friend.
We drove the two hours away and picked up Vindicator and brought him home. He seems to not mind the ride at all. Usually after a ride in the back of a trailer, I've seen animals that have to settle down the entire day before they get back to their regular temperament and begin eating. But Vinney, (I call him Vinney) calmly strolled out the back of the trailer paying no mind to anything around him and began eating pasture grass in the paddock that we placed him in.
So now the wait begins. We think we just missed Truffles being in heat a few days earlier.
If all goes well, we will have a baby calf in about 9 months in the fall and it will be a pretty hardy breed we are able to raise up here on the homestead. If it's a male, then we will raise it up to butcher. If it's a female, we will add it to the herd and get her a mate as well.
This is one of the reasons I so desperately want that dozer (it's a track loader, Zac) operational on the homestead. We need to clear room for paddock fencing to that we can expand the herd and give them additional room to roam for the pasture grasses. We have the pasture available but we need to carve a good path to connect them. Not to mention that the dozer could clear future home sites for our boys and clear overgrown areas to repair fencing around the homestead.
But for now, we are happy we have Vindicator and are hoping for a healthy baby calf in about 9 months! Stay tuned. We will keep you posted!
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What proportion of your cattle's food will you be able to produce on the homestead as opposed to buying off site? That's one of the vexing questions in my mind as we plan our homestead. We know from experience that we can greatly supplement our chicken, turkey, and rabbit food. I'm not sure if we could justify keeping goats, and I'm pretty sure cattle would be a "no-go" for our location and situation.
I'm not sure where you are. But around here this is one of the biggest reasons to get my dozer up and running. I have enough pasture to feed my animals but I need to connect them all in a fashion where fencing can be improved. Then I will have enough food for the cattle and sheep. Mostly we just buy hay from our neighbors in the winter. It is usually available in great abundance.
do you have a cow firm?
I really enjoy your postings!
THANKS! Stop by often!
Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Good luck with the breeding. I can’t wait to see yalls herd grow.
I recognized the name /movie , love it ! I look forward to seeing their calf :-)
truffles! What a cute name. Here is hoping that you get a little truffle tote or two running around. How exciting! You all are really building something nice for yourselves! Very inspiring!
Blasted autocorrect! That is not suppose to say “truffle tote”! Lol it’s suppose to say Trufflette. At least this was a minor one... I won’t tell you what got posted when I typed T-Shirt once! Anyhoo. Lol
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Awesome to see all this taking place for your homestead! Tweeting to show it happening!
I didn’t realize their gestation period was the same as a human’s. Interesting! Hoping for the best!
That is one cute bull.