New addition to the family...

We went to the barn this morning, to find a new resident. At some point this morning, between midnight and 3am, a calf was born in the barn. She's a healthy looking little thing.

 

Aw right !!!! Future Ribeyes,,,,,,,,

 

Planning on some veal cutlets?

 

Congratulations on your new addition. Healthy looking calf.

 

What breed is that?

 

Good question. I had never really bothered researching this, until recently. However, what I have found is, they are a breed of Zebu. I found the following information on one website that came up in my search results:

Other cows I have seen, have much longer, droopier ears than ours. Otherwise, they look very similar.

 

Actually, what I am doing here is, building the herd slowly. I want to make sure Chan has enough cows to support her, whenever I kick the bucket. A calf has to be two years old before it can be mated the first time, anyway. But, I figure by the time I am 60, we should have a decent sized herd.

If Chan has enough cattle reproducing to keep the numbers of livestock up, she will be able to sell or barter X number of cows each year, in order to continue living comfortably on the farm. Between cattle and other livestock, she should be fairly comfortable in the event of my untimely demise. (With that said, as far as I am concerned, ANY TIME would be "untimely".)

Although we are much closer to our goal, we still have a ways to go to be 100% self-sustaining. I want to add goats, and possibly geese, by the end of this year. Pigs, whenever (READ: probably never) I can convince her we should have a few of them, anyway. (She wants pigs as much as I want a terminal disease.) The goats will be mainly for my entertainment. I love watching the kids jump around and play. Okay, and for milk and cheese, as long as I don't witness them dispatching the little guys. The geese will serve as guard dogs, letting us know when anyone enters the property.

 

To be honest, sec, it isn't like we are lacking for space. We currently use very little of the 2 hectares available to us. If it is the smell from the pigs, penning them up further back on the property wouldn't be an issue for me, whatsoever. And, with labor being available, whether family or hired, we would be able to take care of them easily enough.

Thanks man. The last thing I need to do now, is to show her this thread.

Geese are better than guard dogs, in my opinion. Noisy as hell when someone comes on your property, day or night. Let them out and they will chase the person. That is pretty funny to watch, actually.

But, we do have one dog here, currently. Actually, we are in the process of locating two more puppies. For some time, I have been encouraging the family to feed the dog cooked meats. (They live on rice and figure everything else should as well.) Still, they look at me as though I am nuts, when they see me feeding her quality meats. If anyone here has ever been as poor as these Khmers, they may be able to understand why they are the way they are. But, I figure if I can afford it, I am going to keep the dog as healthy as I can. The feral dogs around, are skin and bones, mostly. It will be easier for her to defend her territory if she is well taken care of - yet, something they don't seem to be able to get their heads around.

Tech is ongoing. Adding perimeter cameras, when and where we can. Night perimeter lighting makes the place light up like an airport, as well. I am also trying to get an electric fencer from a supplier out of Thailand.

 

Asia-off-grid. Thanx for the come back. As probably everyone can tell I'm a farm kid. I was going to ask if yours were zebu but that's not a breed I'm familiar with. And I didn't realize the Brahmin was a zebu. Are they native to your area? What is their temperament.? Milking was mentioned, do you get good cheese? How about cream for butter (ghee)? Brahmin were imported into Florida, USA because of mosquito borne diseases that didn't attack this breed. Man. It is true. You can take to boy off the farm but you can't take the farm out'a the boy.

 

Actually, I had no idea what breed they were, until recently. So, I didn't know that either, honestly. They are in this country like ants. You can find them just about anywhere in the provincial areas of Cambodia.

Ours cows are pretty docile. Aside from an occasional kick, they don't bother each other, and never bother humans, unless we get too close to their calves.

According to the page I linked to above, there are 75 different breeds of Zebu, apparently. There are at least two that I know of, here in Cambodia. The ones we have, and ones with much longer ears. I have been looking for some with the longer ears to buy, just to see how they compare to ours. If there are others, I am not aware of them. I do know we also have water buffalo here, as well. Some farmers down the road, own them. I will try to catch Chan before she leaves in the morning, and ask why we don't have any here.

Oh, almost forgot. We don't milk them, ever. Once they produce a calf, we let the calf have all the milk until they are weaned. Then, the cow dries up until the next calf comes along. Cheese would be from goats milk, whenever we end up raising them here.

My apologies for the confusion.

Unfortunately, this calf seems to be a slow learner. She still misses the udders sometimes, and goes toward the forelegs of mama cow, looking for milk.

I missed replying to this earlier. I'll be sure to get her some steaks and potatoes to eat.

 

That would be swell. Having to get the calf glasses, before she is two days old. Turning one (day old), right around now.

 

Definitely Brahmin. They are cute/ugly calves but can get dangerous and ornery when bigger

 

These do not seem to be that way. Sometimes, the children get a bit impatient with them. The cows don't always move fast enough for them, when bringing them back from grazing.

 

I'm sure y'all have a more intimate daily relationship than we did. Ours don't interact with humans much at all. Most of that probably negative

 

Hey! Hey, now! What kinda relationship we have with our farm animals is our business! You didn't even ask if we were Kiwis or Welsh!