Life on the Ranch:
Since January, seasons on the ranch we have been through:
- Feeding
- Calving
- Haying
- Breeding
- Preg-checking, and that leads us to:
- Gathering, Sorting, Weaning and Shipping
That is the sort of week it was.
Getting everyone home to the corrals, Sorting the calves off the cows.
The fun part of that, was picking out which little girls we are going to keep to be the next momma cows on the T Bar J. We chose 20.
And yes, Miss Dottie made the short list! She is so cute.
I am taking Body Score pictures tomorrow, so I will be sure to get one of her.
It is a good time for pictures to see how all the cows look at weaning time. We want them to go into winter about a 6 on the scale of 1-10. Some fat covering their ribs and back. Actually it is always better to go into a new season a little chubby, don't you think?
We also picked out which steer calves we are going to wean and keep for the winter to feed and finish for all of you. They are cuties too, and it is a good looking bunch of solid built steers. We kept 40.
The steers are still in the corrals with hay for a week or so. Their mothers are on the other side of the fence and neither of them are happy. You can hear the bawling and bellering 2 miles away. The barn cats even have red eyes from lack of sleep, as do Al and I. But the steers can stand by their mother and she can smell her baby, the steers just can't drink milk.
The heifers went back out with their mothers until into January. They will be out grazing with the cows learning about winter. The calves were all born in May and June, so they do not know about winter, snow and below zero temperatures yet. Those old momma cows help them learn. We will wean them in January after a snowstorm or 2.
Then, we took the heifers and steers that we decided not to keep, to the auction in town. Usually the same buyers get our calves. They know they are coming in and buy them right up. I wish we could keep all the calves, because their life would be better here at home. We keep about 2/3 of them at this point.
Our goal is to feed all our steers for you, our beef customers, and breed all the heifers, keeping some for ourselves and selling the rest as bred heifers.
That is a work in progress, but we are getting there.
This picture is the cows going to a new pasture this week. That is a highlight for them. It has been over a year since they were here, all our pastures rest a year between grazing.
Veteran's Day Donation:
We took 200# of ground beef to the Montana Veterans Meat Locker on Monday before all the cow business got going. Kristen was so excited to get a fresh supply of beef, they have been busy with pickups and were running low.
33 T Bar J families were part of that donation and you will be hearing from Kristen and Chris about that. They are very grateful.
And it makes us all stand a little taller knowing we are helping our veterans that do so much to keep our country and each of us safe and free. Thank you for being a part of that effort.
We will do it again next year, aiming for 250#.
This is the picture of Al and I at their warehouse. I put it in the email Monday, but it was a great occasion and so here you go one more time.
AND THE WINNER IS.....Tara C. Congratulations!!
She has won the 2nd Prime Rib roast we are giving away.
We are having such fun with the drawings, I put all the names in and Al draws. That we think a 3rd drawing is in order. We have a 5# Brisket that would be a smoking delight I think. So what do you say we continue on for 1 more week?
How do you get in the drawing?
Well these are for folks that decide they need a share of beef in June or July, and make their deposit.
We are taking deposits now for those shares. If we can see how many folks are counting on getting their share in June, then we can judge better how many calves to keep home. I did keep 10 extra steers, so we have shares available, but when they are spoken for, that's it.
So speak up for heaven's sake.
We raise exceptional beef. But you knew that.
Taking care of the land and our cattle in a natural way, produces some of the best meat you will ever taste.
Mostly because it is free of anything extra:
No implants, hormones, antibiotics for the cattle,
No fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides for the land.
From the ground up, healthier for you.
That is what we have to offer you.
So decide, if you want that at your house, put your deposit down by Wednesday, and you are in the drawing for a brisket and get your beef in June.
Here are the links for 1/4, 1/2, and whole beef shares.
As a rough guide,
1/4 share is about 100 meals,
1/2 share 200 meals,
whole beef about 400 meals, or a year of meals.
Deciding on how often you have meals centered around beef will help you chose which suits you better. Or call and we can talk over your needs.
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-1-4-beef-deposit-for-summer-delivery
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-1-2-beef-deposit-for-summer-delivery
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-whole-beef-deposit
This is the website link for all the shares.
The Legacy pricing shares do not have a freezer. The other share deposits do.
And we have 2 steers going in next month that will be available in January, if you need beef before June let me know and we can get you fixed up in January.
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/collections/all
