Raising our first steers

In May of 2009 Steve and I decided to raise our first steers for meat.  We went down to the local dairy and plunked $20 on a jersey mix bull who was just three days old.  Steve named him Red but my daughter Cheyenne called him Sirloin.  About two weeks after we bought Red, Steve went back to the dairy and picked up a second bull, which we named Karma.

Meet Red, born May 19, 2009, he's three days old in these pictures.

One of the first things Red did when he learned to eat grass was to get a spur (I think that's what they call it) in his mouth.  It puffed up so bad.  We had to give him antibiotics and the infection went away.  On Sunday, June 14, 2009 we banded the boys to turn them into steers.  My Facebook notes show that Red turned from a bull to a steer on Sunday, July 5, 2009.

Friday, July 10, 2009:  I received a phone call from my daughter, Cheyenne, who was in California visiting her dad for summer visitation.  She called to inform me that my two calves and three goats got out of the pasture.  Apparently, the neighbor kid texted her, she called me, I called the house where Steve was napping.  Gotta LOVE technology!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009:  Red loves to come to the gate to see if I have anything for him.  I bring table scraps to the animals on a regular basis.  No waste in this family.

I have no idea why, but both steers liked to suck on each other's ears.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009:  Our neighbor Jeremy Eddings helped up burn the horn nubs off the steers.

Saturday, October 24, 2009:  Went out to gather the eggs and the steers popped their heads into the coop when I wasn't looking and mooed at me, startling me.  =D

Monday, November 16, 2009:  Steve worked on building some feeding troughs for the steers.  Our neighbor, Rod, came over and helped him and donated some horse feeding troughs that we placed on top of a tractor tire.

Thursday, November 26, 2009:  Woke up this morning to the two steers and two goats out.  It looks like a goat got its horns stuck in the gate and got the chain link loose while untangling himself.  It made a big enough opening that all the animals got out.  Luckily they stuck close to the back area and all of them were corralled back in easily.

For 17 months we fed these steers alfalfa hay, molasses grain, and pasture greens.  When it came time to butcher them we asked family members if they wanted to purchase some cut and wrapped homegrown beef for $2.25 lb.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010:  Sold all but a 1/4 of the beef that we had up for grabs. Thinking about trading it for some pork from some people in the ward who raise pigs.

Thursday, October 7, 2010:  Looked for a leather tannery to help take care of the two hides we'll be getting in a couple of weeks. I've been unsuccessful, looks like a bunch of places have gone out of business. 

Friday, October 15, 2010:  We said good bye to our steers this morning. One of the steers was super, uber friendly and I wish I was keeping his hide to make leather. But my instructional DVD has not come in yet and I'm too busy with the Magna house to cure and tan it. What I will have, as well as 5 other families, is some yummy beef!

Friday, October 15, 2010:  Well, the job's been done. I was out there from the beginning to the end and learned a lot. Most of all I have learned to respect animals and what they go through to sustain us. My son took pictures and I'll be posting them so beware if you don't want to see them.

Friday, October 15, 2010:  Gave my parents some fresh liver. I hate liver, Steve loves it and there's plenty to go around.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010:  Picked up 985 lbs (hanging weight) of homegrown beef! YUMMMM!

Thursday, November 4, 2010:  OK, so the 985 lbs of hanging beef ended up being 529.4 lbs of butchered meat. And no, I don't have 529.4 lbs in my freezer, I ended up with 156.3 lbs, the rest was sold off. I learned a bunch through this raising our beef process. We'll be doing it again, but not with dairy cows (steers).

Thursday, November 11, 2010:  I've been racking my brains on where I went wrong on my sales. I was supposed to raise two steers, sell of 1 1/2 and have almost free beef, that's how it was SUPPOSED to work.  But it ended up costing Steve and I a little more than $10 lb for the beef we kept, while everyone else paid just $2.25 lb.  Not only that but the beef tenderloin ended up missing between the slaughter guy and the butcher.  NOT HAPPY AT ALL!  However, the beef we did get is the BEST beef one has ever tasted!!!