The Hopeful Homesteader

Tag: cows

  • The joys of cow ownership…

    The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur because we had so many family things going on. May is known as the month of birthdays in our family. There are 8 birthdays in the month of May, and five of those birthdays fall between the 8th and the 13th. This year, we were celebrating my dad’s 70th birthday and we planned a surprise for him by having my sister fly in from Luxembourg as well as some of our aunts and uncles and one of our cousins. He was blown away and it was definitely worth it, but it meant that for the first two weeks of May, it was go go go with the kids having many late nights and us constantly prepping and cleaning the house for all the different family gatherings. As much fun as it was, I was really looking forward to a nice relaxing week last week. I had even planned for the girls to go to my mother-in-law’s for a day so that I could enjoy a day of doing nothing. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans for my week. The week started off with both girls sick, coughing, leaky noses, and Cece had a fever to really round it out. Now after 5 years as a Mom, two sick kids isn’t enough to wreck my week. In fact, often it means the girls need a day of resting and watching movies which is when I am able to get a lot of housework done. The real wrench in my blissfully carefree week, was our beloved Buttercup. I got a nice crash course this week about some of the less glamourous sides of having a cow. The stuff they don’t put on the Instagram reels where the women are walking around effortlessly in their handmade dresses as they tend to their perfect gardens and farm animals.

    For starters, Buttercup gets very impatient about getting her bowl of milk, which should be really fun when I start weaning her in the next couple weeks. There have been a few instances where she has been so excited about her milk that she knocks the bowl from my hands which leads to her getting milk all over the barn floor and sadly lapping it up before it soaks into the gravel. This is frustrating of course for her, but also for me as it generally ends up on my clothes as well. For those who have never smelt calf milk replacer, imagine a sort of sweet popcorn smell and that is pretty close to it. I never imagined that having a cow would actually increase the amount of clothes that I have to wash either from having the milk spilled on me, or her incessant need to chew my clothing. I now keep my flannel shacket as a barn shirt so that I am not constantly having to get changed every time I come back from the barn. Now I know the saying, no need to cry over spilled milk, but nowhere does it say no need to curse over spilled milk, as that has definitely happened.

    The milk mishaps aside, I felt like I was getting a good handle on taking care of Buttercup. Now that she drinks out of a bowl, it is significantly less work. She also has a larger outdoor area now and is generally pretty content just sunbathing and munching on her grass clippings that Brent puts in her pen from the lawnmower. She still enjoys a nice chin scratch and of course we have to keep her pen nice and tidy, which means raking the gravel when she pees and getting rid of the poop. Having had dogs now for almost 11 years, picking up poop was not a big deal for me. In fact, hers takes less time because it is generally just one and you just take the big shovel and throw it in the wheelbarrow. Simple. Or at least, it was simple, until last week when I had a very unfortunate mishap. One day, after I had shoveled her pen and was walking toward the gate and I tripped over a hose that was on the ground. I didn’t drop the shovel or hurt myself but it was enough force to send the poop flying off the shovel and onto the chain link gate. Anyone unaware, cows poop stinks, it is also very difficult to clean off a chain link gate as it gets in everywhere. I first attempted with baby wipes, feeling confident that if they can tackle the biggest blowouts my babies had they could tackle this. I was wrong. All it did was make the mess bigger. I thought about using the hose, but then realised that would make the entire barn wet and we were due for some colder temperatures. I finally came to the reluctant realisation that I needed to let it dry, before I would be able to clean it off. Which meant we had to deal with cow shit being on the gate for a couple days. Ah, the joys of farming.

    The poop fiasco however, was not to be my most challenging situation of the week. Brent was working long hours and even had to work late on the Saturday so I decided I would make a nice dinner for once he got home. I was going to make mashed potatoes, sausages with roasted peppers, gravy, peas and most importantly of all Yorkshire puddings. For those who have never made Yorkshire puddings, you need to get the muffin tins smoking hot in the oven before pouring the batter. I had timed everything out, and once my potatoes were boiling and my muffin tins were in the oven, I figured it was the perfect time to go and feed Buttercup quickly. The girls were watching a show, I mixed the milk and went out to feed her, which generally takes only 2 minutes…Buttercup had been in the barn all day because in the morning it had been snowing (thank you Manitoba spring), so when I opened the barn door I could tell she was eager to have the fresh air on her. The problem was that I was holding her giant bowl while trying to open the chain link gate, all while trying to get Brinkley back so that he wouldn’t make me spill the milk. This resulted in me opening the gate a smidge too wide and Buttercup busted out.

    Now, Buttercup has not been tagged yet, meaning if she were to run off down the road or to another property, we have no way of identifying her other than saying, hey that looks like our cow. So there I am, standing with this bowl of milk having a “holy shit what do I do now” moment. I put the milk down in the barn in the hopes that it would entice Buttercup to come back in, but she was not having it. Finally, she was free! Brinkley got her riled up because he finally had someone to run around with, and man did they book it. One thing I never realised, is how fast a calf is. I knew the girls were inside, my oven was on, and I needed to get this cow back in the barn. I swear anyone who has known me since before I lived in the country, would have probably paid to have seen me desperately trying to herd this calf back into the barn. I know that cows don’t like loud noises so I was trying to speak to her softly, and gently, but when you are running after a calf, sometimes your gentle voice starts to fade. I had almost gotten her into the barn, just in time for Brinkley to coming running up and sending them both on a sprint again. She went through the pumpkin patch, thankfully we haven’t planted anything yet, although she did scare some ground nesting birds. Then she was ripping around the play structure kicking up her legs like this was the greatest day ever. Once I finally got close enough to her I managed to pet her, and slowly lead her back over to the barn and get her in there with her milk before securely closing the gate. After checking the gate about 3 times, I closed the barn door and went back to the house, where the girls were none the wiser. My poor muffin tins however, were extremely smoky when I pulled them out and I was forced to open a bunch of windows and turn the fan on.

    I learned a few lessons this week. One, to make sure the path to the wheelbarrow is clear when cleaning out the cow pen. Two, make sure that you block the gate when you open it to get into the barn and three, cows are very fast. A bonus lesson learned is that no matter how many cute Instagram reels there are about owning cows, do not let that fool you into thinking that it doesn’t come with its own unique set of challenges. I am sure there will be many more and in two weeks we pick up our lambs, which will lead to a whole bunch of new experiences I am sure.

  • 5 things I learned my first month as a cow owner…

    Before getting Buttercup, my experience/exposure to cows was limited to seeing them when driving, adorable Instagram reels of mini cows frolicking around their yards, and visiting a baby cow at the petting zoo in our area. Despite having done research beforehand, there were still quite a few things to learn when we brought her home. Now, almost a month into cow ownership, I have learned a few things that I would like to share for any other novice cowgirls.

    1. Bottle-feeding is overrated.

    Ever since we started discussing getting farm animals when we bought the property 2.5 years ago, I had this vision in my mind of how amazing it would be to bottle-feed a cow or sheep. I had seen many such adorable videos of the bonding happening between the owner and their pet. I thought it looked idyllic. So, when we started looking for animals I told Brent in no uncertain terms, that I wanted it to be young enough that I would have the chance to bottle feed it. Buttercup came to us at only 4 days old, and Brent and the girls gave her, her first bottle with me only getting the chance to help at the very end. Not to worry I thought, I would get to do the next feeding solo.  The next morning, I got up and mixed the bottle and had that experience of solo feeding and it was a very sweet moment. However, the sweetness wears off very quickly when you are having to mix the formula, which is multiple litres, twice a day and then clean all the bottles and mixing equipment in between each feed. The other aspect that helps the sweetness wear off quickly, is once the calf starts to realise that you are the one that brings the food and therefore tries to get milk from you every time you enter the barn. She has licked and chewed pretty much every article of clothing I have worn in the barn and seemed particularly fond of my Uggs (yes, I know, not appropriate barn shoes, the search for good cowboy boots continues). As she got older and more confident in her surroundings, she would start nudging looking for more milk. At the beginning it wasn’t a big deal, I thought her little nudges were cute, but as she has started packing on the pounds and getting taller, it has become more of a nuisance.

    Another aspect of bottle feeding for which I was unprepared, was the amount of froth and drool that it would create on her very large snout. The process of sucking on the bottle, or chewing it as she seemed to prefer, creates an amount of froth and drool I didn’t know was even possible. I am not unaccustomed to slobber as our goldens’ will drool when playing fetch or even my girls when they were babies, major drool queens. None of that prepared me though for the cow drool. It’s not like I can put a bib on her, so feeding quickly became a very messy affair. Whatever I was wearing to go feed her, would have to be washed right after. The need for overalls has never been as apparent for me as it is now that I am cleaning my clothes after going in the barn. All of this made me long for when I would no longer have to bottle feed her, which thankfully happened this week.

    2. Bottle calves don’t just inherently know how to drink from a bucket.

    I finally got the nerve up yesterday to try giving her the milk replacement in a bowl instead of bottles. The milk replacer bag said that she should be bottle fed for her first 14 days and then use the milk replacer for at least 28 days total before weaning. We were getting close to the 28 days, and I still was using the bottles, so I decided, enough with the drool and bottle washing let’s put it in a bowl. I honestly assumed this would make her happier as she could get it more easily. So blissfully ignorant I walked over to the barn feeling very pleased that the trouble with bottles was over, I opened up the gate to an eager Buttercup and set the bowl down. Well, she was not delighted at all. In fact, she got frustrated thinking I must be holding out on her and immediately started to nudge/ram me in what seemed like an attempt to get me to give up the bottles that I clearly must have been hiding in my coat. So, I tried showing her the bowl again, she sniffed it and then came back to me again looking for her bottles. Frustrated, as was she, I put my hand in the replacer and brought it up to her nose, she simply mooed at me like I was some sort of terrible traitor who had given her milk away. This continued for some time resulting in me getting milk replacer all over my arm, which made it very sticky, and trying my best not to get Buttercup to step in the bowl. Finally, I got her to put her nose into the bowl, at which point she hoovered the whole 3.2 L in less than 2 minutes. We had success! Clearly everything was going to be easier going forward, or so I thought until the feeding this morning. Confident that she knew how to drink out of the bowl as I had witnessed her guzzle the whole thing the night before, I brought Penny along with me. We learned a valuable lesson that if we sit in the chair where I used to feed Buttercup with a bottle, she will abandon the bowl, thinking I have bottles to give, and proceed to search for them. This resulted in me trying to get her back over to the bowl while Penny said “it okay Buttertup pie-pie” as Buttercup knocked her bowl over spilling half of it. I am very proud of myself for not swearing in front of Penny in that moment. Thankfully the evening feed went much smoother, and we learned a valuable lesson: don’t sit in the bottle-feeding chair when Buttercup is drinking from her bowl.

    3. Just because your calf doesn’t moo the first few days, doesn’t mean it will be a quiet cow.

    When we first brought Buttercup home, I was stunned by how quiet she was. I had expected her to moo when she was being taken off the back of Brent’s truck, or to make a sound when she first checked out her surroundings. I waited to hear her when we put her in her pen for the night and closed the barn door, but there was nothing. The first few days the only sound was the faintest little moo, that almost sounded like a little pig oink. How adorable, I thought, we have the most well-tempered, silent cow around. The last couple weeks though, she has been letting her personality show and that includes her big girl moo. The first time she did it, I was honestly pretty proud. I told her she was a good girl, gave her a nice chin scratch and went about my business. However, now she moos, and loudly, the second we leave her sight. She has gone full on cow diva. We (Brent) installed a chain link fence on the inside of the barn door so that we would be able to leave one barn door open so she could look outside and enjoy the sun while still being safely secured in the barn. She isn’t big enough yet to be left alone in the field, particularly at night with coyotes around. The problem with having the barn door open, is that she expects us to stay right there and wants us to continually feed her grass. The girls started feeding her grass through the fence and thought it was the most fun activity ever. Buttercup agreed, and she loved eating from the girls’ hands. The problem becomes the second we must go inside, or we decide to go play, she now lets us know that she is displeased by mooing very loudly. Now, when it is me, she moos once, realises it doesn’t work, and then goes and lays down in her nice hay bed. The issue is that Penny has a real soft spot for Buttercup, and the second she hears her moo, Penny goes rushing back to the fence. She tells me we can’t go inside because Buttercup is sad, and it is very hard saying no to Penny.

    4. Just because your calf is calm when you bring it home, doesn’t mean it will stay that way.

    Again, when we brought Buttercup home, she was calm, even a little timid. She sort of slowly walked around the barn.  When the dogs ran around in there, she showed us a little spunk and kicked up her back legs. As the days went on, she got more comfortable with us and with the dogs. She started ripping around the barn, kicking dust up, getting on top of things. She started nudging me more and more knowing that I was the one who brought the food and who would give her the good neck scratches. The more she grows though, the less she seems to be aware of her size and strength. She got me with her leg on the second day we had her when she kicked up her back legs in excitement, and I barely felt it. She was only 85lbs. She is probably pushing 110-120lbs now and when she steps on you, you feel it! This is why I need to find better barn shoes than my Uggs, and I am looking into steel toed cowboy boots, which I discovered is actually a thing! Today she got so excited and wanted to be out with us in the yard where all the fresh grass is that she tried jumping against the gate to open it. She didn’t manage to open it, but her hefty weight did shift the locking mechanism and Brent had to adjust it. He decided today was the day that we needed to build her a little outdoor space that she could enjoy until she was big enough to be in the back field. This is yet another reason why it is handy being married to a carpenter. In about 10 minutes he had built a little cow run along the side of the barn that she can access through a little door. She was thrilled to be outside and able to graze on grass at her own leisure, rather than being reliant on the girls and I bringing fistfuls of it through the fence. Her excitement and playfulness however, manifested in a weird new demonstration of energy. The dogs often go in the barn and Brinkley decided to check out her new outdoor space, at which point, I kid you not, Buttercup tried to mount Brinkley. Brinkley didn’t seem to understand what was happening and honestly Brent and I were surprised too. So surprised that I made Brent double check that Buttercup was in fact a girl. After firmly establishing that yes, she was a heifer and not a bull, something that we realised should have been obvious without checking simply from the fact that we have seen her pee, we were at a loss for what she was doing. A quick Google search revealed that, just like puppies, calves are extremely playful. Not having other calves around to play with, she sees Brinkley as her friend and playmate and was essentially trying to roughhouse with him. As cute as this is, I quickly realised I will need to learn how to train her because as she grows, she will quickly be able to squash Brinkley if she continues this kind of playing.

    5. Calves are more work than you expect, but definitely worth it.

    To say I was naïve before raising a calf, would be an understatement. I truly thought that cows were calm slow moving, gentle giants. I thought feeding a baby cow would be simple and possibly even therapeutic. I did not expect to have to learn so many things on the fly. The sheer amount of milk replacer she needs every day was an eye-opener. Having the properly wash the bottles to remove all the residue otherwise it quickly stinks up the kitchen, was an important lesson early on. The work of having to clean out the stall, carry fresh water to the barn in a large enough bucket that she can’t tip it over, has been exhausting some days, particularly when the girls haven’t slept well the night before. I have learned how strong even a once month-old calf can be and have been licked and chewed more than I ever thought possible from an animal. Still, I would get a calf again in a heartbeat, especially now that Buttercup is drinking from a bowl. The work is hard and time consuming sometimes, but soon she will be out in the field grazing through acres of grass, free as can be, and these first few weeks will have been worth it. If nothing else, seeing Cece and Penny have this bond with their first cow, makes it all worth it, although it might make eventually eating her a bit more difficult.

  • Seeing a man about a cow…

    I originally had a whole plan for this week’s blog. After feeling defeated last week at the lack of affordable cattle, I spent most of the week reading up on what we would need for our future sheep, planning Cece’s 5th birthday party, and contemplating whether or not we should get pigs instead. I was going to write about the pros and cons that I had considered about getting pigs and talk about which breeds I liked best. However, 8hrs ago I saw Brent leaving the driveway with his trailer hitched to the back and I sent him a text asking where he was going, to which he responded, “to see a man about a cow”. Two and a half hours later, he was pulling into the driveway with Buttercup, our new 4-day old calf.

    Now in Brent’s defense, we had been talking about getting cows for months as I had previously detailed, and he did in fact mention this morning that he might have a lead on a calf for pick up on Saturday. However, that was the last thing he mentioned before I saw him a few hours later pulling out of the drive. To some this might seem frightening, ill-planned, scary, nerve-wracking or stressful, but for us I have to admit it is kind of par for the course. When we decided to buy our first house, we had a conversation on the Friday of hey we should maybe think about buying a house and we closed on our house on the Tuesday, a mere 4 days later. A few years later, Brent and I had had some brief conversations about how it might be nice to have a pool. We even bought a small above ground pool, then returned it because we decided that it was too small and not worth it. Then I went on a trip back home to BC and I was checking the Visa statement and noticed a large charge from Canadian Tire. I texted Brent to ask about the charge, and his response was simply “POOOOOOL!”. We still have that pool to this day and it remains one of the funniest messages I have ever gotten from him. A year and a half ago, I had been bugging Brent about us needing another golden retriever because I kept seeing cute ones online. Two weeks before Penny’s first birthday, after supper he just said, we have to be at this address at 7pm to pick up our new puppy. Some people thought it was crazy, to add a new puppy when we already had a 3-year-old and a soon to be 1 year old, but we wouldn’t change Brinkley for the world.

    • First Christmas at our impulse purchase house
    • Brent enjoying our pool
    • Penny when we brought Brinkley home
    • Cece when we brought Brinkley home

    Of course, all that said, there was still a little bit of panic in me when Brent informed me that he was on his way to pick up a calf. For starters, we had nothing set up for the calf. We had bought our electric fence material, but we still haven’t taken down our neighbour’s fences that they used when they were renting our land for their horses to graze. Thankfully, Buttercup won’t be out in the fields grazing for another 6 weeks minimum. We also didn’t have any milk replacement, bottles or a pen set up in the barn. I mentioned all this to Brent when he called me on his drive home and he was quite calm about it all. He said he was going to rig up a pen in the barn for her. The good thing about being married to a carpenter is there is always a lot of scrap wood and pallets around which really come in handy. As for the milk replacement, he had already made a call to the livestock supply store down the street from our house and he ended up going to our friends’ house that is right across from the supply store, and they had bottles that they were not going to use. Brent mentioned he had a moment of panic when he was first leaving to pick her up, but that it had changed to excitement to be bringing home the first farm animal to our property.

    I did my best to not mention anything to the girls as I wanted it to be a surprise for them when he got back. They knew we were looking for a cow and liked to talk about what it would be like when they got one, but I really wanted to see their reaction when it was finally here. I also didn’t really feel like having them ask me for two hours when Daddy was going to be back with the cow, so I kept it a secret. If you ever ask anyone that knows me whether I can keep a secret, most of them would laugh in your face. I am known for blabbing everything, I simply can’t keep information to myself, but I was determined to make it through the two hours. The problem with keeping it a secret was trying to convince them of the need to hurry and get their boots and coats on once Brent had told me he was just down the road. Trying to get a toddler and a 5-year-old to get out of the house quickly is a feat in itself, but it was worth it to see their reaction to the surprise Daddy had for them.

    Penny getting to know Buttercup.

    When Brent first got her out of his trailer, I was shocked at how small she was. He carried her out because she only weighs around 85lbs and is about as tall as Kili. At first, she was a bit hesitant to see the barn and have Kili and Brinkley chasing her around as if she were another puppy to play with, but she eventually got used to her surroundings and soon she was running and kicking up her legs in excitement. That excitement was what lead to my first time being kicked by a cow, thankfully she is still small so it didn’t hurt, but I will be more mindful of it in the future. Cece and Penny were over the moon about their new cow. They helped me put her hay down while Brent made a pen for her by attaching some pallets together and one for a door at the end, securing it to the barn. Then they had plenty of hugs and kisses for her while she snuggled into her hay. They refused to leave her side until Brent got back with the milk replacement and the bottles and then they wanted to help feed her. With both my girls, I was lucky enough to be able to breastfeed them exclusively, which means that I have absolutely zero experience with formula, which is pretty much what this milk replacement is for the calf, although it comes in a much bigger bag. It was a very new experience having to measure out 2.6 L of water then weigh the required powder. At first Brent tried mixing it in the bottle, which proved to be rather impossible, and powder was spilling out. Then we moved onto a large metal bowl and then using a funnel to put it back into the bottle. When we brought it out to Buttercup, she drank it with gusto. The girls each had a turn holding the bottle and I got my chance as well.

    • Dogs with Buttercup
    • Penny keeping a watchful eye
    • Cece and her new bestfriend
    • Brent feeding Buttercup
    • Massive bag of replacement

    The girls were sad to have to leave her, as we went inside to have dinner. They came out with me after to bring a large container of water for her. Again, as this was a spur of the moment purchase, we didn’t have a water trough for her. After some quick googling I discovered that calves have a tendency to knock over their water if it is just in a bowl for them, so I had to ditch my plan of a large salad bowl. I quickly scoured the house looking for something that would be “trough-like” something that I never thought I would be doing. The best thing I could come up with was using one of our old Superstore grocery bins, and I have to say it was very effective. Online it said it had to be something that would be heavy enough not to be easily tipped over, and I can say that once it was filled up with water, it was certainly not easy to carry and therefore I felt confident she wouldn’t be able to tip it over. Of course, I still had to bring it from our house, all the way out to the barn. Going from the house to the barn is not normally a difficult trek, but carrying several litres of water in a bin, while holding Penny’s hand and avoiding giant puddles from the melting ice, made it considerably harder. We will definitely need to find a better permanent solution for Buttercups water needs. Once the water had been carefully placed in her paddock, the girls took the opportunity once more to give her a few more goodnight kisses and hugs, and then they reluctantly came into the house to have a bath as they had been rolling around in the hay with Buttercup.

    Girls saying goodnight to Buttercup

    Going forward, our routine will have to change to incorporate Buttercup’s feeding schedule. Based on her weight, she needs to have 2.6L of milk replacement twice a day and she will start to get food starter within the next couple days for the next 6 weeks until she can hopefully start to be weaned. By the summer, she will be out in the field and grazing on pasture which will come with all kinds of new projects like getting the fencing up, making sure she has easy access to water and building a cow shed for shelter once the winter months hit. There is bound to be so much to learn with her, and I know it will be a lot of work, but she is pretty darn cute.

  • The things you learn when trying to add livestock to your homestead…

    Because we live in Manitoba, spring takes a while to reach us. During the cold winter months, we turned our attention to acquiring animals for the spring. There are certain things I expected to learn when we started the endeavour into homesteading/hobby farming. For instance, I assumed I would learn a lot about the importance of proper fencing with animals, how to properly care for various farm animals, how to slaughter those animals humanely and where to go to process the meat. However, there were certain things that I did not expect to learn during this process, some which made me laugh and others that simply frustrated me to no end. Full disclosure, some of these discoveries will come as no surprise to anyone who has experience in hobby farming, but as a first-time homesteader, I was naively unaware about pretty much everything involved in the process.

    To start, I had the very foolish idea that it would be easy to find animals to add to our farm. I honestly assumed that I would simply type into Google “calf for sale near me” and that I would be able to find one relatively quickly for a reasonable price. Part of the reason I believed this was because last year when we were just starting to talk about getting animals in the near future, we had asked Brent’s cousin who has cattle, and he had told us that we should be able to find a calf pretty easily and that we shouldn’t pay more than $500 per calf. This seemed like a pretty decent deal for the amount of meat we would be able to get once it was fully grown. Unfortunately for us, we could not have predicted that cattle prices would skyrocket by the next year when we started looking for ours. When we started looking, we noticed that people now are asking $1000-$1500 per calf! Not only that, but there are way fewer people offering up bottle calves and people are clearly jumping at the chance to get them, thus justifying the price. As we continue looking, we are faced with the not so fun prospect of having to spend double what we had intended and then add on the fact that some of these cows are 2.5-3 hrs away from us. Brent remains confident he can find a cow for cheaper, despite the fact that when he posted an add on one of the cattle selling pages saying “$500 cash for a calf, will pick up today” most of the responses included people telling him he was dreaming or that he needed a time machine.

    Despite Brent’s confidence to be able to find a calf for a good price, we started discussing the idea of getting a yearling. For those unfamiliar with cow terminology a yearling is a cow between one and two years old that hasn’t had her first calf. This was disappointing to me because I had hoped to have the experience of a cute little cow that the girls and I would be able to feed with a bottle and bond with before the inevitable slaughtering time. Now, my mother questioned whether that would perhaps make it harder to kill and eat and that the girls might not be happy when their cow was gone. I would like to be clear that we have had full discussions with Cece about the process and explained that we want to make sure that the meat we are eating was treated well before it was killed and didn’t come from a feedlot. Penny is still too young to really understand so I am sure we will have some tears there for sure. This led to some new discoveries when we were looking at older cows, either male or female because at this point, we aren’t as picky. The funniest discovery I made was how the male cows that were up for auction were detailed in their write up. They always mention the birth weight, what breeds their parents were and then, if they are being sold as potential breeders, they list their scrotal circumference…The first time I saw this I couldn’t help but laugh. I was just not at all prepared for the idea that it would be something to even consider. This also led me to questioning who has the unfortunate job of having to measure something like that? Also are buyers actually going to get out a measuring tape to confirm that it is accurate? I am assuming that seeing as it is listed on many of the breeder bull write ups that it is something that is often considered when purchasing a bull, but I think I can confidently say that it will never be on our checklist when purchasing any future cattle.

    With cattle seeming more and more expensive and in short supply, I decided to turn my attention to my animal of choice, as well as Penny’s, sheep. In my mind, they are so cute and fluffy. I have seen several Instagram reels about curious and rambunctious sheep, most notably the little black-face sheep. Obviously, I was curious about whether or not we could get some black face sheep and quickly discovered that they were called Valais Blacknose sheep. In my mind, this name is deceiving because it isn’t just their noses that are black, but alas, that is their name. I had seen some ads for other breeds of sheep, and they all seemed to be asking between $80-$150 per lamb. This seemed extremely reasonable, especially after seeing the prices for cows. I figured, if regular sheep were $150, then a special cute breed like the Valais, would probably be maybe $300. Oh man was I wrong! On the Valais Blacknose site that sells out of Manitoba, they were asking $35,000 for one of their rams! And yes, I checked the numbers several times to make sure I read it right, and no I did not mess up on my decimal point typing this out. I could not wrap my head around how someone, would willingly pay that much money for a sheep. Now I am sure, if I looked around and did more searching, I could find some for slightly less, but still the idea of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a sheep just blew my mind. Thankfully, one of our neighbours down the road has some pregnant ewes and we are on standby for some lambs.

    Finally, I discovered that there is a wide range of animals that fall under the “livestock Manitoba” search on Kijiji. I found many people selling rabbits, which I know the girls would love to have, but Brent and I have agreed it will never happen. We told the girls that they technically have a pet bunny that we see in our front yard all the time. To make it feel more like their own pet, we told them to name the bunny, so we now say hi to Dandelion most mornings as she or he, really who knows, eats their breakfast in the morning. I made the mistake of letting the girls look with me through the ads once and they saw that someone was selling ostrich eggs for hatching and included pictures of the fully grown ostriches. This created terror in Cece and Penny got upset when I said we absolutely could not buy an ostrich. The variety of birds available is astonishing, and also unsettling for me as someone who really dislikes birds. The girls wanted all of them. That was until they saw the goats, dwarf goats, mini horses, mini donkeys and at one point a mini highland cow. That last one was the hardest for me to say no to, because I would love to have a highland cow, mini or full-sized. We even looked up some mini highlands at one point, and they were hardly better than the Valais sheep. They wanted $25,000 for one mini cow…I did eventually find a more reasonably priced site that was asking only $3500 per calf, but still a lot to pay for a pet.

    Despite all these high-priced animals and scarcity of calves, this has not deterred us one bit from wanting to start our farm. Brent has purchased the fencing; we’ve been mapping out our acreage and I have spent many nights reading about what is required to raise bottle-fed lambs. I am still excited to get to raise some animals and get to teach my girls how to take care of them as well. I am confident that at some point in the future, when I am much more knowledgeable about farming, I will look back at these days when I was naïve and laugh about my shock and surprise with the details of purchasing animals. But for now, I will always laugh at the idea of some poor worker whose job it is to measure the scrotal circumference of the bulls going up for auction.