Since Sara's calf last November was a heifer (Siobhan, at left), having our own grass-fed beef has been an event very far in the future. We are just now trying to get Bickett Genetics to come over and breed Sara again by AI for a calf next April. Even if it should turn out to be a bull, it needs two years to grow into grass-fed beef, so we're at least two years and nine months away from our own beef.
About six months ago we contacted several Dexter breeders in the area to see if they had extra bull calves we could get castrated and raise for beef. One of them contacted us recently to say that we could come get our little steer any time. So hopefully, this weekend we'll head to the Atlanta area to pick up T-Bone. After all, it only makes sense to call him by the name Siobhan would have had if she'd been a bull. If he's about six months old now, that puts our own grass-fed beef just 18 months away, almost cutting our time in half.
In case you're wondering about the whole concept of grass-fed beef, let me share a video from You Tube that I found courtesy of Lara DeHaven of Cross Creek in Texas.
Grass-fed vs. Feed-lot Beef (Click somewhere in the title at left and then click on the link that appears. In case it doesn't work, I've included the url for you to copy and paste in your browser.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUDCh7nSUEQ&feature=player_embedded
We've tasted grass-fed beef from Longhorns and found it tastes great, but we've never tasted Dexter beef.
Is she back up by the barn?
ReplyDeleteNo, this is an older picture I borrowed just to illustrate this post. The most recent photos of Siobhan are in the post about T-bone coming home. It's amazing--she's bigger than he is although they were both born in November.
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