Post by lakeportfarms on Aug 29, 2015 11:09:32 GMT
Wow, Sheril and I have been swamped with things going on around the farm. Of course there is the usual jobs and chores to be done, moving the cows a couple of times/day for our rotational grazing, fencing, etc... A couple of weeks ago we split off a variety of our Dexters (and a few Highlands) and brought them to the Armada Fair, which is a pretty good size fair with high attendance in a little town about 40 miles North of Detroit. This is our third year attending. All told we brought about 30 Dexters, 10 Highlands, and we also brought 11 Miniature Silky Fainting Goats! Yeah that many!!! On the load out there is a queue for bringing in the trailers, and they were referring it as the "Dexter tent" even though there were other breeds in there...ha!
We did very well, winning champion Dexter cow and also Dexter bull. Normally you'd think "yeah but who is the competition?" For us it's the Wieringa's, who also attend the fair with many of their Dexters, so it's quite an accomplishment that we did so well! Our Dexters are definitely smaller by a pretty large margin, but they're in good condition and not grain fed, so apparently the judge was not looking at conditioning as much as some do. Like last year, we had a lot of kids helping us out tremendously and then showing the Dexters in the show. We couldn't have done it without them. Many of them do 4H rabbits, or poultry (which wasn't allowed at any fair this year because of the bird flu), so they're excited to get to show cattle too.
We had loads of visitors to see them and quite a few sales and leads for sales too. We had sold quite a few before the fair and we're pretty close to sold out now on heifers, and bull calves that we chose to remain intact. We'll have a waiting list for heifers this coming year for sure.
Yesterday the 4H leader for one of the clubs, who is also the barn manager for all of the fair, came out with his family and they've selected 3 steers for their project over the coming year. He's sending some others to us as well (after they picked out theirs...lol) In discussing the 4H situation with them, apparently they're getting a significant shrink of the prospect and market beef in favor of lambs and pigs due to both the cost of the larger breeds and the feeding and maintenance of them, and the difficulty some of the kids have in handling such large steers. When they saw all of our Dexters, they decided that it would be a good time to bring some in and hopefully reinvigorate the interest in the beef cattle part of 4H. They have picked out one long leg and two short legged steers, and we'll get very precise feedback on the inputs v. outputs of the two different types, as well as the judging and ultimately, the auction selling price between the various types.
All of these things are pretty exciting for the Dexter breed around here. Hopefully some other areas are seeing similar interest as we are. We needed a few days to recover, and then for the past two days Sheril and I have been taking a AI class that Genex put on at a large dairy in central Michigan. We had some classroom instruction, and then it was hands on (or more accurately, in) some of the cull registered Holsteins. Poor Sheril stands about as tall as the back end of one of these beasts, so you can imagine the mechanics (and ummm...danger) of someone her size at the back end of a cow that has their poop hole right at eye level. We both did very poorly on the first day at inserting the gun in the right spot, but after a rest day Sheril got the knack and was able to get 5 different cows. At the end she was getting pretty good. I wasn't so good at it. But the good news is that Sheril doesn't like cold things and I do. So...we will be a team! I get to pull out the canister from the -320F liquid nitrogen and pull out the straw and prepare everything for her to do the insemination! I think that's a great plan! It will certainly be a LOT easier for Sheril to reach in and work with our Dexters than it was with the Holsteins! We have a couple of cull cows being prepared to beef out now that she can practice on to get familiar with the Dexter size.
Fall is in the air, we had highs in the mid 60's the past few days, and there are some leaves already starting to show signs of changing. Sheril starts back in school on Monday and we have a ton of projects left to do on the farm before the snow flies!
We did very well, winning champion Dexter cow and also Dexter bull. Normally you'd think "yeah but who is the competition?" For us it's the Wieringa's, who also attend the fair with many of their Dexters, so it's quite an accomplishment that we did so well! Our Dexters are definitely smaller by a pretty large margin, but they're in good condition and not grain fed, so apparently the judge was not looking at conditioning as much as some do. Like last year, we had a lot of kids helping us out tremendously and then showing the Dexters in the show. We couldn't have done it without them. Many of them do 4H rabbits, or poultry (which wasn't allowed at any fair this year because of the bird flu), so they're excited to get to show cattle too.
We had loads of visitors to see them and quite a few sales and leads for sales too. We had sold quite a few before the fair and we're pretty close to sold out now on heifers, and bull calves that we chose to remain intact. We'll have a waiting list for heifers this coming year for sure.
Yesterday the 4H leader for one of the clubs, who is also the barn manager for all of the fair, came out with his family and they've selected 3 steers for their project over the coming year. He's sending some others to us as well (after they picked out theirs...lol) In discussing the 4H situation with them, apparently they're getting a significant shrink of the prospect and market beef in favor of lambs and pigs due to both the cost of the larger breeds and the feeding and maintenance of them, and the difficulty some of the kids have in handling such large steers. When they saw all of our Dexters, they decided that it would be a good time to bring some in and hopefully reinvigorate the interest in the beef cattle part of 4H. They have picked out one long leg and two short legged steers, and we'll get very precise feedback on the inputs v. outputs of the two different types, as well as the judging and ultimately, the auction selling price between the various types.
All of these things are pretty exciting for the Dexter breed around here. Hopefully some other areas are seeing similar interest as we are. We needed a few days to recover, and then for the past two days Sheril and I have been taking a AI class that Genex put on at a large dairy in central Michigan. We had some classroom instruction, and then it was hands on (or more accurately, in) some of the cull registered Holsteins. Poor Sheril stands about as tall as the back end of one of these beasts, so you can imagine the mechanics (and ummm...danger) of someone her size at the back end of a cow that has their poop hole right at eye level. We both did very poorly on the first day at inserting the gun in the right spot, but after a rest day Sheril got the knack and was able to get 5 different cows. At the end she was getting pretty good. I wasn't so good at it. But the good news is that Sheril doesn't like cold things and I do. So...we will be a team! I get to pull out the canister from the -320F liquid nitrogen and pull out the straw and prepare everything for her to do the insemination! I think that's a great plan! It will certainly be a LOT easier for Sheril to reach in and work with our Dexters than it was with the Holsteins! We have a couple of cull cows being prepared to beef out now that she can practice on to get familiar with the Dexter size.
Fall is in the air, we had highs in the mid 60's the past few days, and there are some leaves already starting to show signs of changing. Sheril starts back in school on Monday and we have a ton of projects left to do on the farm before the snow flies!
