The Bovine Bugle

When new calves arrive on the farm

Awhile back Michelle sent in a question on a blog I did about pregnant cows. She wondered what happens to the calves after they are born. What happens to the calf depends on whether it is a heifer (girl) or a bull (boy).

We raise all of our heifer calves that are born each year. Our girl-to-boy ratio is usually close to 50:50, so each year we will have 25 or so heifers born. We will keep about half of these heifers for replacements in our own herd, and the rest will be sold to other farmers, either in-state or sometimes out-of-state. We are able to sell some of our replacements because our cows live longer than on most farms, so we don't need to replace them as often.

The bull calves' fate is usually not as good as the heifers. Because we do all our breeding with artificial insemination, we don't keep any bulls on the farm for breeding. We do keep some bull calves to steer for our beef production. We raise them for at least two years before they are processed. Once in awhile we sell a bull calf to another farmer who will raise it to use for breeding on their farm. Most of the time we sell the bull calves at a commission sale a few days after they are born.

Got a question about adding to the farm, or any other topics related to organic farming? Write me here and I'll answer as best I can!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Check out today's Special Report in our blog, Creating Healthy Kids! We've gone to the X Games in Los Angeles to participate in a fun environmental initiative, complete with mini-"moo"vies you can watch on your computer.

Posted by Blogger Chris at August 5, 2005 08:54 PM