One of my nephews and 2 of my brothers all 3 work in town, but live in the nearby country where they like to raise cattle and a few hogs in their spare time. Early last summer they bought 4 feeder barrows (barrows are castrated male pigs) to feed out to market weight, around the 250 to 280 pound range. Recently the trio had to… Read More »
Chopping green corn for silage. Ruminants have the ability to take-in complex carbohydrates from forage plants, that are indigestible to us omnivores, then convert them into high quality animal protein. Beef brood cows thrive on good quality grasses and legumes; then provide us with feeder calves. When cows are deemed no longer to be productive enough they are harvested… Read More »
4H club calves sired by AI (artificial insemination) catalog show bulls often fetch top dollar from today’s beef industry interested youth. Embryos generated from phenotypically appealing cow-bull combinations are sometimes transplanted into normal looking beef brood cows in an effort to obtain evermore winning potential show calves. I have not heard of it happening, but it seems… Read More »
The Japanese word Wagyu translates to the English word cattle. There are different strains, or breeds, of Wagyu; Akaushi is one that has a high propensity to marble. Judging by the way Wagyu look, moo and marble (they ain’t Bos indicus cattle) it appears that the cattle brought onto the islands of Japan during the 2nd century… Read More »
Why don’t most people call all hogs sows or all sheep ewes? In the case of hogs female breeding stock is generally out of sight in barns or barnyards. Ewes are out roaming the range, but since the lamb/mutton industry in the US is a tiny fraction the size of either the pork or… Read More »