Hi from AZ. Somebody GAVE me a cow. QUESTIONS

[Azelgin]

Found my way over here from BYC.
OK, here's the deal. Somebody has given me a 15 month old Jersey hefer. She's not a reject, but a pretty good looking girl. Mom was a small Jersey standard, breed to a small Jersey bull. I have a chance to buy a small (less than 1000 lbs.), three year old, proven Jersey bull, for $500. Next option is to haul my hefer to the bull and pay a stud fee of $75 + feed, while she stays to be bred.
I have the room and facilities for the bull, if I should decide to buy him and bring him home. By the time I figure in my fuel, feed, mileage, etc., to get the cow bred, I figure I'll be in the venture closer to $200. Should I buy the bull, use him for the breeding and then send him to the butcher instead? My cost for the bull would work out to around 35 cents a pound live weight, by the time I deduct some of the expenses that I would have spent for breeding services. Will he taste ok, being that he is three years old? I really can't use him for stud services where I live. Too far for people to travel. I really live out in the sticks.

Any ideas?

 

[glenolam]

First,

It all depends on how much you want to have a bull around for breeding/slaughtering and how quickly you want beef. We have beef cows, and originally got 3 heifers that we waited a year to breed. Two calved about 3 weeks ago, and we have a bull and a heifer from them, so the bull will be raised for slaughter and we're debating on what to do with the heifer. We brought our 3 girls to the bull and they lived on the farm wtih him for 2 months and paid $1/day for each cow. We didn't want a bull because we didn't have the means to keep him properly contained (at the time we were surrounded by other cows and we feared the bull would escape to breed them) and to us it was a waste of time and money. We did just purchase a jersey bull calf that is now a steer, but we have no intentions of getting/keeping a bull. Our timeline did cost us more than if we had just purchased steers, but for us it was more about learning than hurrying up to butcher something.

If you don't care about waiting a little longer for meat, I would suggest breeding her to the bull at his place and see what she calves with.

Again, we have beef cows and only 1 jersey steer calf so I can't answer specific Jersey questions, but this is what I would do in your situation.

Have fun!

 

[MysticScorpio82]

From Maine!

 

[michickenwrangler]

 

[TigerLilly]

I'm too new to offer any advice on this, other than I've heard over & over that if you REALLY don't need the bull, have you cows bred with someone that owns a bull, especially if you're new to this (which I am). Steers are the way to go if you want to raise up for meat.
oh, and welcome!

 

[Azelgin]

Thanks for the replies.
We're leaning towards bringing home the bull, do the breeding and then send him off to the butcher. We are really getting tired of eating chicken. I talked to the owner and he swears this bull is pretty mellow. He can be controlled with a fly swatter, never tests fences, well mannered, etc. Whatever. He's also just a little bigger than a mini, so that's another good thing for selling off a calf from him down the road. Small milk cows are hard to find around here. I have pens that will hold a bull and he can be unloaded and loaded safely without much effort. The upside to having the bull here outweighs the possible problems.
Another advantage is that it will be a full jersey calf from the breeding. Jersey heifers bring a good price here and if it's a bull calf, we would turn him into a steer and keep it for the freezer. When we need to freshen the cow again, I'll be able to use the neighbor's bulls. He has 16 black angus bulls for his operation. It's too late for that this year, as they are all out on the range now. Next time, I'll just throw her out in the road (we live in open range country) with the rest of his herd and collect her up before he drives them onto the national forest.
I'll keep you posted on this adventure.

 

[TigerLilly]

Well, when you get him settled in, let's see some pictures!