politic on the board


Just keep it clean please....

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 182

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Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 7:12 am

Re: politic on the board

Yes, a dry cow is one that is pregnant but has been taken out of the milking string about a month or so before she is due to have her calf. She is not being milked at this time, hence the term "dry cow". She will be returned to the milking string once she has her calf and begins a new lactation.

These animals (expectant mothers) are typically kept together in a pasture of their own, termed a dry cow lot. The one I referred to in my post is a swampy, non productive piece of low ground that should better be left to nature, in my opinion.

The farmer mentioned, and many others, cuts the tails off his cows, a practice called docking. It is claimed to be more sanitary but my neighbor says he got tired of being slapped with pissy tails. He generally cuts them off with his jack knife and puts some blood stop powder on them and ties a rag around them instead of having it done in a humane manner by a vet as reputable producers do. This practice leaves the animal with no defense against insects as nature intended.

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 8:36 am

Re: politic on the board

Thanks for the easy to understand explanation. Most of my extended family still farm in Alberta. We became city slickers in 1955.
I would rather have tools I do not need than to need tools I do not have
Thinking risks being controversial and possibly being offensive

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Location: Fletcher, OK

Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 12:16 pm

Re: politic on the board

I've never been a fan of docking. When I was a kid we had a neighbor who did and my granddad made it abundantly clear to me that it was not a beneficial practice. I love to eat meat but I will also only buy it from the local grocery that has a butcher and buys locally sourced meat.
46 K3
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Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 182

Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2017 8:00 am

Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 2:37 pm

Re: politic on the board

That is good practice. I heard or read somewhere that a McDonalds burger has potentially the meat from 40,000 different cows in it. Just the way it's mixed I guess.

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:45 pm

Location: Canada's left Coast

Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 3:34 pm

Re: politic on the board

Our Thanksgiving turkey is locally grown and free-range. My wife ordered our turkey from the local grocer. We had a choice of turkey growers. We have used the same farmer for two decades.
My Father was a mixed farmer. He raised free run pigs in large pens open to the outside. Dad kept a few Jersey cows for our dairy needs. The few beef cattle Dad had were pasture kept with barn access and were grain fed. Dad became emotionally involved with his animals. I remember Dad shedding a tear "when the time came".
Our move to "town" was more displacement than choice. A small farm of a section or less could not make enough to support a family. A large local farm family bought the farm and our family went to the city. I had Dad's 1938 John Deere for years before I sold it to a guy I worked with. I still have the large displacement Ruston Hornsby single cylinder engine that powered a local Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator. I gave the IH to a friend and he parted it out and sold the pieces.
Attachments
Dad's Funeral day.jpg
Dad's IHC farm truck on the day of his funeral
Ruston powered GRAIN ELEVATOR.jpg
grain elevator
Ruston HR 2.jpg
640 CID Diesel engine.
Last edited by nikkinutshop on Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I would rather have tools I do not need than to need tools I do not have
Thinking risks being controversial and possibly being offensive

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 182

Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2017 8:00 am

Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 4:33 pm

Re: politic on the board

Nick,

Free range is the best you can get.

We milked Jersey cows also, and I admit I got attached to them. It's hard not to when you raise them from birth and they bond with you. They give you their level best every day, twice a day. I guess that was my "dairy career downfall", I spent way more time on cow comfort and keeping the girls clean than most farmers.

I called the vets for annual vaccinations one day and they sent out a new vet who is an Iranian immigrant. I helped him do his job and at the end of the visit he said "you know that in some cultures it is believed that God is a cow, if they are right, you're in!". Everytime after that when he came out he brought a jug and bought raw milk from us, he also had a package of Oreo cookies with him. Great guy, he still cares for our cat.

Your Dad had a tough go as all diversified farmers did back then, but I bet he had some real fond memories of his days on the farm. Completely different now days, seems like around here it's hard to find a working farm that has a garden.

Great pictures, good memories, lots of fun and sadness but I bet you never went hungry.

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

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Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:45 pm

Location: Canada's left Coast

Post Wed Oct 03, 2018 6:19 pm

Re: politic on the board

I never met my Mother's father. He was known for having a really bad temper and being generally miserable. He died in 1938 from what we now know was cancer. The local hospital opened him up and determined his condition was too much for them to deal with. Grand was wrapped up and sent home to die. Mom said her father was in the parlor for a day before he died. She said her Father was yelling at Picobac tobacco can he thought he was seeing floating around the parlor. Grand was a heavy smoker. I have one of his PICOBAC tins for no reason other than I like the graphics.
The church was about a mile away. After the funeral the family walked home. Soon after going into the house, "the heavens opened up" as Mom would say. and hail pounded the crops into the ground until there was nothing left bt piles of ice crystals. The story goes, the daughters were crying and suggested, first we lose our father and now the crops. Grandmother said, "all is not lost, someone gather up clean hail and we will make icecream."
Our farm was about four miles from Grandmother's farm. My brother and I used to walk both ways. Before I started in grade one, Dad bought my brother and I a 22 rifle. Mom told us top always carry ammunition and the gun and if some stranger stopped and tried to pick us up, shoot him! There was one time a saleaman type offered us a ride and my brother fired a shot into the guy's car door. The driver floored the engine and was gone. When we told Mom what had happemed, she said, " aim higher next time. That was about 1951, the year Rural Electrification came to the farms. Thoise were rough times before Rural Electrification.
I remember there being a neighbour who liked to "womanize" and he developed a reputation of "visiting" with the wives of farmers who went logging in the winter for extra money. My Father said this guy was captured by local farmers and taken to the veterinarian where he was castrated. No go Joe, as he was known, stayed home and had the nicest garden in the district.
I would rather have tools I do not need than to need tools I do not have
Thinking risks being controversial and possibly being offensive

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 182

Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2017 8:00 am

Post Thu Oct 04, 2018 6:55 am

Re: politic on the board

I've never heard of PICOBAC, maybe it was regional? I'll have to see if I can find a picture of a tin so I can check out the graphics.

Some rich memories you have there, I'm sure you have told your offspring. The no go Joe story is great.

Golden Jubilee
Golden Jubilee

Posts: 8937

Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:45 pm

Location: Canada's left Coast

Post Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:04 am

Re: politic on the board

COWS
Attachments
COW STRIPPER UTTERLY UNBELIEVABLE.jpg
COWS 4.jpg
I would rather have tools I do not need than to need tools I do not have
Thinking risks being controversial and possibly being offensive

Rusty Driver
Rusty Driver

Posts: 182

Joined: Tue Apr 04, 2017 8:00 am

Post Fri Oct 05, 2018 7:26 am

Re: politic on the board

I've always liked the pole dancing cow, never seen the other one before but it's so true.

U.S.D.A. just announced it's ordering the recall of 6.5 million pounds of ground beef due to salmonella. Buy local like waltesefalcon, it's much safer in my opinion.
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