So far, in the Meet the Herd series, you met my quarter horse gelding, Beau. Now you get to meet the cows! I currently only have 11 cows, as I mentioned early in my post, About the Sojourner’s Journey. My operation is a cow/calf operation. This means I have mama cows that raise calves that I then use as replacements for my herd (heifers) or locker beef (steers). All of my cows are red or black Angus. I like the Angus breed because they hold up well in a high desert environment. The high desert can be a challenging environment to raise livestock because of the lack of water and grass (although I would take it over the desert any day!) But it is the challenge that makes it all worth it!
Since I have so few cows, I run them with my parents’ herd. It makes it pretty easy for me since I work a full-time job, Mom takes care of them during the weekdays, and I help out when I can on the weekends. I can also be involved in some of the decision-making as my family work to transition me into the business. I talk about our transition experience so far in the post, January 1, 2021, if you would like to read more about how we are approaching the transition. Some of the decisions we have decided to make have been difficult ones. We are trying to change our program so that our cattle can be more self-sufficient and need fewer inputs (and thus, we put less money into them). I will talk more about the changes we made to our program and what it means for the cattle, land, and our family in later posts. So make sure you keep checking back with The Sojourner’s Journey to read more about my journey!
Happy Journeys,
Shayne
