Quail_Antwerp: Words from the Barnyard...

[justusnak]

$2.00 a calf!!! JEESH!!! Hey, im going to go get those LaManchas Monday....wanna do a trade!??
Those are great looking boys! Wow, lucky you!

 

[Farmfresh]

Really nice looking calves. Man when you see a deal on hamburger you really know how to stock up!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Quail is now the official "Queen of the Ohio Farm Auction".
You earned this title if you want to use it.

Beautiful calves

 

[lorihadams]

My husband is rolling, laughing his tail off.....then he looks at me and says, "hey, are there any auctions around here?"

thinking a minute he says "if you brought a cow home in the back of our Durango I would kill you"

Yeah, but he was okay with all the ducks we put in there yesterday.....btw, I sold 4 of my indian runners yesterday at the chicken swap for $50!!! 3males and 1 female and the lady sent us home with 2 mallard babies to boot!

All hail Aly, queen of the auction house!!!

 

[TanksHill]

Good For you Ally!

They sure are pretty. I could never eat a cow I raised. I just think they are tooooo cute.

So far I think I'm good with eatting the chickens..but I doubt I could do the cow.

I think maybe this depends on how hungry you were. No???

 

[hwillm1977]

thinking a minute he says "if you brought a cow home in the back of our Durango I would kill you"

lol... mine said 'there's no way cows would fit in our Blazer, and this is why you are never allowed to go to a livestock auction without supervision'

We have weekly livestock auctions here, but they are sold by the pound and usually end up $1.35-$2.50/pound for cows... that's a lot easier to resist than $2.00 EACH... even with just one acre I would find somewhere to put a cow (or three)

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

We have weekly livestock auctions here, but they are sold by the pound and usually end up $1.35-$2.50/pound for cows... that's a lot easier to resist than $2.00 EACH... even with just one acre I would find somewhere to put a cow (or three)

$1.35 to $2.00/pound is the average going rate at our local auction - but I have seen an 100lb dairy calves go for 25 cents a pound. Usually the dairy calves are bought up by the local veal farms.

Our local dairy farmers sell off their bull calves because they don't want to raise them up, and they want them off the mom's so they can milk them.

Alot of those same dairy farmers are now crossing their dairy cows with beef bulls. It makes for smaller calves, and a lot of beef farmers will buy the half beef calves for their herds. The beef/dairy crosses are usually $30-$100 a head.

Did everyone remember to turn their clocks an hour ahead? We had set the alarm clock, but not the wall clock. It made for a confusing morning.

We fixed up the calf pen again, that we had just moved Blessing out of, and moved the three new kids over to it. We decided to call the biggest calf T-Bone.

I was working on cleaning the call duck pen out - taking a break for a late lunch of scrambled eggs - I got 3 call duck eggs today! They're going in the 'bator.

Worked my compost pile a little bit this morning, too.

And would ya'll like to know how to make a Muscovey Drake happy???? Bring home 7 new girls for him! I've never seen a happier drake!!! He was fanning his tail and walking all over strutting his stuff and dancing for the new gals. They seemed pretty pleased to see him, too.

Soon as lunch is done, it's back out to finish moving dirty straw to the compost bin. Then I'm going to be heading over Becca's way to pick up some hay.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Aly you are a workaholic! Girl its Sunday,..sit down for a minute,...never mind,..I know I forgot allready about being held up inside almost all winter,...you go girl!!!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

So I learned a couple things today....

First, I learned ALL Geese are evil! It's not just a characteristic of Embdens - it's all geese!

or rather, all Ganders during the breeding season

Where the Embden Gander whallopped my right leg a few weeks back, the Sebbie Gander battered my left side today.

It was not funny.

E thought it was hilarious. If looks could kill, E would be a grease spot right now.

I'm beating nearly bludgeoned to death by a 20 pound Sebbie Gander, and E - who was supposed to be standing just outside the gate - was on the other side of the yard hunting eggs. I'm screaming his name, and he mosey's on over to see what's going on.

I think he took his time on purpose.

So, my left leg is now a bit bruised. And swollen around the knee cap.

Darn Gander.

The other thing I learned is....

Give a Muscovey Drake 7 New girls, and he's in heaven. He honestly didn't seem to know which girl to shower attentions on first! Granted, most of them are fairly young and not of breeding age yet, but he was still pleased.

This is Queenie, she's the Duck I was really after on Friday - but when I won the top bid, I just took them all because I knew my mom was wanting some, too.

Here's the other 6 I got on Friday.

E wants to name one of them "Dandruff".

The little white one we named Snowy. Here's a better pic of Snowy.

They were all really dirty when I brought them home, so while they do look a bit bedraggled in these pics, they looked 100 times worse on Friday. (Except Queenie! She was from a different farm I think and in way better condition.)

They've spent a lot of time in the kiddie pool today washing and then preening. Snowy follows us around the yard - it's so cute! And they come running for treats! They are not afraid of us at all! We can't reach down to pet them, but we can walk right up to them.

Here's Draco - my big happy boy.

And a new pic of Dash Jr.

The only one I didn't get a pic of today is Puddles, my blue and white female, and that's because she flew into the Welsummer pen, and well, I wasn't chasing her.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Aly you are so ducky! Oh I mean LUCKY!