Sonny born Jan 3rd. Pictures taken Jan 20 (left) and Mar 12th (right). Bull material I think.
It’s been a while since the last post but I have got some stuff in preparation to get posted soon. I have spent some time upgrading the webpage by expanding the informational function of the site as well as format. There are a lot of websites for minis out there and many of them are quite good. I’ll try not to duplicate much that is commonly shared by many sites and instead focus on more of the ‘general cattle husbandry’ aspect of raising cattle.
Much of the vast wealth of information out there about cattle is focused on commercial cattle production with a necessary emphasis on various economic models. These are very important if you are trying to make a living with cattle. But this where the “Miniature Hereford culture” splits from traditional cattle economics. Most mini raisers (I think) are not in it for the money as much as the experience of doing it. Many are retired or semi-retired and have their income form other sources. There are breeders out there operating at a scale that creates a viable income to support a growing family but by-and-large, most (many?), like me, will probably never break even, although I am trying to.
This difference in goals means that a lot of the information out there about cattle is not completely relevant to us. But sometimes it’s not easy to know what is relevant or not relevant if you’re new to cattle raising. I’ll try to point out some of these issues so that new raisers don’t get caught in decision-making circles trying to manage a herd of six with information designed for a herd of hundreds destined for the feedlots.
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