Rafter OO Ranch
Box 70 T0J 0N0 Cereal, AB, Canada

Got a beef headed to the butcher tomorrow. Half is available for sale. Will be done at government inspected facility, and vacuum packed for its stay in your freezer. Message for more details.

Just some possible future mommas, still hanging out with their actual mommas, learning all things cow.

I consider myself an equal opportunity rancher. All the livestock in my care have the same opportunity to succeed, or fail. The choice is theirs. Let me explain, most cow-calf producers typically calve in March/April. They will then wean calves in October/November and winter the cows separate from the bred heifers. I choose to calve a little more in sync with nature, starting at the beginning of May and ending in mid June. If I were to wean calves in October, they would onl...y be four or five months old. Typically, weaning is a very stressful time on the calves. They get taken away from mom, shipped to an auction mart, run through a sale ring, shipped to a feedlot and exposed to feed and water troughs for the first time, possibly with calves from several other ranches. It’s no wonder many of them get sick. This is typically why feedlots are heavily dependent on antibiotics. Instead, I choose to let the cows carry the calves through winter. I bale graze this year’s calves, the bred heifers, and all the cows in one big herd. No special treatment for any of them. Not only does this help the replacement heifer calves learn how to succeed over winter once they become bred animals, or mothers themselves, but running more animals in the winter also helps to reduce my yardage costs, as they are spread out over more head.

Merry Christmas all from those of us here at Rafter OO!