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Cow Vacation!

1/23/2018

Abby poses for a picture just a few days before being dried off. What a ham!

As you may know, we recently weaned the calves from milk. We also just recently moved them to a group weaning pen.

With the calves off milk and no pigs over the winter, we really don't have a use for all of the milk that Abby makes. Soo, that (along with a few other factors) means it's time to dry her off!

What do I mean,'dry her off?’ Well, the term 'dry off’ basically just means to quit milking. And a 'dry cow’ is a dairy cow that is not currently lactating (making milk).

Like with many other topics we’ve shared on this blog, different farms do different things but dry off time is pretty simple around here.

We simply stop milking. Several factors affect milk production but the most important is stimulation and the regular removal of milk. If the teats are no longer stimulated and milk is no longer removed from the udder it sends a signal to the brain to stop making milk.

At the same time, we also decrease the amount of grain that Abby gets. While the steers live almost exclusively on hay and grass from four months of age on, Abby eats a fair amount of grain every day to support milk production. So decreasing her grain is a good way to slow down/stop her from making milk. She still gets as much free choice hay or grass as she can eat, depending on the season but no more grain.

Abby is usually uncomfortable for 2 or 3 days after we stop milking her but once milk production stops and the body reabsorbs whatever milk was left in her udder, it's vacation time for her!

And it's a nice break for us too!

Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

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Shepherd's Pie

1/12/2018

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Ingredients

1lb stew meat (or hamburger for a *speedy version!)
2 cups beef broth
2 Tbsp flour
4 or 5 medium to large carrots
1 cup of peas
3 cups of mashed potatoes
Butter, optional
Rosemary, thyme, garlic, and salt to taste

Directions
Cook stew meat, carrots, and broth in crockpot on low for 6-7 hours. Preheat oven to 375F. Spoon meat and carrots into a deep dish pie plate. Add peas (frozen or fresh). Sprinkle with rosemary, thyme, garlic, and salt to taste. Add flour to juices in the crockpot, whisk together and pour over top of meat and vegetables. Spread mashed potatoes over top of everything. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and dot top of potatoes with pats of butter (optional).

*If you are using hamburger, simply brown the hamburger in a skillet and add broth and carrots and simmer until soft. Add hamburger and carrots to pie plate and then continue with the recipe as written.

Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

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Fences, Friends, & Sharing Food

1/12/2018

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Newly weaned calves in a previous weaning pen.

**1/23/18 - edited to add video of calves' first moments in weaning pen**

Lately, we’ve been talking about the life cycle of steers on our farm. So far, we’ve talked about picking up bottle calves and about their first couple of months of life. The steers’ next stop on the farm is in the weaning pen.

Like I mentioned in our first ever live video, wehaven’t 100% decided where the weaning pen will be at the new place but we’d better get it figured out because the calves will be weaned and getting too big for their hutches in a couple of weeks!

So, what is a weaning pen anyway?? A weaning pen is a small, well secured paddock where the calves learn about things like fences, friends, and sharing food at a common feed trough.

Let’s start with fences. You’d think (or at least I did) that fences are a fairly self explanatory thing. You see an object in your path, you pause, and then you turn a different direction and continue to calmly explore your new home. NOPE. Not the boys and girls we have around here! Some of them are more intuitive than others but at least 1 or 2 out of each group seems to be the ‘fence tester’. You know, the chosen one who runs FULL speed into the fence several times before they learn where the new boundaries are in their life. For this reason, we usually make the weaning pen out of cattle panels and wait for a week or two to introduce electric wire. Also, newly weaned calves can slip out under (and through!) a typical barbed wire or electric fence. So the cattle panels serve several purposes, they provide the most visible boundary that we can offer and also the most secure and kindest option. It might not feel good to run into a cattle panel but I’d say it beats getting wrapped up in barbed wire or electric fence anyday!

Next comes friends. While the calves are investigating the fences, they also begin to investigate each other! This provides some good entertainment as they sniff, head butt, and kick up their heels! Although they’ve lived next to each other and been able to see and vocalize with each other, this is the first time that they’ve been able to touch each other or otherwise enter each other's space. While they are in the weaning pen, the calves learn how to interact and work together. This is an exciting time for them as cattle are naturally herd animals and they tend to move and graze as a group.

Next comes sharing space at the feed trough. Even though cattle have a herd mentality, they can sure be ornery about their food! We always make sure to allow plenty of space for all of the calves to eat at the same time but it's a learning process for them. They've never had to share and/or compete for food before. Some of the calves are shy about coming to eat with the group while others act a little bit like hogs. In these early days, the group establishes a pecking order that tends to last for as long as the group stays the same. Luckily this doesn't take long and within a couple of days everybody knows their place and the whole group eats happily together :)

We also introduce grass and/or hay in the weaning pen. Whether it's grass or hay just depends on the season. Calves typically LOVE this!

We move calves from the weaning pen to pastures as a group, once they have learned to respect the electric fence and when we are confident that they are all eating well and everybody is getting along.

And with that, I better get busy preparing a prn for the calves we are about to wean!!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

Getting to know each other

First Moments in the Weaning Pen!

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What's a Half a Beef?

1/6/2018

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Filet Mignon! A cut that NP and I would never have if we couldn't get it with out half a beef!

What exactly do you get when you buy a half a beef? Well, when you buy a half a beef, you literally buy a half a steer from NP and I and we drop it off at the locker for you. From there you tell the locker how you would like your meat cut and packaged. So, in a way, it’s up to you but a half a beef generally includes everything from hamburger to roasts and a variety of steaks to more unusual things like liver (braunschweiger* anyone?!), heart, or tongue.
Don’t like liver? Leave it at the locker. That’s not a problem! Want all of the steaks you can get? Just let the locker know when you are filling out your cut order. Want more hamburger? No problem, you can have other cuts of meat ground to create more hamburger!

So what you get is really up to you!

Personally, NP and I always ask for the greatest number of roasts available from our half, followed by steaks, then stew meat. We also take advantage of all the fun stuff like short ribs and will even get some tallow back this time to experiment with. On average, we end up with about 30% ground beef and stew meat, 60% roasts and steaks, and 10% miscellaneous cuts like short ribs and soup bones.
For more information on what a typical steer weighs and how the price is figured check out our product page here.

A whole beef or a quarter beef follows the same idea, you just get more or less of each product. :)

We have 2 steers going to the locker on February 13th, 2018. Email Emily at [email protected] today to order your whole, half, or quarter beef!

Enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

*Disclaimer: you have to make the liver into braunschweiger yourself, the locker probably won't do that for you. BUT be watching for a recipe on here in the near(ish) future

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Philly Cheese Steak Hoagies

1/2/2018

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Ingredients
1 lb stew meat
2 green peppers
1 small onion
1 cup of beef broth or water
1 package of hoagie or brat buns
6 slices of provolone cheese

Directions

Slice onion and green peppers into long thing strips. Combine stew meat, broth, onions and green peppers in the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours. Use a slotted spoon to transfer mixture to hoagie buns and top with a slice of provolone cheese. Do this while the meat is still warm to allow the cheese to melt just slightly. Use remaining liquid as an au jus dipping sauce if desired.

Serves: 6

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Cow Vacation!

Shepherd's Pie

Fences, Friends, & Sharing Food

First Moments in the Weaning Pen!

What's a Half a Beef?

Philly Cheese Steak Hoagies

Emily Paulsen

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