Remember that time we said we would never ever ever raise cattle again?
Remember when Mooku and Lando destroyed $3000 worth of fencing? Remember when we lost Ferdinand to Tetanus? And Blutarski to some random lymph node infection? And remember Malignant Catarrhal Fever that killed Bridget, and ultimately, Otter, too? Remember all the lambs whose legs we had to splint because these doofy oafs step on them at the hay feeder, and don't mean to hurt them. (All the lambs have turned out just fine!)
Never say never on a farm. Heck, we decided to do pigs last year. And they drove me batty. We have decided not to breed them, and said we'd never have them in winter again, but when these two cuties popped up as available, you know, in the middle of winter, we couldn't help ourselves.
Larry is between jobs right now, so the timing is perfect to add more bottle babies! (He won't agree) With 7 lambs on bottles, what's one more big bottle baby.
With a dwindling stash of beef in our freezer, and our friend downsizing their own dairy, we need a source of beef. We figured, if we could manage the destructiveness of pigs, we can handle a steer or two on the farm. Again.
This goof, we named Dandelion, I saw pop up on craigslist. He was a castaway from a dairy operation. He's a Jersey, and they are so sweet, and also tasty. He was a sexed-AI failure - he was supposed to be a girl. But he wasn't. So now he belongs to us.
It took him a day to get attached to the bottle, during which time Larry was sure he would die of stupidity and starvation. But on day two, with hunger in his belly, he finally latched to the bottle and is doing great.
We learned our lesson with tetanus, and he has been vaccinated. And as he gets bigger, the sheep will be out to pasture, to risk of lamb damage is low.
The dogs adore him, the sheep put up with him, and we'll enjoy spending time with him. If he becomes a hassle in the fall, being too big for his britches, we might process him then. Eyes peeled, our beef loving friends, we might have two or three quarters of him available for processing.