Improvising for the Cause

I feel like I"ve been bottle feeding critters since 2013.  I mean, every year, I feed the calves for nearly 3 months, and it does seem that every year, there is at least one goat emergency that requires somebody to be bottle fed, but usually it doesn't begin until February and I'm through with bottles by the first week of June.  At any rate, I'm bottle feeding two calves and two kids now.  Some time in the past decade goat bottles changed and when my last one wore out, I found myself back to using the little black nipples that used to go on soda pop bottles.

The plastic bottles held up for years, and I'm not complaining about the change, except, soda pop bottles have changed since I used lamb/kid nipples years ago.  I don't drink soda pop, so an idea occurred to me.  I figured I'd try a wine bottle.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!  It was funny to shop for wine according to the top of the bottle, and nothing else . . . well price, of course.  I didn't want to pay top dollar for something I didn't like, so I stayed in the Cabernet section and purchased sale wine, two with a cork then as an afterthought picked up one with a screw on lid.  I can already imagine what you're thinking, but it's a good thing I conducted this experiment.

I don't ordinarily buy wine with a screw on lid, except something about the rim around the cork looked like it might be a tough fit.  Sure enough, both work, but the threads from the screw on lid are much easier to work with, so . . . I'll have to buy another bottle of wine.  Fortunately Jacob's Creek is a pretty nice Cabernet.

The Cost of Beef

I don't raise cattle, per se, here in Goshen.  I buy two bottle dairy bulls, raise them on goat's milk, then grass, with the goal being organic beef.  Since they are dairy calves, they don't pack on the weight like angus, but the meat is quality.  Two calves grow better than just one, so one of my kids usually takes one and I keep one when the time comes for the freezer.  So far, in raising my own, and I save even more when I home process, but even in having them processed, the full cost of the meat has been less than two dollars a pound. That price includes the cost of the calf, the grass hay in the winter, and processing cost.  One year, I didn't winter them and processed them myself.  The price of that beef was less than a dollar a pound.

A friend of mine just posted to social media that she had bought some ground beef from a Dollar Store.  I had no idea that was even an option.  She didn't have anything good to say about the product and it was priced at nearly $6.00 a pound.  I was in my favorite grocery market the other day to purchase some cheese.  It is sliced fresh when ordered, so while I waited I looked over the meat case.  The price and quality of the beef was disheartening.  The beef was perhaps a notch above the average supermarket, but the prices caused me sticker shock.  I could not believe that regular ground beef, not chuck or round, just ground beef was nearly $5.00 a pound.

Steaks were completely beyond my idea of reasonable.  The better cuts were well over $10.00 a pound.  As I stood there hoping I was maintaining my "poker face" regarding the sticker shock, I continued to look at the next case which held pork.  I don't eat pork, but since doing the article on the Enviropig, I've kept track of the prices.  Something is severely imbalanced when it comes to the price of pork.  Bacon is nearly $6.00 a pound, while butterfly pork chops are less than $3.00 a pound.  Apparently people will buy bacon, regardless of the cost, but a butterfly pork chop is the same cut of swine that KC Strip and Rib eye are of beef.  Why would the "best cut" be so cheap?  Center cut pork chops which compare to T bone and Rib steaks were less than $2.00 a pound.  That's not to say, they are even edible, but just giving comparable cuts and prices.

Please hear me, I am not at all suggesting that pork should be ingested, but I include it in the report because beef is still skyrocketing and according to some research the enviropig will not be difficult to put into production.  In a nation in which most of the population considers pork to be edible, a real shift in price and availability could result in people simply buying what's cheap and it's not likely to be beef.

An added variable for the coming price of kosher meat.  The beef prices today are reflective of the cost of a calf two years ago, and the price of grain and hay.  Grain and hay have been relatively abundant, therefore inexpensive the past two years . . .  I noticed this year on craigslist that bottle calves seemed to be at a real premium price, then in speaking with the owner of the dairy, the other day, it was confirmed.  The price of bottle calves has more than doubled, this year from last.  Keep in mind, these are just dairy bulls, not angus or hereford.  Asking price for a two week old angus bottle bull is $800.00.  I can't begin to imagine what beef prices will be next year, or if ranchers will even be able to raise beef at this price.

The scales are getting ready to tip.  I don't know if that means the bottom falls out first on the farm, or the meat just sits in the grocery store, but the result will more than likely be much less beef on the American dinner table.

    

Only One Week

This year has been a bit long in the bottle feeding and/or baby tending.  For those who follow along, I had twins in the house with a visiting mama for nearly two weeks in February.  The day they were born was beautiful and warm, but within two days, the snow was blowing and their mama was distressed and frantic, unable to get both of them to stay in shelter.  Realizing they were only a couple of days old, I knew if the mother, baby bonding was interrupted I'd be bottle feeding for 3 months.  So, I brought mama in three times a day for two weeks.  When the winds of March blew in warmer weather, they were all bonded, the babies went out and did beautifully.

The bottle calves arrive in March, so I no sooner sent the babies out, bigger bottle babies arrived.  They are three days old when they come to Goshen.  They also need milk for the first three months of their lives, so it's two bottles a day until at least June.  Since they eventually become the beef, I keep them on milk a little longer.  This year, it was August 3, when I finally decided I was just prolonging the inevitable.  I want them to be grazing well before winter hits.  So, I washed the bottles and determined I was finally finished with bottle feeding.  That was one week before beautiful little Zinnia came to Goshen.

In practical preparation, this year also involved training five milk goats.  They weren't all brand new to the place, this spring, but the stanchion was a new experience for each of them.  Between bottle babies and soap, the cheese has moved down the priority list.  I want to make more cottage cheese to have with fresh tomatoes before the tomato season ends . . . but cute little faces and tiny tummies have priority.

Here it is now, the end of August, and Zinnia just loves her bottle.  She's growing beautifully and I'm so glad I chose to disregard the advice that she was "old enough to wean."  The place where I got her gave me three different dates of birth, none of which are three months ago, yet!  I'm thinking by Yom Teruah, she'll be down to an evening bottle.  It was so tempting to make her a house goat.  Concern about bringing her in and out of the air conditioning and the heat, prevented me from yielding to the temptation.  Since she won't be fully weaned until October, that will make one week out of eight months, without baby tending.  I might as well give her a bottle through the High Holy Days.  She and I can be buddies in the sukkah.