@EddieWalker
I retired last year at the age of 77. I was brought up from a baby on my father’s horticultural/agricultural holding. I farmed on my own account for 61 years in 4 countries in both hemispheres. I have kept farm animals of most descriptions – pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and a few more exotic species; most kinds of poultry, fish and crustaceans. I have grown an extremely wide range of crops, trees, vegetables and fruit and can show every letter of the alphabet with their beginning letter (allowing for the Latin with Q, X and Z). The only thing I was never satisfied with the quality was cattle!!
Cattle are the hardest to learn about if you have not grown up with cattle. The timespan is the biggest problem. From a cow being bred to the time of her offspring producing a sellable calf is, give or take, 4 years. Maybe a bit under, maybe 5 years, and even longer if you fatten it. You do not have the time left in life to make a mark with unknown quality of stock that you will have to cull/keep according to your requirements. One failure in a small herd is a big percentage of your life lost for 5 years. You have to guess too far in advance whether a young female will produce what you want in terms of quality.
I am not trying to put you off cattle, just be realistic about what you can achieve with the starting stock available to you. When my wife and I moved to Portugal from Scotland in January 2003 there were people who told us we were too old to start a new life. I suggest you ignore such people, but still be aware of how long it takes to make any improvement in a cattle herd.
From the photographs, I like the look of the cows. Mainly polled, but a couple horned, and does the cow in the front of pic 2 have a turned in horn about to stick in her head? I had Herefords in Australia. I do not like the bull. If he is pure AA (and I doubt it, unless you have AA in USA with “nae arse” as we would say) then he is not a good example of the breed. I would sell him asap.
We have to go back to your other thread about your brother’s death. Who legally owns the cows now he is dead?
Ear tagging rules in most of the world are very strict. Make sure you check out with the correct state department whether anything has to be done before stock can be sold. No doubt there are ways around any problems on the basis of your brother being in such dire straits that he is now dead. Talk to the people at the livestock exchange once you know what can be done about sales.
You cannot operate two properties 60 miles apart without the welfare of the stock suffering. Over the years of being on TBN I think I know enough about you that you would not want that to happen.
If you want to keep some of the cows (and possibly a pure bred Hereford heifer or two) then go ahead and do so. It will be expensive to provide the necessary handling facilities on your own property, but if that is what you (and your wife – most important) want, then go for it. If you do, then I would look towards a small herd of Herefords. Artificial insemination is the easy way to improve pure breds and is very easy. Do not bother to learn how to do it yourself, just pay for the service (literally!).
