Mid and late term abortions

Abortions are something no one wants to deal with. It is stressful for both the animal and the owner. There are many things that can cause abortions. A few examples are: eating pine needles, eating mistletoe, lack of selenium in the diet, something that is very stressful on their body. Heat waves and very cold weather can cause abortions but usually it happens early on in the pregnancy. Signs of abortion are usually any sign that the cow is doing strange things that are out of the ordinary, like not eating or drinking, signs that they are in heat, sloughing mucous and/or tissue, etc. The reason I am typing about this now is that my prize cow might be aborting her unborn calf. She has many of these signs and I am concerned. The vet is coming out tomorrow and I will post the results in next weeks blog.

Getting Ready To Butcher

There comes a time in almost every steer's life where he gets old enough and fat enough to send him to the butcher for big bucks. The options for where to slaughter your steers can be very different for ever single person. You can get them slaughtered at your house or trailer them somewhere to be slaughtered. The most traumatizing thing for a steer when it comes to slaughter time is being trailered somewhere with several other stressed out steers also being slaughtered. You maybe taking them away from there home for the first time. While this maybe the easiest option for you it maybe the worst option for the steer. You must consider whats most important to you-- the happiness or whats easiest for you. Its also important to consider the price you get for each option.

Well before you are planning to prepare your steer for slaughter there are several steps you want to take to ensure a perfect and happy lifestyle for him. The first thing you should do is make sure they have land to actually roam on and eat grass. The second thing is to always have some sort of shelter to get under in bad weather and stay warm. The third thing is to give plenty of hay grains and access to unlimited water supply. The list goes on but you should just always remember to do whatever you can to make absolutely sure that your steer lived the best life it could of lived.