Ebersole Cattle Company

Old man winter has arrived!  He blew in with a 45 degree temperature change on Sunday and Ice on Thursday.  Right now we have 2 inches of snow covered with 3/4 inch of ice and another 1/2 inch of snow.  Talk about SLICK!!  I skated to the barn this morning and found all the stock doing well (except 7-up).  I fed and watered and checked out 7-up. 

7-Up is our resident shetland pony.  He is a tiny one, about 36 inches high and has a sore leg.  We can't seem to locate the problem and are hoping it is a stone bruise from the cold rough ground.  With all that hair you can't tell if anything is swolen or hotter than it should be.

The calves are all eating and enjoying the weather.  The little ones have even figured out what a feed bunk is and that I'm there to fill it.  The heifers we have decided to keep are looking good.

My Lacey (my pet cow, good story to come) is doing well in the lot, and her calf is taming down really quickly.

Now, on to the CHICKENS!!  I am finally getting chickens!  I have wanted chickens (and their yummy eggs) since we planned out move in March!  A neighbor is picking them up this weekend.  They have just started laying eggs and I hope to keep them laying in the cold weather.  I have to start building an official chicken coop.  Until that is built, they'll stay in a dog kennel and doghouse inside the barn.  I hope I can let them loose after a day or two, and hope to teach the dogs that chickens are NOT toys to chase.

My  hope is that when the weather is warmer, the chickens will be free range and clean up after the calves and help cleaning the garden scraps.  I'll keep you posted in the chicken adventures.

Beef Shares are almost sold out, but please contact me if you would like me to reserve a half or full share for your family.

I know this is a little off topic for me, but if you bake bread at all, you know how hard it is to find a good recepie for Whole Wheat Bread.  Well, I was out of flour, grabbed some at the local grocery store from King Arthur, and lucked into a great recepie.  So, I thought I'd share it with you.

Classic 100% Whole Wheat Bread

• 1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 nonfat dried milk
• 3 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons Instant yeast

Mixing: In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and stir till the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl.  Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes, or until it begins to become smooth and supple.  Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow to urse til puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 60 minutes, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface, and shape it inot an 8 inch log.  Place the log in a lightly greased loaf pan, cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 30 to 60 min, or until its crowned about 1 inch above the edge of the pan.  a finger pressed into the dough should leave a mark that rebounds slowly.

Baking: Bake the bread in a preheated 350degree oven for about 40 min.

Now that I've given you the official directions I'll tell you that I just combined the ingredients and then trew it in my Bread Maker and set it on a Whole Wheat cycle.

It turns out great time and time again.  I hope you try it and enjoy.

As for the cows and calves, they are doing great!  Most are out on pastue and staying in most of the time.  It's a hard time of year to keep a cow inside the fence around here.  There is so much afterfeed on the cropground around us, and they want to go taste testing.  So, the dogs and I make a couple of rounds each day and put them where they belong.

Hope all is well at your place, and send us a note if you need some great beef. ~ Shanen : )

First, I have to give credit where credit is due.  This post is inspired by The Beginning Farmer.  Her blog post inspired me to ask y'all the same question. "What is the main thing you would like people to know about your agricultural word?"

I have run itno the same problems as she has.  You would be (or maybe not) amazed by the amount of people that think that Ranchers and Farmers are hurting our environment and the earth.

I am amazed that people say that it is wrong to raise cattle for beef.  So, if you aren't supposed to make that steer into beef, what are you supposed to do with it??  Beef cattle were put on this earth for exactly that reason.  I might even argue that dairy cattle are supposed to become our food once their useful life has run out. 

I believe that we aren't doing Gods work if we don't utilize all of the beef that was put on this earth.  I also believe that most Ranchers and Farmers improve their environment.  We do this for many reasons, most of them profitable, and some for our future generations.

I would like the general public to really understand all of the precautions we go thru to care for our land. 

1 - Personally, we make sure that we leave timber areas tall grass areas.  We leave these areas so that our cows will have sheltered areas to lay in, and calve in, during the winter. 

2 - We don't tear up the land and we don't overfertilize the ground creating run-off to the streams and rivers.  We need those streams for our cows to drink, so why would we pollute them?  We need that topsoil to grow great grass and feed for our cows, so why would we damage it?  We go to great lengths to preserve the earth and improve the dirt so we can improve the grass and grow more beef.

3 - If beef is grown and harvested carefully, it doesn't hurt the animal in ANY way.  That may sound wierd, but its true.  If you raise your beef cattle in a clean and dry environment, they are comfortable and eat, and grow very healty.  If you move them to the harvesting location slowly and smoothly, and you then restrain them properly, they won't feel the pain.  It will (and should be) done smoothly and instantly, to prevent suffering.  In addition, a facility that is so careful with the live animal will (and should) take those same precautions to handle the meat carefully and cleanly, thus preventing harm to the people that eat it.

I know that this may seem a little off, from my usual stories, but I was inspired.  I hope y'all will chime in and tell us what you want people outside of agriculture to know about what you do.  I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Remember, high quality beef is GOOD for you!  And its good for the cattle and our earth.

We still have 2 shares of Grass-Fed beef and 2 shares of Corn-Fed beef.  Send me a note to reserve your shares today and set up your pay-as-it-grows plan.            Shanen : )

A detailed description of "what is a share of our beef?" and how we determine prices for our beef shares.   This post is very long and detailed.  I will have more Cow Stories later this week.

The cows are out on pasture.  First, sorry I took a little time-out from blogging.  The business aspect of moving the Ranch has gotten to me, and stolen all of my time.

We had our first real snow here in southern Iowa this Sunday.  It was beautiful!  However, as you know, I don't like cows and claves in dry lots.  It makes for sick critters, and since we don't use antibiotics, we don't like to do it.  So, out they went.  All of 'em.  They love it!  They run and play and have fun foraging thru the snow.  They bed down at night in the deep grass, and down into a low spot with trees.  It is so pretty at night with all of the white snow reflecting the dark cattle bedded down into it.

It is also fun, because that means that I get to call the cows in to feed  and check them.  In the pasture, I shake and bang buckets together and call "come BAAAAASSSS".  Once the first cow hears me, she sticks her head in the air and bellows.  Everybody looks, and starts coming for me.  Some at a run and others slowly ambling along.  After a few days, they get smart and start to run,  because I only feed two to three buckets, and the "pigs" eat the biggest share.   Then the work begins.  Any cow that doesn't come up, gets checked.  If I have my munchkins with me, out in the truck we go, if not, maybe a horse.  Mostly the other cows are just relaxing and enjoying the pasture. No sick or hurt ones yet!

Now, for a short note on the business side of things.   One of the most heartwrenching things for me is taking calves to the sale barn.  I don't like it!  It is conventional farming at it's worst!!  The calves are penned with other calves to be sold together.  Then, after they are sold, they're pushed in semi-trucks with strangers to go who knows where, and be fed in whatever way is cheapest.  The heifers are implanted (hormone implants in their ears) to keep them from cycling, and the steers are implanted to keep them growing like bulls. (I HATE IMPLANTS!! and I rarely use that word).  Then they are shipped again and sent to a packing house and harvested and handled very disrespectfully.

So, this is what I've been trying to figure out.   How do I expand my beef production, so I can keep everyone that doesn't meet the quality to be kept as a cow or a bull?

So, ITS SALE TIME!!!  I would love for this to work!!!  I want to sell shares of 8 more calves by the time we have to take them to market in the beginning of January.  Please, if you are at all interested in the highest quality, most humanely raised beef possible e-mail me.  I will be selling ground beef for a 10% discount, and beef shares for a 15% discount.

I also lowered our base prices to reflect the current markets.  Hurry, before markets go back up, and I have to cave to my husband and increase them again.

I have also made a great "buy-as-it-grows" plan.  You would place a small down payment and recieve some ground beef at that time (to give you a great tase of what's to come) and then you would make installment payments as the beef grows.   This will allow me to make our farm payment in January and pay for feedstuffs as we need them.  I think this arrangement would work best for all of us.  And most importantly to me (and the calves), I won't have to take these calves to the sale barn!

I know that you want the highest quality beef.  So don't go to the store, come to the producer.  That way, you get the best value, and the calves will get the best care!

I hope to hear from you, and find a beef package that meets your needs and budget.   ~Shanen