Ebersole Cattle Company

Well, spring has sprung on the ranch.  That means cows mooing in the pasture to new calves, babies everywhere, and new grass. 

We have had some grass start to grow, and are looking forward to new entirely green pastures in about 2 weeks.  The AI season has begun and we are planning to breed several hundred head of cows for other cattlemen in the next couple of weeks.

I am enjoying my time away from 20 buckets of feed for the calves.  All of the Corn-fed calves are now on self feeders, and thus we only have to fill them about once a week.  The replacement heifers will be on grass soon and we won't have to feed them as much either.

We have sold all of the calves except those we will make into beef, so speak up soon if you would like to try some of our great beef!

If you would like to stop by the Ranch and see the baby calves, call and I will set up a time.

 Yes, this is a story from Sunday's Moving cows and yes, Beau was taught a lesson.  But it was Very Funny, (at least I can admit it now).  And of course, you can laugh!  I always do!

Thankfulness.  That word is a mouthful, but the things it brings to mind are simple.  God. Family. Farm. Cows. Horses. Nature. Natural.

I am thankful for all of theese things and each one is dependent and brought to us by the others on my thankfull list. 

God gave us our family, and gave us to our families.  We need to remember that without Him, none of theese things are possible.

Our families are a gift from God and we need to treat them as sacred gifts.  We need to make sure that we are always, ALWAYS thankful and loving towards our families.

Cows are also a special gift we are entrusted with.  We show our respect and appreciation for these cattle by lovingly raising them for their intended purposes.  Wonderful beef and great mothering (or siring) abilities.  We should all treat them with nothing but the utmost respect and care for the entire time we have them, including their harvest.  This means we should also enjoy all the beef and byproducts entirely and not waste anything.

My horses are my wonderful luxury.  I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity at a young age to enjoy the love of a horse.  That pony was (and is) my best friend through all of those rough adolescent years.  I am so thankful that he was there to listen to all of my problems, and to help me learn to love each and every animal on the planet.

I am thankful for nature.  This sounds simple and plain, and that is just the way I mean it.  I love each and every sound and thing in nature (even the annoying Asian LadyBugs).

I am thankful that we are natural.  I love that we can put a calf back in his natural environment (grass) and it will grow and mature into natural, wonderful beef.  I love natural pasture and letting nature show us what we need to do to improve. I am thankful that God made it natural for us to love him and life on the ranch.

I am also thankful to the wonderful, creative people that help take care of us and help us to provide natural grass fed beef through a website like this.  Thank you!

I hope all of you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving and stay safe!

Shanen

Sunday was a big day and we did accomplish alot!  After the cows were finished, we moved the Mares and weaned the colts.  Again, it may not sound like much, but it is usually a very difficult task.

We stopped at the house and the guys tightened their cinches and I haltered the stud and hopped on the 4-wheeler.  We then went looking for the mares.  Our mares are kept behind the house in a 160 acre pasture.  As expected they were at the far corner of the pasture.  Koda (our stud horse) followed the 4 wheeler great and we went back about 100 acres and finally saw the mares.  Koda was very excited!  He was still respectfull and we circled and started heading back to the house.  The mares spotted him and came at a run.

I wish someone else had been helping and could have taken pictures because it was quite a sight.  Imagine 30 Mares and Colts at a run following you.  Manes flowing behind them, some playing and bucking, and horses playing tag.  It was beautiful!! 

We crossed the creek, 5 horses wide and made it up to the tricky part, the gate....  You see, after we go out this gate, there are no fences.  We have to go thru a small paddock and cross the road to try to lead them into the corrals.  Beau and Branden were on their horses bunching the Mares together and trying to keep up.

A short tenative pause at the gate on my part, and out we went.  30 horses went out in the open.  They followed me well across the road and right into the pen!!! YEAH!!!  WE DID IT!!!

You see, usually this takes at least 8 people to block the road and help funnel the unbroke mares and colts into the right pen.  Not anymore!!

Then we slowly started sorting mares from their colts.  This is a very trying and traumatic thing for some of the mares.  The don't want to leave their colt, or any other colt alone.  Even though they are only separated by a fence, they still don't like it.  All of the sorting went well, with only one small cut on a colt.

Today (Tuesday)  the colts are still upset and not eating.  This is not good...  I put a couple of old geldings (they got out of their pasture, another long story) in with the colts to teach them to eat from the Hay bale.  This should help them to get more comfortable with eating hay.

We will sell half of our colts, so if you are interested in foundation bred Quarter Horses keep stopping by my blog and you will see pictures as I can get them.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy my stories from the Ranch!

Remember, we still have a couple of Beef Shares available and we will customize them to fit your family.

Shanen : )

So... This summer we worked on building our current ranch. We bought a 160 ac Ranch with a small house that had not been lived in in 2 years.

So, a remodeling we went. We decided to build a new barn and fix up the house a little. Because the barn makes the money, not the house. We put some new windows in the house, new appliances and ripped out the carpet downstairs to expose beautiful hardwood floors.

Across the road, we built the BARN. This barn is everything my 12 year old self ever dreamed of. We built a 98 x 104 barn. It is set up for both cattle and horses. We put large runs out the east side and an arena to the north with some working and holding pens. The inside will have an open area in the center for riding horses with pens on each side. Our Ranch Plan is pretty complex, but here are the basics.

1- Our goal is to raise Maine-Anjou females to sell to other breeers. Byproducts of this goal will be Show Quality Calves, Beef and Bulls. We want everything to be Organic. The cattle should have great dispositions, and be happy and easily handle-able.

2 - Beef Sales. We will raise both Grass-Fed and Corn Fed Beef. Our animals will ALWAYS be treated with the utmost respect and kindness as long as we have them. We want to sell Beef Shares and Sides and Quarters of Beef. Our animals will always have access to exercise and grass.

3 - Horses. We raise working quarter horses. We want to keep our colts until they are 2 - 4 to train for roping and working cattle.

4 - Dogs. We have working dogs. Our male is a blue heeler and my female is a registered mini-Australian Sheperd. We will raise Mini Aussies an Toy Aussies. Our dogs are GREAT with the kids and must always be great with the kids.

5 - Garden. This next year I want to start a great garden. Eventually I would like to offer a vegetable CSA. I would like fruit trees to be in this garden

6 - FAMILY. Most of all our main goal is for this Ranch to grow our family. The kids are most important to us, and the main reason we downsized to this ranch.

I know this kind of turned out like a list, but it is what I needed to explain to y'all what we're doin, and what we're about. Hope you like our blog and you can also read along at www.greenranchingmom.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading!!  Shanen