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We occasionally buy grass fed beef from Little Creek Farm in western Wisconsin. I enjoy reading Karen’s stories of the farm, a life very different than my own. Little Creek Farm News: A change or two (or more) of plans As usual, whenever I try to lay down long-range plans, some new opportunity arises and I'm back at the drawing board. I know I told you all that I was sold out of beef, and I am- sort of. I thought I wouldn't have any animals ready to butcher until fall but that has suddenly changed. A friend and co-worker, Nick, asked me the other day if I was in the market for a bull. He had 2 young, horned bulls that he needed to remove from his farm before his newly purchased bull who has no horns, being a "polled" breed was delivered- THIS WEEK! Nick's freezer is full and his customers are already well-supplied so he wasn't able to butcher any beef cattle right now. Now I wouldn't have even considered it if Nick's herd wasn't also grass-fed, organic Scottish Highlanders. Normally, I'd say no to a bull at this time of year since we haven't even started calving season so there will be no breeding work to be done around here until summer. Nor is winter the best time of year to add another mouth to feed. But it's been a mild season up till now, the hay supply in my barn is still plentiful and Nick is a good guy. What the heck, it's nice to help out a fellow rancher. I will need a bull eventually, after all, so I agreed to buy ONE. By the time I got back to him, Nick had a potential buyer lined up for the second one. Since I was first in line with check in hand, I had my pick of the 2 bulls. One was white, the other dark red but otherwise, Nick told me, they were about the same age (just under 2 years old), size and lineage. I had the white one in mind, just to add a little color variety to my herd. The plan was set for Tom and me to drive my truck and stock trailer to Nick's place on Saturday. It's about an hour away. Once we got to the farm to pick up my purchase, I learned the other buyer had backed out. Nick offered me a sweet package deal on the 2 bulls if I took them right away. The wheels were turning in my head trying to figure out how to make this work. It was bitterly cold with a stiff wind blowing on his ridge-top farm and apparently I wasn't thinking too clearly because I said "OK". I thought it might be nice for Bull #1 to have his buddy along to ease the transition to his new home. I'd figure out what to do with Bull #2 later. Nick and his cousin Jason already had the 2 fuzzy travelers penned up, ready to go. The bulls seemed peaceful enough loafing around in the spacious shed. One benefit of the frigid weather was that the barnyard mud had frozen solid. We were able to get my truck and trailer into position at the shed door and set up some temporary gates to guide the animals into their chauffeured car. Neither of these animals had ever been off this farm, so the concept of entering an enclosed, clanging metal box that smells like strange cattle and is 18" off the ground was met with some resistance. In the process of being urged through the makeshift chute to the trailer, the red bull took the lead position. Now that I saw the bulls close up and pressed against each other, it was clear that the red fellow outweighed his white companion by a few hundred pounds or so. "Big Red", as I came to think of him, was obviously the dominant of the 2. He sniffed the trailer and hesitated a bit but with the enticement of an armful of hay, soon hoisted his bulk up onto the deck. Whew, that was easy! Until... he decided to turn around and block Whitey from getting in with him. The two locked horns and a little spirited jousting occurred within inches of the four of us humans. We were trying to contain the pair's resistance with some metal gate panels which suddenly seemed rather flimsy. This wasn't going to work. Someone might get hurt. Try plan B: let them both back into the barn and herd them through again but this time, get the white one in the lead so that Big Red would push him in and then, not to be outdone, would follow suit. Nice concept. Unfortunately, NOT the way it panned out. Seems Red really, really wanted that trailer to himself. He squeezed past Whitey in the narrow chute and hopped in. He must have had travelling on his mind, as I did around that time, too. A nice sun-warmed beach in the Bahamas would be really nice about now! As the bovine gladiators continued to demonstrate their masculine prowess, I chickened out and said, " Sorry, I think I'll just take the red bull. He's in, he's happy, close the door and let's roll!". Nick was OK with that. No money had yet exchanged hands so we went back to our original deal. I was buying one bull. On the drive back across Vernon County, Tom and I were glad we didn't have the extra weight of a second bull to pull as we chugged through the steep hills of the Kickapoo Valley with my 15 year old Ford. About half-way home, with the truck heater blasting, my brain thawed enough to start thinking of more options that hadn't penetrated the frost earlier. I felt bad leaving Nick in the lurch so I devised a plan C, called his cell phone and made another offer. I would buy the second bull after all IF Nick could haul it to the butcher for me next week. He readily agreed. Win-win. We arrived back at Little Creek Farm in the late afternoon and Big Red (which we learned from Nick really IS the bull's name) was more than happy to leave the privacy of his mobile home and join his new family in my pasture. The usual getting-to-know-you butt sniffing went on for a while but amazingly not a single bellow arose. By the following morning, you'd never have guessed that Big Red hadn't been born and raised with this bunch. See photo. This is my dining room view of the cattle in their dining room. Big Red is in the center with his head to the ground, eating. All's well on the home front. This was a much quieter transition than the last time we brought in a new bull and all the steers carried on for weeks, making our quiet corner of the valley sound like the film set for a nature documentary on elk mating. So, to make a long story just a little bit longer, here's the end result: I will have beef for sale by mid-March. No, I didn't raise it but it was raised just as I would have; no drugs, no hormones, no chemicals, no grain. And other than a little tussle for position at the trailer, no stress...at least not for the bull. See attached price list for details. Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! 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