How many cows do I have?

How many cows do I have? This is a question that I face quite often. The simple answer, of course, is that I have no cows. While my grandfather often talked about a few shorthorn cows he and his grandfather raised on our farm there were no cows on our farm while I was growing up. I spent most of my youth helping my father care for his pigs as well as helping my grandfather raise and feed his steers (for those who may be thinking that a steer is a cow, there is a difference). I also had a few animals of myself, mainly pigs and lambs that I raised as 4-H projects and one year I had 50 chickens…now THAT was an experience!

Now, back to my cows. Up until the day I got married I do not remember any cows on our farm, then six bred purebred Simmental bred cows showed up the day Pam and I got married. While I didn’t admit it at the time to my new wife, I had very little knowledge about how to care for cows…how hard could it be anyways, ya just throw them out in a green pasture and let them eat grass …right?

Cows grazing last week on corn stalks

That was six, errrr…seven years ago and those six cows had calves, some of  which we kept for replacements to add to the herd along with picking up a few cows from other breeders along the way.

Cows grazing last summer

So back to the original question, how many cows do I have? None. Pam, however, has 38 cow’s all of which have either already calved or will calve this year, 14 replacement heifers, one mature bull, three replacement bulls and three steers.  As you can tell, we didn’t quite make it down to 30 this winter, but I was able to find enough hay to keep them more than satisfied!

Pam with one of her cows - Jewel

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