George will soon be gone

I put George on Craigslist a few days ago.  Today we sold him, and will take him to the nearby butcher shop as soon as they are ready for him.  

Funny thing is, I could have cut out the middleman and just posted him for sale on Facebook.  I shared a picture of the ad there, and a Facebook friend from over in Spring Hill, Kansas, said she and her husband would be interested, so we set up a time for them to come and meet George.  They were here this afternoon and paid for him.  We had a delightful visit with this nice couple.  They'll make an appointment with the butcher shop, and we'll take him there.  

Here is our buyer, getting a good look at her beef.

Someone who attends livestock auctions in this vicinity told me that, while beef animals are selling at high prices, these dairy breeds are bringing cutter/canner prices, which is around $1 a pound.  We thought we would save ourselves the trouble of a trip to the sale barn and see if anybody wanted some mostly grass-fed beef for a reasonable price.  

This Facebook friend somehow stumbled onto my blog a few years ago when she was looking for something livestock or gardening-related, and we've corresponded from time to time.  It's always nice to put a face with a name.  She said that when they turned onto our road, she immediately recognized my house, simply because of all the pictures I've shared here.  

I think I'm going to buy a bottle calf or two in February or March.  We have a lot of ground beef in the freezer, but who knows how much we'll have in thirteen or fourteen months; it's hard to estimate how much we'll use in that length of time.  We've been sharing with the family because we like to share, but it occurred to me that we don't want to get rid of too much and end up buying stinky, expensive ground beef from the store.  So we won't share quite so generously until one of the new calves is almost ready to butcher in the spring.  Then, we'll pass the older beef to relatives to make way for the new.  I'm considering choosing a smaller, Jersey-looking bull calf, letting him keep his testicles, and perhaps using him to breed my cows next year before we butcher him.  I may buy two bull calves and have one to butcher and one to sell.  Ah, the possibilities.    

Unfortunately, most of our livestock panels have been used to patch fences or keep cows out of ditches.  So I'm not sure what we'll use for pens.