New Faces on the Farm!

We have new faces on our farm as of Saturday! They're very furry and look like Oreos... 

but they're cows! 

Oreo cows! 

Belted Galloways! 

Belties! 

Whatever name you prefer. 

Friday evening we left right as Kevin got home and trucked across the state of PA to spend the night in Mechanicsburg. Then it was up at 5:30 Saturday morning to hit the road for our cows! Being that close, we of course stopped and had breakfast with my grandma. After a quick visit we stopped by the cemetery and then were back on the road to get to the farm and pick our cows. We were both filled with nerves and anticipation! We were finally going to purchase the first of our chosen breed!! 

We chose our heifers first and left them there to be bred. Then we chose our steers and the farm owner and his helper loaded them into the trailer. If you look at the picture of them being loaded, you'll count 5 belts, but only see 4 in the pictures below... 5 of these boys wouldn't fit in our trailer! Oops! Lesson learned... so we left one behind. 

These are our boys... well, technically, they are 3 steers and 1 heifer... but we're calling the heifer a steer for our purposes. She was a twin and apparently twins are sterile, so she will be a feeder for us! Aren't they cute? 

These guys have only been grass-fed. We like to do primarily grass fed as well with just a grain finish, so it works great for us! The only problem is that they don't know that we're bringing them "candy" (as my father in law calls it :) ) when we show up at the trough since they're just used to grass and hay. That's alright... They're learning quickly! See that hay hanging out of 1102's mouth? Well, he's eating it only because he just scarfed down the grain that we hid underneath. In less than 48 hours they figured it out! (Yes, I know we're pathetic for bribing them to like us by using grain... but we had to do something.)

However, even those they've improved vastly in their disdain for us since Saturday night, look at this picture... This was their typical response to us showing up on Sunday. Every time we got near the pasture they would turn around and high tail it out of there in an Oreo line!

With a little bit of patience and a while standing in the cold of Sunday afternoon, we were able to (sort of) convince them that we're not the enemy and Kevin was able to get this close to them. Yep - that's all the close we could manage! I keep saying that all I want to do is pet their fuzzy ears, but Kevin laughs and (rightly so) tells me that will probably be a week or two down the road. Until then, I guess I should be satisfied with the progress I saw last night - I was able to stand at their water tank while they were at the trough. Instead of running away, they looked at me with a lot of curiosity! (Personally, I think 1102 wanted to come check me out, but peer pressure kept him where he was!) I just know that they're going to come around and I'll be petting their fuzzy ears soon... I just know it!

As a parting photo, here is Kevin, visiting his new steers before we began the long journey back home on Saturday... He's so excited (as am I) about a new beginning on our farm with a breed we've both fallen in love with! Look them up - they're so unique and special! 

Stay tuned for a post about King, our royal bottle-baby goat later this week! 

*As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord*