Foothill Frolic Farm on Gammon Creek Custom Beef Share Note
Unbeknownst to us, we thought we would have just had the one extra winter "Pop Up", but as living animals and life are open-ended, another custom beef "POP UP" has presented itself.
One of our nine saved heifers from our 2021 calving season has not been able to make the transition into a regular breeding Cow. All the other eight saved heifers from that season are pregnant and with good hope should calve for the first time this spring. As we do not like to be over rigid in breeding practice, we do give our heifers a few chances to breed. Eventually though, with appropriate expectation for them to join the main herd as a hardy birthing cow, they do have to eventually successfully breed!!
"Sunny Squirt", G18H was born on Feb. 23rd 2021 to our tallest COW G8. She is a lovely and healthy Black Angus heifer girl that needs to be offered as a BEEF because of what I explained above and will make a very excellent CUSTOM BEEF heifer. To fit the ranks of a saved Heifer, she was part of the top 10%, cream of the crop, favorite picks and has become an all time favorite. Her body condition is excellent and strong and therefore needs to be enjoyed as a delicious and nutritious CUSTOM BEEF.  She should weigh almost 1,200 lbs and as she is almost 3, she is larger than our normal 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 year old heifers and steers that weigh around 800-875 lbs. Therefore, her edible beef product volume will be more and her custom beef shares will be larger in weight and volume. A 3 year old 100% grassfed and grassfinished beef really makes for an ideal custom beef, but from the farmer's perspective, it is a lot more laborious and costly to raise and hold over calves for 3+ year cycles, which is why we choose to harvest our beefs around 2 1/4 years old.
When speaking to Russell Meat Packing about our up and coming date for "Veggie Girl" PopUp and the last of our 2023 custom beefs, "Island Girl" this Thursday Feb. 1st, I was thrilled when they were able to squeeze in "Sunny Squirt" on Thursday Feb. 8th.
With that, all PREORDERS need to be made for this new February "3 Year Old" POP UP by the early morning of Thursday Feb. 8th. If you have an interest, I would recommend placing a PreOrder as quick as possible, as the last POP UP sold out in a matter of 9 hours.
I have a feeling that this will truly be the last custom beef offering that we will have until our 2024 Harvest season starts in May. So enjoy the extra surprise offering while you can and take part in what might be one of our BEST CUSTOM BEEFS of THE YEAR!
100% Grassfed & Grass Finished- Regenerative - Organically Raised
*Upmost care and respect for our herd and land from birth to beef.
* Beef with environmental integrity and great authentic flavor that is good for you.
*Producing LOCAL sustenance WITHOUT THE USE of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, routine antibiotics/medications, vaccines, or GMO's.
As far as our normal 2024 custom beefs, we only have a 1/16th share remaining for June Pick UP.
After that, all other custom beef share PreOrders SOONEST AVAILABLE will be for July Pick Up.
WEEK FOUR of 2024, Allie's Farm Journal Post
The snow melted away and our Purebred Angus Bull, "WEIGH UP" 2008, decided to beautify with a very well done clay mask. Some of our Northeast sloping fields held on to their white coats as long as they could. Over Tuesday night, come Wednesday morning, the buffed beige, dormant grass coat returned, which is not near as brilliant, but it still can hold its own in a winter blue sky contrast. The week hop scotched it's way through sun and clouds and rain. One day it was sunny, then the next it was cloudy, then the next rainy, and then only to be sunny again. The ground's moisture saturation hit a peek this week with the snow melt, plus the added rain precipitation. It never seemed intolerable enough though to hear too many complaints out of our mouths. This was probably all due the fact that we made sure we got two out of our three herds rotated to their next paddock before the rains started falling on Thursday. The main herd needed to continue to stay put in the back Gammon Field, as their allotted time for that field's rotation was not yet spent. We always have an enjoyable time feeding up high on the slopes following the proper contours with our plops of hay.
It was the calf herd and yearling herd that was due for a move. The yearlings are in the across the road field and their plot is marked out with last years experience into 4 quadrants that will last till grazing season begins again in the start of April. So they easily went from quadrant one to quadrant two. All that needed to be done prior was for Matthew and Eastenn Dutch to check the internal fencing divide, move in minerals, and move in water troughs and pumping line.
Dad and I tackled the calves and we had to put up and take down some fencing to create where their next paddock needed to be. With the calf herd, we are slightly in a stalling mode. The reason being is that we know that they could and should be heading to our cousin's Gammon Hill property, as part of a cattle/land restoration project, but as I have slightly underestimated our spare project time this late fall through mid winter, with all the feeding, chores, and farm business management, the kingpin is the incomplete perimeter fence. Nonetheless, the stalling mode has been quite effective at getting good amounts of calf manure into tighter paddocks with lighter animals to boot.
Dad and I were hustling to finish and let the calves into their new paddock before heading on in the tractor for our 2nd feeding rounds. Sure enough the calves were so excited about being let into a different paddock that they got going into a group gallop up a hill. It seemed so exciting that I actually joined them, but just in time for the the steep lane, new fence, loud tractor, and calf herd to merge together into the quick fence break calamity. The first couple in the galloping herd knew to stop and tried, but the calfs behind would not let them and then all at once they were on the wrong side of the fence. There we were trying to hurry on to the next thing and now we had to deal with getting the 46 calves back to where they were suppose to be. We acted fast and actually had them back in within 5 minutes and went on our way.
Sure enough both herds got moved before the rains came on Thursday. We got .35". Then the rains came again on Saturday that added up to .4", thus giving the land a grand total of .75", with the compounded snow melt unmeasurable. Really, we were quite fortunate to not get more rain than we did or the compounded ground saturation would have been rough. Moreover, the snow melt, plus the rains seemed to help our farm's creek flows, as our back Gammon smaller creek had been running as low as Dad had seen it in a long while.
REMINDER....
Different season of course than the photo below, but the weather is looking mighty promising for a Saturday in February!
Foothill Frolic Farm's 3 Generation Cattle Series Feature
This Photo Series is an idea I had to show the relation of generations within a "Birth to Beef" Regenerative Cattle Farm.
This week's feature is Mamma Cow G4, a black angus, and her 2 calves she has birthed since 2022. G4 is a smaller framed, leaner cow, but she produces lots of milk and grows out really nice calves...she has grit! Mamma COW G4, is currently pregnant with her calf that will be born in the spring of our 2024 calving season.
First Generation Mamma Cow, G4
2nd Generation, "Oliveane Oak" 235H, a Heifer born on March 9th, 2022
3rd Generation, "Beacon Plum" 38S, Steer born on March 28th, 2023
Until Next Time, Eat Well and Be Well and Please Pass Along,
Allison Mills Neal of Foothill Frolic Farm
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