Housing for a cow or steer can be as fancy as a box stall in your horse barn or a simple field shelter. Be sure you really want a cow or steer before you buy one. Adding a bovine beast to your family is a huge commitment. The average cow or steer can live 18 years, some live 25 years or more. Cattle-oriented mailing lists put new owners in daily touch with helpful cattle keepers from around the globe. Investigate breeds via online search engines. County extension agents, veterinarians, experienced oxen drovers, veteran dairymen and beef cattle breeders are excellent choices. Before buying a cow, calf or steer, find a mentor to advise you. Tame bovines make charming and unusual pets, but they’re not for everyone. In India, where cows are sacred, dried cow pats provide cooking fuel and are smoldered to repel mosquitoes. Old-timers soaked athlete’s foot in fresh cowpie, smeared it on their heads to inhibit baldness and caked it on injuries as a drawing poultice. 2 percent phosphoric acid, and 5 percent potash by weight dried manure has even higher percentages. You can even teach your bovine to do tricks!Ĭall it cowpie, cow pat, cow flop or plain old cow manure, bovines make a load of fertilizer. Methods designed for clicker training dogs, horses and llamas are easily modified for cattle. Traditional reward-based training regimens work well with bovines but clicker training, the method used to teach marine animals at attractions such as Sea World, is their forte. Some, such as Scottish Highland cattle (one of which is pictured below), also browse-they’ll brush wood lots and grub tree sprouts for you too.Ĭattle are intelligent creatures and they readily perform for food. Help preserve an old breed or establish a new one-and experience the joys of raising cattle without shipping calves to slaughter.Ī cow or steer can mow your yard. Her calves will be readily salable as pets or breeding stock if her bloodlines are good. A 2,000-pound ox yields a heap of premium hair.Ī pet cow can be artificially inseminated, so you needn’t ever own (or visit) a bull. Spin it and knit the ultimate cushy, warm mittens. The soft, woolly undercoat curried from molting Galloway and Highland cattle is a fiber artist’s joy. Impressive? Yes!Ī petite Jersey, a Dexter, or a gentle miniature dairy cow can provide your family with better dairy products than money can buy, and unlike a plastic milk jug, Bossy makes a great pet, too. Saddle and pulling steer events held at ITLA national and regional shows include an intricate trail event in which steers slop through water, weave through pylons, step over an assortment of obstacles and retain their composure while riders navigate a gate, don a crinkly slicker and unlatch and close a rural mailbox. According to the International Texas Longhorn Association (ITLA), there are 400-plus saddle-trained Longhorn steers in the United States. Have you ever thought of riding a bovine buddy? While the undisputed king of saddle cattle is the Texas Longhorn steer, any sensible, sizable, sturdily built cow or steer can be trained to ride. Tough bovine hooves rarely demand expensive shoeing, and an ox-drawn conveyance really turns heads. The advantages? Trained cattle are less reactive than many horses it’s generally safe to loop the reins, hunker back and enjoy their leisurely pace. But an ox (a mature draft steer) can wear a modified horse harness or a sleek single yoke. Draft oxen are traditionally hitched in tandem, linked to one another and to the implement they’re hauling by means of a sturdy wooden neck yoke. What does one do with a pet cow? There are so many avenues to pursue.Ĭonsider driving. “What’ll you do with him?” ask visitors when I say he isn’t abattoir bound. House rabbits, Pygmy goats, pot-bellied pigs and now cattle: They’re pets, not supper. While farm folk traditionally equate cattle with animated hamburger, increasing legions of rural dwellers view livestock in a brand new light. He’s an ox-in-training and my best bovine pal. His name is Frazer, named for Scottish-Canadian explorer, Simon Frazer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |