Calf Care Calf Origin.  All calves are bred and born on the farm.   They are never purchased at a sale barn.  They are born in fall and winter and they are with their dams until weaning at 5-7 months of age.  Before and after weaning they are on pasture with hay as needed. Herd Genetics.  Our cow herd is purebred registered black Angus and black Angus influenced commercial cattle.  Herd sires are registered black Angus bulls.  See photos in the cattle section. Handling Practices.  We employ humane handling practices and follow Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) procedures when administering vaccines and other care.  The calves are given normal preventive vaccinations for known cattle diseases in our area.  We treat them for internal/external pests known to be a frequent problem here in the southeast.  If an animal ever receives a medicinal antibiotic for an infection, it is removed from the beef program! Pasture Care.  Pasture grasses are a mixture of fescue 31, Durana clover, and bermuda grass (in the warm season).  Pasture soils are tested yearly by the University of Georgia lab and  lime or fertilizer recommendations are followed.  We do not use poultry litter as fertilizer or in feeding.  Hay is grown on the farm; it is tested prior to use to assure safety and to obtain nutrient information.  Approximately half the fields are irrigated with a low pressure K-Line system using water from a watershed lake during the dry season (see photos in cattle section). Weaning.  After weaning in the early summer, calves are placed in a pasture adjacent to their dams.  This eases the separation and reduces the time they all spend bawling for each other.  Calves are selected for the beef feeding program by: • Evaluating body conformation.  They must be thick and muscular. • Good growth potential based on frequent weighing prior to weaning. • In some years the calves are examined by an Angus certified ultrasound technician and those with the best rib eye area and marbling are kept. Diet and Supplements.  Calves receive grain starting at 7-9 months of age.  The amount of grain is gradually increased to have the calves at a good weight by 14-16 months of age (the average age at slaughter).  The total time on full grain feeding is 4-6 months on average and the first calves are available in late December or January. Calves receive a necessary mineral mix designed for southern pasture grasses.  These supplements and the grain are certified by the manufacturer to not contain any added antibiotics, ruminant derived proteins, or bovine derived bone meal!  We also DO NOT use growth promoting hormones!  Processing.  Harvesting is conducted in a Georgia Department of Agriculture inspected facility between Covington and McDonough.  The type of inspection by this department is identical to that for USDA inspected facilities.  It is a State inspector who often conducts the inspections for some of the USDA facilities in Georgia. There is a 17 day carcass aging period.  After that, one or both of us go to the plant for the start of the cutting of beef from each animal.  We do this so we are sure that the correct carcass is being used.  We photograph the rib eye section for marbling estimates, and we measure the size of the rib eye area and fat thickness.  This is some of the information we use to continue herd improvement and for the selection of the sires and cows.  Most cattle producers do not put the time and effort into observing and collecting data at the time of processing -  because it is costly and time consuming. This adds to our expense, but we are in the business for the long haul and we want to stack the cards in our favor (and yours) so that the cattle we offer will be the best they can be!  Our procdure is better for the cattle, better for the quality of the meat, better for the land, and we think it tastes better too! So far we have been very successful. Expense.  We are sure you can find beef at a cheaper price, but you must ask the sellers a number of questions about the raising process, the length of grain feeding and aging, what breed of cattle they use, the source of the cattle, where processing is done, etc.  Personally, we don't buy anything on the cheap, we don't raise our cattle on the cheap, and we are not going to sell on the cheap either.  Actually, to be fair, our price per pound of beef is a bit cheaper than what we found during a March, 2007 supermarket survey (see below).  This was not by design, just came out that way! Since that time the price of beef has gone up due to the cost of grain, fertilizer and fuel. Carbon Footprint.  Sell Farm cattle and the resulting beef from them leave a very low carbon footprint!  Our finished calves travel about 40 miles from the farm to the meat plant - compare this to cattle that produce generic beef which must travel thousands of miles from the home farm to the stocker farm, to the feed lot in the western or mid-western US, then to the processing plant, and finally to the grocery store.