Spring is my favorite time of the year. There are new calves running around, weather is getting warmer and the grass looks super green.
The legume here looks like some kind of wild pea.
We have some new cows that are enjoying the shade of the Triangle paddock. They are a mix of Angus heifers and cows,
It’s a nice place to be on a spring day.
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Great to see your new Angus calves and cows, and admire your pastures 😊
You’ve gone to the dark side! Spring is a mood lifter, especially in this uncertain year.
It seems like summer vacation here. Kids at home every day working on projects, the rhythm of the farm, same work, still selling direct.
We added a few Angus cows but we’ve been using an Angus bull for years so our meat is mostly Angus x Salers.
hi Brent, nice to “hear”from you….. our grass is weeks behind on yours,….but where getting there,now the temp is up….. what is your goal for using the Angus bull and/or adding Angus cows to the herd….?? greetings from the Netherlands
Hello Roel, Nearly all our beef is sold direct to consumers so we focus on beef quality raising on grass rather than carcass size. We like our Salers cattle but we are finding we can get better marbling, tenderness and earlier finishing using Angus bulls. Our farm can support more cattle now so we needed to expand and therefore bought more cows. We’re still trying things out to see what works best. We also have some Angus x Shorthorn heifers (what the Irish call Blue-Greys) who were fantastic at birthing. But every year is different, the weather is different, the grass keeps getting better. We may buy some more heifer calves this fall and I’m watching how this batch go to see where to invest more.
Hello from Australia,
I would be looking to see if some of the lower frame score Salers bulls might be worth trying via AI. You would get an idea of where you might go if you want more marbling on both sides and an earlier maturing animal within the breed, and the heifers might be worth keeping. I have been looking at low frame score (skeletal) with high muscling bulls like Halley.
https://www.carrentubbersalersherd.com/sires-used.html
Marceau, might be another although I have no data on him.
https://www.radiototem.net/sud-auvergne/4731-un-taureau-salers-ne-sans-corne-grace-a-la-genetique-presente-au-salon-de-l-agriculture
His breeders seem to be producing a style of animal that would be compatible with what is required in Australia. We need early maturity because the climate is dry, the soil infertile and grass stops growing by January (July for Europe).
Hey David, Thanks for commenting. I’m slowly phasing out my Salers cows but your ideas are interesting – a smaller framed and polled bull would have been an ideal choice. Back when I was using Salers bulls I never saw any polled animals. I use small-framed Salers already. My heifers come from a herd that specializes in selling heifers to be crossed with Charolais bulls. I’ve been running Angus bulls for a few years to get more marbling and faster maturity. Now I’ve added some Angus cows and heifers.
Depending on where you are in Australia your climate may be similar to ours. We get about 650mm of rain a year with frequent droughts (although not the Australian multi-year ones) and the grass stops in July too. Our sun is really hot and we did have a few 42 degree days last year. Where are you based? I worked a bit in Braidwood, NSW after high school.
Hi
I am near a little village north of Melbourne in Victoria called Yea.
It does seem similar. I cannot find a lot of accurate detail on the weather here but the average is about 700mm and from -2 to 45C
The weather pattern is quite variable these days, so farmers have to make decisions that are even more conservative than before. Last year it was dry right into the middle of winter and this year it seems to be the opposite.
Grasspunk Farm 
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