When we moved out here I started researching different animals we could keep on our 13 acres. Neither Jed or I had much experience with livestock so research seemed like the obvious first step.
Jed liked the idea of pigs but with pork being my least favorite meat, I wasn't excited. We contemplated goats but they're described by many as, "escape artists" and the last thing I want to do is try to wrangle a goat back into its pen while Jed is off traveling for work in another state! That lead to sheep, which we're still open to but we didn't know what we'd do with them! Cows and horses were out of the question as they were too big and required too much infrastructure. Then I came across miniature cattle!
There are several different kinds and many were tempting but it seemed that for our first venture that the mini zebu would be our safest bet. They're originally from southern Asia so they're better adapted to our climate, they were the least expensive and they were the easiest to find!
We didn't plan to buy cattle so soon but, we were just perusing craigslist when we found a listing for 3 minis at a steal! They were less than an hour away to boot! So we contacted the seller and set up an appointment to check them out.
Long story, not so short, we agreed to buy them! The seller offered to drop them off a couple days later so Jed set to work on putting up his very first fence!
I watched on from my lofty perch as my boys worked hard!
And just as Jed finished, the zebus were delivered. That's Rhett, our resident bull. He's quite friendly, especially when we have food.
The kids were in awe!
Isla wakes up almost every morning and asks to go out and see the cows.
In the back ground are Scarlett and Major, they've been a bit more standoffish with us. However in less than a week we've made a lot of progress with them. We're thinking that Rhett is the reason they're timid, he tends to become jealous of our attention and rams them out of the way to get to us. We're considering separating them for a time so they can warm up to us.
We're not sure if we'll actually use these guys for beef or if Scarlett will ever become comfortable enough to allow us to milk her but that's ok. For now we're taking in our first experience with larger animal ownership! We're going to take things one step at a time and see if this fits us or not.
