Category ArchiveDairy Cattle
Beef Cattle & Dairy Cattle & Intern Diaries & Meet the Sabos saboranch on 26 Jan 2010
Jules Feeney- Sabo Ranch Feb. 2010 Intern
Jules Feeney, age 15, calls the Washington D.C. area home. Jules will be spending two weeks with us for his Winter Special Session from the Field School.
Sabo Ranch remains fully committed to helping high school and college students experience life on a Montana cattle ranch.
Jules Feeney will try his hand at driving the ranch pickup for feeding cattle, loading bales, milking cows, tending chickens and ducks, living off-the-grid, and eating in season in a Montana winter. He will also attend a Bozeman Winter Farmers Market (as a farmer!), and watch a grassfed beef getting butchered, and cut up, at our local butcher “Montana’s Best Meats” for steaks and burger.
Before leaving- Jan. 26, 2010
Blog 1
by Jules Feeney
When I first decided I wanted to spend my winter internship in Montana at Sabo ranch I was expecting to do a few thing around and help out. But as the weeks went on and the time for me to leave came closer I realized I would be a real ranch hand doing everything and anything. So out of everything I want to learn to ride a horse because I’ve never actually ridden one before.
What I remember from the last time I was out on the ranch was the horse pulled sled riding. This a fond memory but not the driving force that has me returning as an intern. My dad has been encouraging me to get out in the world and work. We had talked about doing this in the summer but the time was never right. But when I had this opportunity with my school I decided this was my chance.
It’s had to say what I want to bring home with me before I’ve even seen what’s up for me to take home. However a sense of accomplishment and support that I can then provide for my family back home in the city life is something that sounds appealing.
The preparations were mainly thinking about my trip and preparing for the cold but also making sure I had the right clothes for the weather was another big part. But from what I’ve done in the way of packing and preparing I feel safe and ready for another learning experience.
Sabo Ranch has space for one Intern Sept-Dec. 2010. Questions? Contact us at saboranch@gmail.com, or 406-685-3248.
Beef Cattle & Dairy Cattle & Events & Grass Fed Beef Sales & Intern Diaries & Meet the Sabos & Off Grid Lliving & Sustainable Agriculture saboranch on 28 Dec 2009
Internships available
SABO RANCH INTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE
Contact us at (406)685-3248, saboranch@gmail.com
March-June 2010, and Sept-Dec 2010.
Same or different people possible.
Summer work here might also be possible, as work can expand here depending on help.
The program can be formal, or informal, hooked to the university or not, as the student needs.
2-7 days per week possible.
Food and Lodging provided.
We would like to be paid $100.00/week for the first three months, recognizing the extra time that goes into training and teaching someone the “ins and outs” of a sustainable beef/dairy ranch.
Once a student is competent enough, we might choose to leave for an overnight trip, at which point we will pay the intern to cover the ranch in our absence.
If a student is also competent enough, there is the option of staffing a Farmers Market booth for Sabo Ranch, which is also a paid position.
Benefits:
Daily delicious food, much of it raised on our ranch or by our direct friends. Eating LOCAL every day of the year!
Experience living in an off-the-grid home
Heritage breed beef cattle management
August & Sept will include embryo transfer work within our herd
Grassfed Jersey dairy cattle management (milking, breeding with AI techniques, caring for milk)
Management Intensive Grazing with livestock
Pastured Poultry
Pastured Pork
Farmers Markets, including fresh food and frozen meat sales
Field to Table management training in our Grassfed Beef program, participating in our family discussions about finances and future planning for the ranch
Publish your thoughts as you learn on our Intern Blog
Questions about our internship, or reference needed for us?
Contact Rebecca Kurnick, rakurn@gmail.com, who interned with us May-Dec 2009.
Dairy Cattle & Intern Diaries saboranch on 21 Dec 2009
Sabo Ranch Intern Diary - Rebecca Kurnick
October 18, 2009
Lena has been showing signs of limping. Her left hind foot seems to be the problem. Vet Will Oliver came by to doctor her toe, which is a lot longer than it should be to begin with. It seems she has a genetic crack on the inside of her right toe. An infection was begining to make a home. Will Oliver filed down the dead material and used Bovibond to apply a plastic cap to cover the toe. Jenny puts great effort into keeping the herd as chemical free as possible, however Will used a local antibiotic in the fat pad to assist with the healing. After the visit we continued treating Lena by fasting her and giving her a dose of crushed garlic (approximately 2 oz) in the morning and evening based on Newman Turner’s (1950’s English organic farmer) philosophies, (”Cure Your Own Cattle”, Newman Turner, republished by Acres U.S.A, 2009).
Bad weather setting in October 18, 2009. Dairy Cows still on green grass
One characteristic of the Sabos is their commitment to the overall health of their animals, despite resistance met towards alternative methods of healing. Lena is a Jersey cow bred for her milk production and butter fat content. Naturally very thin and hard to keep weight on, she is not an “easy keeping” cow. Easy keeping is one of the biggest traits I have been looking at the past few months. Jenny said what you want to look at in a good cow is the “belly, bag, and boots”. With Lena I am seeing the negative effects of having poor feet.
Cupcake is maintaining about two and a quarter gallons a day. This week Cora had a snotty nose and was looking a little down so we fasted her for a day, giving us a spike in milk from Cupcake.
Dairy Cattle & Jersey Cattle for Sale saboranch on 16 Dec 2009
Jersey/Dutch Belted heifer for sale
- Sabo Cora, at two days old, July 9, 2009. After her weaning at 9 months old, Cora will be for sale in early Autumn 2011 as a bred heifer (Planned Sire: Jersey bull Beledene Dukes Landy). (More photos of Cora coming soon
Sabo Jersey cow Cupcake, age 6 or 7, is a small framed (46″ shoulder height), easy keeping, gentle cow. Cupcake is hand milked once daily, tied to any post we choose, without hobbles or any other restraint. Her 2009 heifer calf, Cora, pictured here, is Jersey/Dutch Belted (another grass-based, high butterfat dairy breed). Cora will spend her first month with her mother, 24/7, then gradually less each month as she grows (and drinks more of Cupcake’s milk!), nursing at will and learning proper herd behavior. Cora will finally be weaned at 9 months old, when we dry up Cupcake in preparation for her next calf, due June 11, 1020.
Beef Cattle & Dairy Cattle & Devon Cattle for Sale & Events & Grass Fed Beef Sales & Meet the Sabos & Off Grid Lliving & Sustainable Agriculture saboranch on 15 Dec 2009
Field Day- Sabo Ranch- June 19, 2010- 11:00 to 4:00
Jenny and Mark Sabo
- Sabo Ranch Field Day 2009
Come Meet the Sabos and Tour the Sabo Ranch & Field Day Farms Market Garden- Saturday, June 19, 2010, 11:00am-4:00pm. Tent Provided this year for dry/shaded eating!!!
100% Grassfed DEVON and JERSEY Cattle, Management Intensive Grazing, Off Grid Living, Large MARKET GARDEN, Eating Local Foods, Grassfed Beef, Pastured Pork, Pastured Poultry. Only 150 Spaces available, Local Food Lunch served.
After Lunch SEMINARS: 2:00-4:00pm
1. GOOD FOOD/GOOD FUTURES- How to Source Great Local Food HERE!, and Why Your Purchases will Change our LOCAL ECONOMY for all of us.
2. FAMILY DAIRY ANIMALS- How to Choose the Best Genetics for Family and Friends, How to Keep Animals and Milk CLEAN AND HEALTHY.
Tour with Jenny and Mark Sabo will discuss:
– Breeding Jersey cattle to A2/A2 New Zealand bulls, tightening breeding season towards seasonal milking.
– Rotokawa Devon cattle: Harvesting embryos from “Sabo Abby”, our first Rotokawa Devon, implanting in other Sabo Red Angus previous recipient cows, using seasonal fertility patterns in cattle. Testing for A2/A2 status in Devon Herd.
– More Management Intensive Grazing (MIG)practices with beef cattle
– Soil testing and Foliar Feeding for hay fields
– MIG with laying hens
– Sabo Ranch Interns- the importance of training future Sustainable Farmers/Ranchers
– Devon Burgers for fresh food sales added to Bogert Farmers Market activities Summer 2010.
ALL LOCAL FOOD booth!
– 1/4 Carcass Beef Harvest, single week harvest, for compacted beef sales, premium Omega 3 levels in the grassfed beef
Tour and Meal: $15/Adult, Children 12& under FREE.
**$7.50/Young Farmers 12-21(free with reservation before 5/1/10)**.
Beef Cattle & Dairy Cattle & Uncategorized saboranch on 24 May 2009
Calves and their Friends
Since our dairy calves spend at least half of each day away from their mothers so WE get some of the milk, we make sure that each calf is raised with a companion. Here, friends Devon steer calf Adam and Jersey heifer calf Ladine share a nap and a snuggle on a warm spring morning. (Sabo Ladine is an A1/A2 calf, sired by Beledene Dukes Landy)
Dairy Cattle saboranch on 07 May 2009
Sabo’s Faline
“Sabo’s Faline”, born March 2008 (photographed March 2009), sired by New Zealand Jersey bull Beldene Dukes Landy. Sabo Faline is an A1/A2 calf and will be bred July 2010 to an A2 Jersey bull. For more information about A2 milk, see http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1259149 .
Faline’s dam, Folly, is an extremely “easy keeping” Jersey/Limousin cow who fostered two extra Devon calves last year without losing any condition. Folly produces about 2 - 2 1/2 gallons of milk per day on a once-a-day milking, 100% grassfed.
Questions?: Contact us at saboranch@gmail.com
Dairy Cattle saboranch on 07 May 2009
Sabo’s Ladine
“Sabo’s Ladine”, born October 2008, (photographed March 2009) sired by New Zealand Jersey bull Beldene Dukes Landy. Sabo Ladine is an A1/A2 Jersey calf and will be bred here to an A2 Jersey bull. For more about A2 milk, see http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1259149 .
Ladine’s dam, Lena, is our highest producing, most slender Jersey/Guernsey cow. Lena gives about 3 - 3 1/2 gallons of milk per day on a once-a-day milking, 100% grassfed.
Dairy Cattle saboranch on 10 Nov 2008
Watching a New Calf Nurse
Our baby dairy calves live with their mothers for at least three months (longer if they will be replacement females in our grassfed Jersey dairy herd). This gives them the benefit of learning proper herd behavior, which plants are best to eat, and provides each calf with the crucial nutrients for lifelong good health.
We host many different visitors at our ranch, year round. Here, Kiril, Zach, and Keats learn the particulars about where milk originates.
Photo: Harriette McPherson
Beef Cattle & Dairy Cattle saboranch on 09 Nov 2008
Managing Our Cattle
Our cattle are 100% grassfed, and also consume apple cider vinegar, kelp meal, and a cultured yeast , free choice, for greater health. We use fencing and management of our livestock to keep our watercourses clean and our land welcoming to wildlife.
Our Devon beef cattle herd is a mixture bred from our North Devon bull and Red Angus cows. We continue to select over time for gourmet, tender, flavorful 100% grassfed beef. We use no hormones or backgrounded antibiotics, and have no feedlots of any kind.
Our calves are born in the spring on green grass, in May and June, and are not weaned until they are at least 9 months old. North Devon cattle, in particular the Rotokawa Devon herd that sired our bull, are well known for tender, gourmet 100% grassfed beef.
Our Jersey influence herd of cattle is also 100% grassfed, grazing out in the fields all summer, and supplemented in the winter months with the most nutritious hay we can grow. Our breeding program seeks out the most adapted genetics for 100% grassfed Jerseys, slowly building a top quality herd for creamy milk and tender gourmet meat.
We milk our cows only once a day, and calves live with their mothers at least part time until they are 4 months old, then nurse once daily until they are at least 9 months old. Each Jersey cow, depending on her conformation, is given at least 2 months rest from lactation before she calves again, allowing her to dedicate her energies to the healthiest calf possible.
For more information about our grassfed beef, see the Guidelines and Philosophies page.