I have finally delved into the world of bone broth! I was having guests over for lunch this past weekend and so I took that as an opportunity to test my new skills ;) I planned to make barley beef soup but didn't have barley *facepalm* sooo, I ended up making a 'non-traditional' vegetable beef soup that turned out to be a crowd pleaser. But that's another story!

Back to the bone broth.

There are plenty of recipes out there for bone broth. I don't claim to have much new to add in that category but it can seem intimidating so I'm hoping that by sharing my experiences, I will inspire YOU to give something new a try too :)

Making bone broth was honestly super simple! I started by roasting my soup bones in the oven because I read that doing so would enhance the flavor. I can't give you a comparison since this is the only way I've ever done it but it sure didn't hurt anything! I just put 4 pounds of thawed soup bones on a cookie sheet, sprinkled salt and pepper on all sides, and roasted them at 425F for 30 minutes. After I roasted the soup bones, I tossed them in the crock pot along with 8 cups of water (enough to cover the bones), 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and a couple of carrots. Some recipes get pretty involved but this was simple and it worked for me! Basically, I think you can toss about anything you want in as far as vegetables or vegetable scraps go.

I cooked all of this on low for 10 hours and then strained it. I just used a colander. You might want to line the colander with cheesecloth if you are using smaller vegetable scraps. This is also when I removed the meat from the bones. To be honest, the meat fell right off and I just used a fork to break it up into smaller pieces for the stew. The amount of meat on soup bones seems to vary quite a bit. The bones themselves make excellent broth. And that's all that most people are looking for. If you end up with particularly meaty bones, it's a nice bonus though. Especially if you're making soup!

Enjoy!
Emily
Brun Ko Farm

P.S. skip on over to our Beef Products page to check out our sale running 4/8/18-4/13/18 :)

Sometimes farming is like riding a roller coaster. And this weekend was certainly an emotional rollercoaster. We had a not so good thing happen. One of the hardest things to face on a farm actually. We had to put down one of our steers.

One evening, NP noticed that one of the steers had scours. Nothing too concerning given the weather and recent pen change. However, definitely something to keep an eye on. The next evening at chore time, we were shocked to see one of the steers laying flat out with a distended belly. We couldn't convince him to get up and based on that and several other factors, I made the decision to put him down. However, when we went back to do so, he was up and eating. Although still terrible looking, I was encouraged by the fact that he was eating. I decided to give him a chance and called the vet first thing the next morning. The vet quickly determined that the steer had developed water belly, aka a blockage caused by bladder stones. There is a surgery that can sometimes help (not cure but temporarily help) this problem, our steer wasn't a candidate due to age and advanced state of the problem so in the end we still had to put him down.

While this outcome was hard to deal with, it was a relief to know that this calf did not have something contagious and after talking to the vet and doing some further research, it seems that this was a fluke thing and largely out of our control. However, we are now armed with knowledge of early signs and will be adjusting some of our management practices just in case.
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Having a good vet that you can trust is so important and we are grateful for the knowledgeable vets at AMVC in Audubon. I appreciate that they not only care for our animals but also take the time to answer my (sometimes extensive) questions.

I'm not about to tell anyone to 'enjoy every moment' because some things just stink. The ups and downs of farm life can be hard BUT we learn from the bad days and they make the good days that much sweeter. I think the good days are still worth it.

Respectfully,
Emily 
Brun Ko Farm

**1/23/18 - edited to add video of calves' first moments in weaning pen**

Lately, we’ve been talking about the life cycle of steers on our farm. So far, we’ve talked about picking up bottle calves and about their first couple of months of life. The steers’ next stop on the farm is in the weaning pen.

Like I mentioned in our first ever live  video, wehaven’t 100% decided where the weaning pen will be at the new place but we’d better get it figured out because the calves will be weaned and getting too big for their hutches in a couple of weeks!

So, what is a weaning pen anyway?? A weaning pen is a small, well secured paddock where the calves learn about things like fences, friends, and sharing food at a common feed trough.

Let’s start with fences. You’d think (or at least I did) that fences are a fairly self explanatory thing. You see an object in your path, you pause, and then you turn a different direction and continue to calmly explore your new home. NOPE. Not the boys and girls we have around here! Some of them are more intuitive than others but at least 1 or 2 out of each group seems to be the ‘fence tester’. You know, the chosen one who runs FULL speed into the fence several times before they learn where the new boundaries are in their life. For this reason, we usually make the weaning pen out of cattle panels and wait for a week or two to introduce electric wire. Also, newly weaned calves can slip out under (and through!) a typical barbed wire or electric fence. So the cattle panels serve several purposes, they provide the most visible boundary that we can offer and also the most secure and kindest option. It might not feel good to run into a cattle panel but I’d say it beats getting wrapped up in barbed wire or electric fence anyday!

Next comes friends. While the calves are investigating the fences, they also begin to investigate each other! This provides some good entertainment as they sniff, head butt, and kick up their heels! Although they’ve lived next to each other and been able to see and vocalize with each other, this is the first time that they’ve been able to touch each other or otherwise enter each other's space. While they are in the weaning pen, the calves learn how to interact and work together. This is an exciting time for them as cattle are naturally herd animals and they tend to move and graze as a group.

Next comes sharing space at the feed trough. Even though cattle have a herd mentality, they can sure be ornery about their food! We always make sure to allow plenty of space for all of the calves to eat at the same time but it's a learning process for them. They've never had to share and/or compete for food before. Some of the calves are shy about coming to eat with the group while others act a little bit like hogs. In these early days, the group establishes a pecking order that tends to last for as long as the group stays the same. Luckily this doesn't take long and within a couple of days everybody knows their place and the whole group eats happily together :)
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We also introduce grass and/or hay in the weaning pen. Whether it's grass or hay just depends on the season. Calves typically LOVE this!

We move calves from the weaning pen to pastures as a group, once they have learned to respect the electric fence and when we are confident that they are all eating well and everybody is getting along.

And with that, I better get busy preparing a prn for the calves we are about to wean!!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!
Brun Ko Farm

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