“Small” start in Cattle

Nate Reinhart and I constantly talk on the phone throughout the day. One morning, he proclaimed “I’m getting back into raising cattle!” Nate has been around livestock all his life. The family is active raising horses and there is a cousin with a dairy farm. Currently Nate has a profitable custom hay operation. Nate has shown horses, raised cattle and hogs. He still helps, occasionally, on the family dairy. Knowing animals would be an understatement.

We talked more of the plans and I couldn’t help but be happy for his excitement. A flood of fond memories, of back in the day, when my family raised cull stock came to me. There is a special fulfillment in tending live stock with extra care needs.

Nate had succured purchasing calves that were the victim of parenting issues. I’m sure most country folk have complete understanding of the term “bucket calf”

“How you gonna get them home? I asked “A dog kennel will probably suffice” I kidded. They couldn’t be to big yet. He assured me he had a plan. I have to admit it was ingenuous.

I remarked another of our friends would have just let the calf ride in the cab. Well Nate couldn’t be out done in that respect.

He also had the benefit of someone else to help handle the calf. Tammy Buse, Nate’s mom, is helping with the new enterprise. The original plan was to buy two. He has two now, but they came home one at a time. So Nate actually hasn’t used his improvised stock racks yet.

The first calf rode home pretty calmly. It’s the little heifer pictured. The second one was a lot more spirited and from what Nate tells me the young bull created excitment biting and bucking. Boys will be boys I guess.

Tammy has been enjoying nurturing the young stock, not minding the extra effort. The calf rations are being prepared with loving care

The bull has needed some medicinal attention but is already eating feed rations besides taking the milk. The young boy had issues taking milk from a artificial nipple at first. Nate reported recently that both calves are already eating. The young bull gets upset if there isn’t feed in the bucket.

The calves of course are named. Many ideas have been suggested, Patty, Hamburger, Slider, T bone, Grocery, Nate likes Delicious. My thought was the bull should be named Rowdy. Anyway the heifer got tagged with Tinkerbell and the lad has been named Peter Pan.

Nate is happy to be raising beef stock again. He looks forward to having beef in the freezer. Other family members are suggesting getting into breeding and even showing, but Nate doesn’t want to take his cattle enterprise in those directions. I’m confident Nate will be successful in whatever he decides and takes on.

Credit for photography goes to Nate Reinhart and Tammy Buse. I encourage those on Facebook to seek out and browse Nate’s page Reinhart Custom Baling. You can find out more about the family’s hay operation