How to get a cow?

We're new to the area and I haven't been on a farm in 20 years. I grew up on a farm that raised it's own meat and produce. I can stil recall the smell of the powdered calf milk!

We're at a point where we want to get a calf or two for our own meat purposes, but I don't know where to find one. There's not a lot of cattle farmers around here and many of them either work off the farm, are out in the fields or graze their cattle away from where they live. In short, it's hard to find a cattle farmer to talk to!

So how does a person in a new town find a couple of calves?

Ideas? (And yes, I've already tried Craigslist-the one person who wrote me back told me to try the sale barn-a place I really want to avoid.)

THANK YOU!

[cathleenc]

- ask the local butcher who might have calves to sell
- ask the vet
- ask the feed mill
- put up 'wanted' posters at the above places


gl!

[gone-a-milkin]

The local feedstore knows all the farmers.
Go poke around there and ask.

Good luck!

[Estrie]

Yep, feedstore, farmer's co-op. Still keep an eye on Craig's List. Do you have a FreeCycle in your area where you can post an ad? Bulletin board at church or a church newsletter?

Wanna laugh? We bought the local feed store. The family that owned had it on their farm. We're on the 400 block of south Main street in our little town. There's 4.75 acres around us. The family had the little feed store building right across the driveway from the house. When someone pulled in they came out of the house to help them. This didn't pay the bills so they also hauled cattle to market and used the barns as holding pens for them.


As for our Church that's in a town 20 minutes away and it's attended mostly by townies. **I** am the 'coutry family' that comes in to worship.

I might try the butcher shop. There's one down the road a bit.

[linn]

Register at the Dexter forum and other homesteader forums. Each has a "for sale" section. Look in the barter board at this forum.

http://dextercattle.proboards.com/index.cgi

[Cliff]

Find out if there are any dairies around if it's bottle calves you want.
For feeder calves you might go to the auction a few times and ask around for anyone who would sell you a couple off the farm.

[darbyfamily]

I agree on watching craigslist... and also the classifieds of papers from larger cities around you. We are close to Wichita KS and also OKC OK... I often look at their livestock classifieds to see if there is anything available that we're interested in... and I check craigslist "farm and garden" several times a day sometimes when I am watching for different items that I don't want to or can't afford to pay full price for new

[Genevieve M.]

I was in the same situation you are in. I could see that farmers around me had calves, but I could never find the contact info, or see anyone around working to ask.

I just started asking everyone I met. One day, a friend was delivering hay and I asked him about calves. He pulled out his cell phone, made a brief call and said "Okay, I'll bring you one tomorrow."

I'd just keep asking around.

[deineria]

Contact the 4H groups, too.

[francismilker]

Tonya,
I'm not able to see on your profile where you are from. If you don't mind sharing your general geographic area, maybe someone here on HT would have something for sale. If you're anywhere close to SE OK, I can definetely help you out.

[BUDSMOM]

I would call your local extension office. We used to buy colored dairy calves (jersey and guernsey heifers) and they were pretty hard to find, but we got a lot of good leads from the extension service. I realize a lot of the extension offices have been closed in illinois, but there are still some. Ask for the farm advisor, don't just ask the person who answers the phone. U of ill extension service.