Law requires us to tag and name each calf born on the farm.  Our mama cows are great mamas, so this calf tagging requirement can be a bit dangerous.  I’m sure there are great things that came out of the meeting that required farmers to tag each calf, but I’m not sure they tucked into the implementation.

With Salers, you must tag them the day they are born.  Otherwise, you need to run them through the chute months later with a special calf gate.

We do steers.  This is rare in France.  Most male calves are sent off to feedlots to fatten and sell off to some mass market.

 

If you do steers for your direct market, you must castrate.  We execute the orange Fruit Loop of Doom.  The boys go with the flow.

 

 

 

The important thing is to find both balls.

 

One, two … hoopla.

 

Now for the ear piercing.

 

Click.

 

Clack.

 

Back to mama.