More mouths to feed at Fangorn

Bessie shares a kiss with Bangers

Their names are Bangers and Mash. They are Friesian steers, just over a year old. We are going to grow them, fatten them up and then eat them. Just like we did with Mr T, who is rather delicious.

Mash

Being friesians, it’s going to take a while to get them big enough to slaughter; they are dairy cows, after all.

Before you start feeling squeamish about the fact that we are raising animals for the table, think about this: a lot of the time, dairy cows birth a calf and the calf is killed, while the cow is milked regardless. Seems a bit barbaric to me. Sometimes the dairy calves are sold at a cheap price and obviously the heifers are often kept for breeding. At least bangers and mash are having a pretty good, albeit short, life.

Whilst I feel weird about having an animal slaughtered for my belly, I like to know that the animal had a good life; that it probably wouldn’t be alive if I wasn’t going to eat it; and I’m not going to stop eating meat so I may as well eat good meat.

I really like having cows. They are such big and peaceful creatures. Right now our cows are in the paddock just north of our house, meaning that we get to see them often. Currently they are all lying down, which means it must be about to rain (again).

One of my favourite things to do in the evening is go out and say hello to the cows and feed them some dairy pellets. I like to pat them; they are warm and sweaty! Bessie is growing a lot. Bella is in calf and she is big and round and grumpy. I forgive her.

lanky Bangers