Buying cattle via Blackberry
While I write this Luis is at the cattle auction in Capira. Unfortunately I can’t be there personally due to other obgligations. So we employ some 21st century technology to allow me to be virtually there. Luis just took a few pictures of young calves that are being offered on his Blackberry phone.
The auction just started and the animals are on display in some holding area from where they get brought to a stage with a scale in front of the audience.
The auction is about price per pound which then gets multiplied by the weight of the animal to determine the actual price.
They look quite small. I’ve got only these pictures a few minutes ago but they look like 10 months old.
More to come soon.
There are some great milk “substitutes”, most can be bought at Mello. The name is Joosten Milk (Milk replacer for rearing claves). In a previous life, we raised a lot of calves on this stuff- your caretaker probably knows how to handle it.
One kilo of powder in 8 liters of water provides 9 liters of milk.
Tom & Stephanie
November 12, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Thanks Tom & Stephanie for the tip. I think that’s a product that helps a lot in cases where the calve’s mother is not available due to some accident or another reason beyond one’s control. We simply thought that we should not separate an animal from its mother just because we can. There are plenty of calves that already have started to feed on pasture and it looks like tomorrow we will get a few to get started.
rainforestfinca
November 12, 2009 at 3:54 pm