We’re fortunate to have a herd of longhorn cattle helping graze the ranch. It means we get to enjoy them as big, gentle, elusive pets and see where they’ve gathered while exploring the hills.
The headcount currently numbers eight, each with a personality as distinctive as their horns.
With that said, we have affectionately named all of them, and would like to introduce them all individually to you!
Plucky
Undoubtedly, Plucky is the leader of the herd and a special guy. Rejected by his mother as a calf and bottle-raised in the barn, Plucky quickly became a favorite around here and ultimately grew to half a ton. He is the first to come running for brushing and head scratches since he still appreciates being cared for by his humans from back in the day.
Miles
Miles is the first officer and de facto leader when Plucky’s not around. He is as broad as a boat and quite magnificent. Before Miles became a steer, we suspected he was slipping through a neighboring fence line to find a heifer and might be the dad to Francesca. He snuck across the property line so often that it was finally agreed from both sides that he could stay permanently.
Noelle
Noelle has been the healthy young Momma to a couple of calves and is attentive to her babies. We haven’t been able to keep her calves, so I suspect she misses them. She probably has the biggest appetite of everybody and makes sure we know it when we feed flakes of hay to the group in the dryer times of year.
Scorpie
Scorpie is another Mom, named for her November birthday under the sign of Scorpio. Both her and Noelle dutifully trade off care duties whenever there are calves around. She has distinguishing speckles on her back half to contrast her how-now brown head and shoulders.
January
January deserves to be shown at full photo height. He is our most magical steer with a unique lightning pattern running right down his forehead, similar to Harry Potter! Much more feral than Pluck, January won’t let anyone touch him, but he’s happy to be admired from a distance.
Brownie
Brownie is a big lady and one of the inaugural members of the herd. As far as we know, Brownie never had calves, but she seems to have decent status with the pack and fortunately is not ostracized for her solid color pattern.
Bette
Bette is the oldest female, extremely gentle, and practically tame. Nothing seems to faze her. When Moe & I tried to do our first corral round up without having a clue, Plucky immediately burst through the gate and everybody followed. Except Bette. She sweetly just sat there in the pen and gave us one less thing to worry about.
Francesca
“C’esca” is our youngest, born in 2023, and is just beginning to show her girth. Her horns are still developing and currently point downward, so she is not likely to be a purebred longhorn, but she has fit in with the gang just fine. She is a bit of an escape artist, and it has been touching to watch her elders try to warn her about the perils of touching electric fences or provoking ranch puppies.
That’s the herd. Each one has their own personality, routine, and preferred patch of hillside. We wouldn’t trade them for anything.
With bovine love,
Joe & Moe
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