Romero Family Farm

Overview

Purpose

Hi, I am Bonnette Romero. Isn’t it amazing that someone can go from being a city girl who knows nothing about a farm to becoming a country girl who has learned about animals, equipment, and agriculture? Have you ever tried to live in the country and learn as you go? Our family has done just that. We have created a web page so that we can help others on their journey to follow in our footsteps. As we show our journey others can get ideas and learn along with us.

Audience

Those of you who are thinking about starting your own family farm. Homesteaders, and anyone who wants guidance from down to earth experience on starting from scratch, with no previous knowledge of a farm or farm life. This is a safe place to see what our family has done to learn and grow together. People who want to see another breed and how they interact with us, and what we have done to better the life of our family and the life of our animals.

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The best Whitewater Rafting in Colorado, White Water Rafting Company offers rafting on the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers in Glenwood Springs. Since 1974, we have been family owned and operated, rafting the Shoshone section of Glenwood Canyon and beyond.

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Trips vary from mild and great for families, to trips exclusively for physically fit and experienced rafters. No matter what type of river adventures you are seeking, White Water Rafting Company can make it happen for you.

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Home page

Our Family Fernando and Bonnette Romero moved from Fresno, California to San Antonio, Texas along with their 4 children (David, F. Elijah, Mariah, and Isaiah) in 2004. While in San Antonio and after one more child was born (Liah), they felt the desire to get out of the city. The boys were getting older and needed space to run, play, throw rocks, and explore without getting into trouble. In 2007 we found this beautiful 27-acre plot just outside Devine, Texas and fell in love. The property was raw land which meant there were no utilities on the property. We were starting from scratch. We moved into a 27-foot travel trailer and started our journey to create a small family farm. Over the next 5 years we built fences, and a chicken coop, a garden, cattle pens, cleared mesquite trees and fence lines. The work was very hard but also very rewarding. We learned about cows, and chickens, pigs, goats, coyotes, javelinas, wild hogs, bobcats, rattlesnakes, bull snakes, gardening, trees, sticker burrs and much more.

Family rules:

1. You can name the girls a real name (i.e. Jessica), but the boys get a food name (i.e. T-bone).
2. Everyone helps with everything.
3. Take the crown off and kill that spider.
4. Don’t get too attached to the animals because you will eat them someday.
5. Experience is more than talk.
6. If we can’t afford the equipment, Dad will make something that works.
7. You will work hard.
8. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
9. We all work together, no one gets left in the house. It is always a group project.
10. If you can’t do it in front of your parents don’t do it at all.

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Chickens, and Cows, and Pigs, OH MY!!!

Cattle

My favorite cow is the Brahman. I love white and grey ones with black around their eyes, it looks like have eyeliner on. They have loose skin on their chest called a dewlap, and they are very protective mothers in my experience. Wikipedia explains brahmas as having a high tolerance of heat, sunlight and humidity, and good resistance to parasites.” This is really good trait during the South Texas summer heat. We have other types of cows on our property as well. Our most gentle cow is Smokey she is a mix breed. We can pet her whenever we choose, she lets us touch her babies, and she runs up to us when she sees us. She has these long horns that are a bit intimidating and make me grimace as she runs towards us.

Poultry

My favorite chicken is a Light Brahma. “McMurrayHatchery.com describes this breed as “exceptionally quiet, gentle, and easy to handle. I love the large brown eggs; they are great egg layers and they have feathers on their feet. The hens can grow up to 9.5 pounds and the roosters up to 12 pounds. They are a large chicken and are so nice to watch as they run around the coop. I love the amount of eggs they produce regularly; we have collected 32 eggs in a single day of laying from this breed. In a week we can really have a large haul. A fun chicken we had for a while was called the Ameraucana. They lay pastel blue colored eggs. It is like Easter everyday of the year. They are not as good a layer as the Brahman chicken is.

Swine

We have really learned a lot about hogs. They are the easiest animal to grow for County Show in our opinion. We have shown Poland China’s, Duroc, and Hampshire. We have learned how to artificially inseminate, castrate, notch ears, dock tails, and administer medication when they ae in need. We have built hog pens and a ring to train them in. We have learned a trick or two about walking hogs back to the trailer after a county show. No one wants a hog running all over the show barn having a great time as you try to catch it again.

Goats

Goat milk is delicious. Take it from someone that had never even heard of goat milk previous to owning a goat. The trick is to keep the Billy Goat far away from the female if you are going to milk her. We tried to show a goat (Cheuy) at a county show. That was a very hard day. Did you realize that there are some muscles on your forearm that get very strong when you milk goats twice a day for months or years? You will feel it at first, but when you realize that muscle is strong you gain a pride like no other. I am sure there are some out there that know what I am talking about. Boer, La Mancha, Pygmy, Anglo-Nubian, Alpine We no longer own any goats but we had about 15 at one time

Dogs

Our dogs even have a responsibility on this farm. They are man’s best friend and protector. They have helped to save us from a rattlesnake or two as well as skunks, possums, armadillos, and racoons.

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Our Stories

Momma Goat and her kid

We had this goat that was in labor. We watched her from a far, just to monitor her and ensure all was well. I had to go run an errand and later my husband called me and said she was still in labor but she looked tired. I hurried home and at that time we knew she had been in labor for at least 12 hours maybe longer. I referred to my book Storey’s guide to raising goats and read about labor and possible issues she could be having. We figured that the baby was breach, or stuck somehow. I cleaned my hands really good (since I had the smaller hands) and I reached inside her to try to see if I could help her. I found the hoof was forward, and the head was turned back. The baby was stuck in the birth canal. I worked gently to arrange the head in the canal properly and found the other hoof and placed it forward. The kid was born within 20 seconds after I arranged him the right way. I was able to save both momma and baby.

Visit from a Bobcat

We had a bobcat visit our goat pens. The result was a dead baby goat (kid). Later that day my boys saw the bobcat return for more. The boys ran to the house found their bb guns and went after the bobcat. They and the dog followed it, cornered it and killed it with their bb guns.

Annabelle and her calf

We had a cow (Annabelle) and when her calf was a few days old I got a bright idea. We had not been able to get close enough to the calf and I wanted to know what the sex was. We were all out in the pasture close to the round pen, and the baby walked fairly close to me, so the bright idea pooped in to my head. I grabbed the calf and headed for the round pen so I could inspect the calf. No sooner did I grab the calf, the calf starts whaling, the momma turns to see what’s going on, I trip and fall, with baby still in my hands. Momma heads straight for us, I couldn’t crawl, or get up. Everything was in slow motion. Somehow, I ended up in the round pen as I see momma lift the calf with her horns to throw him out of the way. I escaped the wrath of a mother that day, barely.

Brahms and the trailer

Fernando was trying to load a bull into the trailer one day all alone. The bull had been bottle fed and was gentle up until the last few months. He became a bull. We needed to take him to the auction. So as Fernando was trying to guide him into the trailer when all of the sudden the bull turns on my husband, my husband falls backwards to the ground. The only thing he could grab was the whip and he was close to the trailer. He used the whip to keep the bull back and the trailer to give him some protection. He decided to wait until he had reinforcements to load the bull onto the trailer.

Bottle fed babies are the cutest

From time to time we are able to get a calf that has been taken from or abandoned by its mother. In these cases, we bottle feed them. This is a very involved responsibility as we have to feed them on a regular basis. In the beginning we bottle feed them a few every few hours. Then, three times a day, and after a few weeks to twice a day until they are fully eating grass and grain.

Saving the piglets

One year my son Isaiah went out to check on the new piglets and found momma laying on them. He was not a very big boy at the time and he lifted the sow as much as he could and removed the piglets. He was so happy that he was able to save the piglets.

Inseminating sows

We know someone who has raised pigs for quite some time and was willing to help show us the ropes of reproduction. He had a boar that would do the job for us. We took our sow over to his farm and let the two of them get to know each other. Well he did not seem to be able to get the job done, so during one of his unsuccessful attempts at mounting this man yelled at Fernando to grab that hog’s penis. Fernando looked at him and was thinking’ NO WAY”. He continued to yell at Fernando “We are pig farmers, get that thing”. We decided to go about this process a different way. We quickly learned about mail order semen and how to artificially inseminate a more civil way.

FFA preparation

One year we had some missionaries from our church ask of they could help us with anything. We told them that on Saturday we were going to castrate, and prep the piglets from show. They were so excited and offered to help us. We explained the process and gave everyone their job for the project. I was assigned to the castration and one of the Elders was to hold the piglet for me and he quickly was overcome with pain in the process. He was unable to watch and hold the piglet at the same time. The faces they were making was so funny. My husband had to assume the job of holding the piglet so we could finish the project. All of the males were castrated, and all the piglets got their ears notched, tusks removed, tails docked, and their iron shot. The project was completed and all piglets went back to their momma.

Roosters Attack

When Isaiah was 6 years old, he loved to go out and mess with the hens. He would chase them, try to catch them, hypnotize them and just be a boy exploring on the farm. He was learning and testing his boundaries. Well that day the Rooster had had enough of his shenanigans. He started to run at Isaiah and Isaiah saw him coming and took of running. Isaiah ran back to the house as fast as his little legs could take him. He rounded the corner and slid in the dirt. The rooster took full advantage of the situation. He jumped on Isaiah and scratched his face from just below his eye down to his upper lip. We heard the commotion and ran outside to scare the rooster off. Well the rooster went into a cage so we could figure out what we were going to do. The next day Isaiah was at it again and went back to the hen house. Well he felt very big with the rooster in the cage and decided to kick the cage. When he kicked the cage, the door opened and there he went running again. We were outside that time and able to stop the attack. This time Isaiah got the talking to for his shenanigans.

Helping the neighbors

One of the neighbors called to inform us that he had 3 lambs in his field. He asked if there were any sheep in the area that might be getting into his field. I assured him that I was positive that he was the only one in the vicinity that had sheep and lambs. He told me that he castrated his male last year with a band and he was sure he got both testicles. I told him that either he lost one in the process or the ram had 3 testicles. So, we as a family went to help him round up the ram and the sheep. He brought them in with feed and the boys caught the ram. They turned him over quickly and found a very large testicle. We laughed and told him the “One Nut Wonder” was not lacking any testosterone. We grabbed the goat/lamb bander and quickly found it was too small. My son ran home to grab the bander for the cattle. The bander was even a little small for the job, but with a little finagling we were able to band the ram and help our neighbor stop any more unwanted births.

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