After Birth
While my friend Ryan over at Agriculture Proud actually wrote about afterbirth (as in placenta) in one of his recent posts, this entry deals with what happens after a calf is born!
I've talked about feeding heifers, checking heifers, and shown you calving heifers in various videos... I've never really covered what happens next.
Daniel was pretty busy last night filling up most of our little pens in the calving shed.
This morning, I helped with the After Birth Activities.
First... we weigh the calves.
It's important to know how big they are... we want to know how much they grow, so we enter this into their records.
It entails separating them from their mommas...
and making them stand on the old scales.
A 75 pounder!
Perfect!
Not too big, not too small...
We then put their eartags in the right ear, and an underbite on their left ear. This underbite helps with identification from a distance!
When there's miles of country to ride horseback, you can't see an brand from a distance necessarily, but that square cutout shows quite a ways.
Eartags can get lost, brands can get covered by hair, but ear marks are a GREAT aid for identification!
The guys have a little book they carry with them ALWAYS... and the calf is entered into it... sex, weight, date of birth, color of eartag (heifers' calves are always black for us, but their moms might be yellow or green), notes on ease of birth, illness, and color of the calf (we still get a baldie occasionally).
There she is!
After Birth Two tomorrow!
It's the first week of March... anyone have questions for a Question and Answer session? Enter them in the comments, and I'll answer 'em Tuesday!
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March 3, 2010 Wordless Wednesday - "Going, Going, Gone"
March 3, 2009 Heifers 2
March 3, 2008 Scrambled
Aren't brands registered (I think I remember that)? Are the underbites? Or is that more informal?
Also, how is Lucas's paw? And I think you've probably answered this before, but I can't remember. How old was Lucas when you got him and how did you come across him (were you looking for an ES and just happened upon him)?
Thanks -- I like posts like this about normal ranch routines!
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Hope this question is not to political with global warming/climate change being a hot topic but has this winter particularly cold there in Wyoming? How much added work does very cold/freezing weather entail?
BTW: Do you still operate an official weather station there at the ranch?
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Can't help but notice your nice graphic designs on the jeans... How do you ever have time to patch jeans???? I know it has to be done...
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What do you use to make the underbite? Also you mentioned you make notes on ease of birth-if mom has a hard time, is she watched closer the next time she's due to calve? Is ease of birth somewhat genetic?
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