For the past couple of days we’ve weighed our weaned calves. Now that they’re all settled down, quiet, and almost ready to be turned into a field to continue eating undisturbed for a while… we grab their ‘wean weight’.
As babies at their mommas’ sides, they’ve learned how to be a cow… where to go, what to eat, where to drink. Now they’re like teenagers left to their own devices. Hopefully, they paid attention to momma’s advice. We will continue to track their weight, the easiest indication that they’re happy and growing.
Johnny and I spend our time in the scale house. He runs the scale. I do paperwork. I listen intently for the calf’s number and sex.
647. Steer.
102. Heifer.
Barring interference, I can usually hear the boys’ as they loudly pass along the information I need for the paperwork. But when it’s Vernon’s turn to give me the info… I swear he mumbles. I try to do a lot of lip reading!
Was it 536 or 546? Ugh. You’d think I’d be tuned in to his voice by now!
Anyway… so far as I can tell… I didn’t make any mistakes on the paperwork.
I brought Bravo along to get used to the banging and clanging of the scale pen. Eden was left at home. He watched with Jekyll and Tuff and Tina and really didn’t seem to care much about the calves. He’d watch them a bit, play with Tina, then come be by me.
He doesn’t look very stressed.
Even at the very end, when we walked into the pen of calves to urge them out (no, I wasn’t trying to “work” him yet)… he jauntily sailed in, smelled some fantastic fresh poop, and watched as the calves left the corral.
All in all, a successful day of gathering the data of wean weights.
