Calving season for our heifers seems to be in full swing. Victoria and kids were over for a day… I sent them to help at the calving shed while I stayed and built a huge lasagna and salad lunch for everybody. It’s so good to have “cousin time”! While fires ravage ranch land in Texas…
Category: Cattle
It Begins
The three inches of snow last night has encouraged calving season to kick off. Cameras are up. Straw bales are placed. Tags are made. Supplies set in. Rotations planned. Shaking steps are taken on wobbly legs as instinct encourages each calf to stand and eat. I watch the cameras. It begins.
PAP
It was another gorgeous day and I wandered down to the corral to give a hand to Daniel as he PAP tested his bulls and cows. Not that he needed me, but it was an excuse to get out and about. PAP testing, if you remember my other posts on it, measures Pulmonary Arterial Pressure….
Time, Energy, & Gasoline
if you have Facebook, go follow me at Red Dirt In My Soul, and you’ll be a witness to a calf’s birth! I recorded the birth from home through our “Calf Cams”. The video is available in three parts. Vernon had checked on her a couple of times while we were at a basketball game….
Modern Times
”Processing” cows today. That term means to “pour” or apply a wormer in liquid form along their spine. They also get a shot to boost their immunity to bovine rotavirus and coronavirus that should be passed along to their calf. In other words, calf scours or diarrhea is a big killer of newborn calves. This…
Mission Accomplished
We vaccinated and poured our yearling heifers today. Brandon vaccinated. Quinlan ran the chute gate. Daniel poured. Vernon got them up the alley. I brought them out of the pen, down the wide alley. That makes it sound so easy. It wasn’t. I’m rather tired and sore! I try and work cattle nice and quiet,…
Warmth Found Us
We waited a bit for some warmth… then left in the side by side. While it has a cab and a heater, lots of air penetrates and makes for a cold ride. We were gathering heifers from the Ritchie Pasture, and initially, I just took pics through the dirty windshield. The mud splatters were not…
Good Setup
Yes, there’s snow on the ground, and I spent the day cooking. Yesterday, though, I took pics of a new piece of equipment… This is our new maternity pen for cows. Betchya never heard of these! When cows need help calving for whatever reason… large calf, breech presentation, or whatever, we can use this setup…
Being Here
I have to admit, running inside from putting up outdoor Christmas decorations because Brandon just texted me is one thing… but to be able to pull up the live auction happening in Riverton, Wyoming is super cool. Lacee and Reagan and I could text Brandon… watch it be delivered and read by him on his…
Yay or Nay?
Time to help the guys… Our heifers have been around my house, eating in the fields… but it’s time to sort them. Brandon has the paperwork and their lifetime stats. Birthweight. Wean weight. Average Daily Gain. Due dates. Genetics. Now it’s time to gather them up and sort them. Will they stay or will they…
Time to Pony Up Again
Initially, I had said I’d help trail the cows out, but that I may use the side by side. After that last long ride down the Mesa, my knee bothered me for quite a while. I’ve rolled my eyes plenty of times when the quiet is broken by loud motors… but better to have wheeled…
The Sort
So between cowboys and four wheeler riders, the cows and calves were penned. Time to separate them. Cows out the gate, calves into another pen. That meant two guys sorting them… with others running backup for when calves scooted by on accident. Three cowboys gathered up a dozen or so and urged them towards the…