Our first calf out of our heifers arrived today… I haven’t seen it yet, but I imagine once the flood of babies starts pouring over the dam, I’ll be down there, bedding pens and keeping an eye on the heifers. And taking pictures. Speaking of water… the ice has begun to go out of the…
Tag: calving
Lift My Heart
Thank you all SO MUCH for your words of compassion… Reading them all makes me cry and smile at the same time… I am amazed at your thoughtfulness and caring. Elsa will always be padding softly in the corner of my heart… I dreamed of her last night… **** While I’ve been dealing with death,…
Heifer Checkin’
For a change, I did the ten o’clock shift with the heifers tonight. Daniel is gone, and for the price of two kisses, I told him I’d could probably manage to cover for him. He gave me a peck on each cheek… so I ended up hours later… bundling up at 10 pm, heading out…
Marvel
As I sat here at my computer and watched our “Calf Cam” over the internet, I marveled. Oh, not at the technology, although its seemingly “magical” powers are astounding… but at the man on the screen. I tweeted about him… step by step… as he loaded a heifer in the chute… struggled with a…
Hopping
Lest anyone ever try to convince you that ranchers aren’t busy this time of year… here’s one statistic for you. We’ve had 61 calves the past four days. If I did the math correctly, that’s a baby every 1.573 hours. It’s kept the guys hopping! **** March 20, 2010 Same Color March 20, 2009…
Moon Shadow
We had 19 calves today! Guess when I titled yesterday’s post “Baby Shower”… that was *REALLY* meant for today! The wind was blowing nine-oh for most of the day, which may have had some influence. I’m not sure what the barometer was doing, but I bet it was going down! There are only 17 heifers…
After Birth – the Video
I couldn’t resist… that newborn stagger of brand new calves is one of the best benefits of being a rancher. Enjoy this Baby Calf Walk… Remember, last chance for Questions for tomorrow’s Answer night! Enter them in the comment section! **** March 7, 2010 Fossil Cliffhanger March 7, 2009 Heifer Story 2 March…
After Birth 3
Alrighty, then! We’ve had the babies, weighed, tagged, earmarked them and cleaned up the mess they made during the birthing process. Now it’s time to kick them out! If we have time and space, we’ll let them stay in their pens, but like yesterday… we were cranking babies out and needed each pen we could…
After Birth 2
The story began yesterday… how after the birth of a calf… there are things we always do. Once the calf’s on the ground, then comes… you guessed it… time to clean up. Even though our heifers are the only ones to use the calving shed (our cows do it out in sheltered areas), it’s still…
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…
Widdle Calfie-Poohs
What *is* that tiny blackness in the golden straw? It sure isn’t Rumpelstiltskin! Isn’t he cute? I’m not usually a babytalk kinda girl… but doesn’t he just make you wanna say “Awwwwww, look at the widdle calfie-pooh”? **** February 25, 2010 Part of the Circle February 25, 2009 Sweet Thang February 25, 2008…
In the Mood for Babies
Well, we have babies! Two as a matter of fact! No pictures simply because I wasn’t told about them until after 6 pm when Vernon arrived home for supper. Honestly, I was at the Master Cattleman class again so I wouldn’t have been around anyway… We’ll see if they start poppin’… and they probably will…