It was hot! 71 degrees today, if you can believe that. It felt like the 90’s because of the radical change that we haven’t had a chance to acclimate. Of course, we had to move cows today… Our “CATTLE ON ROAD” sign went out and we began to urge the mommas and babies onto the…
Tag: cattle
Calving in a Blizzard Video
I managed to throw together a video for today’s blizzard. We were lucky and haven’t received near the record amounts of snow across the state. We’re counting our blessings!
Chasing Grass
Well, we had 6-8” of snow on the ground two days ago, and it’s gone today. Anything slightly tilted to the south is dry, but snow remains on the north sides of hills, and there’s still plenty of mud in spots. Never fear, there’s a winter storm warning out for the next few days, with…
Glen
With the storm that blew in last night, I knew I’d better just wait for Vernon to bring me the calf or calves. Sure enough… This big, 100 or 110 pound boy was not extremely cold, even if one ear was partially frozen. But he was still wet, so into my calf cooking bag he…
Tent Calf 2
I was happy with the progress of my not-so-little calf. But he was only one… and we had more cows to attend to. Our Sandhills Method experiment was ready to move onward. We would leave the pairs that had been born in the lot behind… and take the remaining to the pasture around our haystack,…
Tent Calf
Nine inches of wet wet snow. Again, as I was shoveling my sidewalk, and preparing to go help Vernon, he arrived and unloaded a calf. Dang it. I ran to open the gate and door. The calf was sopping wet. He would throw his head backwards. I don’t know what you call it, but that…
Still Snowing
Here we go again. Moving them into this lot didn’t slow calving down, once again we had about 18 calves as a one day total. They’ve been awfully steady. One calf was missing, its mom searching but not finding. We all went on the hunt… putting in lots of man hours. Brandon finally found it…
Always an Adventure
After two days at the library, it’s back at it for me. We have a winter storm warning with a chance for 10” of snow, so we decided to bring what hadn’t calved yet, called the “heavies”, into a large lot. We’ll feed them there, give them some bedding, and keep a close eye on…
Throwback Thursday: Good Timing, v.2.0
This was first published March 27, 2012. P.S. That annoying sound in the video is my camera! Grasshoppa, Are you ready? Here is the birth of the calf that I teased you with the other day. I did not edit this, because I wanted you to see the delivery in real time. This is cow 437…
Simpler
The typical spring equinox storm arrived with a few inches of wet snow. Victoria and I spent the morning inside though she traveled out with her dad after lunch. I wrangled kids and food… Everything from yesterday seems to be hanging in there, and fifteen more calves joined the herd today. The sun reappeared and…
Confusion
Boy, don’t know if I can keep everything straight… Vernon brought me another calf this morning. Born yesterday, but looking like it hadn’t got up to eat. Dry. Add heat lamp. Tube. Victoria and her boys arrive. They’re on spring break but their cousins don’t get spring break, that’s ok, they’ll see each other after…
Success, and Not
Thanks for all the well wishes for the little calf yesterday. Despite almost our entire family’s hands on care, she didn’t make it. It’s tough to find them in the morning after trying so very hard to help. Fortunately, though, two others we had helped *did* make it, so that was good. With the cows…