Heifers

Hello blogging world!  I have been absent for a while as I was having difficulties uploading videos.  I finally figured it out and will share a few videos I've shot in the past month. 

Here is a video that shows some of our replacement heifers.  Each year in the fall, we save a certain amount of heifer calves to develop and add to our cow herd.  This is a task that I love to do - we evaluate our heifer calves and save the heifers that will best fit into our cow herd scenario. 

We will wean the calves in December.  At that time the cows are "wintering" on our hay meadow, so we will bring the heifers home and keep them on the meadow by the house so we can keep a close eye on them.  We also have our milk cow and a few other cows in the herd with them to essentially "show them the ropes."  Also, once they are home, we will have the veterinarian out and he will give them their Bangs vaccinations, tattoo, and ear tag.  This is to vaccinate against Brucellosis, a reproductive disease.  If you look at the black heifer in the last scene – you can see her orange bangs tag in her right ear.  And yes, she is a very friendly heifer!!  She always comes up to see if you have something for her!!

It is really fun to see the calves you selected grow and mature into quality females for your herd.  These heifers will be bred in June and calve for their first time next April. 

Fun Picture for the Day

Just a fun picture for the day - I took this one last summer. What a pretty heifer!

Feeding our Cattle

I sit here this morning eating my bowl of cheerios. It's my breakfast, cheerios and a nice big glass of milk! And you know the old saying, it's the most important meal of the day!

Well, this is no different for our cattle. When the weather is nice and and the grass is growing, they can "hypothetically" go to the cupboard and pour their own bowl of cheerios - there are enough forages available for them. But when the weather is winterish and the temperatures are cold, we need to feed them. This consists of the hay we put up during the summer, our 800lb round bales. Our hay is made up of timothy, garrison, and brome grasses.

Feeding our cattle has got significantly easier in my lifetime. I remember when I was young, we didn't have our round baler - we would put our hay up loose and store it in haycribs. To feed the cattle, we would fill a trailer with loose hay and my Dad would fork the hay off while my Mom drove the truck. It was a physically challenging job, one that only my Dad could do. Fast forward to 2003, we purchased our round baler and the tractor in the video with the "spinner" on the tail. Now anyone of us, Mom, Dad, or I can go out and feed the cattle!

1st Calf of the Year

Here is a short video of our first calf of the year. This is a heifer (a cow who has never calved before.) We have her and her bull calf in the shed, where they are nice and warm!