calf cow pair

   

I GOT A COW

I got a cow! From my Uncle Steve
She calved last night, she's a black cow and had a red calf! I have my own tiny heard!!!

If your a pair, go over there

Today we are moving all the pairs out of the cows and onto the 12 acres! Dad, Jordan, Papa, and I… It should go well. I hope… It’s hard to say.

I’m watching the gate, while Dad, Papa, and Jordan go and bring pairs. It’s my job to make sure there all supposed to go through the gate, make sure there all pairs…

There is almost 100 girls!!!!!!!

Lot’s of little

There was 5 calves to tag in the 3 year olds today! And 6 in the cows! But there wasn’t any in the heifers…

Dad and Uncle John have decided they wanna try and grow there own bulls. We tried last year, but it didn’t work out perfect like they’d hoped. So this year they have a whole system for picking which calves to leave bulls. And how they do this is: First they pick the cows with low birth weights, then they pick from that list which cows always have low birth weight calves. Then they give you and average on all the calves BW put together, and you get a list of about 20 or so cows… But, this is without factoring in bad bags, and the cows over all body build, plus there attitude is important. Don’t want no mean bulls round this here farm! (Wow that sounds western) The sad part is pretty much 50% of the cows on said list have already calved, and once a calf is rubbered, it’s rubbered, you can’t take it off…

Oh and that rinky dink cow who had her calf in the snow drift I went out to get yesterday, he died. Yup, dead as a door nail…. All that work for nothing! But that’s how farm life works… Sad to say…

 

And some people have wondered how big teeny is, she is only up to my knee, (And I have short legs!) and she only weighs 65 pounds! 

Cute little Teeny in action

applause please!

Well, hasn’t today been dramatic…

It all started as a dumb cow having her calf in a snow drift… So after we finished tagging we went out to go bring this calf in. There’s lot’s of frozen cow turds in the field and I’d driven over frozen cow turds before and nothing like this had happened…

Dad was on the new quad, I was driving the new/old quad, and we were going out to get the calf. Dad was way ahead of me, and I was like whatever, just driving along when BAM!!! The trailer flies a foot in the air, hit’s the ground, does a barrel roll, and stops… I was really shocked… So I backed up the quad, went to go hook the trailer back up but low and behold, I had broken the ball hitch off the quad! Great, just great… Dad was driving off, I didn’t have a phone, and I had broken the quad…. So what did I do? I got on the quad, drove it back to the farm, parked it in front of the bunk house, and went and got the old quad. Then I drove all the way back out to the trailer, hooked up, and started driving towards Dad. While I was busy fixing my mess, Dad had been tagging a calf, so he had no clue what had happened other then I had switched quads, so much to my dismay, I told him I'd thrown the trailer, AND broken the ball hitch on the quad. He didn’t say anything (Much to my surprise) and just told me the info on the calf he tagged and went on. I was amazed to say the least that he didn’t freak out at me. So I was almost to the gate going into the east quarter, and the trailer fell off the ball hitch! I can not believe my luck! First I break the other quad and the trailer, now the stupid trailer won’t even stay hitched! I backed the quad up and hooked up again, and started on my way, AGAIN… So I had made it through the gate, it was all good, other then the trailer looked like it would blow apart if I hit a bump to hard…. Driving along, when the freakin trailer falls off AGAIN!!! At this point, I was really pissed, but there’s not much I can do about that. Backed the quad up AGAIN, hooked up the trailer AGAIN, and finally made it over to the calf I had come for… And after that it went quite well…

Video by Jordan (Play without sound)

A smile for ya! Cows VERY happily heading out into pasture after the winter :)

Teeny

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Oh good

So yesterday there was this calf, Z63, who we couldn’t find. We looked over every inch of the field! And couldn’t find her anywhere… Dad had been out before and had looked for her for an hour, then he came in for coffee and took me out after for sick run, told me “We are looking for Z63, I can’t find her” So I was like ok. After we doctored that one calf that was sick, we went looking for the lost calf, we went over and over every place we could think, around tree’s, over logs, but we didn’t find her anywhere! So it was pretty bad, but today as we were driving out to the field, there she was, just laying there by an old tire… It’s like “Where the heck were you???”

So we still have 0 idea where she was, but at least she’s not dead…

There is this really cute calf that’s only 65 pounds, and I call her Teeny, I’m gonna go out in a little bit an take pictures of her for all ya’ll!!!

Ain't they purdy

I need feedback people! <3

Silly cow’s today…

Today there was not very many calves… Only about 10…

But, when we were tagging in the heifers, a lot happened. Yesterday there was a calf born and his mommy loved him at first, but then lost track of him and decided that he wasn’t that lovable… So they were locked up all day together and she still doesn’t love him one bit. Then this black heifer had a calf that was to big and it died right after birth, but she still wants a baby really bad, so we took this calf from this stupid heifer, and put it in with the black heifer who lost her calf. So far they don’t love each other, but that’s cuz the stinking calf won’t milk the cow, the calf is just happy to be in the same pen as a cow, much less to actually milk the cow… Sigh… Oh, and then there was this 3 year old yesterday, cow W27, and dad said if she had had a boy, he would have kept it for a bull, but of course she had a girl… Anyway back to the story, she was a good, calm, quiet cow, but then today we were kicking her out of the Bam tree lot and into East of the 40. As we were kicking them out she wondered off, just left her calf standing there waiting for her so we could kick them out the rest of the way. finally after we got her to go over to her calf, we kicked them out (With 4 other pairs) but as soon as she was through that gate she took off, didn’t even look back for her calf to see if it was following. So, I chased the calf up the hill, while dad went after the silly cow… He finally got the cow over to the calf and she started to love him right again. Yay!

Busy

So today I’ve been kinda busy… Sorry for not updating sooner.

The morning wasn’t very exciting. Went out tagging, and tagged 19 CALVES!!! That’s a whole lot for one morning… Out in the cows, it seemed like they were everywhere! We just couldn’t get away from them. Anyway, back to the day’s events. We also chased a coyote on the quad today! Same coyote every day… In the same field, doing the same thing. He’s really annoying, and it’s like he’s everywhere, weird…

We did sorting today. Cuz we always do sorting on Fridays. It went well, other then the fact dad says “Let them out single file so they get used to it.” And I do, buuuutttt they don’t always want to play the game my way, so today 4 cows ran through the gate at once, making my almost twist my ankle AND getting cow crap on my lip, glasses, and clothes! Pretty much everywhere you can think of… Dad and Jordan also pulled a calf today, like 10 minutes ago actually. This heifer had been calving since 9:30 this morning and had only gotten the 2 front feet (Thank God) and the tongue out, Dad decided that was quit long enough and pulled it out. (With Jordan’s help of course) And Dad used the handy dandy new calf puller he made with parts Cam gave him! It’s some kinda pulley system? He says it’s better then the others cuz something called “The dogs” where’s out in the others, but that won’t happen to this one cuz it’s more of a pulley/winch operation. And so, I am going to post pictures of the old calf puller, and some of the new. To show how Cam’s parts, helped save 4 calves lives so far…

 

 

Jordan and Dad pulling the calf today…

Nothing really exciting

Nothing really exciting happened today… We tagged 12 calves, 3 in the 3 year olds, 1 in the 2 year olds, and 8 in the cows…

It was going pretty good until it started snowing, which wasn’t bad at first, but the snow just kept falling… And getting thicker and thicker, harder to see through. Os course there has to be a crap load of calves born ON THE DAY IT’S STORMING!!!

The girl’s are far ahead again! YAY!! Lol… I didn’t get many pictures cuz of the *cough*cough* snow, but I did get one or two, so I’ll let you have a look…

                                           

Crazy little Calf

So, our morning was going very good, no dead calf’s, no mad cows. It was all peachy… Until we went to check the 3 year olds…

Well, dad and I had just kicked a pair out, and I was closing the gate while dad drove around to see if there were anymore calves. So when I finished closing the gate I started to walk over to dad on the quad, he said “There’s a calf sleeping over in the corner but he’s got no mummy”, so I got on the quad and drove around the cows to see if we could spot this mummy cow. We found her, her number was W34… So after we found out who the cow was, we went over to the calf in the far corner of the field (This is the bam tree lot I’m talkin about for all you who know the farm) and tagged it of course. After it was tagged and rubbered, dad left it on the rope for a couple seconds and said to himself “Are you gonna follow us or are you gonna run?”, Well after we let the calf go hr ran of course, but not very far at first, he even charged at dad! He thought he was so tuff… But then dad got on the quad and started it up, the calf freaked out and ran up the hill… The wrong hill… Dad said “Why do they always have to go the wrong way?” I just shrugged. So we took off after this calf, and the calf just kept running, we thought we had stopped him when low and behold, he went through the fence into the field known as “East of the barn”, Dad swore and ripped down the fence line to the gate, I got off the quad and flung it open, I didn’t think Dad would want me back on the quad but he told me to get on anyway. After I got back on the quad, Dad went after that calf sooooo fast! We caught up to the calf and turned him back in the direction of the field he was supposed to be in (Calf bellowing the whole dang time like we was tryin to kill him or somthin!”) , but that didn’t last long, the calf stopped (For some reason) so dad pulled up beside it and tried to grab it’s leg, but he kinda missed and ended up falling over, but also taking the calf down with him, so it worked out… This was a big calf so dada and I had to lift him on the back of the quad, Dad tarp strapped him down, and I held on to one of his front legs, while dad drove back through the gate, into the RIGHT field, and all the way over to his cow… The cow was happy to see her calf, but I think it’s safe to say that Dad and I have traumatised this calf for LIFE!!! Lol :)

 

number 27 bob

This is number 27. He is a really sweet calf!

But, his mother hates him, wants nothing to do with them...

It's sad, but he's decided he loves me and dad more then his cow.

And he makes this funny sound when he calls for us, it sounds more like an elk then a cow if you ask me. I named him Bob, Dad thinks it's funny, but I think it suits him very well...

Yup

Today

Today I am starting my new blog!
It's all about the going's on around our ranch!

Calving season
THE MOST RECENT STORIES!
Tractor driving
THE MOST RECENT STORIES!
And anything else
THE MOST RECENT STORIES!

Hope you enjoy it... I'll try to keep it updated from day to day. It just depend's on how crazy life on the ranch is going. :)

Always in the know: The 43 Ranch Reporter