Month: April 2022

Empty

Not a bovine in sight.

Spring is really here. The place is empty, well, almost empty. The only cattle left are the bulls, the nurse cows and a few odds and ends. We spent the day moving the pairs to their summer pastures. Five guys with stock trailers made 5 trips each to get everything moved into 3 different pastures. In between loads Mitch, the boys and I continued sorting cows and calves or bringing in the next set to load. The biggest concern is always making sure we have the right cows with the right calves going to the right place! It was a long day.

Cows and calves have to be hauled separately, so the calves don’t get stepped on.
We haul the cows first because they can’t crawl out of the pen as easily as calves.
It is extremely loud as cows bawl for their babies and the calves cry for mom.

It never fails to amaze me that the mamas and babies can pick each other out in a pen full of bawling cows and calves, but somehow, they do. We leave them in the pen for about an hour, so everyone can settle down before kicking them into the pasture.

Enjoying the green grass!

The place will be empty until fall when we start bringing everything back home again. The cycle continues – spring, summer, fall and winter. The cows are all happy to be out on grass and we are happy not to feed hay every day!

Until next time.

Don’t forget to shut the gate!

Wading through calves

Calves don’t know how to drive. You have to literally push them sometimes.

Spring is finally here. The cows and calves have to go through the chute to be “worked” before turn-out.

Pushing calves into the barn.
Bringing the cows up the alley and into the tub.

First the cows and calves have to be separated into different pens. Then we start on the cows.

Each cow goes through the tub and alley system into the chute. She is vaccinated with a pre-breeding dose of ViraShield 6 VL5HB to prevent Vibrio, 5 strains of Lepto, L. HarjoBovis, BVD, PI3, and BRSV. She is also dewormed with Long Range, vaccinated for pinkeye, and given a dose of MultiMin.

Then it’s on to the calves.

Lane watches the big boys push calves up to the calf table. He can’t wait until he is big enough to help them.

Calves received their vaccinations. They get 20/20 Vision 7 which covers pinkeye and 7 strains of Clostridium (blackleg), and they get Pyramid 5 plus Presponse which covers IBR, BVD, PI3, BRSV and 2 strains of pasteurella . Calves are also dewormed with Long Range. We band the bull calves and vaccinate for tetanus. All calves are ear notched and the notch is tested to identify Persistently Infected BVD calves (PI).

The boys took a break from pushing calves and worked the chute.
Jayce and Drake learned to band the bull calves and Tayten gives vaccinations.
Brandi stopped by and Justine put her to work notching the calves.
Relaxing on the fence. Notice the phone in Jayce’s hand. Can’t get away from the phones!
Worked and headed back out. In a week or two, depending on the weather, we will haul them out to their summer pastures.

Until next time!

Don’t forget to shut the gate!