Tag Archives: calves

Posts about a calves or cattle and Texas ranching on Texas Homesteader’s website. #TexasHomesteader

Oh Toto, There’s No Place Like Home!

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by Texas Homesteader ~

As much as we love our home in Northeast Texas, we’ve been pretty tied to the homestead while dealing with an illness and are just now able to get away for short familial visits. We had such occasion recently to venture to the west Texas town of Amarillo to visit a favored aunt and uncle for what was deemed Celebration Weekend.

We were treated to many beautiful sights along our travels west: There were all manner of beautiful country views spotlighting both current and long-forgotten ranch and farm buildings – some still bustling with activity and some merely whispers of the past.

West Texas windmills. A Trip was certainly fun but there's NO place like home! We love our ranch in Northeast Texas - There's no place like home! #TexasHomesteader

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Mentoring and Paying It Forward

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by Texas Homesteader ~ 

When we first purchased our property neither one of us had ever lived or worked on a ranch and we had no idea where to start. Thankfully one of our first local acquaintances was a veteran cattleman who purchased our first calves for us at a livestock auction.

Not only were we holding down full-time jobs in Dallas without flexibility to attend these auctions ourselves but we’d never been to an auction before and were very intimidated by the entire process. This wonderful gentleman purchased those calves and brought them to his corrals to work them for us, then delivered them to our own fledgling ranch. He is a valued friend and mentor even today.

Help others by being a mentor. Pay it forward when you can. #TexasHomesteader

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Can You Sell Animals You’ve Raised?

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by Texas Homesteader 

In November 2010, RancherMan became a certified A.I. technician. Our plan was to sell our registered black Angus bull and start producing our calves using A.I. instead. In April 2011 we began to A.I. our registered Hereford cows. That cow bred with her first A.I. The result was our very first A.I. calf. How exciting!

It's not hard for us to sell animals we've raised. It's a source of pride for us to raise quality, calm animals and we know we've given them a great life! #TexasHomesteader

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Wild Cow! Staying Safe On The Ranch

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by RancherMan

We’ve all heard this at one time or another. Maybe at the vet, maybe at the auction or even while helping a friend work some new cattle. Wild cow!

No matter how hard you try or how carefully you watch them come through the ring, once in a while you end up with one. And once you get them home it doesn’t take long to figure out that this cow is going to be trouble.

Wild cow wrangled with help of hired cowboys. #TexasHomesteader

Professional Cattle handlers wrangling a wild cow for us

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Making New Friends

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by Texas Homesteader 

We raise registered Hereford cows as our primary ranch mission. But we also have stocker cows/calves that we keep on a shorter-term basis to make proper use of our pasture grass excesses. We feel good about the fact that the stockers that come here are treated kindly and are allowed to just be cows – grazing under that blue Texas sky and interacting daily with us and all their cow friends. Our clients have said they appreciate the benefits of a calm animal that’s been treated with kindness and respect. We think it’s just the right thing to do.

We raise registered Hereford cattle but we also raise stocker cattle each year to balance out our pasture grass. #TexasHomesteader

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What’s Making Me Smile These Days

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by Texas Homesteader 

Life on the ranch is always busy.  I’ve written before about how pointless it is to wonder what’s on the agenda today, the day has a way of filling up all by itself!  When I was employed in the corporate world I used to get frustrated that my days seemed to blur together. I was being pulled in so many directions that I couldn’t enjoy any of it.

At that time I started making a conscious effort to stop and smell the roses.  Funny that even if you live in the most beautiful place on earth doing something for a living that speaks to your heart and soul, you still have to make a purposeful effort to slow-er-down sometimes and enjoy life around you.  Here are some things making me smile:

I love the subtle hints of spring I’m seeing now.  After the long cold season, that first burst of life from the trees is something I look forward to every year.  And it’s really hard to beat those blazing blue Texas skies!

Old barn. Times are tough for me with a frightening cancer diagnosis. But there's still much I see around me every day that makes me smile. #TexasHomesteader

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Survival Of The Fittest

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by Texas Homesteader 

We have several registered Hereford cows and we breed them using A.I. At a recent Noble Foundation seminar we attended, the presenters noted that A.I. typically results in a positive pregnancy only about 50% of the time, of course we already knew that.

Even with its reduced effectiveness It’s worth the effort for us, we’re a small homestead and would like to eliminate the expense of having a high-quality bull in our pastures yet we still want to maintain superior genetics in our herd. But the fact remains that this procedure will, in the best of circumstances, only yield a positive pregnancy about half the time. Repeat A.I. sessions are common and expected.

Life on a Texas Ranch. #TexasHomesteader

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Beauty is Wherever You Look For It

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by Texas Homesteader

When I lived in the city I noticed that between the ribbons of highway clogged with speeding cars filled with people in a rush to get somewhere there were often beautiful blooming wildflowers in the medians between the sections of 8-lane highways with their large concrete overpasses. I noticed how beautiful these cheery yellow blooms were even though these plants were deemed to be “only weeds” by the powers that be in median maintenance.

How many times had I myself rushed past this sight without noticing the simple beauty? It was then that I began to try to purposefully notice beauty around me. It’s hard to beat the sight of a healthy heifer calf hanging close to mom. Looks like she’s being a typical little diva – striking a pose for the camera.  (aaaaaand turn!)

Taylor-Made Ranch #18-3

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