by Texas Homesteader
When we’re weaning calves we like to fenceline them when at all possible. This allows mama and baby to see each other and eases their anxiety during the weaning transition.
We typically bring the calves into the barn pen where we have pretty heavily-fortified fences to allow the mama and baby to see each other. But the fences are strong enough to keep baby separated.
by Texas Homesteader
It does a heart good to look out and see all of that red and white!
~TxH~
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!
Many of you know that although we run a permanent herd of Registered Hereford cows and calves, we often purchase temporary stocker animals to utilize the grass that our herd doesn’t consume.
It was a hard lesson learned in 2011 when the strongest drought in decades gripped us here in NE Texas. The grass was gone, hay could not be purchased and our ponds were drying up. We had to reduce our precious hand-picked herd to assure we had enough water and grazing for the remaining girls.
An enjoyable stroll around the pastures brought me to the hay ring where our favored boy was enjoying his breakfast. I thought it would be fun to snap a quick shot of him using my phone but he wasn’t paying me any attention. I stepped closer, no response. Closer still, only a disinterested look. I played with his ear – but he only continued eating. I rubbed his head and finally he pulled back & looked at me.
He grew into a large 2500-lb bull and still as docile as he can be. RancherMan always scratches his head as we walk through the pastures. I love having such a docile bull in our herd. ♥ him!
~TxH~
We’ll be testing for pregnancy today so we brought the girls into the barn paddock. The leftover hay in the ring was irrisistable to them even though it’s the exact same hay they had in the previous paddock. They pushed each other out of …the way and piled around the ring stuffing their mouths full.
“Hey girls, where are your manners? What, were you raised in a barn or something?”
Oh, right… 🙂 Happy Friday everyone!
~TxH~
Many of you know we recently had troubles with a destructive stocker calf. We had a stocker cow/calf pair that jumped the fence to our neighbor’s pasture try as we may we could not round them back up and bring them to our own pasture again. We had to hire professional wranglers on horseback to come round them up and load them onto our trailer for us. In the process of separating them, they ran with the rest of our neighbor’s herd and crashed through fence after fence, destroying all in their path and requiring several days to finally get all bovines to their rightful pastures. We’re still in the process of repairing all the broken fences!
Of course that destructive calf no longer resides at our ranch, but the troubling experience makes me all the more appreciative for our permanent Hereford herd. Since we interact with our cattle daily they do not see us a foe but as mindful and careful caregivers. Such handing assures our herd is calm and stress free. We enjoyed a familial visit this weekend and I’m perfectly comfortable with my young granddaughter interacting with our herd (with supervision of course). Our Herefords know that life is good at our homestead.
Pushing a baby calf where you want it to go is like trying to push cooked spaghetti across the table in a straight line. LOL #TexasHomesteader
Awwwww… a mother’s love. This is our bull calf born here on the ranch in March. He is the A.I. product of our most productive herd cow and a high-producing sire. He’s got the same gentle disposition as his dam, one of the reasons she’s such a valuable part of our breeding herd. I love watching them in their daily lives.
