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Tag Archives: ranch life
Waiting for Baby
One of our cows is due to deliver her calf next Monday. It’s always exciting when you’re expecting a calf but if you’re using the A.I. procedure you know the exact day that cow was bred and even the exact number of gestation days for that particular cow. For me it makes the waiting game all the more nail biting because I’ve known this blessed event is coming since just 28 days after her breeding.
Every day we make a round through the pastures, always including a thorough inspection of our girls and calves. Does everyone look good? Is everyone accounted for? Are all the calves bouncing & happy? Our herd is used to our presence and we’re allowed to come close to any of them without anyone becoming alarmed. If they’re laying down they don’t even bother getting up – to them I’m just one of the girls! Although it’s labor intensive to be in each cow’s physical presence so often, a gentle herd is worth all the work necessary to maintain it.
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Cooked Spaghetti
We utilize rotational grazing here on the ranch. We’ll allow the cows to graze only a small area for a short amount of time, then move them to a fresh paddock to graze fresh grass. It allows each paddock to be eaten down and then rested for a period of time to allow it to recover.
Although it’s more labor intensive it results in healthier pastures and healthier cows so it’s worth the work to us. The cows are all familiar with this routine and it’s easy to move them from one paddock to another – they know what to do. Occasionally a new girl in the herd will be confused and we’ll have to guide her through the gate separately but it’s seldom a lengthy process. We’re slow and deliberate with our animals and they know we’re the good guy.
The trouble starts when little ones are in the herd. The calves haven’t had as long to adjust to the routine. They’ll watch lazily as the rest of the herd gathers up and maybe yawn & stretch as the they all move through the gate. Then they’ll panic, not knowing where to go. Now anyone that ranches for a living knows that you cannot accomplish your goal smoothly with quick movements around an uncertain animal. So patiently we’ll walk behind them and gently push them toward the gate.
Now today there are three younger calves in the herd and they are looking to each other for direction – kinda like the blind leading the blind. As we slowly and gently guide them to the gate they’ll bunch up together. Then just as they finally get to the gate, one will veer left or right and then they’re all off in different directions. By this time the mamas are calling them to hurry up.
We’ll slowly gather them together again, leading them finally to the gate. Now they’ll promptly parade right past the gate and trot further down the fence line. REALLY?? The gate is RIGHT THERE! Your mom is even giving you the step-by-step directions to join her! But a patient hand will finally result in the calves getting through the gate. They’ll run to their mama – no doubt telling a wild tale of the bravery & valor it took to reach her. 😉
We’ve always had a saying: You can push even the most stubborn cow through the gate if you’re patient enough, but trying to push a calf through the gate is like trying to push cooked spaghetti in a straight line across the table.
~TxH~
Other Ranching Articles
- Successful Obedience Training For Our Ranch Dog
- What Working From Home REALLY Means (and what it DOESN’T)
- Ranching: A Good Life, But A HARD Life
- The Sad Side Of Ranching
- A Glimpse Into Our Texas Homestead
- How We Came To Our NE Texas Homestead
- A Pictorial Tour Of Our 1880’s Barn
- Temporary Cattle Stocking For Flexibility
- How Much Is Your Reflection In The Mirror Worth?
- Building Life With Our Own Two Hands
- Why Bother With This ‘Homesteading’ Thing??!!
- Whispers Of Past Lives Lived On Our Land
- Milking My First Cow – Using Fresh Milk
- Easily Separating Cream From Raw Milk
See ALL Ranching Articles
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page . It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing! And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram
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The Favored One, Our Herd Bull
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~
Other Ranching Articles
- Successful Obedience Training For Our Ranch Dog
- What Working From Home REALLY Means (and what it DOESN’T)
- Ranching: A Good Life, But A HARD Life
- The Sad Side Of Ranching
- A Glimpse Into Our Texas Homestead
- How We Came To Our NE Texas Homestead
- A Pictorial Tour Of Our 1880’s Barn
- Temporary Cattle Stocking For Flexibility
- How Much Is Your Reflection In The Mirror Worth?
- Building Life With Our Own Two Hands
- Why Bother With This ‘Homesteading’ Thing??!!
- Whispers Of Past Lives Lived On Our Land
- Milking My First Cow – Using Fresh Milk
- Easily Separating Cream From Raw Milk
See ALL Ranching Articles
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page . It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing! And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram
If you’d like to receive an email when a new blog post goes live,
subscribe to our Blog!
Hungry Girls Around The Hay Ring
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~
Other Ranching Articles
- Successful Obedience Training For Our Ranch Dog
- What Working From Home REALLY Means (and what it DOESN’T)
- Ranching: A Good Life, But A HARD Life
- The Sad Side Of Ranching
- A Glimpse Into Our Texas Homestead
- How We Came To Our NE Texas Homestead
- A Pictorial Tour Of Our 1880’s Barn
- Temporary Cattle Stocking For Flexibility
- How Much Is Your Reflection In The Mirror Worth?
- Building Life With Our Own Two Hands
- Why Bother With This ‘Homesteading’ Thing??!!
- Whispers Of Past Lives Lived On Our Land
- Milking My First Cow – Using Fresh Milk
- Easily Separating Cream From Raw Milk
See ALL Ranching Articles
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page . It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing! And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram
If you’d like to receive an email when a new blog post goes live,
subscribe to our Blog!
Baby Calf Cuteness
We’ve had the full round of weather here in NE Texas this past week – from several inches of rain to several inches of snow. Now the skies have turned brilliant blue and things in the pasture are beginning to return to normal. It’s so much fun watching calves playing together; skipping & jumping as in competition. These boys are the last two calves born and they’re almost inseparable best buds. Awwwww, cuteness…
~TxH~
Other Ranching Articles
- Successful Obedience Training For Our Ranch Dog
- What Working From Home REALLY Means (and what it DOESN’T)
- Ranching: A Good Life, But A HARD Life
- The Sad Side Of Ranching
- A Glimpse Into Our Texas Homestead
- How We Came To Our NE Texas Homestead
- A Pictorial Tour Of Our 1880’s Barn
- Temporary Cattle Stocking For Flexibility
- How Much Is Your Reflection In The Mirror Worth?
- Building Life With Our Own Two Hands
- Why Bother With This ‘Homesteading’ Thing??!!
- Whispers Of Past Lives Lived On Our Land
- Milking My First Cow – Using Fresh Milk
- Easily Separating Cream From Raw Milk
See ALL Ranching Articles
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page . It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing! And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram
If you’d like to receive an email when a new blog post goes live,
subscribe to our Blog!
Appreciation For A Gentle Herd
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
Fence-Crashing, Trouble-Making Calves
This weekend was especially grueling, two full days filled with untamed trouble-making fence-crashing bovines. As I mentioned earlier we had difficulty retrieving two of our stocker cows from a neighbor’s pasture so we asked for professional assistance. Hats off to the cowboys who labored for the duration until both animals were roped and trailered. THANKS GUYS!
But it’s given me a renewed appreciation for our calm, gentle herd here on the ranch. We have no room for wild and destructive animals. Goodbye girl, off to the sale with you! Now back to mending all those fences…
~TxH~
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page . It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea. There are lots of good folks sharing! And you can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram
If you’d like to receive an email when a new blog post goes live,
subscribe to our Blog!