2011 calves......

This year's calf crop is probably our best calf crop so far......



Which, technically, is not much of an accomplishment seeing as how last year was the first year we really tried to pay attention to who was in heat and who was not in heat so we could A.I. as many cows as we possibly could.....




And this year, we have 3 kids who will be showing our feeder calves at the fair.




It's made it interesting as far as the picking out of calves. Obviously, Jessie gets 1st pick. And this year, we let her determine which calf she will show. Todd, Jason and I gave her our opinions (which we did only after she asked for them) but ultimately, we let her make the choice.


She picked the blue roan calf. Todd and I are a little leery of him - not sure he can walk as good as the red calf (who you can sort of see in the 1st picture) but....it's time she start figuring out which calves are good and which calves are bad.....


Tyler's heifer (the white one - lucky) is growing and looking pretty good. We have been informed that he (and he alone) will be showing her this winter as a shorthorn heifer. On a good day (when he is not fighting with his sister) - he agrees that Jessie can show Lucky at the fair as one of her heifers.....we won't mention the bad days.....



I just keep looking at all that white... yes, she is SOLID white....not grey....not tan but WHITE...I think this is payback time for me from all the years of showing a white horse that my parents (and I) spent keeping him clean and stain free.....

Calf #5

Last Sunday evening we had another calf born. A heifer:


The cow was a good momma - she only needed a little assistance. And we have another healthy heifer calf to add to the mix.

I'm loving the wild color patterns this bull has thrown. Too bad we got rid of him last fall - every couple of years we try to "upgrade."

This heifer and momma got to spend 1 day inside - and then Monday night we kicked them both outside to bring in the last 2 cows to calve. We've had some bigger-than-average calves this year, and are keeping everyone contained until they calve. We are tired of trying to do this in the open pasture.

Plus....with all the rain we've been having? The calves at least have that initial 24 hour period to stay dry.....

Calf #4 of 2011

Last Wednesday, I had someone coming to pick up a twin sized waterbed that I sold on Craigslist. And as I pulled in, Jessie's pain in the a$% heifer Ally was calving. As was the psycho heifer.

So I called Todd to come home from work. (I normally wouldn't call him so fast, but we had a funny feeling that Ally's calf was going to be larger than normal sized, and I didn't want to deal with that. And Psycho is a first calf heifer and more apt to run than let us help her if she was having trouble).


I got there at 3:30, right behind the guy who brought the water bed. And as we were loading it in his truck, within about 15 min. of me getting there, Ally spit out a good sized bull calf (90 lbs.) as if it were nothing.

Which calf then jumped right up and started nursing, all within about 10 min. of birth. I love it when that happens.

And then he started to run around the pen like a raving lunatic trying to buck and jump on legs that weren't even an hour old.

And Psycho? She lost her calf. After about an hour of nothing happening, Todd reached her and she wasn't dialated. So we called the vet, who came out and helped Todd pull the calf. It was a big one, and a bull calf, but it had been dead for about 12 hours by that point, which may be why she wasn't progressing. But she stood through the ordeal like a trooper, and didn't put up much of a fuss (other than kicking Todd about 3 times while he was trying to reach inside her the first time) so we are giving her another chance. The vet wasn't sure why the calf died, other than maybe either she is just to small yet (she is a very tiny heifer) or it was in the wrong position and she had been in the very early stages of labor without showing any signs for too long and had trouble. Depressing yes, but it happens sometimes.

We have 3 more to go, which hopefully will all come by the beginning of next week. We are going to PA the first weekend of May to pick up Jessie's 4-h pigs.......I cannot wait!

calf #3 of 2011

Even with all the steer and heifer shows we have been going to, it's still calving season. Last Saturday, we got home from Ashtabula about 6 p.m. And jessie had a slumber birthday party to go to. And I was tired.

Todd woke me up at 6:15 wanting me to go check on the cows to see if anyone was calving. But I didn't move fast enough for him, so he went out and checked. And had to come back in to get some supplies and get me up, as we had a cow that was in labor, and he didn't know how long she had been in labor and wanted to do some checking on her.

After checking her, he realized it was going to be a BIG calf. When the calves hooves are the size of both of my fists together, that makes you pause for a minute. So while he went round and round with momma cow trying to put a halter on her, I grabbed the chains, handles and calf puller. We've had trouble with this cow in the past, and she is bred to a good A.I. bull carrying a bull calf - who could be Jessie's 2012 steer prospect.

But the calf's head was not in the right position, so Todd had to reach in there and get it turned around (YUCK). And every time he would let go, the calf would shift and move it's head out of position. So we had to call in the vet.

We did keep trying though, and just as the vet was coming down the road (7:45 a.m.), the calf decided to cooperate and get into the correct position so we could pull it.

After letting momma and baby have some time to themselves, we went out and weighed him.

We were not in the least surprised to find out he weighed 121 lbs.

So far, he's doing great. He was up nursing within 20 min. of being born, and was running around that afternoon testing out his legs.

And Jessie? She is royally ticked that she missed another birth. When I went to pick her up, I didn't tell her the calf had been born. But as she got out of the truck, Todd told her she has to be gone more so we can get all these calves born....she didn't think that was very funny:)

I did have a good laugh though. We bred this cow to have a steer prospect for Jessie (which is why he was so big). And the entire time Todd was trying to pull this calf he was ranting and raving....no more club calf bulls! We are going back to the smallest dinkiest bulls we can find... blah...blah...blah....I asked him last night who he was going to breed her back to for next year...he says the same bull:)

Calving Season

A week ago this past Saturday (the 26th) we had a momentous day here at home.... The first baby calf was born! Last fall we had our vet ultrasound all of the cows. He was able to pinpoint due dates of the calves for the most part (more on that later) and on some, like this little guy, could tell us if it was going to be a bull calf or a heifer calf. Rondell was the 2nd on the list to calve. And she was due to have an A.I. bull calf to Cool Customer. We are supposed to have 4 bull calves this year, all A.I. calves (that he could tell what sex they were). When Tyler and I got home from the Pinewood Derby at 4 p.m....nothing. Jessie had gone to the mall to buy a dress for 5th grade graduation with a friend. When Todd got home at 6:30, this little guy was on the ground. Jessie got home about 9:30, and immediately claimed him for herself. We'll have to see how he looks in a couple months....it's so hard to tell when they are this young just how they will grow! He's been in a pen with him Mom for the last week, and yesterday we tossed his happy little butt outside (so we could bring in the next cow).

Then, this past Sunday (the 2nd), the other cow we brought in when we brought Rondell in we noticed her about 5 p.m. starting to deliver. By 5:30, Todd had pulled this not-so-little heifer and we were on our way out the door to a friends house for dinner (Todd would not have pulled her but for the fact that when her legs were about 1/2 way out - they are HUGE. And we were leaving and didn't want the cow to have trouble while we were gone).

Our vet got the heifer part right on this one, but missed the due date by about 2 weeks. But....we never saw her get bred to the bull (we didn't try to A.I. her so we weren't watching too closely) so we didn't have even an approximate date for him to work off of.

We do have some concerns about her front legs being to straight. But hopefully, they will work out of that the more she is up and around.

I am just so glad that we have a couple calves on the ground.....hopefully in the next 3 1/2 weeks we will be all done and all 8 calves will be on the ground.....

Cows

This is the time of year I love the most. It's getting warmer, the sun is out, and we are so close to having baby calves on the ground!

Rondell should be the first one to calve, and she is looking pretty miserable. Last fall we had everyone ultrasounded to see if we were having calves, when they were due, and whether they were bulls or heifers. Rondell should be having a bull calf (we have 4 bull calves for sure coming if the vet was right). Jessie has already laid claim to this one for her next feeder calf/market steer project.

After I took this picture in the morning, we brought her in last night. We are supposed to get some cold/wet/nasty weather now through the weekend, and we really don't want to be chasing her around the lot.

We also brought in another cow that is looking rather uncomfortable and close to calving, but I couldn't get a good picture of her. She kept laying down with her rear end facing me.

This is the first year that we have all of our calves coming in a 6 week time frame, if everyone does what they are supposed to do!

When we were running out of room a few weeks ago, and had to separate Tank so he didn't eat his way to weighing 1800 lbs. at fair, we tossed the 3 yearling heifers outside for a few weeks. 2 of them (Smokie and Famous) are going to a show over Memorial Day weekend, and we will bring them back in here in another couple weeks to work with them. The solid black heifer will go out with the cows once everyone is closer to being done calving.

Tonight we are bringing back into the barn another steer that Tyler will show at the 3 or 4 shows we have coming up. It's too hard to show heifers and steers at all these 1 day shows so we will just take Tank and Huey to the next several shows.


I cannot wait until these calves hit the ground!

IT'S A BOY!!

Finally, after a two year wait, we've gotten our first bull calf again!

Tuesday night was a zoo. I had to work, Todd had fire practice. When I got home, this cow was in the very early stages of labor. I call Todd, he's inside a house they are burning down for practice. But as soon as he is done with that drill, he will come right home.

He got home about 10:15 and we pulled the calf. Another BIG calf (85 pounder - give or take a few).

Now Jessie is bummed. She had her heart set on showing one of our friend Jason's calves next year. But Todd says this little guy may be too big, so that is what she is hoping for:)

Two more to go.

It's been gorgeous out the last few days. And we've been busy to say the least. Wednesday night the kids had soccer and we went over to a friends' house for their daughters birthday afterwards. Last night Todd worked late and I was mowing the yard. Tonight the kids have a birthday party. Tomorrow is the first soccer game of the year. In between all that, I did manage to wash and dry Punx a couple times. Not as often as I should have but....it will all work out. And I do have to find time to clean my house as both sides of the family are coming over for dinner on Sunday for Tyler's birthday.

So I'm thinking this afternoon I'm going to sneak out of work a few hours early. Just long enough to give my house a quick cleaning. Hopefully it will be warm enough on Sunday we can eat outside and no one will see the inside of my house:)

Have a great day

Kris

Calf #3

Yes, another heifer. I'm getting tired of all these girls......

She was up, dry and running around when I got home. A rather LARGE heifer. I call Todd, who said "go out in the field and see if it's a heifer or a bull calf." I'm in my work clothes, mind you, but I crawl through the fence, wade through the weeds and take pictures. Nope - I didn't get close enough to see if it was a boy or a girl.

AFTER I went and changed clothes, I did go back out there and could report to Todd it was a heifer.

Todd: What color is it?

Me: Black and white. Looks like a holstien.

Todd: Huh?

Me: Hold on - I'll text you a picture.....

Todd: yes, that is definitely black and white. Wonder where THAT came from?

Apparently either our bull or this brown and white cow (or both) have a black gene in their makeup somewhere. She has 4 white legs just like a holstein would.

When Todd finally got home from work last night about 8:30 we brought her into the barn since we are supposed to get some rain over the next couple days. His best guess on her weight? 85 lbs.

Now Jessie is campaigning to show her at State Fair, Tyler is campaigning to show his heifer at State Fair this summer, and we are wondering if we are EVER going to get a bull calf to turn into Jessie's steer project for next year.

I'm just glad this calf is not crippled like this cow's last years calf.

And I can also turn my worries to Alli, who is bred to the same bull for her first calf. I really don't want her having trouble cause the calf is too big. I hope we don't have a train wreck on our hands.....

Have a great day

Kris

Calf #2

They sure do seem to be popping out around here:)

Friday night we brought in the next cow to calve. Normally, we'd leave them out in the field but...Todd was leaving the house at 6:00 Saturday morning to drive to southern ohio for an auction. And I just knew that she would have this calf Saturday sometime.




And let's just say she has had trouble in the past and is not the easiest cow to catch. And I'm not standing out in a muddy field trying to rope a cow who is intent on chasing me out of the field and running me over. There are some things I am just not doing. (For the record, I will and have helped to pull calves when needed - as long as they are caught first). So if I have to call in help I wanted her somewhere that we weren't going to be chasing her all over creation.




Saturday morning was not a good morning. All I had left to do on my sweater was the neckband. You think the kids would stop arguing for 20 minutes so I could do it? Nope. Which left us all out of sorts as I finished that, cleaned the house and kept checking on the cow. Who was for all appearances no where close to calving.

Only to walk out the door at 11 a.m. as we are rushing to get to the final basketball game of the season to hear "the moo."



The one that means get away from my baby.




A quick look at the cow and calf - it was breathing and trying to get up, take the kids to Jessie's basketball game (where they tied 8-8), eat lunch at Wendy's, run home to check on mom and baby, and back to Acres of Fun for a round of laser tag and roller skating, to come home and grab pizza and wait for the kids friends' to arrive to spend the night.








Which we aren't doing for a very long time as all four of them were up pretty much all night long.



But I did get my Short Lucky finished and blocked, and it is drying now. Hopefully tonight it will be dry and I can get some pictures.

Once again, a pretty bad picture that doesn't show the true green of this yarn.......

Kris

1st calf of the seasson

It has started.....

Monday (March 1st) night (well, technically Monday afternoon) while I was waiting for the blacksmith to come trim the horses hooves I was riding. I know, shocker....

And yes, I was messing around trying to

take a picture with my cell phone.

And keep my balance at the same time and not fall off.

But I climed up on Shamy (and this was not the brightest move I have ever done but there are some horses that you can do this with and some you can't..) bareback, with just a halter and 1 leadrope. No saddle, no bridle, heck, not even 2 lead ropes to control her. She probably has not been really ridden since sometime in 2008. And did I mention it's been almost 2 years since I've been on a horse? Probably 2 years this coming August.

It was fun - trotting and cantering around the field through the snow. She still remembers how to be a western pleasure show horse. Sit back, hit the cruise control button and go.

But anyhow....I was looking at the cows and thought Mittens looked a little uncomfortable. The blacksmith arrives, I end my ride, hold both horses while I catch up with him (when I showed horses I almost always showed against either him or one of his brothers and sisters), and as we are looking at the cows he even makes the comment that Mittens looked uncomfortable.

I go in the house at 5:45, Todd gets home at 6:20 and guess what? There is a baby calf on the ground in the back of the lot. She had it all on her own, no involvement or help from us:) I love this heifer.

We give them some time and then in the dark go out and bring them in. It's a tiny little thing, only about 60 lbs. And it's a heifer. Which was vastly disappointing to Tyler, who wanted a bull calf. But he has since decided that this is my heifer and we AREN'T selling her and sissy is NOT showing her - NO WAY NO HOW. hmmmm...... opinionated little thing, isn't he?

But she's healthy, mom survived and has figured out the whole routine, as we sit back (not really) and wait for the rest of the herd to start popping out babies. All the while we are praying really, really hard that everyone takes a mini break while we are in Minnesota here in a few weeks....

Let the fun begin......

Kris

The waiting game.....

Every spring means calving season here. Our aim is to turn whichever bull is in residence at the time out with the cows sometime around Memorial day. In 2007, we failed miserably waiting until Memorial Day, and ended up having calves on Valentine's Day in 2008.

Last year we did better. Tyler's heifer Mittens was the first to be bred on May 28th. And she never came back into heat. So her calf should be coming on or around March 6th. But she is a first calf heifer. And a shorthorn. And when the vet was out last week to draw blood on several of the cows to get it checked for genetic birth defect possibilities, he said she could calve at any time. So twice each evening at the very least, one of us goes out there and checks on her. If it is Todd who does the checking, he'll stand and watch her for 15-20 minutes. Me? 30 seconds tops. If she is stuffing her face at the roundbale feeder....she's fine. If she is laying in the shed with the rest of the cows.....she's fine (we won't mention the cow and new calf I drove right past when they were out in the field last spring....and then proceeded to tell Todd over the phone....nope, no one is even close to calving!).

Tyler is bound and determined that his heifer is having a bull calf. Why? He knows that steers will be eventually eaten by someone (and he does not realize that most bulls are turned into steers and should be - good bulls are so few and far between) and he has something against heifers and does not want the girls on the farm to outnumber the boys.

Jessie on the other hand wants bull calves. She knows that it takes a very, very, very good one to remain a bull and she's banking on several good ones to be her 4-h feeder calf project for this year/market steer project for next year, and that her daddy won't refuse her the best steer calf on the property.

Todd's hoping for heifers to increase the size of our herd. This year we will have 7 calves on the ground. Next year? A possibility of 10 calves if all of the genetic testing comes back ok.

Me? I want healthy.......and I want them to calve when it is warm out. I don't want to be out there in 30 degree weather.....

Kris

Weekend Work

We brought a new cow from a good friend a couple weeks ago.

Meet Rondell. She was shown as a yearling and did quite well. Jessie was impressed that she walked off the trailer nice and calm and Jason led her around, set her up and walked her before putting her in the pasture. I think she is campaining to show her this winter. But that is not an option - she is too old:)

But.....she is not bred, and we certainly don't want her being bred now - I'm not into having calves being born in August.



So the plan was to move the bull into his own little pasture - specifically so he would have the run in shed that the horses have used. But, it needed some work:



This picture was taken before we did anything - all those boards the horses have pushed off over the years. So we got some new rough cut boards from the Amish sawmill, and we got busy Saturday afternoon. Then I left to take the kids trick or treating and Todd kept working. By Sunday morning we were ready to put the siding back on with the new siding:




We also put kicker boards up inside that are 3 feet high on all 3 sides of the shed. This way, the bull and the horses cannot kick off the siding boards - the kicker boards are 2 1/2 inch thick oak boards.

Now we just have to put 1 fence up and the bull can live here quite comforatbly, once we bed it up with straw.

2 inches

That is all that is left and this sweater/shrug is DONE.

I love the simplicity of this knit. It was a no brainer (which was good with all the 3 1/2 hour-one-way trips to PA we have made over the last month). But I am knitting frantically on this. I would have been done but I had to rip out this ribbing 3 times so far. It helps when you read the directions, it really does:)

In other news - the kids are recovered, I think. After both of them running fevers, they have since bounced back and this is their second day back at school. They still have the runny noses and the cough but no fever so it's back to the grindstone for them. Fortunately, neither Todd nor I have exhibited symptoms, yet.......

This weekend we are raking leaves (and jumping in them) and having a bonfire. We brought another cow, and have to move the bull to a new pasture as she is not bred and we don't want her bred at this time of year. So we are putting up more fence, cleaning things up and getting ready for winter. Hard to believe it is almost the first of November.

yes, it is a pretty bad picture of her, but it came off of my cell phone, which to the picture off of a snapshot of her.

After the weed patch that our garden was this year, I've decided I am doing things different next year. Todd does not know it, but I am going to put in raised beds in the back yard along the fence line. No more crawling through weeds and electric fences to get to the garden. The blackberries and blueberries are going to be moved so they are behind the water water garden and hopefully they will do better.

Here's to a wonderful weekend!
Kris

A first

Saturday we took the kids and 2 of our heifers to a show in Medina.





Tyler did really well for his first time - he won his class and got to go back in for the championship heifer drive.


Jessie got 6th in her class - her heifer just wasn't what the judge wanted in a heifer, which after Todd got there and got them weighed in he had a brief thought that he should put her in the market heifer class instead of the breeding heifer, but he didn't so.....it was what it was. Jessie herself did much, much better than even at our fair and now she is more determined than ever to do well at the upcoming shows. She came out of the ring and said we need to get my heifer at home walking so I can show her.... Sorry, I have no pictures of Jessie showing - my camera batteries faded fast with all the zooming in I had to do. Hopefully Mom will put some pictures up on her blog soon (hint! hint Mom)......I know she took LOTS of pictures...



I did get one of the two of them together once we were all done showing.










Saturday night we had a hog roast to go to for the fire department and boy, was it COLD!!!!

Then Sunday morning we got a call from Todd's Mom - his grandmother in Punxsutawney, PA was not doing well at all. She was diagnosed with colon cancer 2 weeks ago. We are planning on going back the 24th to see her but......we ended up leaving our house at 9:30 yesterday morning, getting to the hospital at 1:00 to see her, then leaving there at 2:30 to go see his other grandmother who is in a nursing home and diagnosed with lung cancer (2 1/2 weeks ago) until 4:00 then stopping at his aunt and uncles a half hour away from the nursing home to look at steer calves for next year for Jessie, and heading home at 6:00 to pull in our drive at 9:30.

This is the calf Jessie fell in love with, and which is actually in our price range!:

And, 5 1/2 hours of useable drive time in the car means I had lots of knitting time, enough to finish 1 Maggie armwarmer, minus the thumb:

And make some progress on another knit.

I won't mention the 3 loads of laundry I had to do last night so we all had clean clothes to wear today.....

Have a great day:)

Kris