Wow, What a weekend

Saturday morning started the same way as every morning during calving. We feed then go check cows. Nothing new or unusual happened, except this time I took some pictures. We are pretty spoiled since we took the jeep, leather heated seats and all. The dogs are even spoiled. Cowboy decided to check cows by just sticking his head out of the window...of course that's what mom and dad were doing so why can't he. And he knows better then being around the cows this time of year. They'll happily put him the dog hospital if he gets a little too close (as they should of course).


After checking cows, the bulls got a manicure...pink polish and all...OK, I would never give the bulls a manicure especially when I don't get them but once or twice a year. However, they did need their hooves trimmed. A good athlete has good shoes and a good foundation. It's pretty neat how bulls get their feet trimmed. They go into a hydraulic chute that tips them on their side. All of the bulls calm right down and relax. Noodles even took a nap in it this time, next time he might start snoring and really freak people out ;-)



Frank, our hoof trimmer, raises and shows shags. He's won quite a few shows and has some impressive animals. This year the neighbor’s rodeo bulls got in with his heifers and bred 5 of them. Two were bulls. We went and checked them over and are going to bring them home and buck them this summer. I've seen some shags that were some bucking dudes! Tequila of Ronnie Roach's for one. Figured it doesn't hurt to see, they are built right and have the right attitude. Took some pictures of his registered shags including this little cute teddy bear and one of his sweet-mannerd herd sires, Harley.






Sunday night I went to feed and Lil' Miss one of my Catfish heifers was in early labor. She calved about 6:30 that night, a cute little guy by The Legendary Houdini. Got some pictures of him the next day, I say him hoping it's a bull...not sure yet.



And I got some better pictures of our first calf...who isn't a bull after all but a little heifer. We number females different, so instead of 88 she's 13 (the 13th female born here). Gotta think of some witchy or superstitious names for her.

Teaser

Had a very busy weekend and today is going to be a busy day at work. I have tons to say and tons of pictures to post...but I'm going to have to leave this as a teaser.

To come is:
Checking Cows
Bull Manicure
Can Shags buck?
New calf out of Lil' Miss By Houdini

Have a great Monday and I'll update everyone soon...even have a picture of the new baby. He's adorable!

88 - 1st full day

Geussing the new calf is a bull. Phil is about 75% sure he saw the goods last night.

The little guy doesn't have a name yet, but his # will be 88, for the year he was born and his mom's #.

88 had a pretty interesting day.

When I woke up and checked cows, he was just waking up with mom, Ramona. He was running down the hill to the leftover hay from the night before. He would stop and jump in the air and run again then jump. Since he's a future bucking bull the fact that he likes to jump is a plus.

Then I didn't see him all day. I saw Ramona, she was by the house...eating...sleeping...eating some more...I'd check every 2 hours and everytime she was by the house and 88 was no where to be found. I gave her until noon and I went and did a little search for the calf. Wanted to make sure he was OK, but I couldn't find him. I know momma cows will hide out their babies while they eat and relax. So I didn't think too much of it, until 5 and still no calf. Phil was home by then and we both went looking. Ramona didn't even care we were driving around the pasture (most mommas will keep one eye on you and one eye on the hiding spot). At this point I'm sure Ramona is a terrible mom that hasn't nursed her calf all day. We hunted for about an hour with no luck. Had to come back and feed everything else, then looked again after.

Finally, hidden very well in tumble weeds was 88. Phil picked him up and was sure he was dead. He was lifeless.....then as if he was pinched he started thrashing around in Phil's arms and bellering for mom. Phil yells at me, get the door....Ramona all along still cares less....which is really angering me. We got 88 in the pickup and hauled butt to the cows. All the cows, except Ramona, hears him and is running towards us. We contemplate on taking him to a pen and coming back and roping mom and putting her with him...but he has been drinking... no way he can thrash around in the pickup like he was without some milk in him. We decide to give mom another chance and drop him off. We wait until everything is settled down and just watch. 88 goes and gets a drink, so we let it be.

It's almost dark and she just brought it up to the house.

I'm hoping we were a little over zeolous in our search and mom just happened to have went and nursed him during the times I wasn't looking. The other option, Ramona being a terrible mom that doesn't care where she left her baby just isn't what 88 needs. We'll give her another chance, but you can bet I'll be watching her.

We have Baby

Ramona, a Catfish heifer out of a longhorn/limo cross, calved today.

This morning when we woke up it was dreary and snowing, so we figured today would be the day for atleast one calf. I was checking cows about every 2 to 3 hours. At noon no calves and no signs of calves at 3...our new little bundle was running around enjoying life.

It was actually very cute...and reminds me of when Ramona was born.

Ramona's mom, Little Nellie, was a cow of a friend, Dave Taylor. He had to sale her to make room for his wife's barrel horses. Dave didn't want to take her to the salebarn so he made me a pretty good deal on her. I bred her that year to my infamous Catfish.

Little Nellie had Ramona on a windy day and was the only cow smart enough to calve in the windbreak. Ramona was just born, barely cleaned off and she jumped up ran to her mom's head (who mind you hasn't even had time to stand up) and went to hooking her. She's throwing her head at mom and being very playful. I knew we had a frisky one, but I didn't have much hope for her as a bucker and producer. Phil said she'd be one of the best buckers that year. Luckily I was wrong and he was right, these pictures are of her when we bucked her at 14 months with a dummy.



The new little one inheritad Ramona's spark. When I looked out to check cows, I see Ramona running around the pasture being chased by a little black calf. I'm worried at first that the calf was trying to drink and mom didn't know what to do. But the more I watched the more you could see they were playing. The calf would run and mom would chase him..then he'd stop and mom would stop..the the calf would chase mom...and it would start all over again. After about 15 minutes they stopped completly and baby got himself drink from mom (another drink I'm sure and an energy drink at that). What a character these 2 are.


March 27, 2008 Ramona calved - calf by Sagebrush. Sex undetermined.

No babies yet

No babies yet. They are closer today then yesterday, but that is the only thing I can be sure of ;-)

A few of them do look to be anytime, which would be great since the weather is suppose to be warm for a few days.

Yesterday, Easter was pretty uneventful at least not the norm of a Easter day.

We went to the pepperpod for lunch, one of the few places open and it's pretty good and pretty close.

Then came home and poured all the bulls. Just ran them in the chute and poured Ivomec on their back. Was pretty simple and easy. Nice when they are start to figure out how to be handled.

Really need to rememer to take pictures, I didn't so I'm posting some old ones (because aren't the pictures the best anyway).




After we poured, a friend brought over bulls and we bucked with the a dummy. They did pretty good. All in it was about exactly how Phil and I would like to spend a day off.

Hopefully the next post will be full of baby pictures ;-)

A watched pot never boils

Babies are a comin'

Every spring it's the same thing, looking at the cows is like looking at a wrapped present on Christmas Eve....can't wait to see what you got.

I had a cow abort her calf this last Saturday, he was 3 weeks early. Not sure why, it could be anything really. She probably got a horn in the gut from another cow and it put the calf in distress. It was pretty sad. Wasn't sure if I'd mention it on here, but it is part of this business. It's a sad part and everytime I loose a calf I cry. I'll cry everytime though, it's who I am. They are my children, well grandchildren after all.

But enough of that.... All of my Catfish daughter's look close. 2 of them were AI'd and the perfect due date would be April 2nd. The 3rd, Ramona, was live bred by Sagebrush. She could be due on Easter, March 23rd, if they got to business on the first day. From the way she acts, it might be.

But, a watched pot never boils...I'm trying to be patient. I'll post pictures as the little ones are born. Can't wait.

Predictions:

Phil says all 3 before the weekend.
I think Lil Miss will calve on Saturday and Ramona will calve on Sunday Easter day. Blackberry will be April 9th.

The others are looking close too, but not as close as these 2. Jenny Belle and Fishhook may surprise us with a little one, but I bet they are another week or two out.

Day One

New to this blogging, so this may take a bit to get accustom to. The blog will mostly be about the bulls and cows with a little sprinkle of Phil and Tenneile. That's our life after all, it truly is all about the bulls.

A friend, Jami, suggested I try it out. And I agree it would be nice to re-visit old blogs and remember all that stuff you forgot. And to share with friends, especially with calving just around the corner.

13 cows this year, 12 were bred. One,Dilly, (a heifer by Catfish) is open. Phil and I always thought it would be easier to gauge your cow if all calves of the same year were by the same sire. That way more emphasis was put on Mom. Well, this year we went a little off from that.


So 13 cows and 7 possible sires!!! WOW, let me explain

We AI'd 6 cows to Houdini and cleaned them up with Dr. Seuss

A friend, Carl, wanted to use Skunk on his cows, so we said yes as long as we could put a pair out with him.

Another friend, Meyer, wanted to use Sagebrush on his heifers, so we said yes as long as we could put a heifer out with him.

And that same friend wanted to use Noodles, so again we said yes, as long as we could put a pair out with him.

So that still leaves us 13 cows and only 5 possible sires. and here is when it gets interesting...

One night as we just sat down to dinner and a movie...we looked out the window to what we expected would be cows grazing...no such luck. The bulls broke down the fence and was getting to know cow 73 a little better then I had hoped. Catfish and Wasabi definetly tried and could have bred her...and Dr. Seuss might have just done the job before they broke down the fence.

So 13 cows 7 sires, thankfully their is DNA test to figure this out...would hate to have to take them to Springer for the "whose my baby's daddy" show.