it is very cool. love reading the stories, both high and low, all the work that goes into keeping these huge animals! it must be very rewarding and they look like such happy cows.
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it is very cool. love reading the stories, both high and low, all the work that goes into keeping these huge animals! it must be very rewarding and they look like such happy cows.
Thanks kyla, it is very interesting. While my husband and I are still kind of learning, we already know a lot more than we did two years ago. I will tell you who is very happy, and its this bull we "rent." He basically goes from pasture to pasture on rental terms doing nothing but what bulls do best. You would think he would get tired but he doesn't.
These little guys look great Jacklyn and they should take after dad. Really sorry to read about you losing one. That hurts. :(
Pat
Got some updated pictures of our 3 calves. They are still going strong and we haven't weaned them from their mommas yet, still got a couple months to go before doing that.
Attachment 110613
Attachment 110614
Attachment 110615 this is the female we may end up keeping to become a herd momma
Attachment 110616
and this last picture is a comparison of how big the calves are compared to my miniature horses now. they have quickly outgrown Tater and Tot my 32" miniature horses.
They look great Jacklyn, pretty and look like their dad. :)
Pat
Just an update here: Last month we sold LeRoy and Walter. It was our first time taking calves to the livestock sell and our two steers did very well for their weight class. Together they weighed 1055 pounds and were just shy of 8 months old. Walter was actually 6.5 months old so to weigh roughly 500lbs soon after weaning is quite impressive for our first time mommas. It was hard to get rid of the two, remember this was my first time selling calves but they sold as a pair and went to a farmer not a pack house so I am happy with that. Perhaps he will grow them up to be show steer.
So we have the heifer calf left from our 2017 babies. We decided to keep her and grow her up to be a herd momma since she is such a beauty. Another update is that my husband and I just purchased a second location to grow our herd. We found and closed Friday on a 44 acre plot that was once a cattle farm but has been sitting vacant for 12 years. We have lots of fence fixing, tree cutting and brush hauling to get done by spring 2018 but neither of us are afraid of hard work, and we enjoy working outside. The truth is that our current location only has 14 acres of pasture grazing available and we are at 10 cows, so we are getting close to our limit of one grown cow per acre (this is a rule we subscribe to, not an industry standard or anything.) Plus the 8 momma cows we have should all be pregnant now and come next spring when they calve, we will be plum out of space here. We knew we needed a new site, and when this property came on the market, just 6.6 miles down the road from us and even more secluded country pastures, we knew we had to make an offer. And we were lucky and got it. Here are some pictures of Rebel (the heifer we kept) and our cows in general as well as the pond on our new property.
Attachment 112723 rebel the 2017 spring calf at 6 months old
Attachment 112724 a very pregnant shorthorn heifer, we're hoping to get a blue roan out of her
Attachment 112725 speaking of fish, here is a crappy we pulled out of our new pond after only about 4 casts
Attachment 112726 our new pond on our new property
Congrats on that beautiful land buy, and how great to have that pond! Your animals are really good looking. Let us know when the calf is born?
Barb
Nice catch both on the property and fish. The new property and cattle look great. :)
Pat
Congratulations on both. Looks like some nice land that you have purchased, even that crappy looks in condition. Looking forward to seeing your heard grow an prospour.
here is a quick update. Rebel is growing and growing, she is a really good little calf and I look forward to watching her grow up and raising her own calves within a couple years. here is a before and after of her from april to November's growth.
Attachment 113506Attachment 113507
and here are our two new heifers we bought, with rebel in the middle. These two new heifers are sisters from another mother to rebel. These are daughters of our bull hot rod, but from another herd that hot rod visits when he's not at our house.....step sisters I guess. You cant tell it very much, but they are 5 months older than rebel.
Attachment 113508
Congrats on the new additions Jacklyn. Rebel is growing into a fine heifer and they all look great together. Are there any QT procedures when adding new stock to an existing herd?
Pat
good question Pat, yes there are procedures to follow, they are not as stringent as fish though. The heifers we bought, were vaccinated already and dewormed from the farmer we bought them from. The only precautions we took were to let the new ones meet our herd through a fence for a couple days before intermingling. Now if they weren't already vaccinated and dewormed we would have had to do that and keep them separate for a week before introducing them.