Photo Challenge – Morning – Day Three

On August 8, 2016 By colleengbergIn Agriculture, Domestic Animals, Photo Challenges5 Comments

I elected to use the Photo Challenge – Morning more as a “Morning Story” for Day three. Today…we check pastures and for sure that means we treat cows and calves. We have come across some incidents of foot rot more so this very moist year and so we need to get going early in the morning!!!

So, my job is to corral the animals that hubby brings in on horseback. I wait by the corrals in the very abundant grass and weed growth pacing back and forth to capture these critters…..this groundwork can get wet!!! I need to aspire to the horseback position!

We have fairly rudimentary corrals out in the pasture for this type of thing but it’s certainly a step-up from just roping a sick animal and tying her to a tree. Our old chute system from the home corrals has retired to the north pasture.

The cows come in nice and peaceful

But the bulls have to show up in “wrestle-mode”. Always has to be drama with these fellas .

However
I got ’em corralled

Our morning story. In our pasture, almost an hour away, we rounded up and treated three cows and one calf and loaded up two rascally bulls for home all before noon.

Photo Challenge – Numbers

On June 10, 2016 By colleengbergIn Agriculture, Photo ChallengesLeave a comment

So fitting that this week’s photo challenge should be Numbers

Seems that’s all I’ve been dealing with this past week as we gather, sort, record, sort again, load and take our herd to their separate pastures for the summer from our home base.

We are meticulous about keeping record of every cow and where she is and what bull she will be with by recording their precious Numbers.

Off The Grid

On June 3, 2016June 3, 2016 By colleengbergIn AgricultureLeave a comment

Missed blogging on my designated Thursday yesterday so I was thinking I would post a short explanation today instead. Looks like I’ll be off the grid for the next few days as we gather, sort, vaccinate, brand, and then sort again all our cows and calves as we prepare to send them out to pasture for the summer.
But, then again, I might just post some scenes of the whole process if it doesn’t get too crazy. After all, I do have this fancy mobile app to blog by!
But maybe too ambitious of a thought….it’s taken me two hours now to get at this short entry and we’re not even chasing cows yet!
The scene is peaceful for now as hubby and I work to prepare all the little details before the “rodeo”!

Calving Capers 15

On May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 By colleengbergIn Agriculture, Calving CapersLeave a comment

Hard to believe but for all intents and purposes our “calving season/calving capers” has wound down to this handful of faithful cows due any day now. We don’t need to check on them every two hours as had been the case during the beginning weeks of our adventures. We are content now to let these girls do it on their own. After all, they’ve done so successfully for many years now.

I did however have a little short-lived excitement this week when hubby brought in Dilbert from the field. From the slough actually, which is where he had been lying in. He couldn’t stand up and his mother was certainly not able to assist.

Dilbert has been “slow” from the start. He is “different”. He has small eyes and big dumbo-elephant-like ears and it took quite awhile before he took to naturally feeding from his momma. We’re not sure what set him back on this day to be stuck in the slough but whatever the reason, I was ready with the bottle and nursette and ultimately to be his caregiver. There hasn’t been a year yet that I haven’t had some little character to fuss over.

But this episode turned out to be short-lived. I guess it was my few hours of TLC that encouraged him there was hope to carry on. By the end of the day he was standing on his own and able to navigate, albeit unsteadily, around the pen. By morning, I was out of a job and he was happily reunited with his momma…health returned.

Thankfully, hubby agrees that we should keep Dilbert and his mom close to home this year instead of the pasture. After all, he’s a little bit slow and he just might need me yet!

My Project

On December 31, 2015January 6, 2016 By colleengbergIn Agriculture1 Comment

Back in the archives of this blog is a story titled “Gentle Assist” (April 14,2015). It’s about our blind calf from cow #8U and how we gently assisted him to find his mom to suckle in his early days of existence. Well the “little” fella has thrived over the past eight months. Living close to home and to us to keep a watchful eye has provided him a fairly pampered life. Turns out he and his mom did quite well finding each other in the fields of our home. He would sniff her out quite well while they lived in a pen together and as he grew older we found he could roam around our pastures and she would always seek him out for his daily feed.
But the day came to wean him and now he’s ” my project”. Every single year, it seems, I get a “project” amongst our calves. A “project” means a cripple or disabled critter of some sort or another. So 8U’s calf (known as Ugo) now resides in his very own pen which used to be home for the kids’ 4-H calves, complete with shelter, straw bedding, hay and chop hand-delivered throughout the day and two visits from me with water from the pail. As soon as he feels my hand by his mouth he knows the pail of water is next. Weaning hasn’t been stressful for him at all. Being disabled for this little hombre has turned into a delightful life experience.
I figure this special treatment is the least I can do for him before he ends up in our freezer. Because, sadly, that’s where he’s bound. His condition will not favour us in the sales ring but he’ll certainly help us out in the grocery department.

Room With a View

On April 13, 2015April 13, 2015 By colleengbergIn Uncategorized2 Comments

During the frenetically-paced days of calving, my kitchen becomes my Room with a View. Just to the east of our yard is a small field where we have our cows living close-by. So here I can check on the girls while I do the dishes, prepare our rare meals, or even the more rare activity of baking. This site also is my head-quarters for record-keeping and tag-making. I so love my easterly view.

Catching Up

On March 27, 2015March 27, 2015 By colleengbergIn Uncategorized2 Comments

I missed my Thursday Blogging activity last week and my husband actually is on my case to get at it tonight before another week passes by. My reaction? Hey, he really does care what I’m doing here every Thursday maybe?

So I have two story-lines to relate which will help in the catching-up theme I’ve adopted for today.

1. Very happy….no, make that ecstatic to report that my one and only cow, Puddin’ delivered a beautiful, healthy heifer calf just a couple days ago. She came during a spring snowstorm and so I’m quite willing to accept the name my husband immediately called her….Snowflake.I love her white under-belly and white legs….she’s going to be a showy gal.

2. I’m working on another story which I hope turns out as happy as the above cow-tale. Year after year in the spring we have the same pair of Canada geese that return to the ranch to nest and try, try, try to build themselves a family. Yet year after year they fail in some way either because of their own bad decisions on where they nest or circumstances beyond their control like coyotes and hawks finding their eggs or the young’ns before they get to water. Suffice it to say they just have no luck. So we thought we would attempt to steer them towards a more successful nesting environment and hubby Peter planted two bales in the very middle of a nice clean slough in our field to the south.

We figure these are perfectly enticing as a nice safe option for our gander and his mate. They’ve been flying around the property scoouting things out over the past few days. We’re just crossing our fingers that “the Mrs” will approve and settle in soon.

I’m thinking if I were a goose, this would look pretty idyllic! I get into researching the behavior of Canada geese each year about this time. Apparently, they do like elevated sites to nest in which would be around water. As I say…..idyllic!

Blogging Mobile-Style

On February 26, 2015February 26, 2015 By colleengbergIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Today for my Thursday Blogging episode, thought I’d try an entry from my phone since loading the app a few weeks ago. So I’m sitting on a bale watching my crazy dog run around me and climb even higher bales than me as we wait for the cows to finish feeding on chop so we can move them to the processed hay bales in the field for the rest of their feeding day. Minus 30 wind chill going on here so taking a break now to put the gloves back on.
Note to self….don’t do mobile blogging in a minus 30 wind chill.