Tag: ranching

Photo Challenge – Morning – Day Three

On 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!!!

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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!

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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.

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The cows come in nice and peaceful

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

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However
I got ’em corralled

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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.

Countrified Blessings-Cheerful Labor

On By colleengbergIn Agriculture, Countrified Blessings1 Comment

I feel so blessed to have a step-daughter, who happens to be a brilliant teacher [subsequently has the whole summer free] and best of all is ready, willing, cheerful and able to rake hay.

She has happily taken over this task for me this haying season and is having the time of her life [I think] working alongside her dad in the fields. She’s on the rake a few swaths ahead of him while he’s working the baler.

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Couldn’t be a more countrified blessing than your children wanting to work on the farm. Here she is negotiating with her dad to keep going instead of his suggestion for her to “call it a day”. Yes, we are blessed!

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Photo Challenge – Numbers

On 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.

 

 

Return To Thursday

On By colleengbergIn Agriculture1 Comment

I haven’t come up with a weekly feature to follow Calving Capers just yet but I do always plan to enter something to my blog, at minimum, every Thursday as I had originally set out to do.

As I write tonight I am in a state of happiness and gratitude as the rain has been coming down for the past few hours. Puddles are starting to form and the dust is good and gone at last. Or at least long enough to let the cows and calves clear their windpipes of the nasty stuff for a few days.  I hope and pray we are about to depart from the drought that plagued us through winter and now into our spring!

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Another highlight today was a little treat I have come to enjoy whenever I get the opportunity. From time to time I get to gather eggs from the chicken coop at my brother-in-law’s place. I even get to keep said eggs! I don’t imagine this would be so “romantic” a lifestyle that I would want to have my own laying hens…I can see there is a significant chore load that accompanies these happy little cluckers.

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Calving Capers 15

On 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.

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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.

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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!

 

 

 

Calving Capers 14

On By colleengbergIn Agriculture, Calving CapersLeave a comment

Calving itself has it’s own level of stressors and concerns but I find that the “harder” part of calving and raising cattle is keeping the little critters healthy, thriving and ultimately alive! 

This little gal [ears drooping, lethargic, barely able to keep up to mom] needed to be brought closer to home for treatment. Yes, we care for our sick animals with proper medicinal intervention and close observation throughout. To my mind, this is humane treatment of the animals in our care who depend on us for their well-being. I would much rather provide effective antibiotic medicine and see our little calves return to their energetic selves within a few days than have them needlessly suffering and dying in misery in the fields.

 

 

 

Countrified Blessings-Introduction

On By colleengbergIn Agriculture, Countrified Blessings3 Comments

There really is nothing finer than living in the country. Living on a ranch in the country is even finer! In celebration of the rural life and all it’s uniqueness and specialness, I’ll post another feature called “Countrified Blessings” from time to time. Nothing regular, just when something catches my attention and that I feel the urge to share with you all on the blog.

Simple stuff like….

The purely exquisite luxury of tucking oneself into bed at night after a long hard day  of relentless chores between freshly washed sheets that have hung out on an outdoor clothesline warming and drying under a glorious sun complete with fresh air breezes.