Today proved to be a slow but exhausting day. George and I took our time allotting the cows their forage this morning and gave everyone a good look over. This was my first time looking carefully at the cattle. Overall the herd is in good condition, but some heifers in the bunch look scrawny. These heifers were bred, accidentally, last summer and calved in August—--stray bull issue… After getting a good look at the bunch, we headed back to the house to meet with Julie about some Holistic financial planning.
The spring winds are moving in and this morning was relatively calm, but about 18 degrees. I got in trouble this morning because I mention that it was not very “windy” this morning. George scolded me and reminded me not to say the “W-word” out loud, again. This reminds me of going camping and not speaking the “R-word” (Rain). Out here they would love for me to talk about rain.
After spending some of the early morning on crunching numbers and learning about Holistic financial planning, we took a break and weaned some of the heifer’s calves. Luckily, the herd was heading in towards the corral where their water is currently, which made the sorting easier. George and I took our time gathering the mom and calf pairs. Once the calves were separated, I got a chance to work their squeeze shoot. George uses nose-rings to wean his calves instead of separating his moms and calves from each other permanently. There were only nine calves weaned, so it would also be pointless to find them their own pasture. Eventually this group and some dry cows will be moved off ranch and over to another piece of property.
Overall, it was a good experience to work in the corral before working the entire herd in the facility.
For lunch today, we cooked some of the ranches beef, which was delicious. We spent the rest of the afternoon crunching numbers…and lost many brain cells along the way.
Here is Wally (sp?), one of the house cats,
I am now going to go towards bed and read about the West’s aridity.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment