Category: Farming

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Needing a Little Fly Protection

heifer calf with horse flies on her nose, needing a little fly protection

Look at that lovely little girl! She’s so friendly and inquisitive! But if you look closely, you will see two big, nasty horse flies that were driving her crazy! I should have videoed her. She wanted to know what I was doing and wanted to get as close to me as she could. But she was so distracted by the two horse flies that wanted to land on her face. The flies didn’t try to land on her back or sides. She would shake her head and chase them off and they would fly and land right back on her nose. She was definitely needing a little fly protection!

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Green Pastures

cattle standing waiting for green pastures

This time of year is what husband calls our “growing season.” We have winter rye grass growing in several pastures and the cattle are all separated in different groups. Some are on the rye grass full time. Those cattle will eat and grow all winter long. But most of the cattle groups are let into the winter pastures for a few hours everyday. The cattle stand and wait for the single strand of hot wire to be let down and then they walk, bolt, kick and play their way into the green pastures.

Long about lunch time, if husband hasn’t already let the cattle in, I can hear the moos and bellowing inside the house. They begin to call mid morning; they are waiting for the farmer to come open the hot wire gap and allow them to graze. They are hungry!

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Chasing “New”

chasing new heifers

It’s breeding season on the farm and we are in full swing! We have been super busy with cattle breeding. It’s always fun to plan for the next year’s calf crop, but it is also a little stressful! Should we or shouldn’t? That is always the question. Who to breed who to? What bull should we use? It also seems that we, along with every other cattle breeder, are always chasing new bulls. Who’s the next “great” bull? Who’s new?

We put a lot of time and homework into choosing the “right” bull to breed to each cow. It takes a lot of planning and we try to have a wide variety. It does always seem like we find ourselves chasing new bulls, new pedigrees and trying to make something great happen. This year we had a couple of different options and some of those made us stop and really think. One of the items we like to look at is progeny. What do past calves of the animal look like? Are there a lot of calves registered to a particular bull? If there aren’t, it makes you wonder why not?

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