Weigh & Tag Day

Hello again.

Today we weighed all the calves that have been born so far.  We used the orange scale that you see in the picture with Hannah and the calf we named Flo.  It is important to weigh the calves so we know how much they grow.  If a cow has lots of milk for the calf then it will grow faster. 

We also put tags in their ears so we know which calf is which.  If a calf is sick we need to bring in the cow and the calf - so we need to know which calf belongs to which cow.  Also on the tag we put the name of the sire (or father) of the calf.  The calves also get a tatoo just in side the ear.  In one ear we put the number just in case the calf loses it tag.  The other ear we put the PMRB which is our farm tatoo that is registered with the Red Angus Association of America.

See me with Flo one of the twins that we feed a bottle.  We put her name on the front and number on the back of the tag.  Dad uses a dremel with these special tags - that way the number doesn't wear away - its ground in.

See you later
Isaac

Calves again 2012

Yahoo.  We have our first calves.  We have had 2 sets of twins.  They are really cute.  The heifer that Samantha showed last year was the first set - they both were heifers.  We are giving the bottle to one of them since she is a first time momma.  She may be little but drinks really fast.  Hannah and I named her Flo, even though Samantha didn't like the name.  Flo seems like a good name for her.  See her picture?  We had to move her to a better pen and I led her to the pen by letting her suck on my finger.

Bye

Isaac

Hello.  Like Isaac said we had our first cattle show.  I showed Nora otherwise known as 014.  She is my sisters heifer but she let me show her for now.  Nora did really well. She was Champion Breeding Heifer at this show.  I was excited to do that well with her even though this is a smaller show.  Just like Isaac, I competed in showmanship.  This is where the judge chooses the people that he thinks that does the best job presenting their animals.  I won the Intermediate Showman award.  I was really excited to be chosen.  Our sister Samantha was champion senior showman.

We have so much more to tell you  - so we will try to add a bunch more soon. 

Hannah

Tis the Season!

Hello again friends.  We have been pretty busy this spring with my sister's graduation, my brother's confirmation, ball games and track meets. 

But we also have started tying up the big heifers and this weekend we had our first show.  It was exciting, because now I am in real 4-H and can show my heifer by myself.  Here I am with my heifer 097.  She is one year old and should be pregnant.  She behaved really good in the show ring.  There were 7 heifers in her class.  The judge put 097 and I right in the middle of the class.  Later they judged us on showmanship and I got reserve champion showman in the junior class.  I was really happy to do so well.  Hannah showed too but she will have to tell you how she did.

Isaac

Time for CAT baths!

Somehow my brother thought that the nice weather meant it was time to give the cats a bath.  They kept running from him but he kept chasing.  Don't worry the wash towel he use really didn't get the cats very wet - but Isaac seemed to have fun. I just had to take some pictures of him trying to give the cats a bath.
Hannah

Gates

Opening and closing gates and watching to make sure cows DON'T get out is one of my jobs at our farm.  It is a lot easier watching a gate than getting them back in where they are supposed to be. 

Hannah 

Libby gets a bottle

We are almost done feeding a bottle to Libby. Before we feed Libby though we feed Roza(photo above - the mom of the twin boys) as they share part of a pen.  This is nice for Libby because she has friends nearby. See how big her bottle is? She is drinking her bottle faster now but she gets more milk - so it takes just as long to feed her. She gets excited when she sees the bottle.  When she drinks she swings her tail, but not as fast as a dog.