Mama's and babes

Yup the cows and calves still need each other.  Even though we had some rain they still play outside but stop often for a snack.  The calves get a little grain and eat some hay but the milk is where most of their energy comes from

Mom

Kittie Parade

The other day I was looking for pictures to take and the kitties were following me. Fun to see their parade.  They must practise this.

Hannah

Clipping time

Even though we showed our big heifers already we didn't body clip them yet. We clip the long winter hairs off before they fall out.  This makes it easier to brush them later. We point the clipper down so we don't cut the hair really short just to ge the long hairs.

Hannah

Take time to pet

Time to Pet.

Some day some of these calves are going to be shown.  So when they are little we tie them up so they are calmer when they are older.  Some start out really jumpy, but after a while they do not mind us that much.  Tying them up now makes it less stressfull for us and them when they are older.  They can be hard to catch, but  they are really fun to pet.

Hannah

Duckies are here

They are here! Dad picked them up today. Yesterday Dad and I made a new pen for them. Sure hope we made it good enough to keep the cats out. The kitties were pretty interested in them when we put them in the pen.

We had to dip all of their beaks into the water so they know where the water is. Hope they keep warm tonite. We put a light in the pen to help keep them warm. As soon as my mother can figure out how to get the photos up I will put a picture of them. They look a lot like last years.

Hannah

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