Steak Gets his Ear Pierced

My poor spoiled boy had a rough day

All cattle across Canada need to have an RFID tag in their ear before they can be transported to slaughter, this is so that the plant can monitor exactly where the cattle came from in case of a contagion.

It's easier to do the calves when they're younger... we didn't. They're quite expensive because they start in packs of 25 and it just wasn't top of our list, learned our lesson! (on the plus side we now have tags for the next 10 years unless we buy more cattle...)

We had the farmer we bought the cows from come by and give us a hand and things actually went very smoothly. My husband even got his hands dirty with a little real farm work!

Steak decided down was the direction to go
making the tag really easy for the newbie

First I got Steak back in his stall (he's been out in the sacrifice paddock) which was pretty easy, I just rang the dinner bell. Then we got his halter on, and by "we" I mean hubs & I stayed on the safe side of the walls while the farmer roped steak!

I don't want to suggest Gertie has an emotional
response on being able to touch Steak again,
she is just a very good moo-momma

With a quickly little ear pierce he was back on his feet none the worse for wear.

We're pushing his date back two months to catch a ride with the farmers calves, and I'll explain more about our grand plans for the summer later. 

This went on for quite awhile if you can
see how wet Steak is

Steak has been separated for 4 weeks, and as we've moved him into beet pulp in the evening as well I'm confident he's finally weaned off mom so this morning I let him back in with the other cows.

This was after conferring with the farmer that there was little chance of him injuring any possible calves*, as long as he doesn't go searching for milk again we'll all get along just fine.

*Next year I am WRITING THINGS DOWN STRAIGHT FROM THE FARMER!!! Our cows should be calving between 1 week - 4 weeks from NOW. So more restless nights for me waiting & worrying but I was so way off with their possible due dates... SO off (been waiting since January!!).