Cow/Calf Update

Burger & Steak our first little calves last year

Well, there is no update.

We've now elapsed all possibility of the cows having been pregnant and we are definitely not getting calves this year.

Because I didn't see them come into heat at all this year, I fear we've done something wrong more then the bull not doing his job, but I don't know.

Cows are going off to camp at the end of the month to spend all summer with the bull and we'll have to buy some calves to bring back with them now.

Welcome to real farming.

Ahhhhhh!

Run! It's a big scary bull eating out of the bucket in my hands...
Tried really hard not to make Steak "friendly" because he's still a bull and could be dangerous, but his shorthorn nature shines through pretty well!

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!!). 

Wolves

Getting used to hearing me call them in

The foxes are being well behaved and are actually leaving our chickens quite well enough alone, although I'm not confident that is going to continue. However, there is now a much larger problem roaming around the area. The wolves are back.

Fewd!? OKAY!

I love wildlife, I really do, and to hear that we've got wolves back in this area is both very happy news because the local ecology is doing very well if it can support a top predator like a pack of wolves. From the farmer side of things, it's very very bad news. We're expecting calves on the ground very soon and this is a big problem.

For now the cows are being brought in at night, which is a whole lot more work for me, but they're adapting to it quite a lot better then I thought they would. It helps that I broke my rule (I know, after bragging just a few weeks ago they were on hay alone...) and bought them some beef feed as a treat for being well behaved and coming in.

All set up for cows,
and hopefully calves!

Actually I've taken a step up from that and went and got them some beat pulp today since those calves are coming so soon and Gertie is still a little underweight from feeding Steak & being pregnant (hopefully!).

Didn't want to go back out this morning

So we're actively looking for a solution in the form of a livestock guardian. Something that will protect all the animals on the farm from any predator that wanted to come by. We will keep bringing the cows in until after the calves have been born and are well on their way, but hopefully this is something we'll have to worry about a lot less next year.

It would also be really nice for the goats & sheep to be allowed to come in & out of the barn instead of being locked it at night over the summer.

Waiting Game

Tummies are getting awfully round.
For anyone curious our pregnant (and Gertie, who is half limo, here nursing still until last week!) have been fed nothing but good quality hay all winter. Haven't bought beef feed since last August. One of the benefits of old style cattle I guess.

In the last few days I've been building up their area with old hay from the loft, in expectation of some new little moos in the next month. We want them to have a nice, clean & dry place to have. I've been waiting very impatiently.

They were pasture bred so we don't have an accurate date they were bred, nor have we had the vet out since we don't have a chute.

However, the weather is predicted for a huge snow storm on Friday.

Steak

Is in BIG trouble.

We weaned him for 3-4 weeks and he's still drinking off mom, anyone want year old milk feed veal then?

We've got him separated again now which means a whole lot of bellowing going on in the yard, but he'll steal her new calves milk so he needed to be separated right away.

We'll have to send him off sooner then planed, although we haven't really figured out what that's going to be. For now he's enjoying the sacrifice paddock, the goats & sheep are locked in the barn (can't let them out without also letting steak out), and I'm hauling water buckets to the animals in the big paddock.

For once I'm not going to complain about this crazy weather, I'm glad we've had a thaw!

The cows should be due any time from a few weeks ago to a few weeks from now, so we're waiting, impatiently!

Got another talking-too

Every time I think we're doing okay we get a visit (or in this case a quick call) from our favourite farmer, and the both of us get a butt-kicking over something!

And every time we do I'm appreciative of the advice, feel like we're learning and thankful to have someone that'll kick our butts before we do something really stupid! After all, the man has been farming his entire life, we've been doing it for 4 months.

Those things are darn heavy!

This time it was the hay bales, we turned all ours up so the animals wouldn't be able to push them around very easily. WRONG! Turning them over on their side means the rain will run off them instead of soaking into them. Which I wish I had learned before the last week of rain! I spent about 2 hours trying to push them over, and got 6 or 7 on their sides, the others are soaked.

One of the things I probably should have asked before we bought the cows, were things along the lines of "what are they?" "what are they bred too?" "how old are they?" etc. ... We didn't do any of those things! But we trust the Farmer quite a bit, and knew he was going to pick out some nice ones for us (he was our landlord for 3 years). Plus the Wiggins stock is pretty well known for being great cows.

Gertie (LimoXSH) & Steak

So I learned Burger & Steak are pure shorthorn, which is great. What is even more exciting is that Hilda & Gertie are bred back pure shorthorn for next year! Which means if Hilda gives us a cow-calf we're definitely keeping it! Also the Farmer has a shorthorn bull for next year too so we're going to organize a little visit for Hilda & Gertie (and Hilda & Gertie Jrs) back to the farm next spring. Give our pastures a little rest (which is great because I was worried about no-inner fences & keeping the cows off the grass early when it's wet), and get them preggers again for another year.

Hilda & Burger
(shorthorn)

Burger is going in quite soon, Nov 7th or 8th with some of the Farmer's cows. Which means we're weaning them next week, probably on the 6th. That means I've got to get my butt moving to get some hay out into the sacrifice paddock, and I'd like to start feeding the little guys some treats in there. Then we'll lock Burger & Steak in that little paddock and Hilda & Gertie out. At least that is the plan.

Luckily the Farmer also as an RFID tag for Burger for us, which is great because we didn't know a thing about that until 2 weeks ago when he told us...

Sometimes we're so lost & clueless it's funny even to us. Everyone's gotta start learning somewhere, right?

How much is that Moo in the window?

Wondering how much it's going to cost you to add more livestock to your operation?

You can start with local online classifieds, but generally private sellers charge a lot more for their animals. If you want to go the auction route, it can be a little more "exciting", you should bring someone along or educate yourself about how to determine age and health of the animals you're interested in. However, the payoff is that the animals are generally far less expensive.

You can get online auction reports, check you local auction websites. Of course there is no harm in just going to have a look for a few minutes without the intention of buying anything (just leave your pocketbook at home...)

Ontario Cattlemens Association has links to a few reports.
Ontario Sheep also does.

For small scale operations, try looking in "off" seasons or when sales seem low. Keep an eye on what is going on in the market, it can save you hundreds of dollars. Lots of people try to get rid of "extra" animals before winter so they don't have to feed them.

Alien Abduction?

www.bizarrocomics.com

We have a cow mystery.

Yesterday Gertie got out on the lawn in front of the barn. All the gates were closed, there are no holes in the fences. She just appeared.


Maybe aliens really do pick up cows?

Either that or she grew opposable thumbs and let herself out through the barn somehow. Just glad it was only one cow, and she broke out to eat the chicken food (what do they put in that stuff?? Even the dogs eat it!!) so it was very easy to get her back into the paddock.

Cow & Flies

I. Hate. Flies.

Part of having cows, is that they seem to manufacture flies! I've never seen as many flies in a horse stable (although there usually are a few) as you find around the cows. No matter how many cows you have on what acreage, the flies just love them.

So part of living around cows is that unless you can get in through the walls, you bring flies in with you (even worse when you've got kids and pets).

One thing I discovered this year are these window fly traps. They work disgustingly well, far better then the hanging fly strips.

We don't have a single fly in our barn because the animals are out as much as possible and we've got the chickens in there to eat any maggots that do grow. We do still have quite a few out in the field, if I could I would keep 100 chickens out there with the animals to keep eating all the maggots. They do an amazing job.

Last summer/early fall is my most aggravating time for flies, they are slow and stupid and annoying and hard to catch; so I've armed the kids with fly swatters and hopefully they'll actually get a few in between whacking each other.

The Rare and Elusive... Cow Nest

Okay it's not rare, or elusive, it's just a waste of hay.
They barely ate anything out of the bale, it's just been spread around for the calves to sleep in and the horses to roll in; but we don't mind.

Thanks to the rain we've had lately the pasture it making a real come-back. If we could just get things together to get a darn bush-hog out in the field, there is tons of food, it's just hiding under long unpalatable grass.

Bribery? /The results of poor pasture management

 There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes! So the pastures still haven't been divided, which means the large animals are just roaming about, trampling the grass, and wasting most of it. Instead, we should have been shifting them between a few small paddocks so they eat up everything that is in one paddock, while the others rest, re-growing the grass.

To keep the cows in & happy we've had to go to round-bales. Which sucks during the summer, but I'd rather pay for that, then pay for cow damage if they got out again.

They've actually eaten very little of it since Saturday. I'm sore I didn't have my camera with me, but the little guys were laying on all the hay yesterday afternoon, lazily throwing it over their backs and making quite the little nest!

A hay-feeder would have prevented most of the waste, but it's part of our management plan to allow the calves to sleep in the old hay during the winter. It keeps them nice and warm!  Plus the livestock would all much prefer fresh grass anyway. At least this way, instead of rotting in a feeder where they can't reach the bottom, the hay will stay out out in the air & sun and hopefully not mold any more.

We're getting the hay for ridiculously cheap at $20/round bale w delivery (no I'm not giving out any names/numbers! My hay guy, MINE!) but unfortunately they were stored outside in the open, so they are already mouldy and unsuitable for the horses.

So the question becomes, can we get under here cleared out enough, stabilised enough, and weather-proof enough that we could get a whole load of round bales delivered when they second cut comes in.

It would probably save us a few $$$ but I doubt they are going to add any more daylight any time soon, so we'll see.

It's cooler in here

LOVE these big barn fans,
we want to install another
one on the horse side

The cow section of the barn is finally open for business!

The mangers are nailed to the stalls & doors were added for easy access. We still need to remove some of the old dairy equipment, and fix the concrete for the feed trough. 

Steak

The hardest part is getting them back out again!

The barn stays about 5C cooler then outside (because of all the stone), and there are less flies.

Gertie

Cows would much rather stand around where it is cool and there are less bugs and they don't have to move to get food. 

Hilda

But we'd be going through a whole lot of hay if we let them do that. 

Burger

Anybody want some cows?

On Wednesday we celebrated the goats finally having grown large enough to not be able to escape the sac. paddock any more with this:
 

Much easier to get them back in this time, only took us about 20 minutes with the ATV. Pushed through the same spot they had before, apparently the electric isn't working properly. We've got to get this fixed properly before the farmer has a conniption! (Thankfully he was very nice about the first time)

By the time we got them back in I was ready to sell them all off tomorrow and get some Dexter instead...
(smaller hopefully meaning easier to keep in...)

  

It was even less funny when they did it again Thursday afternoon... Had a chance to meet our lovely neighbours 2 houses down, and was invited on their trails, very excited! (Didn't mention we'd already been down them once looking for the cows last time they got out)

Think we finally have the fence fixed so they can't get out again, but then again we thought that on Wednesday as well...

Skinny on the cows.

Our farmer popped by the other day for a hello, so I got the full story on the cows.

Hilda is a shorthorn x Limousin cross, which is why she's bigger & lighter in colour. She's about 7 years old.

Gertie is a pure-bred shorthorn, around 6 years and has probably been milked before. Gotta say, I'm still a little too scared of those big hooves to try that one! 

We're thinking if we get a nice cow calf out of one of our girls that we want to keep, I may try milking her, if we can keep her friendly. The only thing with a milking cow, is that once you start milking you really can't stop & you've got to be around and available every single day to do it. Or find a farm-sitter who wants to go above and beyond! 

Their morning nap spot against the barn

If we do decide to keep a calf one year we'll have to buy some more cows off our farmer. We're selling to friends/family at $4/lb and our second steer was spoken for before he even arrived! The farmer does have some more beef to sell still, you can contact me if you're local & hungry. I don't think his are going in until the fall, but grass-finished, no hormone & they are yummy! 

Roll Call!

We've been here for just over a month now.

A very exciting, very exhausting month! 

The farm dogs

Madison (doberman x border collie) and Kayla (smooth coated collie)

5 & 4 1/2 and amazing puppies!

The beautiful and talented Iberian Warmblood Meg (AndalusianX) 

4 Shorthorn cows (2 mamas, 2 bull-babies) 

3 Muskovy ducklings

1 Mystery "Barn Rooster"

(he comes and goes as he pleases, no one is sure what he is)

6 Cuckoo Maran Chicks

(Were supposed to be Barred Plymouth rock!)

4 Narragansett Turkey

Lenny the Dominique rooster. 

(Also supposed to a BPR!)

Henny (Deleware) and her mystery-chick eggs.

Penny (a real Barred Plymouth Rock) laying hen 

The gorgeous & talented Miss Kitty.

She predicts the weather!

(not kidding, she was a stray who found us & she always seems to know when it's going to rain and heads inside for cover)

Peaches.

Not the brightest bulb in the box... but we love her :)

Oscar, a.k.a. Big Fat Oscar. 

Peaches' son, so we've had him since he was born, and he is the laziest, sweetest kitty that ever grew so large!

2 Saanen Goats 

(no names still!) 

And of course there is Billy!

We're finished expanding the farm for just right now, although if I can get things lined up, there may be just one more 4 hooved creature coming to stay. 

Rule #2: Always leave the fencer on!

Hubby and I had a simultaneous exhaustion-inspired brain fart related to the amount of fence that was down behind the pig pen and whether or not the cows would go through it Wednesday night... 

These would be my neighbour's fields...
They not only went to the back of this field, but over
to the right the same distance,
then back even further,
then into the wooded trails! 

They did.

After an hour & a half of chasing the cattle up & down the neighbours field (had them at our gate 3 times and they refused to go in!) I had to call hubby home from work, and we both proceeded to chase them for another hour. I think hubby reminds the cows of their former owner, so they responded as soon as he showed up, and started coming back home after I'd lost them in the woods. Then one of the calves took off on his own, so hubby had to go chasing after him... It was quite the morning!!

Things would have been MUCH easier if my former leaser hadn't taken off with my bridle, I could have just saddled-up Meg and gone off on a cattle round-up! Of course I'm not quite sure what I would have done with the kids... (as it was they sat patiently in the car yelling "GO HOME COWS!"). But Meg would have trampled a minimum amount of the crops & allowed me to get in front and beside the cattle to get them going in the right direction.

As it was, the dogs "helped" but they aren't trained to herd, so mostly the just got the cows going forward, frequently in the wrong direction.

Heading off to get the cows.
The dogs thought this was
GREAT fun!

This little Adventure lead to an entire afternoon of fence-repair, fixing the hole and we strung the whole back of the big paddock as well. Now it's ready to be divided so we can rotate all the animals and hopefully no one will ever get out again.

The cows founds some LOVELY trails behind our neighbour's property; but I think I'll wait to apologize for all the crops they trampled before asking to ride the pony back there!

Back home where they should be.
The farmer warned us they'd probably
go off looking for the herd, and they
definitely did!

We've been trying to come up with some names for the momma cows, "Hilda" (because they headed for the hills...) seemed like a good choice after 2 hours of cow chasing before my morning coffee...