Counting Down the Days

There are many count downs in life....count down to the new year, count down to the day we graduate....count down to our wedding day.... and the list is endless.  It seems we have a tendency to count down to all of those days and moments in our lives that mean something to us.  On our farm it is no different we have days and moments we look forward to and some that we dread and some that are bitter sweet.  This next week is going to be 1 of those bitter sweet count downs as we will ship our steers to the feedlot on Thursday morning.  This past weekend we sorted and picked out which ones that were going to begin the next step in their life and move 1 step closer to proving the next high quality protein source for someone in the world.  We also picked out the heifers that will stay at the farm and become the future baby raisers. 
Thursday will be a one of those bittersweet days.  We will be happy that we did our job to provide the feedlot with the best set of feeding steers that we could and that we gave the these calves the best care that they deserved.  Not to mention we will get paid so that we can continue to provide for the next generation of calves that will be born in a few short months.  Even though we will be happy that they have left our farm we will still be sad to see them go.  Most of them look alike solid black calf with a white ear tag.  Not much differentiates them from each other but there are a few that do have nick-names and a few that stand out for an experience we had with them and a few that have a personality that sticks out but there are some that just blend in.  Sometimes it is good to blend in, those are the calves that didn't get sick, didn't get out of the pen, didn't have to have help being born or beginning their lives.  So it is good to blend in.  Here are some pictures that tell the stories of some our calves lives.




#354 Warming up and Drying in the garage off after a little assistance being born.  I gave him a nice clean rug to lay on but as you can see he prefered the slick concrete and cardboard.



#G11 warming up under the heater in the blazer.  He was born on a very brisk morning and Mom was a little confused on which calf was her's.  After spending a little 1 on 1 time



#G11 a few days after getting to ride in the blazer. 

90% of our calves are solid black but the other 10% of them will have some white on their face.  #6 has a very identifiable dot on his forehead.  It almost looked like a nike swoosh!

#009 doing what she does best being my shadow.  She didn't make sorting very easy as the only way to get her to go out the right gate was for me to walk out and let her follow!  She will definately add a great dispostion to our herd!