Farm Foto Friday

It has been another busy week at the farm.  We are getting toward the end of calving season.  WOOHOO!!  We had a little over 80% of the calves born in the first 30 days, now we are down to a few of the stragglers.  As much as I love calving time, it is always a nice feeling to get done with calving.  Our last heifer finally decided to let her calf enter the world on Sat, even better feeling having all of the 1st calf heifers done for the year.  Mark started getting the fields prep'ed to plant corn.  We did get some much needed rain last weekend and a little more yesterday.  Which put a hold on field work for a few days.  The next couple of weeks are going to be a lot of crazy and stressful.  We will be working calves, moving the pairs to summer grass, fixing fence before we haul the pairs, finish getting fields ready to plant, planting corn, and when we get done with that it will be time to start getting the haying equipment ready for summer haying.
 

The last heifer calved right before another thunder storm came through.  We hurried and got them in the barn before we got some Nickle and Quarter sized hail!  We put the twins in the other half of the barn so they could stay dry too!! 



Got some new hunters for the farm Monday!!  5 of them!!! 




Our older Simmental Bull gave us another
Red calf!!  I love when recessive traits apear!!




WOOHOO we got some wet stuff
falling from the sky!!!!!!




One of our heifers sharing some supper with
someone elses calf!!  Her calf is the big
one at her side.  The thief snuck in from behind!!!



Farm Foto Friday

He wasn't sure if he was suppose to eat the hay or wear it

The 2nd set of twins (far right and far left) hanging out
with their friend 041 (the calf that was born C-section)



After some much needed rain it didn't take this one long
to figure out the it is lots of fun to play in the mud!!




Doens't take them long to figure out that the hay is
pretty tasty!! 



The 1st set of twins!  The closer 1 was tasting out the
hay and distillers grain the cows were eating!

Health Care For Bulls

If I had to speculate that if a survey was conducted asking reproductive age (you make your own assumption on their actual age) men if they had a general health exam prior to reproducing the answer would sound something like "uummm well, uuummm, no".  The vast majority of them would probably say they had not been looked at by a health professional since their last sports physical so that they could play high school football.  All of our cattle have a top rate Health Care Plan as all of them have at least 1 annual health exam performed by our veterinarian and yes that includes the boys!!!  We take our bulls to the vet every year prior to the breeding season to have them examined to make sure that they are fit to reproduce.  The vet makes sure that their body weight is appropriate for their age and mature stature, makes sure that all of their reproductive organs are healthy, checks their feet and legs for general soundness and checks their semen for an appropriate count of healthy sperm cells.  While we have them in the chute we also give them their annual vaccination booster shots and apply a medicine that will kill internal and external parasites that may be present.  They either pass or fail this exam if they pass they get another year hanging out at our farm except for the 75 days that they are expected to earn their keep.  If they fail they have a 1 way ticket to the sale and will be used to make lean ground beef that everyone loves to eat.  A couple of weeks ago we took all our bulls to the vet for their yearly check up.  This included the new bull we just purchased even though he was checked prior to when we purchased him.  Over time bulls will loose their ability to breed cows either physically, mentally or they can also get to big and can injure the cows. 

Checking to make sure our animals are healthy is very important because an un-healthy bull will not produce calves.  Each bull is responsible for producing approximately 16-17% of our calves annually.  If 1 bull fails to get his portion of the cows bred we loose about 24 calves in 1 year.  That is an economic failure we simply can not afford to happen.  It is in our best interest both ethically and economically to always keep the health of our cattle a top priority.  Even if they only have to work about 2.5 months a year and spend the rest of the year lounging in the pasture together.

Farm Foto Friday

WooHoo!!  Friday is finally here again and I can share some more pictures of the happenings this week on the farm.  Calving continues and as of right now we are just 2 calves away from reaching our goal of being 75% done within the first 21 days.  We have till Monday to get those 2 calves so right now it looks pretty promising that we will reach our goal for the year.  We are also very close to being done calving the heifers there is just 1 left.  We expected 007 to be last as she is last at everything, she does things at her own pace and can not be rushed so why wouldn't she hold out and make us wait for her to calve!!  The only thing she is first at is she is ALWAYS first to arive at the bunk at feeding time!!



32 and 519 (the only red calf) hanging out. 




Supper time for the cows and play time for the calves




3 is about a week old and thinks he is brave enough to check out
the 4-wheeler




The twins are growing fast!!




This is 1 half of the 2nd set of twins that arrived this week.
His brother is tagged the same exept there is "B" above
the number!!




The white face calf is Marks favorite so far this year!! 




007 (AKA "little red") is still very pregnant and the only red cow we have!! 
She did get lots of examples watching
all the other heifers calve so she should know what to do by now. 



Another busy weekend

This time of year is always busy, stressful, and I seem to always feel like my life is resembling the song "I'm in a hurry"!!  As of Friday afternoon this past weekend was shaping up to be much less chaotic than the previous weekend.  I made arrangements with a different vet to get 1 of our bulls re-tested (I got a whole post about pre-breeding exams), Mark had to do chores at his bosses so should be done fairly early Sat.  We brought the bull up to the yard and put in the barn over night so he was easy to get loaded the next morning and he gave us zero problems walking from the pasture, by a pasture full of cows and calves and he even navigated the yard and didn't walk through my garden!!  Sat morning got the bottle calves fed, the bull loaded, and since it all went pretty smooth I had time to go check cows for new calves with Mark before I left.  Checked the heifers and 1 was just starting to go into labor, we tagged a few new calves and checked the heifer on our way out 1 last time.  It was going to be a few hours before Mark or I could get back to check the heifer so I called the neighbor to stop by in an hour and check on her.  This is where the calm start to the weekend ends and the crazy takes over!!!!  I was just leaving the vet clinic with a clean bill of health on the bull when the neighbor called and said the heifer had not calved yet.  Mark and I both hurried home as soon as possible, which happened to be the exact same time....  We put the heifer in the chute to see if everything felt normal.  I reached in and nothing felt normal and after a little more searching I finally found the cervix, verified that it was dilated enough to give birth, and I even found the calf.  The problem was the cervix was not in the right spot and the calf while in the proper birthing position was not going to make it out without tearing the heifer.  We called the vet and in 10 minutes I was on my way to their clinic.  With in minutes within arriving at the clinic the heifer was in their "calving" chute and was being prep'd for surgery.  Another 10-15 minutes later there was a new calf on the floor of the clinic.  Turns out the heifer's uterus was twisted and was she not going to be able to give birth normally and the only chance the calf and heifer had to survive was a C-section.  We got the heifer all stiched back up, gave her some medicine for the pain and to help fight any potential infection and I was on my way home with both of them.  

A little hair cut and the area numbed and sterilized
before the incision is made.  This is very similar
to C-Section in humans (except for spinal block) the
heifer felt no pain during the procedure.


There are many small details that happen during the birth of a calf that ignites the cow/heifers instinct to be motherly to their new young.  If that is disrupted the cow may reject their new calf.  Not to mention the beginning few hours of a calf's life will dictate how well he will survive the rest of his life.  They need colostrum within hours of birth to give them the strength to live and antibodies to build a strong immune system.  As soon as we got the new family home we put them in the barn.  The heifer was as expected exhausted so while she rested we took over her job for a while to make sure the calf would survive and remain healthy.  We rubbed him dry with some straw and nearly clean (leaving some of the fluids on him will help her accept him), made him a bottle of colostrum, (and another dose a couple hours later), and put him in a safe corner where the heifer could see him but not hurt him as she stood back up again later.  By evening the calf was walking around and searching for dinner.  The heifer was starting to except him but wasn't too sure about letting him nurse.  We put her back in the chute and let the calf nurse were we could keep her from kicking him and where we could help him learn where the food comes from.  By morning the heifer was starting to love him more and was letting him nurse!!  We have kept them close to the barn for the past few days so we could keep a close eye on her to make sure she was back to normal and was not fighting an infection and to make sure the calf was able to get enough to eat. 


A few days post surgery.  She is healing well and
the baby is doing great!!

I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the process but unlike in a human hospital when you go to the vet clinic everyone is involved.  I was on tail and calf duty.  Tail Duty = keep the tail from swishing in the vet's face or into the incision (could cause infection).  Calf Duty = once the calf was out make sure he/she is breathing, get him/her sat up and keep him/her in a safe spot out of the way while the vet sews the heifer back up all while still holding the tail!!!  So my hands were a little full for more pictures....

Take a virtual tour of a Real Life Dairy Farm

Click this link for a virtual Dairy Farm Tour!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJRy82i8e5Q&feature=email

This link was passed onto me from my sister and I thought it was too good not to share.  This dairy farm is doing some pretty amazing and great PR for agriculture by allowing the public to visit the farm and see what really happens on a large scale dairy farm!!!  I personally loved the birthing barn!!  What a way great way to connect consumers to their food and let them see some of the wonderful things we see every day.

Here is the link to the America's Heartland website.  They have some pretty awesome video's and blog on modern farming in the US!!!!

http://www.americasheartland.org/

Farm Foto Friday

Trying to get Brave enough to check out the 4-Wheeler



Supper Time for the Pairs




When mom eats it is un-supervised play time.  These 3 finally stood still
long enough I could get a picture




1 of our new Heifers!!  She is very photogenic!!




Enjoy'n some Distillers Grain and Hay!