May
2009
Guess we were all on the same page today, when after dinner, we decided to go see about our cow. We hadn’t been over to Clyde and Amber’s since before the weekend. Where does the time go?
So, we piled into the Avalanche for a quick visit.
Clyde met us at the corral as he was just finishing his chores. Now, around here, corral is pronounced “crayall”, and chore is a verb as in “we’ll be over after we chore”.
He proudly announced that our cow is bred. Said he was going to load her and the calf up last Saturday, but when he went to bring the trailer around, she was suddenly “in season”. The bull wasted no time taking care of business.
The bull is a beautiful Beefmaster/Black Angus cross. He’s so laid back, even the granddaughter has been in the pen running the curry comb across his back.
It sounds like we’ll be getting her and the calf home later this week. In the meantime, we’ll load up six bales of hay to help pay a little for her keep and the breeding.
Guess we’ll also be trailering the sheep over to Flip’s this year where he has his big shearing trailer set up. It makes it much easier on everyone to have the sheep sheared under more professional conditions.
In surveying our hay inventory, it appears we’ll just make it to the second cutting. Here are pics of the hay we have left.
Sheep hay
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May
2009
The great cattle drive… and chase
May 9th, 2009 at 07:28 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Family Cow, HorsesTwo horses, two sometimes cowboys, a cow and calf, and a pickup truck made this whole 1l2 mile process look like we were herding cats.
Our ranch horse, Neche, wasn’t really wanting to work today. This is the first time she’s been asked to actually work, as in help herd a couple of cows. She’s spooky and sometimes prefers to avoid us. We think she was a hard broke horse, that never got much love and attention.
Cindy and I spent a couple hours working her from the ground in the round pen this morning. That included a good brushing, and playing “follow the pellet bucket”, while we waited for our neighbor. read the rest of the story
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Oct
2008
You ain’t no “Algernon”…
October 16th, 2008 at 01:04 pm by Shari Thomas in SheepLast Thursday evening we went over to Clyde’s to get the ram we’re using this year. As you may recall, we took Algernon to auction after he got too agressive and dangerous. Too bad, too, as he was a real good-looking guy. His fleece wasn’t quite what I wanted, but he sure sired some nice lambs.
Oh well, we’re saving at least a half a stack of hay by only “borrowing” a ram for breeding. There’s really no use for them beyond one month out of the year.
So begins the saga…
Clyde herded his flock into his little shelter and roped the ram, letting “his girls” go back to pasture. This was when we go our first look at him. Now, he’s supposed to be a Polypay from the neighboring farm where they run a flock of over 2000 ewes.
As the story goes, they just bought this boy.
Once roped, I held the rope (we knew that roll bar would be good for something) while Cindy and Clyde lifted the ram into the pickup. Estimated weight is about 250 lbs, nearly 100 lbs less than “Algernon”. Don’t worry, Clyde and his grandson, Kixx, rode in the back with him as we took off for our farm.
From the looks of him, he’s at least four years old and is more likely a cross of Delaine Merino and Dorset (which are two of the foundation breeds of Polypay). His feet really need trimming, but that’s not on our adjenda. As for his “cojones”, they’re adequate, but nothing to write home about.
A short ride to our place, and we turned him loose.
Now, you normally see a “whole lot of grinning” from the ram when he meets a new flock of ewes. Ours took one look at him and ran away! And, would you believe?… He merely ambled after them? We were out there for nearly 30 minutes watching the girls run, and him follow slowly after them.
Clyde was laughing at us because we insist on using a “breeding harness”. That’s that strap system on the ram with a “marking crayon”. It works like this… When the ram mounts the ewe, the crayon rubs off on her fleece. That way we can get an idea if he’s at least shown enough interest to attempt a breeding. The more (and darker) marks, the more likely a successful breeding.
So far, after a full week, he’s bred two and messed with another one. Bev has given him ’til the end of the month to get his job done. After all, this is a “working farm” and the animals are expected to keep up their end of the bargain.
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