Sunny Saturday

I went for a walk on Saturday to enjoy the beautiful spring-like weather we were having.  I snapped a couple of photos to share with you.

All three dogs walked with me.  These two belong to Christopher & Paige.  They are named Odie (white one) and Eli.  This stick was so big it took both dogs to carry it I guess!  Our dog, Rufus, was a bit camera shy. 

 

The cattle are enjoying the nice day.  We are lucky to have this coulee to feed them in as it provides a lot of protection from the wind.

Andy's Week 32/52: Here a Chick ,There a Chick

No, Andy is NOT out looking for a girlfriend!!  Our son got himself some chicks.  Those of you who know me know my opinion about owning chickens!  After helping take care of hundreds of them while growing up, I don't care to ever own another one!  Lucky for me these are up at the feedlot (about 1/2 mile from the house).

They are kind of cute though.  These will grow up to lay eggs.  The 'kids' didn't order the meat variety birds because they claim they don't know how to butcher them.  I foresee lessons in their future as I have butchered many chickens.  Homegrown birds make the best eating.

 



Snack Time

Getting a drink

Andy checking out the chicks

Andy finally got the chance to go out to the barn to see them.  I don't think he was too sure about those noisy, stinky little peepers.  He stayed a safe distance away!

(Sorry about the dirty floor.  I know I should have waited until Christopher put down fresh newspapers (or coupons as was the case here!), but I was not going to wait around that long.)

Week 9/52: Andy & the blizzard

We have been warned about an incoming storm so had been doing things to prepare.  We tucked a young momma and her twin calves into the barn, put extra straw into the barns so there is a nice, comfy spot for the cattle to lay and tried to mentally prepare for trudging through deep, blowing snow.  (Okay, my guys did the first two things and I did the last!)

The storm didn't come quite as soon as expected but the weather folks were correct about the storm a-comin'.  By the time I went out to see if there were any new calves at 3 AM it was snowing and starting to blow.  When I went out again at 6, it was really blowing.  I had sent a text to Christopher and told him to stay home (he lives in our little nearby town).  He usually is out here at 5 or 6 AM to check cattle but today I asked that he stay put at least until daylight.  He & Paige came out later to tend to their horses and help with cattle chores.  The visibility actually kept getting worse.  Sometimes we can see quite a distance, but the ground drifting is terrible making the roads bad.  Plus, it is very hard to see the edges of the roads when everything is white and moving.  Brett had to help Christopher & Paige get "unstuck" a couple of times after they decided they had better get back home.  After Brett was back home, he said, "I watched for the fences to find the road."  He made sure he could see the fence in either ditch but even that was tricky sometimes.  Anyway, everybody got to their respective destinations safely.

Andy went to see the blizzard and didn't even get the screen door open when he found this.

Guess that is what happens then the wind is blowing straight at the door.  Lucky for us the inside door is tight!

I went to the other door and could hardly get the screen door open.  Here are a couple of photos from that door (I wasn't going out into this mess unless I had to). 



















 

The visibility in the yard isn't too bad right now.  Heck, we've had blizzards so bad that we couldn't see the barn. 

Week 8/52: Andy makes friends

If you have been following my blog you know that calving has begun at NoDak Herefords.  You also know that I have been participating in a 52 Week Project where each week I submit a photo with Raggedy Andy in it.  This week Andy finally visited the barn.  He found out that the straw (hay that is on the floor of the pen to help keep it warm) looks like his hair!! 

He made two new friends today. 

This calf was especially snuggly.

(Because we sell bulls, I was told to tell you that this calf has a brother for sale.  Give us a call if you are interested.)

This calf was born just a few hours before this photo was taken. 

Andy tried to ride this bull until he realized he is too flexible and could not sit up!  (Andy is too flexible, not the bull!)

I will be sharing this with Farm Photo Friday

COLD

We are having quite a cold snap here in northern Dakota.  Last night the overnight low was something near minus 35 degrees.  Today's high was about minus 5 degrees.  Tonight it could be about minus 20.  Now these are air temps, any bit of wind makes the wind chill (feels like temp) worse.  Last night they said the wind chill was about minus 55-60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Since we are calving now we need to be walking through the cattle herd occasionally.  When it is this cold we are checking every two hours.  What are we checking for?  Well, we are looking for newborn calves or females showing signs of labor.  If there is a fresh calf we need to get the cow/calf pair into the barn and put the calf in a specially built box with a heater so we can warm the little "guy" up.  If they are too cold they could freeze off part or all of their ears or tail or even have damage to their hooves/feet  OR  they could die.  If a female is showing signs of labor then we try to get her into the barn so she has her calf inside (saving moving a calf and it is warmer).  If anything is calving (in labor), then we check on them more frequently until they have their calf.

During the average temps, we will check every 3-4 hours and I take the middle of the night check (about 3 AM).  With this weather, we are taking turns checking.  Tonight (rather tomorrow AM) I will be checking at 3 & 5.  I usually take the night shift because it is easier for me to get back to sleep AND because the men are busy with other chores during the day while I can (hopefully) catch a nap.

I have written about my night checks before in case you are interested in my experience/thoughts from a previous year.

The Fotos by Friends group that I am in has a photo topic of  'Cold' this week.  I thought I would share a couple of the photos that I took that fit the topic.

Here are a bunch of horses.  Some of them have moved here from southern USA so they are not yet accustomed to the cold.  Paige will put a coat on them to help keep them warm.  The ones without coats have lived in the north country forever so they are already toughened up!!

I like the turtle shell coat on this one!  It makes me smile every time I see it.  You can see we have been getting snow during this cold snap too as it has settled onto the backs of the horses.

Branding 2012

We have been busy working cattle since the crop got planted.  We have over 200 cows so have about that many calves to work.  We give various vaccinations and brand all of them.  The vaccinations are done for the same reason humans have them.  The branding is for ranch identification.  We have this brand registered with the State of North Dakota and any cattle with this brand in our registered location all belong to us.  Each calf was identified at birth with the ear tag. 

Most of the time when you see photos of branding you see lots of horses & cowboys.  Not at our place.  We use 4-wheeler and motorcycles to chase cows (as well as a pickup or Jeep or whatever else is handy!).  Our method requires fewer workers and no open fire.  We need electricity and the four of us.

I have a few photos to share how we brand & vaccinate.

  

The calves are sorted from the cows.  It is much easier to work with the calves with out the big cattle in the way.

Brett's job was to bring one calf at a time down the alley way.  Pandora (the dog) and Sammie (another dog) like to think they are helping him by running alongside!

Brett then pushed the calf into the "calf table".  This is a very helpful tool for us.  Christopher would catch the head in the headgate and gently snug the calf onto the table.  Then he & Mark would tip the table.

 Once the calf is laying down it is much easier to do the necessary work.  The calf is laying on a solid piece of steel so he/she is well supported.  The bars can be moved so they are out of the way to do any necessary work.

Mark & Christopher gave the shots.  We give shots in the neck area since there is the least damage done to any future cuts of meat.  By doing this our animals are BQA certified.  Some of the shots go just under the skin and others go into the muscle.

  

This is our branding iron.  We have an electric iron.  So the part that you see glowing red is the part that actually does the work.  Our brand is a 7 lazy Y.  Mark sets it in this bucket with a brick to keep from starting fires.  These photos show us branding inside of our big barn.  Some of the calves are branded out in the pasture where we set up a big pen to gather them and still use the calf table.  We then use a generator to provide electricity for this iron.



The above two photos show Mark doing the branding.  First the hair burns off (man does that stink) then the hide is "tanned" with the hot iron. 

From the time the animal gets into the "calf table" to the time it is released is about 2 minutes.

Here is our brand on one of the calves from this day's work.  Our 7 lazy Y on the left rib area of the calf.  This brand will "grow" as the animal grows.  After they get their vaccinations and brand they are released and return to Mom for comforting.

It is a hard day's work even for the dogs!  (This is Lori.)  We humans come in exhausted as well.  It is better now that we do the calves in smaller groups as they go to or are at each of their summer pastures. 

If the cattle are not at the proper pasture we haul them out in our stock trailer.  We make sure every cow in the trailer has her calf in there with her.  If they are not paired up, we could have a cow running all over the countryside looking for her calf.  It is worse then the calf is running around as they are much more difficult to catch!  Our bulls have also been turned out to the pastures so we should start getting new calves around the 20th of March, 2013.

Do you have any questions?  I will do my best to help answer them.

A few other animals on the Ranch

We have had such awesome weather here in north central NoDak.  Our average high temp this time of year is around 36*F and we have been in the mid-70's!!  Around midnight we had a thunder storm!  In March, in NoDak?  Yes!!  Then when I checked cows around 3:30 AM, the stars were out bright and the temp was 50.  It is so nice to have all of this great weather.

We had a set of twins born a few days ago.  We brought them up to the barn so we could make sure they were both eating and doing okay - and they are.  One was a bit weak, so part way home the men loaded her up in the little pickup and I gave her a ride to the barn. 

This calf is a Charolais cross.  In this case, the mother is a black white-face cow (Hereford/Angus cross).  She was bred by a Charolais bull.  We will sell this calf in mid-January.  She will make awesome steaks for someone!

Meet Mavis.

Our son and his girlfriend own this mule.  She hangs out with their horses.  Mavis likes to be petted and will follow us around when possible.  She is supposedly saddle broke, but so far no one here has dared to find out!!  I was hoping she would be in the pasture with the cows and new calves.  They say mules will help keep the coyotes away and we have way too many coyotes around here.  Coyotes will kill & eat a young calf so they are a concern.

Fridays Fences ~ Photo Meme

A man & his dog(s)

This is my first entry in Fridays Fences.  We had been working cattle on this sunshiny day.  Mark had to take the time to pet Lori.  She stood up on the fence to get closer!  She just LOVES attention.  Hiding in between Mark & Lori is Pandora. 

We have been having abnormally warm temps here in north central NoDak and dealing with muck in the corrals - but we are grateful it is not knee-deep like so many years!!

Linking to:  Fridays Fences ~ # 25

Winter scenes of the ranch

NoDak Herefords - headquarters

Looking toward the yard.  You can see the barn, our shop and some grain bins.  Also, one of the hay bale locations (to the left).  There are some of our cattle in the corrals too.  You can see two of my guys doing chores too - one opening gates and one driving the tractor.  Oops, it looks like a couple of cows are out in the hay too.  Dang!  I took this today while it was snowing and blowing.

This would be some of our cattle.  We roll out the large bale of hay (actually a few of them) and the cattle just "dig in"!  Here you see that we have more than just Hereford cattle (which are red & white).  We also have black and black/white face  (Angus cross).   These are the moms-to-be.  The black cattle are bred Charolais (white cattle).  Their calves will be whitish.  The Herefords are either bred Hereford or Angus.  If they are bred Angus it is likely they will have a black/white face calf.  This was also taken today.   The white blob you see is a snow flake!

If you click on either of these photos you will be able to see it in a larger size.

Photo challenge: A Little Bit of My World

Fruit of our Labor, or...

So maybe it is not the fruit of OUR labor, rather the fruit of 0505's labor!! 

She had a nice calf to start off our crazy morning.  Our youngest son is helping a neighbor work his cattle.  Our eldest son and his girlfriend went to Billings for a horse sale this weekend (sure hope they don't get stormed in there) so we had a couple of extra duties assigned to us.  The phone call has been starting something like this, "Hello, how is my most favorite mom?"  Any mother knows there is trouble or a favor to be asked!  So, at 9 AM, Mark heads downtown to complete the sale of one of their horses.  He comes home, calls me, "Can you come help pull a calf?".  So, I grab the chain and handles and out I go.  We got the momma into the barn to help her deliver.  Her calf was coming backwards.  Now this is often a problem, but the calf popped right out (with the help of a calf puller) alive and ready to go!  We did not have to do much prompting to get the little guy to breath (a common problem with backwards calves).  I checked on them about an hour later and all is well.  In the meantime, I help with the rest of feeding chores.  But, just wait, another of those, "How is my favorite Mom?" calls!!  Now there is someone coming to buy a mule that the "lovebirds" own.  So, Mark takes care of that while I check in on his Mom.  That is finally all done, it is noon, and Mark still has to head out to feed cows.  Oops, he checked on the baby in the photo.  We need to help him.  His momma has some large teets so we will help the calf get started on them.  (getting milk (colostrum) in the first few hours is very important for the life/health of the calf).  Now Mark can go feed cows!

Oh, and did I mention it is cold along with a nasty wind?  Yes, a storm is brewing.  We are under a winter storm warning - forecasting 30 mph and about 6 inches of snow.  Even our cat, Cole, is looking for a spot in the barn!

I am linking to Farmchick's Farm Photo Friday.