A busy day at the ranch

We had quite a busy afternoon here today.  We had nearly 20 calves to tag.  I have previously written about that. We need to weigh each of the calves that we will register with the American Hereford Association.  Sometimes we do this in the barn on the scale in there; however, today it was easier to use this portable scale.  We hang it in a tree.  It has a place for the calf and we can read the weight and record it in our calving book. 

The calf only "hangs" there for a few seconds while we get the reading then someone puts him back down and he can run to mom.

Here are some of the pairs that we worked with today.  You can see we have Herefords (red with white face) and black with white face.  There are also some all black ones and a few tan colored calves.

After all of that work, Lori (white) & Pandora(black) enjoyed going for a little swim.  Pandora loves the water.  Lori just wants to be popular!!  They had a muskrat with them for a while but it quickly swam away.  Then, it was back home to do chores for the evening.

Linking to:  Farm Photo Friday and Farmgirl Friday blog hop

Farm Safety 4 Just Kids

Yesterday there was a wonderful program at our local school.  The program, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, is held every other year there.  There were six schools represented by their 5th & 6th graders.  I have volunteered for the past 4 or 5 years to take photos at this event and enjoy it every time.  The students & volunteers all get a new t-shirt so we know who is supposed to be with our group. 

The students go to various stations in small groups of about 10.  This year the main stations taught Safety about:  Electricity, Chemicals, Hunting, Tractors & equipment, Fire, ATV, Lawn Mowers, Drugs, various Disabilities, AED/CPR, Communication/Alchol Prevention, and First Aid.  There were also breaks in their rotations where they could learn about: Auger & Pinch Point Safety, Reaction Times, Animal safety, Safety around Grain Bins & trailers, Water Safety, Bicycle Safety, and more.  At the end of the day, members of the local FFA gave a demonstration about the dangers of loaders & PTOs.

The kids got to try some of the gear used by electric linemen.  They were also given a demonstration showing various electrical dangers around your home/farm.

This young lady put on the fire gear.  Kids were also shown some of the tools of the firemen's trade by getting a tour of a fire truck.

Two 2 liter bottles of pop (soda) were placed under the loader.  The loader was slowly lowered and the bottles blew up. 

Here is the aftermath, an excellant visual of the dangers of being around the loader.  During the tour, the FFA volunteers showed the students pinch points on the tractor and baler and educated them about the dangers on and around farm machinery.

I was introduced to Sven.  He was the "Demo Dummy" for the PTO demonstration.  Sven is the one in the middle!!  This was a safety suit filled with shredded paper.

Sven was tied (standing up) to the PTO shaft to represent what could happen if a person gets their clothes caught.  Here is just the first couple of rotations after the PTO was put in gear.

This is Sven during the demo.  He sure goes all out to educate the students, doesn't he?

This is Sven all wrapped around the PTO shaft.  Notice they had taken the guards off of the baler and tractor.  This helped to emphasis the importantance of them. 

Shared on Farm Photo Friday

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

What we do after a calf is born - - Part 2

Besides recording the birth in our calving book, we need to take identify the calf.
(You are welcome to click on any photo to see it larger and with better detail.)

First we have to catch the calf.  One person holds the calf and another person does all of the identification work on the animal.

Each purebred calf gets a tattoo in each year.  First Mark applies green liquid tattoo ink to the inside of each ear. See Mom sticking her nose into our business?  Lucky for us this cow was nice.  Sometimes they are crabby and mean to the humans.

One ear gets 'RH' and the other ear gets a number.  The tattoo number matches the number the animal will have in adulthood.  We also tattoo each female (heifer) calf that we might keep to join our herd. 

After he had given the tattoo, he applies a second coat of the tattoo ink.

Every calf gets an ear tag. On this tag is a letter (for the year 2012 the letter is 'Z') and number (# of cow/mom) and sometimes the name of the bull (dad).  We use different color ear tags to represent different owners.  (Sorry it is sideways, I don't know why it loaded this way.)

We also give two vaccination shots at birth. 

If it is a bull calf but we don't intend to sell him that way, we castrate him.  We do this with a rubber castration band.  The steer (castrated bull) will gain weight better than a bull. 

When we are done Mom gets to make sure her baby is just fine.

Shared with:  Farmgirl Friday blog hop , Farm Photo Friday

What we do after a calf is born -- Part One

We are calving again. We have a calving book to record all of our data. In the book, I enter the ear tag number of each cow (mom), calf and the name of the bull (daddy). Also in the this book is the date of birth and gender & color of the calf.  I enter all of this information into computer software (CHAPS).  All data on our herd is recorded with the head office of CHAPS in Dickinson, ND.  They do a number of calculations for each producer and send us a nice printed book with all of our records on each animal for the year.   The birth and weight information is summited to American Hereford Association if the calf is a purebred.  

Night Checks

I just have to write about my night checks.  This year we have been blessed with AWESOME weather here in north central NoDak.  After the past three tough winters, we think we deserve this!!  The average high temperature in March here is about 35* F.  This week that is about the overnight low. 

When we are calving we like to check on the cows about every 4 hours.  Sometimes it is more if we see something calving or looking like she might be.  During the evening, night and early morning hours we have assigned times by assigned people.  My check is around 3:30 AM.  I  just got in from checking.  Nothing was calving but it takes a few minutes to unwind so I thought I'd share about this experience.  

Tonight, when I was walking around the heifer pen (those about to have their first calf), I thought, "I sure am lucky.  Few others have this opportunity - nor would they want it!"  There is no wind, the temp is right around freezing, and there are a zillion stars in the sky.   Ahhh, peace & quiet.  Oh, and there is the sound of a few cows crunching on some hay, geese flying over and a yearling bull wondering why someone is walking around with a bright light in the middle of the night.  (Plus the sound of an overweight gal mucking her way up the hill!!)  My favorite thing on this shift is to lean against a big ol' post, listening to the babbling brook that goes through our cattle yard and look at the stars - or, if I'm really lucky, the northern lights.  This spring the brook only babbled for a couple days.  Now the snow is gone, so the water quit running.   Yes, many people think I am crazy because I don't mind this shift but tonight, and others like this, make it all worthwhile.

Now if I would have posted a report about night checks last winter it would have been a whole different story.  Moving around in 3 foot of snow is not easy for anyone, although the calf sled pulls better on snow than mud.  But even with all that snow, a nice quiet night like this, with no wind and fairly comfortable temperatures, it is wonderful to be a rancher.