Heifers Homecoming...

Settlement on the other farm happened a few weeks ago, but we were able to keep the dozen or so bred heifers over there until we ran out of feed.  I'd say Jim planned pretty well...last fall he had to guestimate how much silage we would need until late Feb/early March, and it worked out just right!  We brought them home on Saturday morning.

These three youngin's have no idea how their world is going to change.  They're used to having the run of the outside pen...

It took about fifteen minutes to load the ten heifers and young bull into the the trailer, and another five minutes to get them home...

(those barn cleaners are getting a long needed rest after being used daily for many, many years)

The outside pen is once again full of animals, back home where they "grew up"...

They don't care much where they are, just so there's food, water and shelter available!

Once the meadow greens up this spring, we'll let them out to graze to their heart's content.  As they spring up, they'll then be sold at a dairy sale.  Anyone need some nice first calf heifers?

Happy Cows...

After what seemed like a winter that wouldn't go away, we aren't the only ones who are ready for spring!

The milking cows here at home have been out on pasture several days a week for about two weeks now.  The first morning we put them out, they kicked up their heels with glee! Seriously!

The past few nights have been warm enough that they're out over night as well. The downside is...tying them in their stalls in the early morning is a zoo!  Until they learn the routine, the young heifers are...let's just say they're  very "heifer like", and leave it at that!

Enough words..

Let's get to the pictures of the other farm, where we put the dry cows and heifers into the meadow last week.

First,  we had to get ready...

Jim wanted to give them a small section of the meadow for starters.  The Allis Chalmers D-17 has fence wire on a reel, so he brought it into the meadow...

He dropped fence posts, and I pounded them in.  Gloves are a necessity when handling fiberglass fence posts!

He wrapped the wire around the posts..

And then we tied bale rope on the wire to make it more visible...

Of course, in the middle of it all, I had to just sit down in the lush, green grass and marvel at how spring is actually here!  No matter how dreary or cold the winter, spring ALWAYS comes!

 And of course,  the cows were happy too!

Bullies...

Yesterday we moved some heifer calves around, which can sometimes be quite a circus! Thankfully they cooperated pretty well.

However...picture some "middle schoolers" that are used to relative freedom, and try putting them into a room with kids they've never met before.  A pecking order is going to be established pretty quickly!

I know it's not a great quality picture, with the evening sun blazing in the west windows, but I don't think it's too hard to figure out who the newbies are!  The two calves standing sideways blocking the feed trough have been together alone in the pen for a while now, and they are not about to let the new kids get first pickings!  They stood that way for a very long time...

Fortunately it doesn't usually take too long for them to tolerate each other.

Bullies!

Waiting For Breakfast...

There are so many creatures around here depending on us for their breakfasts...

These two heifers in the corner hutch saw me coming.  They're anticipating hay, grain and silage...

The chickens get excited when I fill their water tub, knowing that something else is coming soon...

Murphy saw me toss some stale bagels into the chicken pen yesterday, and she's been keeping vigil...thinking that somehow, sometime, she'll get one. Shy of digging under the fence...which she tried...grrrrr...she's going to be waiting a long time...

The puppies have been staying in the warm barn overnight, and they can hardly contain themselves when they see someone in the morning. Anticipation of freedom and breakfast and attention has them so excited...

How do you anticipate your breakfast?

Out To Pasture...

Out to pasture...

That phrase could mean a number of different things...but in this case, it means exactly what it says.

This week we put the cows out to pasture for the first time this spring, and they were thrilled!  I think they can actually smell spring in the air.  They can feel the warmer air, see more activity going on outside the barn windows, and maybe they even notice that we've put away our winter attire.  (except we did have to pull it out again for a few days.  Brrrr...)  Could they be that smart?  Well...

We put the cows out for a few hours here at home on Monday, and we put the heifers and dry cows at the other farm out this afternoon.  It looks inviting, doesn't it?

On a side note...the other farm is along a very busy road, which is being widened. The state workers who are doing the roadwork took down a big section of that nice white PVC fence that runs around the meadow.  They replaced it with temporary fencing, and we think they did a nice job.  However, there's something reassuring about a solid fence, when it comes to cows.  Hopefully they respect this temporary fence as much as they did the old one!  When the roadwork is done, the PVC fence will be replaced...

Anyway...Jim decided to section off the meadow for now.  The grass in the northern part of the meadow is higher than the rest of the meadow, so we made a temporary fence this morning.  I put in the fiberglass posts while he fed the heifers, and then he ran the wire....

The animals will have this large section to graze in for now, and after a while we'll give them the entire meadow...

They know something's up...

Here's just a short clip of them as Jim opens the wire to the barn yard...

We watched them for awhile to make sure that they knew where their boundaries were.  The temporary fence wasn't super visible, so we tied bright blue baler twine to each section so that it would catch their eye.  It's always good if one of them gets a little too close and gets shocked, just so they know it's a hot wire!  None of them did today though, and when we left they all seemed to be behaving.  There were a few that kicked up their heels and ran in circles, but for the most part they were too busy eating to be rambunctious...

If you click on the picture, I think you'll be able to see the bright blue twine that we tied to the wire...

What a life.  If I were a cow I'd think I was in heaven!
(Linking up a little late to Good Fences!)  Thanks TexWisGirl, for hosting!

Winter Fence Building...

There are a lot of things I wouldn't want to be doing this time of year, and I was reminded again of one of them today...

The last section of old meadow fence at the "other farm" is being replaced, and this is the week it was put on the schedule.  Brrrr...it's a cold week to have to be working outside all day!

Jim penned the heifers and dry cows inside the barn, where they can stay out of trouble, and watch the activity if they so choose...

The north side of the barn yard will be replaced with wooden fence and a gate.  The post holes are all dug, and the fence posts are resting loosely in place....

There are bags and bags of Quikrete that will be used to anchor the posts securely into place...

The east side of the meadow will be replaced with PVC fence.  There will be an electric wire running through the fence for added security against rambunctious animals that have wanderlust...

...and the section along the driveway will be done as well...

In the next day or so, once the posts are anchored into their holes, the rails will be snapped into place, and it will look fantastic!  It will be a huge improvement from an old fence that needed lots of repair!

I'm joining up today with Good Fences.  Click on the link to visit other blogs with more fence posts!

You Know It's Spring When...

You know it's spring when...

There are lots of ways to finish that sentence, but one way you know it's spring here is that the pens at the other farm get cleaned out.

I'm a few weeks late with this post, but here are a few pictures anyway.

It happens every spring and fall, but there's nothing quite like a barn that's been completely cleaned out of pen pack manure.  Load after load of manure has been spread on the fields, and now bales of corn fodder are tossed from the mow, down through the hole onto the floor below...

(the windows are open now, letting more fresh air in the barn)

Fresh dry fodder has been spread all over the floor of the pens and the skid loader sits idle out in the barn yard...

The cows (with the bull, of course leading the way) are left back into the barn after spending the day outside...

They suspiciously explore their freshly bedded pens...

...and get right back to work at messing them up for the fall clean up!  That one won't take as long, because the animals will all be spending a lot of time out in the meadow before too long!

How do you know it's spring in your neck of the woods?

Using Sexed Semen...

Ha...I got your attention!  Not exactly what you usually read on my posts, is it?

But before I get into that...I know I've been slacking in my blogging lately. We've been busy...like most of you are...and other things have to take priority sometimes.  I'm finally getting around to "spring" cleaning my house, and it's almost mid June!  The garden is growing...the grass is growing even faster...and the cows still demand attention on a regular basis.  There just aren't enough hours in the day for everything, are there?

That said...I'll move on to explain that title...

Last night I was downstairs late...reading.  Jim had asked me to check on a springing heifer before I came to bed, so around 10:45 I slipped on my boots, grabbed a flashlight and headed out to the barn.  He had checked her an hour or so before, and she was fine. It was just starting to rain, and of course she was outside by herself, with just the tip of one little hoof showing.  I got her into the barn, closed the gate and put some fresh fodder in the pen.  At this point everything looked fine, so I went inside for a few minutes in hopes that she would lay down and have her calf on her own.

When I checked her again, I saw more of just one leg, and now a nose as well, but no sign of the other leg.  So...I woke up Jim.  He came out, donned a plastic sleeve and was able to find and pull the other leg front and we helped her deliver her calf.

The result was this little heifer calf...the newest member of the herd...

Of course it's not unusual to have a heifer calf, but it is unusual for us to be expecting a heifer calf.

We primarily breed our animals artificially (AI), and we usually breed our 14-15 month old heifers to a Jersey, which results in a smaller calf, thus an easy delivery, allowing the new Mom a better chance to get off to a good start.

Last summer though, we had two heifers that Jim decided to breed using sexed semen, which results in a very high percentage of calves in the gender you want.  In our case, heifers.  Last night's calf was one of those.

It was interesting, watching this heifer as she got close to her due date...wondering if the calf would, in fact, be a heifer.  The other heifer that was bred last summer apparently didn't settle (conceive) , so we'll expect a little Jersey calf from her sometime later this summer, from the Jersey bull at the other farm.

There's always something new to learn!

Patty...Two Years Later...

I'm sure this is stretching to you...asking you to think back to two years ago. Just humor me, ok?  :)

Two years ago on March 17th, I wrote about when unexpected things messed up my day.  One of those "things" was a new calf that came early.

Because she was born on St. Patrick's Day, we named her Patty...

Here she is, two years later!  Yes, she has horns, unfortunately.  We de-horn our calves when they're young, but for some reason, she was missed.  She proudly holds her head high...and doesn't let her neighbors steal her feed!

She freshened on March 9th of this year...just a week shy of her second birthday, and has turned into a beautiful first calf heifer.  She's milking like crazy...

Calves are born...they grow up and join the milking herd, and we just take it for granted.  Tonight, though, as  I was washing her down before she was milked, I suddenly remembered that I had a picture of her from the day she was born.

I thought you might enjoy seeing how she turned out!

Spring Work Has Begun...

It might not be feeling too much like spring around here right now, but the spring work has begun!

Yesterday Jim spent all afternoon cleaning out the "outside pen".  This is the pen where we keep the oldest heifers...the animals that are closing in on one year old...up to fifteen months old, when they are bred and taken to the other farm.

Today he took down the plywood barriers that helped to keep the cold winter winds out of the west side of the barn.

I was working in the house today, and I would hear the skid loader starting up...and then the Farmall M coming out from behind the barn and down the road, over and over again.  He spent most of the afternoon back and forth between the two...spreading load after load of pen pack manure on the fields.  By milking time, the "wooden pen" was cleaned out as well...

The young heifers had to share some tight quarters for a few hours this afternoon while Jim was working, but finally they were separated back into their respective pens.  They're always so excited to run around in the fresh bedding (corn fodder), and always curious to see what looks different.  The wooden barriers were covering that gate all winter long until this morning, so they're enjoying the "view".  I'm in their way, but behind me they can see the outside pen heifers...lounging outside in their own little "meadow".  All in good time...they'll be out there by mid summer...

As I was looking at the pictures I took, I realized that there was an observer that I had missed...

Peanut, the new mama of three-day-old kitties, was either hoping to catch a mouse, or hoping I'd offer her some special treats.  Probably the latter!

It always feels and smells so fresh when the outside and wooden pens are cleaned out, and the barriers are removed in the springtime.  Now if only the temperatures would rise just a little...and the March winds would die down...

Wouldn't that be nice?!!

Inside or Out...

Yesterday, someone asked me to explain about the adult cows...whether they are kept inside the barn all the time, or if they spend any time outside.  So...I'll try to explain how we manage this...from little on up...

When a heifer calf is born, within the first few days of her life, she is typically put into one of our individual calf pens/hutches.  These hutches allow each calf to have her own space...we can easily tell if she's eating or not, and she has a shelter from bad weather (and the sun), and she can also run out back in the summer time.    It's a much healthier place for her to be than inside the barn, sharing germs with her friends.  This picture was taken this summer right after the hutches were repaired.  Now, the backs have been put on to keep the calves warmer...

After she grows too big for the hutches, the heifer moves inside the barn to the box pens, where she shares space with a few friends.  Here, she gradually gets used to the feed that the older animals eat, and learns to drink from an "on demand" water bowl.  As we need room, and as the heifers grow, they eventually end up in "the outside pen".  This pen allows them to move inside and outside of the barn as they chose.  They have food and shelter inside, and room to run outside, and here they get used to an electric fence for the first time.  This is the outside part of the "outside pen" yesterday in the snow...

When the heifers are about 15 months old, they are bred and taken to "the other farm", where they will spend the rest of the time until they freshen.  Over there, they can go inside and out of the barn as they please, and have a large meadow to graze on in the summer time.

Now, on to the adult milking cows...

At night...beginning in late spring when the temperatures are consistently in the mid forties, and until early fall, the cows spend the night outside, unless the weather is really bad.  They love to go out in the meadow to graze, and lay down to sleep.  Then we bring them into the barn before morning milking....it makes the morning a little earlier, but the cows are happier and they (and the barn) stay much cleaner when they're outside!  When the temperatures are colder like now, and all winter long, they will spend the night inside in their stalls.

During the day...when the meadow grass has begun to grow vigorously in the spring, the cows spend a good part of the day outside grazing and moving around as they please.  You should hear them in the spring...after morning milking and when the air is warm, they bawl, hoping that we will let them out!  When we do, for the first time, they run and kick up their heels!  Here's an old post, showing their excitement the first time they are left out in the spring.

On the hot, humid, summer days, they go out for the morning, and come back in by noon.  Then we turn on all the fans because they don't handle heat very well.

This week for the first, we have started keeping the cows off the meadow.  They had been grazing the rye grass fields, but have chewed it down enough...and there's no new regrowth in the meadow, so they just go out into the barnyard for exercise while we clean up the barn...

They really want to go out into the meadow, but they aren't allowed.  They would just make tracks in it and destroy the grass.

Usually one of us puts fresh bedding in the stalls, while the other watches for heats.  This is what we watch for...the cow that is allowing the other cow to jump her, is in heat.  This particular cow is only fresh 45 days, so we won't breed her yet, but will keep track of her heat, and watch her in another 21 days...

Don't you wish you could do this?

Here they come back into their stalls, freshly bed up with sawdust...

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing!  In a nutshell...we put the cows out any time that the weather allows, and when they won't damage the meadow with their sharp hooves!

On another note...

I had some help watching the cows this morning, while Jim cleaned up the barn...

When I put her down, her brother attacked...

...and she played for a while until she got tired of it...

"Make him stop!   He started it!"

Never a dull moment!