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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Early Weaning

Because the late summer here was so dry we don't have much fall grass.  To try and help the situation J decided to wean the bigger steer calves and all of the calves off of the first calf heifers. 
 He had the temporary fence in place, the 4-wheeler, and a little hay on the tractor to help encourage the cows to come.
 This deep hollow is where most of them were hanging out.
 J has them trained pretty well to come when he calls.
 Then it was the game of  'follow the tractor'.
 I brought up the rear on the 4-wheeler.
 Emma was giving Sissy lessons on helping.
 She was learning how to stand in the gate hole to thwart our sorting efforts.  Luckily, the cows didn't pay much attention to her and she soon gave up.
We sorted out a good group of calves to be dewormed and started on feed.  They are now through with the bawling stage and even though they have stayed on the farm and not mixed with any other cattle, have now started coughing.  It's always something.

3 comments:

  1. We are weaning at the end of the month, I sure dont look forward to the bawling or the coughing.

    They sure are a nice lookin bunch of calves there. Do you keep them all winter or sell any

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  2. we have more grass than we can use this year! Wish we could all have a balance seems like feast or famine

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  3. We weaned our heifer's calves early this year too because it's so dry. Such a big area has been affected : (

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