Happy anniversary! Today is our second anniversary as land owners. It has been an exciting two years and we have many plans for the upcoming year. We are continuing to attend local workshops and training sessions on raising cattle and improving forage. We have purchased our own five black Brangus heifers.
Brangus are a cross between black Angus and Brahma cattle. Charlie was able to help brand and vaccinate them with the help of the man who located these heifers and is our “hired Cowboy.”
When “our girls” were delivered to us, another young Charolais heifer was brought over that needed some social interaction with other animals. 
It’s very interesting to watch these six and the other heifers and cow. Sometimes they blend in with the bigger herd and sometimes they wander on their own in their own smaller herd.
We are focusing on taming them so we can handle them with we need to. Our heifers like to come up to the fence next to the house in the mornings especially for some hand-feed hay. 
I’m also working on talking to them. A simple “hello girls” generally gets their attention. A couple of them are getting comfortable coming up to us and will let us rub their noses. The others are curious and we’ll keep working on them.
Our cattle business is a cow-calf operation. That means that we will breed our heifers and sell the calves they produce. From the proceeds of the sale of those calves, we will purchase more heifers to breed and sell those calves, etc. The heifers have been with a bull since January with their previous owner and they are once again with a bull in our pasture. In September, we will begin testing each of the heifers to see if we will hear the patter of little hoofs in the Spring.
We have set up our records for tracking our cattle activity. Charlie cleared out and cleaned up the existing pens in the back pasture that have not been used in about 5 years. He and Jason have discussed how to renovate and expand them for when we need to work the cows.
It’s exciting to think about what this year will hold for the Wheeler’s Lazy J Ranch. Charlie and I have learned lots of new things and will continue to learn more. Stay turned for the next adventure!
The Wheeler's Country Road 