Once again, it was time to work the cows and wean the calves. Charlie and Jason discussed the meds to use this time for the injections and fly control. Charlie purchased the supplies and gathered together the equipment. Jason checked over the supplies and grabbed a few more. It was a nice cool morning which made it more comfortable for us and for the cows branding was on the agenda. We had gathered all of them up in the pen the night before and, as you can see, they didn’t really suspect anything was going on…until the cowboy drove into the driveway. Could they really remember the sound of the motor of his truck???

Working the cows went relatively smoothly including the branding and palpating. 11 of the 14 cows are bred. (Plans are being made for the 3 that aren’t bred.)Once the cows were finished and let out to the pasture, the calves were taken care of and kept inside the pen. Stevie Nicks, Annie, and Joni Paycheck were the last three calves born and the time has come for their weaning. Looks like they were wondering where all of the cows had gone! The calves made their way to the trap in the pen where they had last been with their Mama Cows.

Joni and Annie came to see us at the fence, but Stevie (in the background) was already bawling. Joni found her way to the fence where her Mama was. Mama wasn’t happy that her baby was locked inside the pen! She has been a very good and protective Mama. In fact, the next few mornings she came to the fence by the house and moo’ed to us. In fact, the first morning after the other cows wandered off after their morning cubes, she laid down at our fence. Since we have three cows to breed still, the decision was made to add Genesis to the pen with the calves. She is a yearling and we aren’t ready for her to be bred. She has had a calming effect on the calves. For the most part she has been happy with the creep feed, cubes, and extra attention she has been given, but isn’t particularly happy to be locked up again. She will definitely be the leader of this pack!

All of the calves are eating cubes from our hands and we walk among them several times a day to help them become accustomed to us. Our approach to raising cattle is to take good care of them and treat them as gently as possible which is accomplished by handling them often with care and respect.