The Animals are Back

Late fall on the farm.  After shipping the steer calves and most of the heifers a few weeks ago, the remaining replacement heifers, fats, and misfits are now residing outside our place.  This young lady did not make the cut to get on the truck (read THIS post from a few weeks ago for more details).  Alas, she has horns.  So, her fate will be settled at 'the ring' in Chinook at some date in the not-too-distant future.  I thought it was rather endearing that her brazen curiosity got the better of her young-calf skitters when she cautiously meandered right up to me to sniff me out.  Actually, I think she was most interested in my camera.

Its nice to have some animals in our corral again.  The yearling heifers were grazing in pasture behind our house all summer and I came to really enjoy looking out the window at them munching on grass.  After harvest, they had gone to join the rest of the cows to graze on crop stubble.  Even though it had really not been that long between when the yearlings were hear and when the young heifer calves arrived, it was a nice sight for me to drive home one day and find Jeff preparing some hay for these young ladies.

These heifers were separated from their mothers on the day we shipped the rest of the calves.  The mama cows are presumably pregnant again and the cycle continues.  They stay over by Tom and Carol's for the winter and will calve in March.  The young heifers here were quite noisy the first few days, bawling over being in a new place without their mamas, no doubt.  (You'd cry, too!)

Jeff feeds them when they run out of hay, every few days.  I have told him I would like to learn to do this chore as well.  I may regret offering my help later this winter when it's -20... but for now it seems like a good way I can play a small part in the cow operation. So far, I have been simply helping him swing gates open and clear the calves away from the feeder so he can drop in the hay bale.

It is a windy devil of a day outside today.  I think about the nursery rhyme where the three pigs have each built a house-- one of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks.  The big bad wolf is clearly huffing and puffing outside today and I am hoping my house is made of bricks. It will be a good day to stay inside and get caught up on laundry and sewing projects. If Jeff feeds the calves today, I'll try not to get blown away when I go out to help him.

Photo from www.wikipedia.com