Sorting Cows for Calving

Yesterday, I stayed home from school to help Jeff with some work on the farm. I have a bunch of use'em or lose'em personal days I need to use before the schoolyear ends, and we had lots to do to get ready for calving. Our tasks for the day included tagging our first calves, sorting all the expecting cows and heifers into groups in the corrals, feeding bales, and hauling hay.

Our first step was tagging the three calves that had already been born.

 We corralled the three pairs of mamas and calves in a small pen, then one by one Jeff would bring a calf to the ground and I would attempt to hold it down. Jeff would then use a scale tape to get an approximate weight of each calf, check for horns that might be starting to grow, and prep and install the ear tag. We had one bull calf that had to be banded, too. This process went pretty smoothly and without incident. One mama cow came up and really sniffed me pretty intensely while I was holding her calf down, but she wasn't aggressive at all.


Next, we trailed the rest of the herd of cows into the corrals and began the sorting process. This also went overall very smoothly. Jeff had lured them into the corrals with a bale of hay and then we trapped them. We took groups of about 20 animals at a time into our sorting lane and split them off into groups of "experienced cows," and "young cows." It's nice to keep them separate because the young cows- heifers and second-time calvers- are the ones who are more likely to need assistance with calving. It makes walking through the bunches and doing checks a little easier.

Once we had split the two groups apart, we further split the older cows up, sorting out animals we thought would be calving later on in the season. No need to include the in the big group being checked all the time if they're not going to go for a while anyway. Plus, it's nice to separate them out for the sake of space. Too many animals in a pen can lead to confusion and chaos. As calves are born, we'll tag them and kick the pairs out into the larger calving pen and eventually will move some of the late-calvers into the main calving pen in their place.

If only we could have the cows self-sort by filling out a form like this...

Photo from my friend Adria, who I think found it on Facebook.
Let's ignore that the wrong version of "your" was used in this poster.
I suppose cows don't know the difference anyway...

The entire sorting process took about two hours. Then, Jeff used a tractor to put hay bales in the feeders in each pen. I helped by opening/closing gates and cutting twine off the bales.

Almost ready to drop a bale into this feeder.
Don't worry-- the cows will get their heads out of the way!

Munching on fresh eats!

Again, the cow sorting process went really well. Sometimes sorting animals can be tense and stressful. They're pretty large creatures and at times can be stubborn. While our animals are really pretty tame and used to being around people, they still are animals and can be unpredictable. Additionally, sometimes it's hard for someone who hasn't grown up around animals to learn the best ways to move and interact in the corrals. Likewise, it can be hard for people who HAVE grown up with that experience to communicate clearly to a novice what it is exactly that they want or need that person to do. We only had a few brief moments of snapping at each other, and that was usually because one of us didn't hear what the other had said, or misinterpreted. Jeff complimented me and said that he could tell that I've learned a lot and my instincts around the cows have improved. That made me feel good. :)

Later in the day, I saw this from PinkTractor.com on Facebook...

I can't imagine that statistic is anywhere close to true. Yes, there are moments when people get hot and say things they wouldn't normally say when they're stressed, sorting cows. I tend to be more optimistic about it and would like to think that working through a stressful time might actually make a marriage stronger. 

When we ended our time in the corrals, we were both smiling. 

Jeff snapped this photo of me. Thanks, Jeff!

After the cow sorting and feeding process, Jeff and I had a little lunch and set about our afternoon task of hauling some hay from our former yard at Stan's over here to the corrals. I wasn't as involved in this process, but I did help a bit with shuttling vehicles. Notably, the red truck. Of course, Harvey wouldn't be denied an opportunity to ride along!

As for the rest of this weekend, I'm off to Bozeman for a baby shower, leaving Jeff at home alone. We've had four calves so far (there was another one born yesterday afternoon after our day of sorting- I guess we jostled one loose!) but it doesn't look like too many more are imminent. The weather's going to be good, too, so Jeff should be OK on his own. 

As for a re-launch of the blog with new URL, I'm thinking that will happen within two to three posts. I think I'd like to coincide it with my 400th blog post. This is post 398, I believe. Stay tuned! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!