Twins

Have you been hankering for a glimpse into the life of the rancher during calving!? This time of year, we are quite the bovine maternity ward round here! In this post, you'll learn all about the extra special circumstances of when cows have twins. Special thanks to Jeff for helping me write this post and making sure I had my facts correct. Enjoy!

As I mentioned in my previous post, overall, everything is going very smoothly with the calving operation this year. The weather has been agreeable to late-night and early-morning walk-throughs, and we've had relatively few issues with the birthing process in our cows. Sure, we've had to assist in a few births by helping turn a calf who was coming backwards or even "pulling" a few to help the cow. That's pretty typical.

We've only had a few calves die, which is also good. Each year there are a few who get sick or are born with some sort of issue and just don't make it. Obviously, we do everything we can to help the calves and their mamas, but sometimes there's just nothing left to do.

And then there are the twins. We can usually count on one or two sets of twins born every year. While it is a good thing to have twins in a sense because, hey, we just got two-for-the-price-of-one, it can also place added stress on the mama cow. Typically, a cow produces enough milk to raise one calf, so twins can really put a strain on her ability to give the best nutrition to both calves. Also, sometimes the births themselves are much higher stress and almost always require assistance, or even a trip to the vet.

This year, we had three sets of twins. Sort of.

Our most recent set of twins. Keep reading to find out how they're doing!

When Jeff and I were gone to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, Jeff received a call from those manning the calving operation - Tom and our friend Jim - that we had lost a calf. It had been born dead. Not to worry, however, because the very next animal that calved had twins. They were able to "graft" one of the twin calves onto the cow who had lost her calf. Very serendipitous. Because the twins were born so soon after the other calf had died, the grafting took easily-- the mama who had lost her calf accepted one of the twins as her own calf, after a brief "warming-up" period.

A few weeks later, there was a cow who started acting really funny in the pen. She would stomp around, act a little territorial, and then began trying to claim the newborn calves of other cows. It's not unusual for a cow to have the first pangs of contractions, and look around, finding another cow's newborn calf, and confuse it for her own, thinking she had given birth. This cow did that with several others' calves. She showed signs of nearing calving, but hadn't given birth yet.  For a whole day, she could consistently be found causing a ruckus. We knew she was close to calving but something just wasn't right about her.

Finally, she started the actual calving process. Only, it was taking her quite some time and she was making very little progress. Jeff eventually went in to investigate, you know, going shoulder deep to feel around inside the animal. What he felt was what he thought were twins, but who were tangled up together inside. He and Tom attempted to sort them out but couldn't make progress at it. They called the vet, who instructed them to load up the cow and take her to town to be checked out. The vet ended up doing a C-section to get the calves out, but they both were dead. The vet's opinion was that one of the calves had probably died a week ago or more, and the other one may have been fine but it was tangled up with its dead twin, so the cow couldn't birth him correctly. Ultimately, there was nothing we could have done. Jeff loaded up the cow and took her home, stitches up the side of her belly.

So, this is what a post- C-section cow looks like. 

Again, serendipity would have it, that very shortly after this incident, another cow, actually a heifer, gave birth to twins. They are the two tiniest calves I have ever seen! One of them was quite weak, and was definitely not acting as lively as a calf should when it is first born. We thought for sure we'd lose him. Jeff and Tom piped some colostrum down him since he wasn't able to stand and suck on his own, and hoped for the best, but didn't really think he'd make it through the night, he was so weak. We all sort of agreed that with the teeny tiny size of these two calves and the way the one was sort of developmentally lagging, it seemed like they had maybe been born prematurely.

The next morning, on my early morning check, I couldn't bring myself to look in the barn to check on these twins. I just didn't want to start my day by finding a dead calf. But, fortune was on our side. Jeff called me later and said the calf was acting a bit more perky. The colostrum had done it's job and really seemed to be helping. The calf would make it after all! Both twin calves now seemed to be doing fine.

One of the twins with their birth mama.

She gives him a sniff...

...and lets him suck.
She's a heifer, so she's not quite all the way to being a full-sized cow. The calf could fit completely under her belly.
Gives you an idea of how small they were.

Only problem with these twins is that, having been born to a heifer, she has a very small bag (udder). In other words, she does not have much milk, even for two tiny calves. So, the idea light bulb struck that we could try to make a pair out of one of these twin calves and the c-section mama who had lost both of hers. We'd have our work cut out for us, though, as it had been two days since she had given birth via c-section to the dead calves. The longer you wait, the harder it can be to graft a calf. Add to the mix that she had become very nervous around humans and in enclosed spaces. I chalked this up to her having the traumatic experience of the entire c-section ordeal, but opinions are mixed on this. She also could just be a nervous sort of cow.

It took several days of locking her in a feeding chute in the calving barn and bringing the twin calf up to suck while she was penned in. Jeff and Tom tried everything they could think of to try to get her to claim him. She would let the twin nurse, but would never act like she had any interest in actually raising him. At times, she'd kick at him to keep him from nursing, but mostly the calf was getting fed. It just didn't seem like she would accept and raise him as her own, although the fact that he was able to nurse gave us some hope. Tom has always said in the past that if a calf can nurse enough from a cow so her milk passes all the way through him, and her scent/hormones are on his "hind end," the cow will then almost always take the calf. In this case, she'd sniff the calf, but never had any inkling of wanting to actually mother it, and always just escaped the barn immediately rather than trying to keep the calf with her.

Here's the c-section cow locked in the feeding chute so that the calf could nurse.

We had talked about different options. He could be a bottle calf that *guess who* would probably get to feed every day. Or, he could go to the neighbor's herd, who had just lost a calf of their own. Without settling on anything, we just kept trying to make it a pair with what we had, as futile as it felt at times.

Then one morning, probably fed up with the battle of wills between himself and the cow, Jeff just decided to go for it. He pushed the young, tiny calf out of the barn and into one of the larger pens. The cow immediately walked up to the calf and began licking him off and mooing at him-- as if she had just birthed him right then and there. Like, "Hey! I've been looking for you for over a week! Where have you been?!" Just like that, in spite of all of our best efforts, the pair was made.

Here's a short video Jeff took of the cow and calf-

https://youtu.be/VZy7tFTHND8

Now, every time I go out to do my walk-throughs, I check in on this man-made pair. Pretty much without fail, that cow is within two feet of the calf. She does not let him get away and appears to be very doting. Who knew!

So, that gives a glimpse into what goes on during calving, and especially the drama that can come with twins. I am proud of the attention and care given to our animals. Also, I think there's a lesson in there somewhere about an animal's will and instinct. People can try to influence their behaviors, but animals gonna be animals in the end. They'll do it their own way.

And just for fun... A friend of mine tagged me on Facebook with this cartoon. What do you think?!

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! 

Spring Cow Feeding

Hello to my (tiny) blogosphere of readers! (Thanks mom!)

I have been MIA for over a week and I missed last week's Thankful Thursday.

Here's Why.

Stressful caseload at school + busy track season + busy farm season/homelife = not enough sleep + little time for myself = SICK KATIE!

Yep. I spent the good portion of the weekend without moving from my bed. It started with a sore throat last Wednesday. Thursday I spent the entire, long day, which also happened to be cold and damp, outside for a track meet-- throat got worse and add to that neck and head aches. Friday I woke up with a fever in addition to the other symptoms and subsequently spent more time in bed sleeping than I did awake. My throat hurt SO BAD. I felt pretty awful the rest of the weekend, but thankfully felt OK enough to go to school starting this week. Today, Tuesday, I feel pretty much back to fine. I'd say I'm at 95% of 100.

Needless to say, blogging was a nonessential activity while I was trying to get back to feeling semi normal. I don't know if it was some version of Strep or the flu or what, but I was pretty miserable for a few days there. Thankfully, I never got a runny nose or cough--you know, the really annoying cold and flu symptoms. Just had the painful ones. My lymph nodes were so swollen I thought they would burst if I touched them wrong. Ugh. I managed to somewhat dull the pain and the fever by simply taking Advil the whole time I was sick. Better than nothing!

The whole weekend felt like a weekend that had been full of plans but ultimately, some things got pushed by the wayside.

What I DID do over the weekend:

• Jeff did convince me I was feeling OK enough to join some friends of ours for a lovely dinner on Friday night. Surf and Turf with beef from their ranch and shrimp from Pike's Market in Seattle. So good! Great conversation and company, too. 
• Jeff and I also attended North Star's Graduation Commencement ceremony on Saturday afternoon. We arrived right before it began and left immediately after it was done. I felt bad about not going through and shaking hands with the grads and visiting with friends, neighbors, and coworkers, but I was just feeling so awful. Still, glad we went. The speaker was a man named Flint Rasmussen, who is actually a Rodeo Clown by profession. He tours with the Professional Bull Rider circuit. He was a really great speaker and had some good advice for the kids. 
• Sunday, I felt good enough to get outside a bit and help Jeff with some cow chores. Photos will follow later in this post!

What I did NOT do over the weekend:

• Household chores and cooking. OK, I did laundry on Sunday but that's really about it. Special kudos to Jeff for taking my turns with pet chores and other household drudgery.
• I didn't do any blogging or spend much time at all on the computer. Mostly, I was asleep. Priorities.
• I didn't do the 10K trail race in Ulm, MT that I've been sort of planning on for a long time. (If I couldn't even get up to walk from my bed to the kitchen table, how could I have run 6.2 miles, hmm?) Honestly, as the weekend approached, even before I got sick, I was leaning toward not going anyway. Ulm is nearly 3 hours from my house and since I'm gone so much in the spring anyway, it was starting to look like a good idea to stay home. Turned out to be cold and rainy on Sunday morning in Ulm anyway. Hopefully next year. 

So, lets get back to the pictures and info of what I did do on Sunday, which was help Jeff feed cows.

Jeff, Tom and some neighbors spent last Thursday (while I was at the track meet) sorting our cows and calves into breeding groups, administering vaccines to the calves, and hauling the groups of pairs to pasture. We have four breeding groups and we breed the "old fashioned way," meaning that we don't use artificial insemination to breed our cows. Here's a post I did a few years ago, specifically about how we breed our animals: http://prairieponderingsmt.blogspot.com/2014/02/matchmaker-matchmaker.html. The post is worth a look especially for the YouTube video at the end. Anyway, this is the time of year when the magic happens.

These gentlemen are about to be let out into the world to do work.

Get ready, ladies!

Our cows and calves are already out at pasture and the men will join them tomorrow or Thursday. It's going to be quite a bit like the Discovery Channel around here. This time of year, the cows get a little extra feed supplement in addition to the grass they eat at pasture. It's called range cake, or just cake. We drive out to their pastures and dump little piles of it on the ground for them to eat. It just helps with their overall nutrition as they are rebounding from calving and supporting a growing calf, and spring grasses are still a bit short. Here is a post I did back in February that has a lot more information about range cake: http://prairieponderingsmt.blogspot.com/2015/02/cake-walk.html. If you want to learn more, I highly suggest you click back and read through that one!

I went with Jeff on Sunday to feed the range cake. When we drive into the pasture and get close to the group of animals, Jeff will roll down the window and hit his hand on the outside of the pickup door and yell, while honking the horn. The cows know that this is the dinner bell and typically come running. It always makes me giggle to see them run this time of year because their udders are still so big! They get pretty excited about their range cake, though!

The cows know that the cake comes from inside that bag and they are pretty eager. Some of them will eat it out of your hand if you hold still enough. I love that our cows are so gentle.

 We pour the pellets out into little piles in the grass and the cows munch away. You can really see in this picture how the cows have lost their winter coats and are down to their short, summer hair. The light wasn't great on Sunday, but their coats are actually really gossy and nice-looking right now. Overall, the cows and calves look to be in really good condition. The calves especially are bouncy and happy.

Jeff snapped this photo of me dumping out some cake for the girls. I like cow chores where I can be in among the herd. While you do have to be aware of the cows--where they are and what they are doing--overall, they're used to people and are really pretty gentle. It was nice to be outside.

The astute reader will have noted that I made mention to rainfall and was wearing my rain coat and boots in the photo. Yes, it did (finally!) rain a bit over the weekend! We ended up with between .5 and .6 of an inch of rain, with about .7 on our farmland to the north. There were PUDDLES in the yard! I had nearly forgotten what such a thing even was! The rain was a good drink for the crops and the pastures, but we'll certainly need more before too long, since we were so dry to begin with.

So that's what's been going on around here! What did you do (or NOT do) over the weekend?

Calving 2015 Update

I feel like I've barely been home lately between going to Chico for the MFU Women's Conference and then on to Wichita for the NFU Convention. This past weekend I was ACTUALLY HOME. Aside from heading to town Saturday morning for track practice, I didn't leave the farm. It was nice to spend some time with my husband, get some housework done, and spend some time with the cows and calves. Today's post is going to be pretty photo oriented, with lots of images of cute animals, including Harvey the vizsla, and lots of cows and calves. I hope you can handle this!

Benjamin!

Let's start with this guy and just get him right out there. He's a gorgeous, throwback Simmental calf- splotchy red and white. He's actually pretty big for being only a few days old, too. Now's the test to see how observant you are. It's hard to see, but he actually has a cast on his back left leg. In the first day of his life, he accidentally got stepped on by a cow and his lower leg broke. Tom took him to the vet in Havre where they gave him a cast. Then, to keep it waterproof, Tom and Jeff improvised by covering it with a plastic grocery sack and securing it into place with electrical tape.

While at the vet, the vet assistant thought the calf was pretty darn cute, which he is, and decided that his name should be Benjamin. Needless to say, it stuck. He's already pretty used to people and loves to be scratched on his neck. He's our pal. He's doing great and we expect that his broken leg will heal quickly. He already hops around pretty well, just like a normal, healthy calf.

Here's a cute, healthy little guy!

With the weather as nice as it has been pretty much all throughout calving, the process has been going very well. Everyone is staying healthy, and cows and calves are all happy. They are really loving basking in the warm sunshine! 

The calves are particularly curious and really can't figure out what to make of Harvey. They love to get close to him and try to see what he's all about. Harvey, for his part, is cautious around the larger animals but feels safer around calves, for the most part. Here, you can see him close to Carol, with another calf getting close to check him out. 

Harvey sticks close to Carol, while she takes a photo. 

This is a photo Carol took of the calf coming up to get a look at Harv. 

 Harvey definitely feels safer when he's near a human...

Another calf comes up to check out Harvey, while a cow looks on from behind Carol.

Here, Harvey is anchored to my knee.

 As of this morning, we had 67 calves born and about thirty cows yet to calve. At this point, they'll continue to sort of taper off. Today and tomorrow the weather is supposed to be cooler and rainy, so we'll see if the pressure change causes more cows to go into labor, as sometimes happens.

Here's Jeff and Harvey kneeling down to let some calves approach.

More calves! The little one curled up on the left side of the image was so content to lay in the sunshine! 

 When we had walked out to check out the cows and calves, we noticed right away that one cow was in the beginning stages of labor. We left her alone for a little while, and when we checked back later, it looked like she was struggling. Sometimes the hips of the calf sort of get stuck inside and the mama needs a little assistance. At this point, if the calf is still encased in fluid, he can actually suffocate. Jeff watched pretty close and at one point helped pull the calf just a little bit with his bare hands. The mama took a short rest and then gave one last push and the calf was freed. Just in time. But, Jeff was prepared with the pulling straps, if they were needed.

It's pretty cool to watch the miracle of birth. I know that it may not be for everyone, but I think it's pretty neat. Carol actually took video of the whole thing, but we agreed that it may be too graphic to post on the blog. What do you think, readers? Is that a video you'd like to see, or would it be too much?

We left the new pair alone for a while more so they could bond and the mama could clean her calf.  Below was the scene a little while later:

Cows bond initially with their calves by licking and cleaning them. 

I know I've said this before, but it's so great to live and work on a family ranch. Jeff and I are so lucky to contribute to agriculture in this way and to carry on a family tradition. There's nothing like calving time to feel the rewards of hard work.

Thanks to Carol for the photo!

 I've always wanted to do a sort of tongue-in-cheek Farm Girl Fashion post on the blog. It would be modeled after a high fashion post that fashion divas do on their fashion blogs, only it'd be about what we farm girls wear to be practical when working outside. I think my outfit above embodies that spirit! haha! You just have to love the Carhartt Jacket, old jeans, and mucky overshoes look!

Photo by Carol.

 And now a short infographic on beef, thanks to Ryan Goodman at Agriculture Proud.  He has a pretty well-written blog and an interesting point of view on agriculture and particularly on ranching. If you like ag blogs, definitely stop by. He actually had this image posted on his Agriculture Proud FB page the other day. He and I are both members of Team Beef Montana (although we've never run in the same race. Montana is a big state), which is a group of ranchers and beef producers who also run and race as a way to stay in shape. As a Team Beef member, I am enthusiastic that lean beef is a quality energy source that helps fuel my run and recovery. When Ryan posted this graphic, I wanted to share it with my readers.

On our ranch, we sell our calves in the fall and they are typically finished on grain. The animals that we keep to finish for ourselves are also finished on grain. There is a growing market for grass fed and I would be interested in pursuing this. I'd also love to pursue more direct marketing of our beef, or selling directly to consumers. Lots to think about for the future on that topic. 

Regardless, our animals are treated very well and we really do love our cows and calves. They have unlimited pasture to graze on and always have access to clean, fresh running water. I'm proud of the work we do with our small herd of cattle. 

I'm also proud of our dog, and he is quite pleased to be himself, as you can see below...

Harvey is guarding the porch! You may not cross unless you pet him first!

I hope you enjoyed the photos! Have a great week, everyone!

Evening Roundup

These days, the weather has been nice enough that we can graze our cows back out on the stubble of our crop fields. This is also possible because there's no snow cover on the ground. It's great that they can graze because then we don't burn through as much hay, and there's plenty of stuff for them to munch on out there. 

Because the only water this time of year is back in the corrals, the cows have to be driven back in each evening. They go out during the day to graze, then back to the yard for overnight water access. Those of you who follow my blog and read regularly, will remember me discussing this a few weeks ago when I had the task of letting the cows out in the morning to their day grazing. Yesterday, I got to ride along with Jeff for the evening portion of this twice a day chore. 

But first, I took Harvey and Abby for a nice little three mile run! We did a short out and back route from Tom and Carol's house and had a great time. Here are a few photos from our little jaunt:

View of the Sweetgrass Hills from about a mile north of Tom and Carol's house. 

My running companions, Harvey and Abby.

Looking out toward some of the cows, grazing on crop stubble and winter wheat.

Headed back up the hill toward home.
Harvey likes to run ahead, but he always turns around to make sure I'm still coming!

After our little run, Harvey, Abby and I went back to the house for a drink of water. It was about 4:00 p.m. when Jeff and I were ready to head out and start moving the cows in. Harvey came with us in the pickup and Abby stayed home. By this time of day, this time of year, the sun is just starting to set. We have been having some really beautiful skies lately, primarily in mornings and evenings. This is why they call it the Big Sky State I guess. :)

A few cows, starting to head towards home.

 By 5:15 or so, it was pretty dark. We were really having a hard time trying to see cows. And then, I saw something that looked like it was too small to be a cow and moving much too quickly... it approached the vehicle and we saw that it was Abby! She had run back out from the house to join us, even though she must have been tired from our run earlier (she's getting kinda old...)  So Jeff loaded her up into the tailgate and she joined us.

Not long after that, we heard the sounds of another dog panting outside our window. This time, we looked down and it was our neighbor's dog, Bella! You might remember her from THIS POST. Even though she lives over three miles away from where we were, she ran all the way out to see what all the commotion was about! She has BOUNDLESS energy. Harvey and Abby, not to be outdone, had to get out and run around with her!

So, we continued on with our cattle roundup, driving them towards home, with the three dogs "helping" us out!

Can you see three dogs and one cow in our headlights?

I know it might seem silly to wait until dark to get the cows in, so here's a bit more explanation. We like to maximize the time the cows can graze during the day before driving them back into the corrals. This time of year, the days are really short, and especially when you live as far north as we do. Typically, we do start during daylight hours, but sunsets seem to not last very long either sometimes and it's dark before you know it! This particular evening, the herd was really spread out, too, so it took us longer than normal to get them back in. 

After we got the cows in, we left Abby and Tom and Carol's, then dropped Bella back off at our neighbor's place. She's quite the country traveller! Who knows who we'll have next time we bring the cows in?!