Cake Walk

We've all heard the expression, "Let them eat cake!" In the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette uttered that phrase, which exemplified how out of touch the royal court was with the realities of starvation in the largely peasant society they ruled over. If they can't eat bread, they can surely still eat cake, right?  "Let them eat cake" is an expression we use on our ranch, too, sort of tongue in cheek.  I assure you it's not for the same reason! Our animals are far from starving. Although, in a sense, we are giving a certain group a little something different that the whole herd isn't getting...

We are really starting to get close to calving time here, and with that, we are feeding bales of hay and straw to the herd daily. By now, the young cows and heifers have been split from the main herd. This would be any animal who will be having either her first or second calf. These are the soon-to-be mamas that are more likely to need a little extra help calving or might be more likely to encounter difficulties, so by separating them out, it becomes easier for whoever is walking through the herd to identify them. To this group, we like to feed a little extra in addition to the hay bales they munch on.

Enter the range cake.

Range cake is a nutrient-dense feed comprised of mostly mulched up grasses and molasses to hold it together. It's aa all-natural, highly fortified protein, vitamin and mineral supplement, shaped like large pellets. Our young cows get a range cake supplement to their diet of hay once a day, in the morning. Yesterday, I had the honors of feeding the range cake to the girls!

They really go crazy for this stuff. I had walked over to say hello to the girls and snap some photos on my phone. Meanwhile, Jeff was getting a few things ready in the barn. I had a few minutes with the young cows and heifers, and they were pretty curious about me! They were all looking at me, and several came over to the fence for a curious sniff. I'm sure they were thinking, "Stop looking at us and give us our range cake!"  But we had fun anyway! I just love spending time with the cows.

Take a look at the ear tags. The A cows are having their first calf this year, while the Z cows will be second-time mamas.

Cattle are very curious animals! The blonde cow on the left got very close to me, as you'll see in the next image...

I think she would have licked my phone if I didn't step slightly away...

Harvey likes visiting the cows, too! Especially when there's a fence in between him and the animals. He really likes to lick their noses, and they don't seem to mind, either! He'll come right up to them, stick his head through the rungs, and give them a lick!

Z-35 is one of my very favorite cows. She is so pretty, and very gentle. Always one of the first cows to say hello to me!
She and Harvey get along pretty well, too, as you can see.

All told, I'd say 7 or 8 cows came to the fence just for Harvey! Gotta love animals! :)

As soon as the girls heard the sound of Jeff pouring cake into the buckets, Harvey and I became old news. They immediately clambered over toward the small gate where Jeff normally enters the pen, as if they'd be able to sneak a few pellets here and there!

I would be the one to feed the pellets today. I had done it before, but quickly ran through my mind the order in which I would do things, where I'd walk, how I'd pour the cake, and so on. When dealing with large, hungry animals, even animals as gentle as these, it's best to have a plan. Then, I grabbed the first bucket and tucked myself into the pen. The girls were really crowding me for space, excited as they were for their morning snack!  I flailed my free arm toward them and gave them a few shouts of "Ha! Ha!" and they flitted away a bit. I walked over to the farther away feeder and poured the first bucket of cake into it, so that it would be evenly spread out-- to lessen "fighting" among the girls. Plus, by feeding into the farther away feeder first, I would have much more space to freely walk back for the second bucket and feed it, which I did with no problems.

By this time, Jeff was ready for me to walk back to the larger gate and let him in with the tractor so we could feed a bale. And on we went with the rest of our rounds of feeding for the day. Feeding the range pellets to the young cows was as smooth as ever. A real cake walk! So, you see here that, like in the times of the French Revolution, cake is a treat. The difference is that we keep all of our animals fed and happy at all times. And, unlike Marie Antoinette, I love walking among the fray, being with them, and making it possible to let them eat cake! I don't think I'll be guillotined by this bunch. :)

Calving Prep

Can you find Jeff in this photo?
Also, I'm starting to get to the point where I remember some cows from year to year-- that lighter colored cow with the small white star on her forehead is one of my favorites. 

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time with Jeff and Tom working with the cows and getting ready for calving to begin in earnest. As of now, we actually have four calves so far. I posted about the first calf two posts ago, and in case you missed it, CLICK HERE to read up on the first newbie of the year. Since that first calf was born on February 13, we have had two more cows give birth. One of them had twins, so we've had four calves out of three cows so far.

That white-faced calf was our first one.
The really small looking calf that's kind of behind her is one of the twins.

We spent several hours yesterday taking care of last minute preparations before calving really begins in earnest. First, we tagged the three calves who hadn't been tagged yet and sent the pairs out to the big pen. This was done primarily so they'd be out of the way of the rest of the herd who has yet to calve. Plus, now they have more space.

Getting ready to give this calf its new tag!  Just like getting an ear pierced.

My favorite photo of the day. This little calf was born most recently. She is my new pal. She let me pet for quite a long time and just leaned into me while I was doing it, like a dog would. She was very sweet, and her mama did not care at all. 

Then we separated the cows into three groups: 1) Older Cows, 2) Young cows and heifers/first-time calvers, and 3) Late-calvers, or those who look like they will be in the second cycle of calving births. This helps with feeding and checking. Generally, the younger cows get a little better feed, and since they are younger or are calving for the first time, they are more likely to need assistance. The Older Cow group will still get walked through regularly (several times a day and once or twice at night, just like the first-timers), but they are a little less likely to need assistance unless the calf comes breach, or something else comes up. Once the cows have had a calf, after that they seem to remember what they're doing. The late-calver pen will still get walked through, but not probably as often as the first two I've mentioned.

Once we separated the cows into groups, we laid out A LOT of straw bedding for the animals to lay down in. With the weather turning cold, they certainly appreciate some extra warm straw!

Cows aren't the only animals who love new straw! Harvey could not stop rolling in it! 

Then it was time to feed bales in each of the pens. Pregnant cows go through hay pretty quickly. I wonder if any of them have any strange cravings?  Peanut butter and pickles? Mayonnaise and chocolate? More likely they want just the right mix of alfalfa and grass in their bale... Who knows. :)

Mmm... tasty, tasty hay! This is the young-cow/heifer pen.

Our official due date is March 1 but there are always some who go early.  Right now, there are some cows that look like they could go at any time. Because of this, and because of the very cold overnight temperatures we've been having lately, last night was the first night Jeff and I stayed at his parents' house so Jeff could go out for night checks. I usually help function as his alarm clock- making sure he gets out of bed the first time it rings. I'll also try to stay at least semi-lucid until he gets back so that if there's a problem, I can be ready to help.

Which of these ladies will be next?!

For now, we'll keep checking and making the rounds through the pens. It may seem like annoying chore or waste to go out at night when we aren't having any calves right at the moment, but with the weather so cold (below zero over night temperatures) we would hate to not check and go out on the morning to find a newborn calf who froze to death. It's a lot of work this time of year, but it's also very fun and very rewarding.

PS- Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed my previous post-- the 200th Post (Observed)! That post had great response and quickly skyrocketed into the 6th most-viewed post I have done. It's only out of 5th place by one pageview! Thanks, everyone, for being faithful readers! I appreciate it!

First Calf of 2014!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:  We interrupt this regularly scheduled 200th blog post to PrairiePonderingsMT to bring you BREAKING NEWS. The commemorative 200th post will be observed in the 201st post, which will be forthcoming. We now bring you to BREAKING NEWS, already in progress!

BREAKING NEWS: FIRST CALF OF 2014 BORN AT BANGS FAMILY FARMS!

Just in time for Valentine's Day, this little lady was born into the world:


Our first calf of the year was born on Thursday evening. She is a heifer calf and was the first calf out of a heifer (who is technically now a cow).

Here's mama and baby together--

The calf was born without problem. Mama didn't need any assistance, as heifers sometimes do. This heifer is actually part of our herd (Ours in this case = Me and Jeff, carrying the J3 brand), so congratulations to us I guess on the first calf.

The calf sure is cute and I'm glad it seems to be fine.  Being this early (our due date is March 1) it appears as though a bull may have gotten into the herd early. Interestingly, our first calf last year was born on Valentine's Day weekend, too: LAST YEAR'S FIRST CALF.  At this point, it looks like our next calf will not be born until later this upcoming week, perhaps, but one never knows for sure. But with the birth of this first one (one out of about 100 total to calve), Calving Season has officially begun!  Time to break out the rubber overshoes. :)

This is technically the 200th post to this blog (Woohoo!) but we're going to observe it in the next post. For now, have a great day and a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker!

Valentine's Day is tomorrow-- the day of celebrating love, friendship and relationships. I have always been bad at holidays. I still have pumpkins in my house from Halloween. And with holidays that require giving gifts, I'm the worst. I'm just not a good giver of gifts and often forget to get people anything at all. Jeff's getting nothing this year for Valentine's Day. He just informed me I'm getting nothing either. To celebrate, we're taking each other to our local high school basketball game.  On the farm, nothing special will happen to note the passing of Valentine's Day either. The animals don't notice or care that it is a day we humans spend giving cards, flowers and sweets to each other.

We are not forgetting about a little romance for our cows, though! Ironically, this is the time of year we receive fliers and catalogs for bull sales. While the cows munch on hay and prepare themselves for calving, we are preparing to play matchmaker. This year, we likely need two bulls-- a herd bull and a heifer bull.

This is the catalog from the Bulls of the Big Sky sale, which Jeff and I have attended in the past.

As I flip through the bull catalogs, I can't get the song "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from the musical Fiddler On The Roof out of my head:

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match.

Find me a find. Catch me a Catch.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, look through your book

And make me a perfect match!

What if there were an animated version of Fiddler featuring livestock? I have visions of cows and heifers dancing about the corrals in headscarves, singing the song in a yiddish accent. That would certainly be a sight.

But in all reality, we truly do look through our books and compare bulls' statistics. Before attending a live bull sale to make our final selection, we'll have gone through and picked out a few of our favorite prospects. We'll select for traits we want to enhance in our herd, that will suit the cows/heifers we have, and produce desirable traits in the calves. For the heifers, we might look for a slightly smaller bull, whose calves will be born small but gain weight quickly. With the herd bull, we'll select for traits that balance what our cows offer. For example, if we think many of our cows are long nose-to-tail, we may try to find a bull who will add some width to the calves.

Each bull featured in a bull sale gets his own chart in the book with all his statistics.

Another factor we always consider is temperament. We don't want a bull who is, well, a bully. Generally, with Simmental animals, hot-headedness is not prevalent. Simmental are known as a gentle breed. However, we often seek a Sim-Angus bull specifically for those beefier carcass traits, and Angus can have a little more attitude. Temperament is a characteristic that simply can't be quantified in a chart in a catalog. It must be witnessed. That is one reason we'll arrive early at a bull sale and walk through the pens. We can get a feel for the animal's personality and also a visual image of his build. The rest comes down to price in the auction itself.

I have yet to attend a sale that opens with a show-tune performance, but you never know! I think cows singing and dancing may be inspirational to all in attendance. We haven't finalized which sale(s) we'll attend this year, but it's always a good time playing matchmaker for the herd, and bull sales are a hoot.

With that, and in honor of Valentine's Day, here's a clip of one of my favorite commercials from the SuperBowl, featuring a bull sent out to meet the ladies! Also, the next post will be my 200th blog post! Stay tuned... It'll post this weekend!

What are you up to for Valentine's Day?

Branding Day

Saturday morning was sunny and warm, and only slightly windy.  It was a good day for working outside. Specifically, it was a good day for branding.

Branding is the most widely used method of permanently identifying animal ownership. Other methods can include ear tags (which we also use) and RFID chip implants.  Branding itself can be done hot or cold.  We use a hot brand.  It is electric, so no need for a branding fire.

Many ranch operations choose to brand all their calves, each year.  From what I understand, it may be more important to brand more animals if the cattle are at pasture near many other similar-looking breeds, or if they graze on an open range, or if there are problems in the area with cattle rustling (yes, it still happens!) Around here, we only brand the heifers that we are going to keep as part of the herd. Our animals do not graze on open range, and are not too terribly close to others' herds, few of which are simmental or simangus anway.  Our calves are not branded because most of them will be sold in the fall anyway.  So, out of practicality, and I think for the sake of making less of a somewhat unpleasant necessity, only the heifers are branded.

Each year at calving time, each calf born receives a tag with the same number on it as its mother.  At branding time, the replacement heifers get a new "name" and the tags are switched out-- as easy as changing an earring. Painless.  Before the actual branding process began, Jeff and I worked on writing out ear tags for each of the animals.  We would be keeping 21 heifers; each receiving a new tag.  The front of the tag features our brand, J3, (pronounced: J Three Bar), and the number of the animal. There is a system behind the numbers and letters, but I'm not sure I understand it completely, so that will be another post for another time.  The back of the tag features three letters, S, D, and B.  S is for Sire, ie which bull sired this animal. D is for Dam, or the mother of the animal.  B is for the Birth Year of the animal.  All the animals we branded were one year old, born in 2011.


 All the heifers were brought into the corrals and one by one through the squeeze chute.  They each got a vaccine, their new ear tag, and our brand.  Carol helped herd the animals into the chute. Tom operated the chute itself and administered vaccines, and changed ear tags.  Jeff applied the branding iron and helped Tom.  I was the secretary, preparing the tagger and also taking notes of the cows' new numbers. The whole operation went very smoothly.

You should be able to see our J3 brand on the right rib of this cow.

The biggest difference of this branding  was actually the fact that we only used one brand, just the J3.  Tom and Carol have used a different brand, LES, on their herd over the years. This year all the replacement heifers were needed in our herd, as our cattle are older and many will need to be sold as soon as this fall.  These heifers were a combination of animals from our own herd, though most were from Tom and Carol's herd. They have a great set of cows, so these calves will provide a great boost to our cow herd, and we were very appreciative that they were willing to allow us to add the heifers to our cows!

Calving has Begun!

Calving has begun.  Let's kick it off on the blogosphere with a photo--

This little lady was born yesterday morning, and the photo was taken within an hour or two of her birth.  Amazing how quickly they are standing and walking around.  Amazing how damn cute they are, too!

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

Pass or Keep?

The ship date for this years calves is approaching, so recently we had to round them all up and make sure they had the appropriate vaccines.  On a cool morning, Tom and Jeff drove the cows and calves in from the fields where they were feasting on grain stubble.  Then they sorted the calves apart from the cows, along with help from me and Carol, and another young neighbor.  The calves were run one at a time into the squeeze shoot (or is it chute?-- I'm really not sure which word it is.  Anyone have any ideas?) where they were vaccinated and given a new ear tag.  The sex and appearance of each calve that would be shipped was marked on a sheet. 

During this process, Jeff and Tom also decided once-and-for-all which of their heifer calves they would keep as part of the herd.  It appeared as though they had given some thought into this beforehand and were taking a last look at each of the prospective replacement heifers to decide for sure.  These calves were not given vaccines or ear tags, but will be branded with either an LES or a J3 at a later date.  

It's an interesting process.  It took the better part of a long morning from the time the guys went out to round up the animals until the time all the calves had been run through the chute (I guess I'm settling on this version).  I like to think I see what the guys see when they're deciding which heifers to keep-- their size, shape and parentage suggesting they too would be good mothers.  In truth, there's no way I could know at this point, with my limited ranching experience, what factors contribute and how they could be expressed in a young animal. 

It's not natural selection if we are choosing which animals to keep around for breeding purposes. But, decisions are based on genetics and predisposition towards some traits as well as non-expression of others.  One great big biology lesson on the farm.  The guys each have an idea in mind of how they want their herd to look and animals are kept or sent down the road based on this.  Each calve was given a verdict:  Pass on to be shipped next week with the rest, or Keep for the herd. 

The cows were all separated out into a large pen.  This cow is one of my favorites simply for the 'brockle' markings on her face.  Unfortunately, she's actually somewhat of a poor cow and will likely be sold sometime soon. 

Calves kept in a different holding area from the cows, before they are pushed through the chute. 

Harvey had been 'helping'-- he fancies himself a herding dog sometimes.
Apparently he decided he'd rather watch from the safety of the pickup.  

Young cows are quite excitable and not very smart.
These ones had basically ran themselves into a corner. 

Harvey was again 'helping' by running around with a large piece of corral wood in his mouth.

A little hard to see, but there is a cow in the squeeze shoot here.
Jeff applied his ear tag while Tom gave the vaccines.
I was the secretary and took notes on the calves.
Carol and Brett helped move the calves along.