Dairy Doings

So this past summer in the dairy department has been off and on.

We have had two sets of twins born; both either bull/bull or bull/heifer combos...meaning that we had to sell them. The cows all seemed to coordinate births. In early Aug we had two cows go on the same day, and the same on another day in early Sept I believe. I think we have had 9 calves since early Aug, and maybe 2 or 3 in July.

(It's hard to concentrate here, I have a pot of pinto beans w/ ham soup on the stove simmering; it smells very distracting.)

We don't have a regular calf buyer anymore, but hubby just puts them on Craig's List and we usually have a buyer within 24 hrs.

One guy came for two little bulls. He called when hubby wasn't here and asked me how big the calves were. Well, they weren't the biggest bulls we've had but they were fairly average sized Holstein calves. That's what I told him. Well, he shows up with a fairly flimsy dog kennel; the kind where the top lifts off. (hehehehe...) Hubby STILL wasn't home when the guy arrived, so he checks the calves out and says, "Well this thing is looking smaller all the time. Think we can get them in it?"

WE

Have you got a mouse in your pocket, buddy? It keeps squeaking..."we, we."

Anyway. Hubby does show up about this time...whew. And they DO pack both calves in there. Oh, for a camera when you really need it! I am going to start bringing one with me when these folks show up. (Wait for the next story) He had lots of straps that he and hubby put over the thing, and I guess they made it OK.

The last set of 3 calves we sold was twins and a single bull. They guy was getting them for his 2 kids' 4-H project, or FFA or something like that. He had a 20 ft stock trailer. But he declined to bring such a long one for 3 little calves.

Instead he brought his wife's Suburban.

Without her knowledge.

He put some plastic and cardboard in the very back, he and hubby loaded all 3 smelly calves up there. Of course the first one to go in freaked out when the next one was jammed in and it went scrambling into the back seat. The guy got back there and shoved it back into the back again and told his kid, about 10-11 yrs old or so, to get in the back seat and hold them in. They got the 3rd one in, paid up and took off.

Oh, for a camera.

I wonder what the wife said and if they got the smell out yet. You don't realize how badly a calf smells until you get THREE of them in a little cramped space like that.

Well, time to make the cornbread.

More later.

Comments

jel said…
I see ya got back online,

we have had beans and cornbread,
the last 3 nites in a row
September 20, 2011 at 9:18 PM
Donna. W said…
We once brought a tiny Jersey heifer home in a gunny sack in the floor ok the back seat of our old Plymouth. They.don't make real gunny sacks these days.
September 21, 2011 at 12:49 PM
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