Setting up for Beef Cows

 

Gary got a new corral this past week; a bit more intricate than anything we had for the dairy herd.  It has a swinging panel and random gates and chutes and whatnot to it, for vaccinating and separating calves.  Far be it from me to understand exactly what it does.  I helped him set up the tricksy part of it, but it was so cold I didn't give it as thorough of an inspection as I ought to have done, perhaps.

We have had these beef heifers for 2 years now, and all of them have calved except one.  Well, no, there was another one that didn't even breed.  She must have been a free-martin or some other issue is going on with her.  Hopefully this last heifer will calve eventually and have a nice little baby for us. 

Otherwise all the rest of them did well. Only one heifer had a still birth, I believe.  Another abandoned her calf.  Just walked away from it.  We got her and the calf in the corral together and she summarily refused to have anything to do with him; wouldn't let him nurse.  We gave her some feed to distract her, and he was able to get a bit of colostrum, but as soon as she was finished eating she walked away from him.  So we just took him, bottle fed him with colostrum we had in the freezer for a day or so and then sold him.  I suppose if we'd had a set-up where we could have kept them together in a barn or a corral close to home and worked with them more, she might have grown accustomed to him and allowed him to nurse.  But I don't think she would have continued to care for him out in the field.  

Agriculture is a hair-raising business to get in to.  You never know how your livestock is going to perform for you.  And so much of it depends on the weather.  This drought is getting serious across the Midwest; ponds and rivers are getting pretty low.  And hay might get pretty scarce.

My hat is off to all of these young people who are determined to make a go of it in agriculture.  It is certainly not for the faint of heart.

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