Such a beautiful sight

             

Ah...the cows were already out on pasture, and today we put out the heifers!  Today Kris, Mike, and Josh painstakingly, doing seven at a time in our trailer, transported the heifers from the barn to the pasture across from our house.  Now there are over 100 out there!  

When they let them off from the trailer, they both were ready with dewormer, which they put on their backs.  They had definitely perfected it - undo fence.  Drive through.  Connect fence.  Undo trailer. Put dewormer on cows as they exit.  Undo fence.  Drive through.  Put seven more heifers from barn into trailer. 

I love having them across the road.  It's one of my favorite sights.  

Here's from my parents' house ...

Even though they're all some sort of Holstein, they look very different.  We have all white ones -

We have Dalmatian-type ones -

We have a lot of black and white -

And we have the black/brown/whites!  Seriously, look at those colors.

I can't stop looking!  This is one of my favorite sights - from my yard.  It's finally pasture season.

I was just looking at these pictures with Kris and asked him, "Do you have a favorite kind of cow?" He said, "Yes!  The ones that milk a lot."


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The cows are out ... on pasture!

It's so exciting to let the cows out on pasture for the first time in the spring.  I called my mom ... the boys and I went over ... and the cows were super loud in the barn!  They knew.  They'd seen people in the field getting ready all day.  

Part of having the cows out on the field is making sure that they have a close water source.  They drink the equivalent of a bathtub full of water a day.  (Which sounds ridiculous and makes me thirsty.)

Our water tanks are made of cement, and like all cement, sometimes they crack and leak.  Kris was looking at the patching with Ty, and then the boys started trying to fix it right away.  They built rock and dirt dams.  It didn't staunch the flow much, but I liked their attempt.  We're going to look at plastic liners next.

Then it was time!  We opened the gates and the cows came running out!

Kris, do you hear something behind you?

They ran, ran, ran!  All of these are pregnant cows.  They're dried up, which means we're not milking them until they have calves - right out here in the pasture.  (For more on drying up, read here.)

 They stopped as soon as they came down the lane and started eating.

It's so nice to see the cows on pasture.  The green grass, the blue sky, the 70 degree weather - all perfect pasturing and spring weather.

We had another sign of spring, too!  Our team member Adam brought back out the U Mad Bro tank top!  He faithfully wore this shirt all last summer.  His dedication made my boys love that shirt and they all now have one.  I didn't get them - Santa did.

So, it's spring, the cows are out (in the only good way possible), and no one's mad - it's one of the happiest times of year on the farm.


If you want to know more, you can like my farm page on Facebook, follow @carlashelley on twitter, or get the posts sent to your email by filling out the form on the right. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me! 

The view

I know people have all sorts of views out their windows - oceans, mountains, spectacular sunsets - but I love our view of cows in the pasture.

We had so much rain last week that after we had the cows out, we had to put them back into the barn again for a few days.  It was so muddy out there that if they walked all over it, they'd completely ruin the pasture and it would be just a giant mud hole.  (Yes, they can do it that quickly!  Think Woodstock.)  So we put them back in again, it dried up enough, and they're back outside!

Now that it's spring there are a million things going on at once - we finally got our new mixer wagon delivered.  It's 50% bigger than the last one, so feeding all the cattle won't take as long.  We put in new cement and a new driveway on the calf barn.  Machines have been breaking - like always, and some have been returned, fixed.

But aside from all that, it's just nice to be out in the pasture again.  The cows and the boys agree.

The running of the cattle

Yesterday, we had a calf that we were unable to find.  Kris knew the cow had given birth in the pasture, but there was no calf in sight.  He looked for it in the pouring rain.  Kody looked for it.  Kris looked for it many more times ... but couldn't find it.  He was disappointed. 

Then last night right before midnight I got an email from my lovely neighbors Sharon and Ben.  She said they had heard a lot of mooing and went outside to investigate.  She "tromped through the weeds" on her side of the fence and found the calf!  She said it was "quite comfortable and in no particular hurry to return to its mom."  Sharon held a light and Ben stood up the calf and walked it over to our side of the fence.  She said, "I loved it!"

A happy ending, orchestrated by Sharon and Ben - thanks!

There is so much going on.  Just a few things: yesterday we put up the new grain bin.  They put on nine out of fifteen roof trusses today.  We're dealing with many new mothers.  Today we got a delivery of 16 more heifers we purchased.  Also, today we moved our one-year-old heifers (called yearlings) out to pasture for the first time ... and they were so excited!

I took a little video.  It went on like this for quite some time.  It's probably still happening right now.