And the gang's all here

This is just a little snapshot of a few of the million things that went on this month ...

We finished our third cutting, and this time we used trucks and a bagger.

                     

It's fun to watch.  The chopper blows the tiny pieces of chopped up alfalfa into these trucks we rented.  The trucks drive to the baggers, and they tip into the bagger as it moves forward.  Ahhh...nice, full, big bags of feed for the winter!

               

We had preemies. Not twins, but two tiny girls at the same time.  They were half the size of a normal calf - and so small they looked like goats!  They were healthy, though!  Our team member took them to her grandparents' house to raise them.  Before they left, she put little pink collars on them, which was a definite first for calves around here!  So cute.

                                     

One evening my neighbor Ashley called me and said, "I can see three of your cows in your corn."  Oh no!  I raced out of the house.  My neighbors and I easily got them back in.  Kris rode up on the quad and I said, "We got the cows back in."  Kris said, "Those aren't cows.  Those are heifers."  This meant that they didn't come right from where I could see them ... they had come from across the corn field!

We weren't dealing with three cows ... we were dealing with 50 heifers.  My parents, my neighbors, my kids, the three guys milking, Kris and I started searching in the 12-foot high corn for lost heifers.  We walked through, calling them, and they were so happy to find us and followed us out.  Meanwhile, we were trying to fix the fence, but we couldn't repair it until all of them were out.  It took about three hours for us to find all the heifers, and Kris was able to fix the fence before dark.  Whew!

                       

We had a lot of visitors, including my family.  One night all of her nine grandchildren helped her with calf chores!

                                                 

It's here!  I'm so happy with Sawyer in the Sky, my second book in the Sawyer in the Woods series.  So excited.  My boys loved it, and I hope your kids love it too! Available on Amazon.

                             

Something else new ... I'm going to be hosting the Michigan GROWN, Michigan GREAT podcast!  I start recording in August, and I'll be sure to post the link to the podcast here.  I'll be interviewing farmers and agriculturalists from around the state about what's happening on their farms!  I'm really looking forward to it, and I hope you enjoy listening.

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

First time

I got a call from Kris.

"We're putting the heifers out on pasture for the first time.  Could you stand in the back corner and try and keep them from running through the fence?"

Putting heifers out on pasture for the first time for the year is a little different than putting them out on pasture for the first time EVER.  First of all, they've never seen an electric fence.  Second, they've never had such a giant area in which to run.  Third, they run as fast as they can toward the fences.

Kris picked Max and me up.  In between calling me and getting me, Kris had discovered that a heifer had gotten excited and gotten out.  She wasn't one of the ones we were moving though - she was at the barn!  

Josh and Mike were taking heifers from the barn on trailers and letting them off into the field.  Kris opened a gate and I said I'd chase her into the pasture.  I started off running and Kris joked, "Put all that training to work!" 

I got behind her and she moved easily into the next pasture.

All I had to do was chase her straight up the fence into the next pasture.  Josh and Mike left, and Kris drove ahead to open the gate.  As soon as they left, she and I moved ahead and ... she got a running start and ran right through the fence again.

I moved her into the corner, hoping she wouldn't run into the road.  She didn't.  She turned around and stood and stared at me.  I stood and stared at her.  

We were at a standstill.  Alone, I couldn't open two gates next to the road to get her to where she was supposed to be.  I didn't want to chase her through a fence, since I didn't WANT her to run through fences.  

So we waited.  For ten minutes, she and I stared at each other.  I talked to her a little, telling her I was just trying to get her back with the herd.  I knew Kris or one of the guys would come back eventually.
  

They all came back at the same time and we moved her into the pasture again.  Then we repeated the freeing of the heifers, the nerve wracking feeling of watching them run toward the fence ... surrounded by open fields ... and hoping they stayed in.  The wayward heifer slowly blended in with the others.

I helped with a few loads until my boys were getting home from school.  We checked again right before dark ... they were all still there! 

I hope they're all still there in the morning ... or it'll be a different kind of training run.

                                         

***

Ryan Bright is a dairy farmer in Tennessee, where he milks about 90 cows.  They raise corn, hay, and wheat.  He is also an author!  He interviewed me about my books Every Other Twin Book is Wrong, Where the Filed Things Are, and Sawyer in the Woods on his blog, Farmer Bright.  

You can read it on his site here.


 

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Ice and snow and ice and snow

Kris was calling.

"Where were you on that?" he said, laughing.

"Where was I when?" I asked.

"The heifers just got out right by the house!  They managed to open a gate," he said.  

"Ah!" I yelled.  I was running on the treadmill, doing the first couple of miles inside so I could finish up outside.  Kris knows how much I love the excitement of the heifers being out ... but mostly I could have seen and helped get them back in!

"Our neighbor said that he saw one go toward the pasture, but I didn't see any tracks.  So keep an eye out for her!" he said.

I ran outside with my camera - like I was planning - because it is the most beautiful morning.  After our second 12-inch snow, this morning everything is covered in ice leftover from the fog.

 

The heifers were all back in, I didn't see any in the pasture, and I couldn't even see a stray hoofprint. They'd run nicely in the scraped road.

Enjoy your beautiful winter day, wherever you are!  Hopefully today you're around for whatever excitement your cattle, pets, children, friends - or whatever you're responsible for - provide.

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Spring fever

I was with some of my city-living friends recently and I mentioned my 'neighbors'.  They laughed and made jokes because my 'neighbors' aren't really that close to my house.

But really, we have the best neighbors - they're also our friends.  I took this picture from our neighbor Ashley's front yard.  Her tree is so beautiful every year, and Ashley and her family love seeing the cattle in the pasture like we do.

Also today our friend and neighbor-down-the-road Sharon posted this on Facebook:

"Friendly Neighbors make for Happy Cows and Exceptionally Cute Calves ---- It's true... just ask me! It's that time of year again. Some of the pregnant moms have been moved right next door! Some of them came up to the fence to say hello, how's the family, etc. Soon I'll be posting pics of cute little calves making their way into the world. LOVE this time of year! Stay tuned."

It's nice that the excitement is all around us!

Today we moved the calves from last year into the pasture for the first time ever in their lives.  I couldn't be there, so my mom took lots of video of them mooing, sprinting, and kicking.  We spent the afternoon watching them, since they're right in my backyard.  They'd tired themselves out and were lying down or butting heads, trying to decide who's boss.

I don't know if you've ever seen cattle do that, but it's just like you see on nature shows with pretty much any animal butting heads.  They just kind of neck-wrestle, then both wander away.  It's hard for me to tell who won.

It'll be a busy day on the farm tomorrow.  We're scouring the calf barn to ready for new calves, hauling manure to the fields, and moving more cattle.

And our neighbors will be around for it all.  Interested?  If you like a real cow moo as an alarm clock, there are a few houses for sale around here.


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 big heifer move

Over the last two days, we've been moving the heifers. 

We're moving them for the winter from a far pasture to a pasture next to the barn, so we can feed them silage. 

The guys left the gates open, so that the heifers could sniff around and make their way over on their own time.  That way you don't have to chase them and have them get all crazy. 

One heifer didn't want to go, and she did get really wild.  She took down a cable, tried to hurdle a four-wire fence, broke a pole, and ran along the creek for a long way with Kris chasing her.  But she eventually went with the herd!

The guys put them through the barn so they could pour dewormer on them.  Kris said it's strange having them walk through the barn because they don't remember how to walk on concrete!  They're not used to a non-ground surface.  But they got them all through, dewormed, and out to their winter pasture. 

Now they'll spend the winter outside eating, gestating, and waiting for spring.  A huge pasture full of pregnant heifers is a beautiful sight.

Almost last

A cow was kind enough to calve right in front of our house yesterday!  As I walked out toward her, I could see she was really close.  When I got in a good spot to watch, she pushed out her calf!  It was the perfect timing.

Newborn. It actually doesn't get any more new than this. 

 

All cleaned off and mooing, just minutes old

Kris said that later she also gave birth to another - she had twins.  I guess I was bound to see at least one of them be born ...

It's also that time of year - on Friday we moved the yearlings (that's what you call cattle that are a year old) at the old barn out to pasture.  They've been kicking up their heels in delight all weekend long.  They haven't even broken out yet - fingers crossed. 

So now the pasture is full of heifers.  In the paddock next to them are the last 11 cows that have yet to give birth.  The cycle continues, with one huge difference - this is the most calves I've seen born in any year!  2012 will go down in history!

That number?  Yeah, it's three.  Three births.  Two natural, one assisted.  It's a start.   

Background

I sent this picture out to some friends last weekend, and it got a lot of comments - not about the boys, but about how it looks like the cattle checking them out. They don't just seem like they are - they ARE very interested. Our cattle love looking at people that are different, and anytime these darting, small creatures come around, they have their undivided attention. (They also like Kris a lot, because he means food.)

This evening at 8:30pm I was going running and Kris asked if I would run through the pasture to check one more time for calves. I was running along the fence line, in with the cattle, and they were SO EXCITED. They all ran alongside me, getting as close as they possibly could before kicking away, then running back again to catch up. I got splattered with a lot of mud. I spotted a calf, with about five cows hovering over it. I couldn't tell who the mother was.

When I got back and told Kris, he said, "Was it a bull or a heifer? Did a heifer or a cow have it?" Hmm. He said, "I'll send you with more specific instructions next time."

Even though it was 9:00pm, he'd already showered and changed, he put his work clothes on and went back out to take care of the calf. He said if a heifer had it, the chances of it feeding her calf weren't great, because first-time mothers don't know what to do. Or if they do know what to do, the bossy cows crowd all around the calf, trying to take care of it. (I will draw no comparisons between humans and cows in this paragraph.)

When he went out to get it, he saw another cow trying to have a calf. So he warmed up colostrum, brought the calf back to the barn, and made sure the second calf was born with no trouble. Showered again, and collapsed into bed before starting it all over again in 7 hours!

Even though it's tiring, Kris loves this exciting time of year because due to his extreme physical activity, he can eat whatever he wants. Some of us have to go running year round. But we're both doing our part, right? He's taking care of the cattle's every need, I'm bringing the evening entertainment.

First calves!

An exciting day! The first calves were born! Kris came home right after he left in the morning - I thought something was wrong - but he was coming to get towels to dry off the little calves. (Oh, it was raining. Have I mentioned the endless rain?)

This is the way it works - at least three times a day Kris walks or drives in the pasture to see if he finds any calves. If a cow is having trouble, he helps her, but most of them just give birth unassisted.

He got a blue towel and a pink towel, I noted. They were the first ones he grabbed, but really - a heifer and a bull!


He at first thought they might be twins, because not only were they close to each other in the pasture, but he could only find one mother. This wouldn't be the best scenario, because when there are male/female twins in cattle, the heifer is infertile the majority of the time. However, he found the second mother later in the day. Hooray!

One mother was a heifer (her first calf, so now she's a cow) and one was a cow (which means she's already had a calf before.) The cow had plenty of colostrum to give, so he bottlefed them and they drank well.

So, the first two! About 298 to go, all between now and August 15. Kris' schedule for the next three months is pretty set. Ready, set, calve!