New Arrivals and Old Friends

Hello friends!  

I have many new arrivals for you to meet this week. Starting with my new best friend and partner in crime.... 

Shadow!! 

Shadow was found early last week near the farm and he has been hanging out ever since.  He really likes helping with chores and riding in the truck!  He also loves to fetch.  So far no one has claimed him and I may just take him to the vet this week to get him all checked out!

The calf farm also got a couple new neighbors.   Two cows and a bull.  The cattle are the neighbors and he primarily turns them out to keep the bull and cows with no calves away from the rest of the herd just for safety reasons or breeding reasons.

He looks very serious.  I am sure he puts up with nothing in his big woods lot.  

Our next new arrival is another important one!  The boys have been very busy, as I said last week, planting corn.  The regular #2 corn is done and seed corn and beans are in the works, but you can already see the fruits of their labor!  

This was taken early last week, the corn is growing so much already!  

And I saved the best new arrivals for last!  Double D had 6 baby lambs!  5 boys and 1 girl!  Look how cute these boys are!  

Awwwwww

Now for the old friends,  if you look closely you can see two previously introduced friends.  726 is Smores from "An Average Day" fame and 704 is Freckles from "Beware of Buckethead" fame.  They are all grown up and in the weaning pin!  The weaning pin is full if can't tell.  

That is about it for this week, just keeping up.  We are actually short calves due to the busy spring calving season being over so life is pretty nice right now complete with pretty nice weather!  

Calf Count: 69 

Enjoy your week!  

The Lifecycle of the Cattle Farm

Hello again!

Meet my new friends.  They have no names so if you have ideas let me know! 

So I did get 8 new little guys this week including the two you see above, but other than that it was a rather slow week at least in terms of the blog.

We did finally get our rain.  Almost 2 inches this week which is a ok.  The forecast for this week is more rain...not so ok for the boys.  

Anyway, since I didn't accomplish much other than the regular this week I thought I would talk about the lifecycle of our cattle.

So let's review what you know so far.  I get them when they are a few days old, they hang out in their snazzy huts for about 2 months, and then they get weaned!  

From the weaning pin, they head to one of our many lots where they proceed to grow up one pound at a time.  We are almost at full capacity so many of the lots are full but we are making it work.  

One of the lots

These guys you see here are actually 6 months old.  I raised them from the beginning and they are getting quite big!  They have moved around a few times but here they are now, and they will likely stay here quite a while.  I would venture to guess that they weigh anywhere from 400 to 600 pounds.  

Eventually they will get to be upwards of 1000 pounds and move to the big finish lot.

That's where these big boys are!  

The finish lot has a big feed bunk and plenty of room so they can get really big and still stay happy.  They stay at the finish lot until they weigh between 1300 and 1700 pounds.  When their day arrives, they take a ride in the trailer to the sale barn where they are normally sold to a meat packing company.  The company takes them and we get a check to use to start anew.  The boss man only goes to the sale on Saturdays and we try to make it work so that we can send 10 steers a week.  It doesn't always work, but that is the goal.  And if you do the math that means 520 calves go to market a year.  Not a bad number if you ask me.  

Now not all the steers go to the sale.  Sometimes we do take in some steers to a local butcher who will butcher the steer as we wish.  We often sell the meat to friends or neighbors who are interested.  We often don't make money on this, but the steers usually have some sort of issue, not effecting the meat, but their life like a broken leg or something that does not allow them to grow up.  Its less of a loss than a total loss and we get to enjoy all our hard work through some tasty meals.

Now I know the next question, do I eat my own calves.  Yes I do, its a fact of life on a farm that your raise these guys for food so I have learned to accept  thanks to all those years of 4-H.

Either way in a little more than a year's time (anywhere from 12 to 18 months) the calves are grown up and sold to feed America and/or the world.

Questions or thoughts for next week?  Let me know!


Until next time!

Red thinks you should enjoy the sunshine like him, relax!  

Have a good week!

Calf Count: 71

Shinguards and Solutions - Hard To Come By

Hello long lost followers and friends!  Sorry I have been so lax with the blog not much going on besides the norm and not a heck of a lot of time for writing!  Spring will wear a girl out if she's not careful.

Speaking of norm,say hello to Cliff (left) and Norm!  They are great drinkers thus their names!  

This week I thought I would recap a little differently with a straight up list of what I learned.  So here you are.

* No one has all the answers.  Most of the time they have no answer.  I'm still working on accepting this, I like answers a lot.  I like clear answers and solutions, often impossible things in agriculture.  Something I have recently learned about myself.

* Not everyone is willing to help or share information or ideas or whatever.  Another one that I struggle with, but I'm trying.

* Observation is everything but you have to observe the right things.  You can observe the wrong things all day long and get nowhere, but the right observations will get you everywhere if you know where to look.  Another that I am working on, working extremely hard.

* Rain really is a good thing.  Wind, however, is not!  We have had a lot of wind and a very limited amount of rain.  Maybe this week, maybe just maybe.  (Corn planting has begun though, the boys are about half way done, I think.  They don't need my help much other than parts runs.)

Playing in the rain while it lasts! 

* I always need to learn more!  It's constant and sometimes overwhelming.  Things change often and my need for answers takes over again and again.

* Laughter can remedy many situations, uncomfortable or otherwise.  Something that I think I can be good at when given a good opportunity.

* Laying a calf down is hard work!  I learned how to lay a calf down in a field or anywhere, and it is much harder than those darn cowboys make it look!  The need to lay a calf down is primarily for a shot, aka they are too fast to catch in the middle of the field or lot or wherever so you basically throw them on the ground for their own well being, give the shot, and let them go.  In most cases at least in the couple times I did or attempted to do it, I felt worse off than the calf who was just treated.

These former little guys are getting big.  They like to lick the truck!

* I should probably invest in shinguards for my daily wear.  My shins would certainly thank me.  One is bloody the other welted.  From gates to calves to casual run ins, my shins seem to hate the life I lead.  Guess they will just have to adjust!

Finally,

* I am blessed to be here where I am allowed to learn from my mistakes instead of punished for them which is just amazing because let's face it I am totally not perfect, not even a little.

I do know that if you ever need a good workout or good laugh I'm your girl!  I'm trying and learning and trying some more!

Have a good week everybody!

Calf Count: 75

Busy as a Bee

Hello again my cyber friends!

As I said last week, spring has arrived and that means things on any farm including ours are crazy busy!  The boys are getting ready to start planting by preparing the fields and the machinery for duty.  The pallets upon pallets of seed have arrived so its only a matter of hours before planting begins!  Once it starts maybe we will create a bit of a jinx and it will rain, a great rain, or any rain for that matter.  We are in desperate need for moisture of any kind!  

Since the boys are all occupied with their own duties, I have been relatively alone this week.  This means I have been busy as a bee.  I know for a fact I am like a bee because believe it or not they have arrived!  From lilacs to bees spring is in full swing.  

Aren't the lilacs pretty?!

So this week I got those new huts ready for new little guys set to arrive tomorrow!  I also arranged with the neighbor we met at the sale to pick up the huts he had too!  I have nine new homes for babies!  And there will be more huts to come, I didn't get all of the neighbor's yet!  

We are ready! 

I also am loaning a calf to another neighbor who raises angus cattle.  He had a set of twins but Momma cow only accepted one for whatever reason (nature works in mysterious ways) and now he has to bottle feed the unaccepted calf.  So he decided his little guy needed a friend!  I will be delivering a friend tomorrow.  I hope they get along! I hope to get a picture of the two of them for next week!  

I leave you for now with a picture of Conner, who is getting weaned this week because it is just too difficult for him to stay in his hut!  He is quite the Con-Artist (thus the name) and gets out so much I am not even fazed by it.  Even today when I had visitors and he bolted by I said oh its just Conner no worries.  When its time for dinner he always comes around!  

Waiting patiently for my arrival.  

Until we meet again.  (I'm off to do a rain dance!)

Sold!

Hey all!  Sorry for the delay this week, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day as of late.  I am starting to realize that more sunlight means more time to work and its just been too nice to stop!

Let's see where to begin.  I welcomed in 8 new friends including this guy, I have named him Badger due to his fierce attitude for life, you know, like a honey badger!

We moved some of the older weanlings to a great new pasture lot that they love.

And all of the other boys at Kalfland survived another week including the red twins, Fred and Ned!

Fred is the one sticking his tongue out at you! 

Then on Saturday Double J and Double D were off to a neighboring town for a farm auction!  I had never been to a farm auction let alone an auction where I had a blank check!  The trust from the bosses was something that I kept in mind all day and wanted to continue to have in the future so there were certainly no spending sprees.

Double D and I were headed to this specific auction because it had something the cattle division was in desperate need of....more huts!  So we got there early, got our number, and checked out what was available.

This farm was auctioning pretty much everything except the buildings and the land.  The farmer had decided to get out of the dairy business so he was selling everything involved.  Everything included tractors, implements like balers and plows and wagons, straw and hay and feed, the entirety of the herd (120 animals), and dairy equipment including our beloved huts.

The day was a little chilly to start but we had a great time!  The great part of a farm auction is it is a community event meaning lots of your neighbors are there and you get to mingle.  We mingled, but when the auction began things got serious.

They started with the big stuff first which we weren't too interested in.  But after an hour and a half we finally got to the dairy equipment.  I let Double D bid up to this point on the things we were interested in, but when I got excited I took over!  We made a few purchases including 5 bottles with nipples, a hose, and a bucket holder for a dollar, all of that for one single solitary dollar!   Then we got some waterers that Double D wanted.  And then it was time for huts!  I convinced the auctioneers to separate the huts by style.  There were two styles, new and old.  They sold the old first.  And wouldn't you know it, we bought them!  5 huts for the farm!  They certainly aren't new to the world but they are in darn good shape and were a bargain that could not be passed up!  They don't exactly fit in, but they sure do build character and can easily serve as a home for five lovely calves to come next week!

Eventually we made it home with all our new purchases, stories to tell, and lessons learned for next time.  In the end though just with the huts purchase I figure we saved the farm $500 versus buying 5 new huts and all the stuff that goes with them.  The best part is during our mingling,  we talked to another neighbor who was willing to sell us his huts too!  So it was definitely a great productive day!

Until next week, I hope the world treats you well!

  

Spring has Sprung!

Well we are past the ides of March, but around here it has seemed more like the ides of June or even July. We had something like 7 days in a row where temperatures were 80 or above, certainly not typical for March in Indiana.  

So warm the weanlings fought over the water! 

Because of the unseasonably warm temperatures this week, the farm was crazy busy! 
So what was I doing this week that made me busier than usual?  Well check out my picture!  

Go Cat Go!

This is actually the boss chisel plowing, but I was his relief.  We would trade shifts throughout the day and part of the night.  Chisel plowing happens in the spring and fall and helps reduce the amount of weeds in a field and break up any clumps of dirt that appear among many other things.  All I know is I am happy to do it!  Chisel plowing is one of many things we do to prepare the fields for planting.  This week I also disked a field with a compactor pulled behind it, if only I had taken a picture of that!  It was two things behind the tractor!  We don't usually get the opportunity to get started so early, but with the nice weather we were pretty darn productive!  


Besides spring plowing starting early, I noticed a few other things this week.  Things from my ranger days, say a few Ring-billed Gulls!  

These guys, who are not by any means sea gulls (there are no seas in Indiana in case you forgot), like to follow along behind the plow and pick up the worms and other creatures that might appear when the dirt is turned up.  I had to take a picture of them from the tractor just for my old ranger friends! 


Another nice sighting this week was this! 

Deers!!! 

They crept right up the edge of the calf farm and were munching on some tasty corn left in the field.  I will always call them deers because of the one couple I had from who knows where that had never seen a deer let alone more than one!  Their excitement caused them to say deers!  and ever since then I feel the need to share their excitement with the same phrase.  


Other than plowing and my wildlife sightings I still took care of all my babies!  We are so darn full that when weaning begins this week, we need another pin to move them to.  Thank goodness the weekend was perfect weather for fence building/fixing.  The boys fixed up a very nice pasture pen for some of the older weanlings.  So now the new guys have somewhere to go!  


New little guys will be here by the end of the week!  


I guess that is my hodge podge update for now.


Hope the week treats you well!  




Calf Count: 76

An Average Day

Hey all!

This week was a little boring so I thought maybe I should tell you what exactly "boring" is.  Everyday has mandatory requirements of things that need to be done... aka... chores!  Now these chores don't seem like much to me anymore mostly because I do them everyday but to an average non-farmer they might seem a little more than normal.  So let's begin.

I usually get to the farm around 730 and get everything ready for the day.  I start chores by checking on everyone then I proceed to make the milk!  Yes I make the milk!  We do not have any cows on our farm as you may recall so that means we use a substitute for the real thing, milk replacer.  It comes powdered so I add water and with our homemade tank it gets all mixed and ready for the boys!

Doesn't he look hungry to you?! 

When the milk is ready, usually about a 10 minute task, I grab my pitcher and get to work!  I measure out milk for each calf and feed them their breakfast!  After an hour give or take I'm done with milk and then I feed them grain to get them transitioning to a solid diet instead of just liquid.  Morning chores including milk and grain usually takes anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours.

I usually have an hour to kill before my next big chore and usually I can pass the hour by giving shots and bedding the huts as needed.

Smores loves a clean home! 

After an hour or two I return with my tank and make either a batch of red gatorade for calves, just electrolytes really, or just water and feed it out again.

By then it is usually lunch time for me so I get a break to return later.  Most days I usually leave the little calves for lunch and don't return for a few hours unless I have vaccinations to give, sick calves to treat, houses to bed, or calves to move.  Those few hours available I tend to go check on the rest of the herd or try to help in other areas of the farm.

Then around 330 or 4 I am back to the farm to feed the calves again.  Another hour to two later, I am done and ready to go home.

One thing to note though before I had my lovely homemade milk tank I used to carry all this milk in five gallon buckets.  Eight five gallon buckets per round were needed and milk weighs eight pounds per gallon so forty pounds a bucket.  Which means that just in milk I could carry 640 pounds a day! Thankfully I got a tank as a late Christmas present, but I definitely got strong fast before the tank!

My job requires a lot of manual labor but the calves appreciate it and I enjoy it all the same.  Any thoughts are questions leave them for me and I will respond next week!

Smores likes the sunshine even if it is just on his nose!  

Hope your week goes well and you get a little sunshine to enjoy just like Smores!

Operation Learning Vacation

Hello again friends! This week is a bit of a change of pace.  No little guys to check out in the pics because I had a "vacation"!  I was away from the farm so I consider it quite the vacation but an average outsider may not.  My terrific mother heard of a conference about women in agriculture and thought we just had to go!  So off we went...to Amish country!  

You know you have arrived in Amish country when you see hitching posts and buggies!  

We arrived and the learning began.  The conference was educational in purpose but we did have some fun!  I learned a little bit about being a citizen of agriculture and spreading the word...ahem...thus the blog.  Then a bit about working through the generations.  We ran away for lunch because the Amish don't just have horse and buggies they have great food!  So we had lunch and then continued our enrichment.  That evening after dinner and learning about crops in Costa Rica, think real hard and I bet you can come up with them...bananas, coffee, and cocoa we went back to the hotel to relax.  Relaxing began but as we began to wind down we lost power and had to rough it Amish style with no power.  The whole town lost power for hours!

An average amish farm, no electric required! 

We awoke anew with electricity! We attended a couple more sessions and then took to the streets!  My absolute favorite part about Amish country is the fabric stores!   They are all terrific and many stores have a fabric department included even the hardware store!  I was in heaven!  Mom even took me to the real deal fabric store where I was in awe for at least 45 minutes before our stomachs interrupted my dreams!  I didn't even take pictures I was having so much fun exploring!   From now on I want to buy all my fabric in Amish country oh my!

Finally we had to head home, I did miss all my baby boys.  We passed a few buggies and headed out.  It was a great trip, we learned a lot, shopped a bit, and explored an area not so far from home distance wise but a different world in terms of culture.  Overall a great trip that somehow managed to extend the week!

I hope you enjoyed this special post!

So long!  

Calf Count : 72

Weanlings and Weather

What a crazy week!  I welcomed 19 new calves to the farm and weaned a few more, but the weather was horrible!   So horrible in fact that a lot of my little guys got sick!  I think most have recovered thankfully.

It did clear up long enough to get some calves moved on Sunday though.  The weaning pen you see below here was full!  Which brings us to the discussion of the week.  What happens after weaning?

As you can see when they have to leave there solo home they move to our weaning pen which is complete with a feed bunk, water, an old grain bin for shelter, and a sand pile to play on.  The grain bin hasn't been used in years and we recycled it to create our lovely little pen.  If anyone ever tries to tell you farmers are wasteful they should come to our farm we are big time recyclers!  A little straw and a homemade door and we were good to go.  Oh and the calves love it especially because when they moo inside the bin it echoes!   The sand pile or what was is purely for fun because happy calves are healthy calves!  They chase and play king of the mountain and run all over it.  it is terrific entertainment for them and me.

Our pen holds 20 calves maximum mostly because any more and I wouldn't be able to keep up with them!

They stay in the weaning pen about a week.  They definitely have to be done mooing about their lack of milk (Ms. Boss is not a big fan of loud calves)!  When the day of quiet arrives, we bring the cattle to the home farm.

Upon arrival they get checked out and made into steers...yes we castrate them.  We also dehorn them and do an overall medical check.  Before they get weaned, calves get vaccinations so that by weaning time its not such a difficult transition or as painful.  The steers then get their own lot in the barn and start to grow all big and strong!

I tend to keep a close eye on all of my little guys as they grow up, but 12 to 18 months after their arrival at the farm they are gone and the cycle continues anew.  

With that I leave you to survive until next week.  I am sure it won't be a problem. My parting shot for the week  is 580 atop what remains of the sand pile it was 3 feet high now its just a mound.

Calf Count: 79 (We are over capacity!)  

Beware of Buckethead!

Greetings from the farm!

The weanies say hello!  

As you can clearly see, I had more weaned friends this week!  Don't they look nice!  They are well on their way to greatness that much is for sure.

Besides the weanies and their new digs it was not a very crazy week, normal, but not crazy.  I did have some new arrivals as well.  Two of them are right here for you to check out.  Everyone is happy in their new homes.  The weather has been so terrific again no complaints from this girl.

Freckles and Kenny

The calves were so happy there were a few escapes and even an appearance from a special visitor.  Some people encounter Bigfoot or Aliens or who knows what else.  Around here we encounter Buckethead!  He appears quickly and often takes over!  However he is certainly not graceful and often makes quite the mess.  Mess or no I still love to see him.  He often brightens my day with his craziness.  I hope you do too!  

Beware of Buckethead!  

Next week I hope to focus on life after weaning at least shortly after.  You saw a glimpse of the weaning pen but I hope to go into more detail next week complete with pictures of course.  Until then have a great week!  

Calf Count: 74

The Groundhog Was Right

Hello again my friends!

Let's begin by answering the questions from last week:

Cattle are all bovine creatures calves, bulls, steers, heifers, cows.  Cows are female cattle that have had babies.  We raise little bull calves that become steers aka we have no girls around.  Thus the name of the blog, life among boys.  If you ask us about our cows, we will respond with "What cows?  We don't have any cows here!"

We raise dairy steers. They are often dairy cattle and not beef cattle because we have many dairies in this area and in most cases they do not keep their bull calves because they have little use for them.  You can't milk boys you know! We then raise them as beef cattle for the most part meaning that they all turn into tasty hamburgers and steaks that us Americans enjoy so much.

As for this week here we go!  I got 14 new little guys and weaned 2 big guys.  The newbies include Winston, Franklin, Teddy, and Jimmy.  Pictures to come I hope!  

Let's talk about weaning since I brought it up.  What is it?  Weaning is taking a calf off of milk.  As I said last week the new arrivals only stay in their separate "huts" for about 2 months.  When their 2 months are up they get weaned.  Weaning is a week long process around here, but everyone does it different.  I try to do it by how much they eat and how healthy they are and how they look.  It is a critical time in a calf's life that must be done right so I take it very seriously as do most farmers.  My goal is to wean calves every week to keep a constant flow to the farm.

Winston and friends got settled and then oh yes Winter returned!  Mr. Groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter only a few short days ago and after Saturday morning I fear he meant real winter not this pretend winter  we have been having so far.  This weekend was quite chilly to say the least (temperatures in single digits, wind chills below 0).  The cold weather is a challenge for all living things including little calves but I think we are doing a ok!

I did venture out of my farm bubble a little bit this week too, and while there I ran into an old high school friend.  Running into the friend was not the big deal of the story but rather when asked what it was that I do these days I responded with "I'm a farmer."  As the words came out I realized how happy and proud I was to be stating such a thing.  Not only that but potentially I could be a fourth generation farmer and the fact that I could continue the family legacy makes me even more proud to be a farmer.

With that upbeat statement I leave you for the week off to farm the days away.

Oh and in honor of one of my favorite shows I am beginning a count of my cattle just for you.  Expect growing numbers!


Calf Count: 70

Winston and Friends!  

Franklin

Winston

Teddy 

Jimmy

Hope the week treats you well!

The Beginning

Not so long ago, only a few months really, you could have found me along the shore of of more than 10,000 lakes in Minnesota, but that is another story for another day.  These days I can be found in Northwest Indiana in the land of more than 10 million corn stalks.  I have returned home to the family farm where I work with my favorite kind of four legged friends, cattle.

The goal of this blog is to give all of my lovely friends who are not so close by a glimpse of my life these days.  And if I should happen to impart a little informational material to someone I do not know about life in the agricultural industry, I hope it is great material that they can use or at least appreciate!

So let's get down to business.  What is it that I do these days?  Well I like to consider myself a herdsman, as in keeper of the herd.  Haha.  I am one of many keepers in actuality but that is my main focus.

The next question you might ask is how big is this "herd" that I speak of.  Well it varies regularly but it tends to stay in the hundreds, less than 1000 for sure haha.  And what kind of herd?  We raise mostly dairy cattle now, and no cows.  Cattle not cows.  Cows for those of you who don't know are the girls in the cattle herd.  We have none of those around here.  We have cattle and calves and steers, but no cows.

My primary task around these parts is the starting of the herd.   A.k.a.  raising the youngest ones to be big and strong.  How young?  Sometimes only a day or two old when I go pick them up.   The little guys arrive at their new home where they get their own house and milk and food galore!  They stay here for the first 2 months of life and then they get to make more friends and move to a new home.

For now I leave you with a glimpse of my office.   Not too bad at all if you ask me.   If you have a question you would like me to answer just leave it here and maybe the next post will address it!