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!