Cattle

My original intention was to buy lightweight calves in the Spring, pasture them until Fall and then sell.....and do it over again the next year. So the first year I bought some mixed breed calves from a neighbor.

I over-wintered these calves that first year, buying hay and some grain. The spring of 2011 I sold them and prices were unbelievably high, which was good! But when I looked at buying lighter weight calves for the season's grass, prices were.....yep, unbelievably high. So I was able to buy 4 Angus bred heifers from a neighbor of a friend for $1000 each (400 pound calves were selling for $700 ++) .

We name all our cattle ( a habit from my childhood on the dairy farm). These 4 heifers became Big Mama, Little Mama, Lucky and Beauty. Basically descriptive names. These heifers were supposedly due in the Fall of 2011, but in July we had our first 2 calves. The first one was Big Mama who had a reddish brown heifer who stumbled into the creek right after being born, which is where I found her, standing in over a foot of water. She was fine, although Big Mama took a couple days to figure out the mothering thing! We named the calf Annie (after Little Orphan Annie) and we kept her to add to the herd. A few days later, Litttle Mama calved with a bull calf who we named Buster. We have kept him to be the herd sire for the next few years ( a little inbreeding...no problem).

The above picture is Annie and Buster last year.
In November, at the expected time, Lucky had a heifer calf (Abby, also kept to add to the herd) and Beauty had a big bull calf, Biff, who was sold after weaning last May.
A good friend loaned me his Polled Hereford bull last winter for a few weeks and the result was Big Mama calving last month with a black white faced heifer calf (Pandy). A few days later Little Mama joined in with another BWF heifer calf (Mandy). The picture below was taken this week showing all 9 head.

Beauty and Lucky were bred by Buster and should be due next spring, followed by Annie in the summer and hopefully Abby in the fall. The plan is to keep 6 cows and the bull and market all the calves at about 6 months of age, after weaning.

Comprende ?

Thaaaat's all folks !