When Cows are too good at their job....

[woodland]

Funny…….. your picture has a white mark on the top of the head but his is solid red……………

I think he’s confuzzled or musical yearlings played a switcharoo……….

[Blaithin]

Drew blood for preg checks on Tuesday. Got results back Wednesday. Nothing surprising although wish we’d been wrong about Gwen 😂 She was getting some action on the weekend so I’ll test her again in the next run.

[GDR]

I didnt realize anybody preg checks with blood tests. How pricey is that? Will the vets sell you the tubes or do they have to draw it? Must be easier than getting them to pee on a stick!

Always seems to be the favorite ones that end up open. The wild crazy cows never seem to earn their trip to town.

[Blaithin]

I didnt realize anybody preg checks with blood tests. How pricey is that? Will the vets sell you the tubes or do they have to draw it? Must be easier than getting them to pee on a stick!

Always seems to be the favorite ones that end up open. The wild crazy cows never seem to earn their trip to town.

$4.50 a sample plus shipping. This round was $28 and $18 for express. Think the vet charges $20 a head plus mileage so it works out for me. Even she didn’t fault it 😂

They sell me the tubes and needles, or sometimes just give them to me if I don’t need much and the right person is working. I draw the blood myself. Not the quickest but it works. Have never asked the lab but lots of times they’ll send out the supplies as well.

[Blaithin]

So this year I decided to try something new. A couple of factors came into play, one being I was burnt out at work and had no more interest coming in on days off so needed a reason not too 😂 and two, the Brits I follow always talk about their contractors. Contractors for harvest, for shearing, for lambing, for scanning, for everything! Well if they hire contractors, maybe some farms here will too.

So I made up a flyer in the fall saying I’d help with processing, weaning, shipping, etc.

No bites.

Then a friend said he’d hire me during calving.

So I tweaked the flyer to offer calving respite in January. Since then I’ve been on multiple farms, in good weather and that horrid cold shit, and now just perpetual fog. I’ve covered for holidays, birthdays, bull sales and just been an extra hand along with the family.

It’s been a lot of fun and interesting seeing how different farms do things. Never seen anyone give a cow rompun before! Had some pulls, had some no sucks, got compliments on my “eye” for calvers and illness, washed some tractors haha All around good experience.

I’ve decided to use the money to take an ultrasound course and fund an ultrasound machine so I can add that to my repertoire. As such I was checking out grants under the new sustainable CAP. Apparently you need to make at least 25,000 a year to qualify for any of those so they aren’t nearly as helpful for true small farms as they think 😂😂 The fella says I just need to get one of the farms to apply for me hah

Here’s a collection of some of the photos. The black farms have been having the fun black cow adventures. Hence the rompun.

[Blaithin]

[shtferbrains]

Healthy looking calves in well bedded pens.
Is that corn stalks in the first pic?

[Blaithin]

Healthy looking calves in well bedded pens.
Is that corn stalks in the first pic?

Wood chips. They swapped their entire barn to them this year. The bigger ones in the photo are for the calving pens and then smaller ones like bagged shavings for the holding pen. They found they didn’t like how calves got caught up in the small ones being born.

The barn smelled wonderful and they were very easy to clean. General wet spot cleaning, poop, and afterbirth hauled out, top dressed with new as needed.

I really liked it. Definitely avoided the slimey straw you start to get.

[woodland]

Blaithin too bad you weren’t closer as you’d be welcome to come play with the cows and ultrasound here anytime. Not many folks want to deal with critters let alone when the weather is far from perfect.

Very cool. Hopefully you’ll let us tag along on any other journeys you take. 🍀

Today is our start date according to the calendar and just hit 15% done. Had a set of twins today and I don’t have an empty cow to put one on which is a good problem to have.

Couldn’t ask for nicer weather for these little guys except if the wind could just disappear. 😎

[Blaithin]

I don’t think you’re THAT far away from me, but maybe. I’ve gave myself an hour range because if someone is mean and says they want me there at 7 am I don’t want to be leaving the house before 6 😂😂 It’s not that I’m unwilling to drive a bit farther though, I don’t mind a nice day trip and time spent working cows.

This weather is definitely much better than the February stuff. People don’t even need my help now, cows are on their own here Lol

One of my nurse cows calved last week. Her foster calf came from the last farm I was working at. Her own calf surprised us by being grey (and super cute!)