fortheloveofbeef - for kids

I grew up watching Sesame Street. We didn't have cable or a VCR and so everyday just before my Dad came home for lunch I watched Sesame Street.  It is funny how you have certain memories that stick with you.  For me one of the songs I remember is "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others". There are certain songs that stick with you so much, that when things happen in your life, they pop into your head.


So you can imagine what song popped into my head when I saw this the other day.

Let the record reflect that this heifer (I think) that keeps appearing on Jake and I's Facebook pages and now for the first time on fortheloveofbeef is the neighbors.  He is unable to get her in and would like to sell her, unfortunately he is now unable to keep her on his side of the fence.

The Outlaw Cows

The girls, Jake and I went for a Sunday afternoon drive to check a group of cows he moved at the end of last week and to check fences along the roads.

We found 5 outlaws.  Cows are herd animals and therefore they generally stay with the group, they establish a pecking order and a leader.  When cows are moved from one field to another usually the lead cow will lead the herd to the next pasture. It seems though like with people, that there are cows that seem to be outlaws.  They share an attitude of "we do what we want".

Here are two of the outlaws we spotted through some trees.

This is a third outlaw who was on the road (that leads to know where). You can tell on her face she is saying "I do what I want".

This is where they are supposed to be with the rest of the group.  They are outlaws and have no leader and they all share an attitude of "I do what I want".  This means driving them back to the group will be difficult.

I will say, like with people not all 5 of these cows are rebels or outlaws, a couple of them may just have started following the wrong crowd.

Hurricane Sandy and Beef Cattle

Hurricane Sandy has been weighing on my mind.  I have never lived on the coast and really have no idea what it would be like to sit in wait of a storm to hit, hoping you are prepared. As a beef producer you have to wonder what a hurricane would be like.  We are in the midst of weaning and shipping calves here. If the hurricane were to hit this evening we could potentially lose our yearly income, because we haven't shipped our cattle yet.  This got me interested in finding out what happens to beef producers after a hurricane.  Cattle Rescued after Hurricane Isaac

The question is would you stay if you had livestock or would you leave.  I really feel (although it is hypothetical for me) that if I had no livestock I would leave.  However if I was a livestock producer it would be difficult for me to leave, not knowing what would happen to your farm, livestock and livelihood.  What would you do?

This is what the respective states are telling livestock producers to do. Delaware Department of Agriculture preparedness list for livestock.

I just keep wondering how people make these decisions.
The scene looks like this, you are watching the Weather Channel that is explaining Hurricane Sandy like an apocalypse, wondering should you keep the animals in the barn. Can the barn stand after being hit by Hurricane Sandy? Where is the best place to keep all the calves and find them after this horrific storm? There are just too many unknowns. I am worried and concerned about my fellow beef producers in the line of Hurricane Sandy.

Jake's First Blog . . . a fence decoy

I was moving cows the other day by myself, in a place where I could have used an extra person.  I came up with an idea that if I parked my truck farther up from the hole and stretched a piece of poly-electrical wire across the hole.  This would help divert the cows into the ninety degree gate hole that would normally be a challenge to get cows to turn into.

With a little patience and no words, I moved the cows with my 4-wheeler as if they did it all the time.

a quiet summer night - moving cows

Tonight after supper we loaded up and moved some cows back into a pasture, where they had left without permission.  You can catch that story on tomorrow's Friday Fix.  

This activity went very smoothly. I was only in the way once with my camera.  Ooops!

The girls ride in the buggy with me, although they would rather ride with their Dad on the 4wheeler.

  

Mending fences with the neighbor.

To protect the names of the innocent, this story will not use real names.

We know this man who runs cows, we will call him Mike. Mike would check his cows and often find his neighbors below standard bull in with his cows during breeding season.  Because Mike was raising premium genetics and a breeding program was so important to him, he approached his neighbor with a plan.  He told his neighbor he would trade him bulls.  He would give his neighbor one of his premium bulls in exchange for his less than average bull, that he would later market through the sale barn. This genius approach to change the neighbors breeding strategy saved Mike a lot of money and time in fence building. This strategy also created better relations with the neighbor.

this picture is in no way tied to the story

The Friday Fix

This blog is dedicated to everyone who is cleaning up fences after the major storms in Ohio and West Virginia.

These are the questions:
1) Name the tool seen here.

2) What does the number tell you?

3) What number do you like to see on your fences?

 

Answers to the last Friday Fix

1. The contraption is a fence charger and a solar panel.

2. The problem was the large bush/tree blocking the solar panel from the sun.
3. The solution is to move the solar panel.

Thankful for the rain.

Dedicated to everyone who needed the rain the Midwest and Ohio Valley received in the last week.  This is also a small message to the DJ's and weatherman who complain about raining out ballgames and other outdoor activities.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFkmB17RFYc&feature=fvsr

Keeping the cows with their calves and with the bull

This time of year cows have to be moved to pastures with more grass.  When moving cows it is important that they stay with their calves.  Although there is probably not data to show how far a cow will travel to find a calf, it has to be miles.  This is fine as long as a road is not involved.  In Ohio if cattle are on the road and are hit, the owners are responsible for damages and can be sued.  In Nebraska cattle have the right of way on all roads.  (just one of the perks of living in a state with more cattle than people)

Cows also have to be with the bull in order to be bred for the next season.

Busted a cow with a calf but not in the same pasture with the bull.

Making Ordinary Days, Extraordinary

Today is June 14th, which means it's Flag Day and my father-in-law Robert's and his twin sister's Rosie's 59th Birthday.  Along with all these celebrations, it is Jake and I's 9th Wedding Anniversary.

ONE of my character flaws is that I expect a day this special to have some kind of major celebration. Nothing is ever big enough - I dream of movie star like celebrations. We all know this is not possible, but a girl can dream.

This dreaming is always interrupted by reality.

Last night we had a major catastrophe when some cows got out and ate someone else's corn.  This caused a late supper and then spilled over into this morning, when 22 more cows needed to be found and this group of cows would need to be hauled somewhere else.

Girls you get home right now - you are in big trouble.

I went to bed knowing this would change my small plans to spend the day with Jake (so I thought).  I also knew it would definitely change the plans where Jake and I would fly to NYC on the 4+ Feeders private jet for dinner and a show. Okay I really never thought that would happen.

I really was just thinking that we would take the girls to Bible School and spend a few hours alone and then maybe lunch. Then later we would make a great dinner including steak and maybe watch a movie when the girls went to bed.

But the day turned out a little better than I thought when Jake announced he would have to haul cows (you know the ones that ate the neighbors corn) after lunch to another pasture.

I've been driving a truck and trailer (an 18 ft. trailer) since a couple years after I got my license.  I would haul fat cattle for my dad to Producers and Muskingum Livestock.  I have average forward trailer driving ability.  Meaning I can't back up and I don't go through the drive thru at McDonalds.  I have always had a strong want to learn both of those skills.

Today I decided when Jake said A) He wasn't in a hurry and B) It would be just the girls, him and I, that today was the day I would try to hone my skills of backing a trailer. So I did.

The truck and trailer I drove today.  This trailer is 26 feet long.

My co-pilot.

Jake's rig.

Jake's co-pilot.

I have been backing up things since before I had a drivers license.  Mostly I would back tractors and at one time I was really good at backing a tractor with a square baler around a full load of square bales to hook to an empty wagon.  This skill proves to be a problem when backing a truck and trailer, where using the mirrors is detrimental.

I have a love/hate relationship with this thing.

After a small disagreement on backing techniques with Jake, I did improve my skill.  I have not perfected it yet.

Please share how you make an ordinary day - EXTRAORDINARY.
I would also love to hear who taught you how to drive a truck and trailer and the most challenging places you take a truck and trailer.  I may add them to my challenge list for the summer.

Oh- Jake, I and the girls ended up in Pennsylvania for a Texas Roadhouse dinner, which did include steak.

The guilt of death in farm life.

While checking cows on Thursday evening Jake found a cow doing the "walk" and it seemed she may be calving soon.  Jake thought since she was laying so close to a smaller field right outside the barn, that he would go ahead and run her into the paddock.  He felt positive that she would calve on her own and things would be fine.  Later that night he got her in and checked her and she wasn't dilated, so he was still confident she would calve without his assistance.  In the morning he went up and looked in on her and she seemed to be behaving normally.  By that evening when he went to check on her again, he knew there was a problem.  She was circling and seemed uncomfortable.  He got her in the chute and found a calf breech with the tail coming first and the back legs were under the calf. I guess a simpler way to say it would be they had a butt and a tail.

Or even better than words . . . a picture.

The way this calf was coming! This picture shows why their is no sign of the calf coming out.  She is pushing, but she is unable to push anything out for you to be able to see that she may need help.

That is double trouble. He called in Steve for re-enforcement.  Although they knew the calf would be dead, at this point they hoped to save the cow.  Anyone who has calved cows will tell you, it is really difficult to catch a calf coming backwards.  Still Jake was upset.  This was the first calf he has lost this year that he claims to be his fault.  He told me just today, because I haven't talked to him much about it until today that he was "hoping for a perfect score" this year.

The way you hope the calf to be born.

Jake immediately went out to find one of the twins to get started on this cow.  The most disappointing part of the story comes this morning.  Jake went out to ride through the cows and check the last few we are waiting to calve and he swings by the barn to check the cow and new calf adoption. When he got to the barn, there the cow laid dead.  Jake is angry, sad and disappointed.  He hauled the calf back to it's mom and now has a 1250 pound cow to plan a funeral for.

Trust is building and diminishing

UUGHHHH!  I really had a much better blog planned (in my head) than this.  However I must share this today as a beef producer.  As I opened Facebook yesterday on my phone to see the BSE report.  I suddenly got a feeling that someone punched me in the stomach.  For a beef farmer it is probably a similar feeling to a stock broker when a stock takes a major hit.  On that note cattle went down the limit yesterday.  I then immediately went to the prime sources for beef updates.  Lucky for me the Ohio Cattlemen's had this in my email inbox.  

  

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a positive test result on April 24, 2012, as part of its targeted surveillance program to test cattle for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the nation's fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow from central California. According to USDA, the carcass of the animal is being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed. It was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply or human health.


There were several other pieces of information and you can read most of it here www.BSEInfo.org


I was immediately feeling better, what you are hearing is that this cow was never going to enter the food supply.  That is great!  Read on and I see that it was found by random checking.  My trust in our government is continually growing in the area of food security.  


It then dawned on me that I actually have more trust in our government that they will be able to keep our food safe and specifically catch BSE before it reaches humans, than them being able to keep political officials and government employees from sleeping with prostitutes and the American tax payers picking up the tab.  

Do Cows Bite?

I have spent my entire life thinking cows can't bite.  In fact what gave me the idea for this blog was Emily who also blogs from a Dairy Farm in Minnesota.  I met Emily in Chicago at the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance gathering. She said her number one hit on her blog was Do Cows Bite?  I had to check this out.  This is what I believed up until last summer. http://zweberfarms.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/can-cows-bite/

Last summer it was hot in Nebraska, this is from a girl that does not get hot.  The drought in Texas was causing unusual cattle movement in the United States.  People were selling off their calves earlier than ever before.  As a new feed yard we took the opportunity to fill some pens.  When cattle are shipped to the feed yard you only get the notice from the time the Auctioneer says sold in Whereeverville, USA until the cattle are loaded and shipped.  This time is usually less than 24 hours.  Jake and I thought it best to work cattle late in the evening, because of the heat.  However, on this particular evening we needed to round up some help.  One of my teacher friends and her husband offered and we told them we would start at 8:30PM.  I got busy, made dinner and gave the girls a bath.  They spent the evening in the SUV watching their favorite movies and eating snacks outside the vet shack.  They thought it was a Drive In, we thought it was a cheap babysitter.  They were asleep before we finished.

As the third calf was loaded in the shoot.  Jake was explaining how to put the dewormer gun into the  calf's mouth.  Barb was asking exactly where the gun went, just to make sure she was doing it correctly.  Jake thought it would be a teachable moment and put his finger in the calf's mouth to show her.  The calf shut it's mouth and Jake yelled.  I was back in the tub loading cattle and immediately thought he had given himself a shot of Micotil.  The Micotil shot we were giving these particular cattle is lethal to humans and if you shoot yourself you could die.  I really don't like handling this drug and worry about Jake and our help, when we do.  Fortunately it wasn't that, but Jake was bleeding really badly and we went to the house to check out the severity.  Although we only lived minutes from the hospital, Jake was thinking he was going to try to make it through the next 90 head.  I told him - NO.  I said, if you get something in that, it could really get infected.  He left for the ER - where they had to call in the doctor.  For my non rural readers - yes I said call in a doctor to the ER.  I was stunned.  At any rate Jake was still back within an hour with 5 stitches.

My conclusion and rebuttal for Emily is cows don't bite you.  BUT I wouldn't recommend putting my fingers in their mouth.