When the herd turns on you . . .

Jake called earlier today to ask if we wanted to help him get the "U's" in.  I said, "sure the girls and I  can meet you at the barn in 20 minutes, when the cookies get out of the oven".  Since Jake didn't mention a need for my help nor did he insist on my help, I thought it to be more of joy ride.  Therefore I did not receive nor did I ask for any directions of where we were moving cows to or from.  I just followed along camera and two girls in tow.  Jake and Aaron went clear up in a wooded area to gather a group of cows in the shade.  The girls and I stayed at the bottom of the hill, hopefully to catch a great picture.

When the cows got to the bottom the girls and I helped to drive them through the valley. Jake disappeared, later I realized he had went to gather the rest of the herd just on the other side of the ridge.  After coming around the hill the herd was reunited.  They then needed to cross a ravine and move through a gate opening.  It is best to give cows the space to move through the gate hole at their own pace.  If you push the herd too hard they will turn on you and then break and it will be very difficult to gather them again.  It was at this point I realized, Jake hadn't called to see if the girls and I wanted an afternoon activity, but rather he need an extra bike and people.  I am of little value with a buggy and two girls I am not willing to risk injury on hillsides.  Jake on the other hand once this close to the barn with the herd, will risk life and limb to gather the herd. I guess that's just the cowboy in him.



We were almost to the barn, about the time where the cows always stop moving forward (because it is unclear where they are to be going) and then they tend to want to break back to where they came from.

They were breaking back and not headed in the right direction. To the right of the herd is a steep hill and the only other place to exist  is in the rear of the cows, as we keep trying to get them moving forward to the barn.  The girls and I avoid the hill side.  Therefore we were in the rear, trying to move the herd forward.  By accident we let a calf get past us, which rightfully made Jake angry. He went back on his bike to get the calf back with the herd.  He then rode quickly back up along the herd on the hill side.  Then from the buggy, with the girls all I saw was his bike tip over and roll, his body going with it.  I was mad and scared.  I jumped off the buggy and ran over to the side of the hill, where he was riding back up the hill and yelling at me to get back on my buggy (he apparently thought this herd was still going to the barn).  I was still anxiously wondering if the bike rolled on top of him.  Knowing Jake like I do, I knew that just because he was back on his bike and riding didn't mean he wasn't injured.  He is the type of person to finish the job and then go to the ER and find out that he had serious broken something.

Jake later said he jumped before it rolled over him.  It rolled a couple more times before he grabbed it (before rolling clear to the bottom). He flipped it back over and rode up the hill.

Luckily everyone is safe and sound this evening and the cows will be brought to the barn early in the morning when it is cooler and there are more people to help.

Gathering cows in style.

 

Ag Gag Bill

I like to read about politics and sometimes I will follow interesting political stories.  Unfortunately I find it difficult to find credible sources that don't become so extreme in their opinions and the swaying of the public.  I hope that one day we will see the media trust Americans again. I believe when I see this trust it will look like facts being presented with the intent to trust Americans' intelligence enough to understand the right and wrong.  It will be like heaven if we also at the same time were able to elect politicians that were able to do their jobs with their full intent to do the right thing, instead of what benefits them. It would be so much easier to understand politics if we knew that politicians never did anything, but what benefited the people.

These thoughts lead me feeling "more confused than cows on astro turf", while studying politics. 

picture from a google search

The Ag Gag Bill that is being introduced into state legislatures across the country. North Dakota, Kansas and Montana already have similar wording in the books.  Utah and Iowa have recently passed legislation which will give people taping or photographing animal cruelty 24-48 hours to turn these pictures and videos to authorities and subsequently reporting the matter.  This would then end the ability of the animal activist groups to be hired to work with animals undercover to collect videos and pictures and then edit them to create news worthy pieces to try to end livestock production.  The question remains in my mind of why you would watch animals being abused and continue taping it sometimes for weeks and never turn them in? 

I believe most farmers and ranchers are open to sharing their stories, farms, ranches, feedyards, when asked.  I hope that more media will help to share the positive stories of the humane treatment of livestock for the use of feeding the world. 

Calving and Euchre

Do you remember learning to play Euchre?

Jake called the other night after I had started cooking supper, because he thought he may need an extra hand pulling a calf.  I shut off the stove and the girls and I loaded up.  By the time we arrived Jake literally just needed an extra hand and my brute strength to help pull. The cow was down, making it difficult to use a calf jack. In about five minutes we were done and headed back to finish supper.  After supper Jake mentioned he thought she may have been able to have the calf herself.  I was thinking that could be a 1000 dollar risk.  My thought is we are there, lets just help her.  The calf looked big to me - probably overdue.

After dinner this made me think of an analogy for calving - Euchre.

A live calf that is ready to grow with a good mama with a perfect udder trumps everything - like the right bar.
A dead calf with a dead mama is like an off suit 9.

You get the idea.

So, I told Jake a big live calf trumps a dead calf everyday of the week and twice on Sunday.

What? It's just grass and water.

Jake, the girls and I spent some time this afternoon with Kristy Foster from the Farm and Dairy.

 

After she left I was helping the girls with their homework and cooking supper. Jake (in his good jeans) announces he needs to go "find a calf".

He returns after the supper is cooking and homework is done with cow manure all over his good jeans.  He comes into the kitchen and says "hey do you think you can get this out".  I am assuming at this point he has "found" the calf. I put on my "I complete believe that" face and said "really Jake, those are your good jeans".

Of course if you have ever scrubbed cow manure out of denim, you also know the answer is probably not.  Not only is this cow manure, but it's green fresh grass manure that stains like nothing I have ever seen.

He then goes on to explain how it happened.  I needed to separate this calf that is in with the Y group that we are moving in the morning.  I didn't want it to be moved with the group.  The calf wouldn't drive, so I picked him up and he didn't have any manure on him, I swear.  (Does anyone believe that?).  He said by the time I had him on the 4-wheeler I was covered.  He then says "it wasn't his s**+". I just smiled and was thinking this story doesn't make any since, your jeans are ruined and you better not utter those words "it's only grass and water".    

oh, for the love of beef

Life has thrown me a couple of curve balls the last couple weeks, leaving me a little stressed.  Possibly the most troubling thing about life's curve balls are that they leave you thinking me, me, me.  However, once you are able to get up dust yourself off and lift your head up to realize there are so many other people needing more thought and prayer than me, me, me.

I would find it hard to believe that anyone has not been touched in one way or another by the Boston Marathon tragedy. It is becoming harder and harder to understand these acts of terrorism.  I don't pretend to understand what it might take to train for a marathon and maybe taking my spare money and vacation time to travel to Boston to run the marathon, all to be a victim of senseless violence.

We were sitting in an Ohio Cattlemen's Board meeting with the accountant last week going over the yearly financials when the line item for the Beef Team came up.  The accountant paused looked around the room and said "so you guys run?"  There was an even longer pause (as people looked around the room of beef producers, wondering do we look like runners, does this guy really think we run) until Bill Sexton laughed and said no "we pay people to run for us".  Laughter erupted around the room.

When my life gets stressful, I often like to honor others.  Tonight I honor Team BEEF USA , especially those of you who ran in the Boston Marathon on behalf of beef producers.

Let's Graze

It seemed like winter was never going to leave! Recently we have had a few warm days and some rain, and then almost overnight the grass really greened up. On Saturday evening on our way to Mass you could smell the scent of freshly mowed lawns.  I really like that smell, especially in early spring.

After school today Jaelin and I helped Jake move some cow/calf pairs to greener pastures.

We located the free grazer that still has not made her way home to her owner. Does anyone need a pet?

Cows are making their way to grass as calving is coming to a close and breeding season is almost here. 

Committed to the toboggan. - Life on the other side of the table.

It was one of my first years teaching when a boy named Cory who had a great personality and was very intelligent told me "some people are happy with a pickup truck and a coon dog". As a recent college graduate I was unaware that a student with the ability and means may not want to go to college.  Heck they may not want to drive a new car, live in a 2000 square foot house with a white picket fence or any of the other "normal" American wants. It was an awakening moment and that comment has stuck with me for the rest of my life.

It is a really important lesson (that I still struggle with today) that not everyone wants to live like me.  

We live just outside the metropolis of St. Clairsville where our girls attend school.  I car pool with another very special mother.  She is a supporter of rural living, eating beef and has become a proud supporter of her local beef producers.  She volunteers a lot of time at school, so she often meets me in the morning and drives the girls to town.  A few weeks ago temperatures were reaching a high of 30 degrees and a windchill below 0, making a 4-wheeler ride to check cows even more frigid.  I often showed up dressed from head to toe with just my faced exposed.  Colleen is so kind she often will compliment my zebra print toboggan.  Really there is not much to compliment about work clothes, however I always appreciate her effort. More so I appreciate that she drives the kids to town so I don't have to face an entire crowd of parents decked out in business attire with the prettiest dresses, accessorized and wearing the best heals. Yea, sometimes I am jealous.

However a few weeks ago Colleen drove the girls to school and I headed to disperse minerals to the cows.  She must have called me when I was out riding.  I hate that you can't hear your phone on a 4-wheeler (although I don't let Jake use that as an excuse, when I call him). She was calling to say Jacie had forgot her lunch and that if I called her back she would go to the store for me and get her something, of course her daughter said she would just share her lunch. By the time I got her message she was home. Jacie's lunch was in my backseat, and I needed to take it town.  However my dilemma was my commitment to my toboggan.  Once you put a hat on in the morning, you can't take it off.  Really no one wants to see hat hair, that is all matted to your head. So, off to school I went hat, ski pants, heavy coat and everything.  I was really hoping to sneak into town, with no one seeing me.  But we all know how that turns out. There I was getting a once over from a lady in town. The look that screams "really those shoes with that outfit".  Maybe it wasn't the shoes or the hat or the muddy ski pants, but it wasn't my hat hair (it was looking bad, under my hat). It is difficult to get a "once over" without having your self esteem a little injured.  Jacie now had her lunch and I was headed back to the ranch that most people don't even know exists outside of St. Clairsville thinking I am just as guilty.

I drive into a subdivision with houses just feet apart and sidewalks leading to all the beautiful homes and think, who wants to live like this.  These are the same thoughts and comments that people have about my want to live miles from people, raising the beef for this country.  I hope I can get to a place in my life to fully appreciate that one person's happiness could be the complete opposite of someone else's. The truth is backyard barbeques in the subdivisions don't happen without beef producers and if all those people didn't enjoy living in subdivisions we wouldn't need to produce so much beef.  Thanks for enjoying beef with your friends and neighbors.

photo taken by Meg Roussos

Spontaneous Calf Feeding Fun

On the way to the bus stop to pick our girls up, I called the other mom's that pick up their kids there and said I would take them for a few hours.  It was spontaneous, mostly because suddenly I realized heck it's Friday, the sun is out and I have a few free moments. I called Jake on the way back to the ranch and he said great! Then he said "I have two orphan calves in the barn can you guys feed them"? The kids screamed with excitement!

Celia came over last year and helped feed a calf once.  However she jumped right in and fed the hungry calf like she had done it a thousand times.

Jake and I gave Colleen (a first timer) a few instructions about feeding a bottle to a calf . . .

Keep the bottle pointed down, so the milk flows to the nipple.  If you don't the hungry calf thinks it's empty causing it to ram the bottle into your leg or stomach depending on your height.  I explained to Colleen, that is how the calf gets the milk to come down in it's mamas udder. 

As you can tell the intelligent and animal lover Colleen fixed the problem and the feeding continued.

Joshua had a great time feeding the newest calf it's first bottle with Jake. But then . . .

 the calf got up and the bottle got heavy and he said "how do I get out of here?"

Moving Cow/Calf Pairs to Greener Pastures

Jake and I spent the morning moving cows that have calved from the calving pasture to the "kick-out" fields. This mornings work in the pasture I have often called Marriage Counseling, where Jake and I go to work on our communication skills.

Today as we were moving the mamas with their calves, I began to realize many life lessons are learned when moving these creatures.

1. Life is easier when you point the cow in the right direction and let her find her own way to the gate hole. (even if it seems a little out of the way)
2. The calf almost always follows the mama cow.
3. Marriages are made stronger in the pasture field.

** These pictures are from last year. I couldn't help but post the beauty of the green pastures. Still waiting for the green pastures of 2013.**

Corn Prices and Rain Make Me Giddy

I am driving through Fairfield County today, when I hear the distinguished voice of Dale Minyo.  I reached to turn it up and told the girls to quiet down.  Just as he began the story about corn prices going down the limit today.  I almost thought it was some kind of April Fool's Joke, but it isn't and corn is going down rapidly. I called a friend of ours and corn producer Jon Miller who is also a Board Member on the Ohio Corn Growers, for the update. He with more disappointment than I, explained that the USDA planting reports came out on Thursday at 11:30AM and then corn went down the limit of 40 cents.  The report had a couple key components that started the trend downward, one was that they are predicting more acres to be planted this spring than there has been since 1936.  Secondly they have realized that there were more than 500 million bushels of corn in storage on farms and elevators that they didn't have accounted for last month.  The market then was closed Friday and obviously the weekend to open today, where the market could have went down an additional 60 cents since it went down the limit the market day before.  However it only went down 58 cents but then closed down at 53 cents on the Future Markets.

There have been two moments in the last week that have made me giddy. The first was when our friends called and posted on Facebook that our Nebraska home was getting rain.

The second was corn prices coming down. As a feedyard owner the price of corn is crucial to our business. It takes a lot of corn to bring you the Grain Finished Beef that your family enjoys.

Happy Easter - Enjoy New Life

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ... 1 Peter 1:3

Easter is a powerful holiday.  For the first time in our married life we made it to the Holy Thursday and Good Friday Mass.  The girls asked if we were going to a Holy Saturday Mass tonight.  I told them we would not.  I am not sure they get the power of the weekend celebrations.  I assume I have about 8 more years for them to "get it", if not they may never care to understand.  Jake and I came home from Mass to watch "The Passion".  The movie is almost too much to watch and I have guilt in just turning my head.  I didn't realize Jesus is played by the same guy that is in "The Person of Interest".   He does a fantastic job. 

The girls and I made some extra Easter goodies including fruit salad, deviled eggs and cupcakes. 

Although one of my favorite parts of the Easter weekend is seeing all of the new life in a new calf crop and just the hint of greener pastures.  Jake, the girls and I went out to put mineral out and watch the calves laying in the sunshine and running about with the energy only the sunshine can bring. 

I hope you enjoy your Easter weekend and watching all of the signs of new life.

Life Lesson #99

Jacie's Kindgarden teacher Mrs. Rikli apparently would tell her class many times as she passed out items, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit".  Jacie adopted the saying and brought it home to share with her sister Jaelin.  I love it and find myself using the catchy phrase all the time.

For example I have repeated it several times to myself in the last few weeks about the weather and the pasture conditions as we continue to unroll more hay.

Last year at this time we were bottle feeding calves in shorts and the grass was green.

This year we have snow, brown pastures and mud.  Although I am hopeful this will lead to more precipitation this summer.  

But no matter what, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit"!

"Bull" Party

We have on occasion hosted a bowl party or two, when Ohio State plays in the Rose Bowl or the National Championship. Other than the Buckeyes and on occasion the Huskers this family does not follow sports.  I told the girls this week we would have a family "Bull" Party.

We are going to watch the Leachman Bull Sale tomorrow in between calf checks and unrolling some hay. The sale will be live on the internet and is actually taking place in Colorado. Carol Wildman asked me on Facebook today if we ever sold cattle through internet auctions.  She asked me if the auction is actually taking place somewhere.  The answer is yes we have on several occasions sold cattle through livestock auctions, in numerous ways.  The live auction most of the time is happening someplace. The Leachman Bull Sale is actually live in Colorado at Colorado State sales facility (which is very nice). It is very useful for people who can't make it to the sale for various reasons (weather, calving, time, work, travel).  Not hauling cattle to an additional place of sale is helpful for security.  Some cattle are videoed and never leave the farm.  This means less stress on humans and animals and less exposure to disease. Most of our calves are sold in the fall through video auction.

Lot 34 is Jake and I's bull that will sell tomorrow.  It is our first bull in the sale.  We believe although we haven't seen it since this fall, it is the best bull we have ever raised.  We are excited for it to sell tomorrow.  This is the video for Lot 34.




Lee Leachman believes the best he has ever had in the sale will also sell tomorrow as lot 34.  Just kidding he obviously put what he believe is the best bull as lot 1.  This is Lot 1, it will be worth watching the sale just to see what Lot 1 brings.  For my non cattle readers - more than one person/farm/ranch will purchase this bull and then someone will get breeding rights (custody) and the others will get semen rights.  It will likely be more interesting than most anything on television for the minute and half it takes to sell Lot 1.




Safe travels to everyone traveling to and from the bull sale.

Marriage Counseling - Do you need a map?

I have been thinking it would be an awesome idea to have a reality television show, where farm/ranch couples complete farm/ranch chores together in time constraints for prizes.  Who wants to play?

Jake and I have been working together a lot through this calving season. Jake has been calving three groups of cows, which include the U's, X's and Y's.  The Y's are the first calf heifers and demand more time and attention than the other two groups.  I take the girls to school and then help Jake with whatever he needs me to do.  Some days I take mineral out, bottle feed orphan calves, open gates, help feed hay, move cow/calf pairs to the kick out pastures, help get cows in and document anything funny or unusual on social media.

Many of our problems in communication are because Jake assumes since I love him so much and we have been married nearly 10 years that I am his clone and think just like him.  My confession is sometimes the way he explains things, it sounds as if he is speaking a foreign language. I explained it to him like this, when you give me directions on things it is the same as if I ask you to go into the girls room and pick out an outfit (that matches) for them to wear.  He is unable to do this.  In my mind it should be easy, because I open their drawers and see many things that match.  He opens the drawer picks out three items that are various shades of pink and says "will this work?"
 
The same things happen to me when I work in his domain. There are thousands of acres here, divided by miles of fences and I find it complicated to get to where I need to be many times (although I am getting better).  They have nicknames for most of the fields, none of them are labeled and there is more than one way to get to all of them.  I am only able to enter and exit through certain gate holes because some of the electric fence openers are too tight for me to physically open.  This means I drive around a lot.  I also will not stick my leg out and put the rubber sole of my shoe on the hot fence and drive over it.  I am neither talented nor tall enough to do this.  I just drive until there is a gate opening. Jake often gets frustrated with me when he wants me to take mineral to a field (that we were just in yesterday) and I don't know instantaneously which one he is talking about.  One day I said "you need a map around this place, not everyone knows every crevasse of this area". After more than a few intense discussions about not understanding where exactly he wanted the mineral feeder placed, I walked into the office to find this on the board.

It is suddenly all clear (enter sarcasm).

** The bottom notes are from the girls.  Including cursive practice and cakes.

This the second in a series of Marriage Counseling posts.

Oh you are ____________'s Mom.

It is funny how once you become a Mom you lose part of your identity. To all of your kids' friends and even some of their parents you are now _________'s Mom.  I really kind of enjoy it.  I think it is flattering. In the cow world it is very similar.  If a cow has a high selling calf it no longer has an identity.

For example this cow was once R534, but now is known as Kitty Cat's Mom.  I know you are intrigued how she got her name. Here is the story  . . .

A few years ago we decided to break a couple of our better heifers to take to the Perry County Fair for an experience.  We asked Jacie, what she wanted to name the heifers.  She said, "Kitty Cat and Tree" and so there we were in the barn with two heifers named Kitty Cat and Tree.

Jacie had her first trip in the ring.

We then sold both of the heifers through the County Line Sale in Bremen, Ohio.  The process really made the girls tired enough to sleep on square bales.

Hurricane Katrina was hitting the gulf the weekend of the sale and on the other end of the phone was a phone bid from the hurricane.  Eventually Kitty Cat sold and a few weeks later, she made her way to Texas to a teenage girl that was overjoyed to have bought her. 

Jake sent me a text while I was fixing supper the other night to tell me "Kitty Cat had twins".

Being a good Mama.

There are many similarities between being a good Mama and being a good Mama Cow.  The only true difference I can come up with is, we don't cull bad Mama's from our society. But we sure do from a cow herd.

Jake and I are calving the first calf heifers.  These are the first time Mama's.  The reason these heifers were kept in the herd up to now were for phenotype traits, also known as physical characteristics.  These traits include size, muscle shape, growth and structural correctness.  This with a combination of their genetic makeup including, their sire (Dad), their dam (Mama) and many others in their long list of relatives.  Other than those traits we have no other way of telling if they will be good cows.

** Basically we keep heifers on some of the same characteristics boys look for when looking for a prom date.

These heifers are calving and becoming Mama's for the first time this month.  We are looking for several traits in order for them to make into the herd. Mama traits are very important and include the following things.

We are hoping these heifers are able to give birth independently.  If we are pulling calves we will look to see if we think this is a fluke or something that may be repeated over the next 15 years.

We are also looking for heifers that will go off deliver their calf, however allow us close enough to evaluate, tag and weigh it. We also want her to be fearful enough that she defends the calf if their were other predators.  We also do not want her to be flighty, where she runs off stirring up the other Mama's.

We at no time want to become a Mama to these calves.

At this time the challenges we are facing with the heifer group, which are potential big truck contenders include  . . .

** big truck contenders definition - Mama's that will be culled from the herd for being terrible Mama's and will be loaded on a big truck to be made into hamburger.

We currently have a heifer that we found her calf a pasture over from where her Mama was with other cows.  It had not eaten for at least 24 hours, she is flighty and stirs up the other Mama's.  She is not protecting her calf, nor feeding it.  The worst part is she is getting a free lunch everyday. The girls told Celia, who rides to school with us this morning "how would you like it, if your Mom didn't take care of you". I have adopted her calf in the nursery.

The other calf I am feeding is a twin from a heifer.  Although not ideal, her Mama will get to stay.  She is an excellent mother to the other twin.  She just is unable to produce enough milk as a first calf heifer (the equivalent to a teenage mother) to feed two calves.

Only one heifer being culled (so far) out of the 76 first calf heifers isn't too bad I guess.

Spending most of the day riding through the cows and heifers, makes me think of the qualities of a good Mama.  The similarities are so interesting.

Following up on the oil and gas project.

I have been posting pictures and information from the eastern part of the state through the Virtual Oil and Gas Well Trek.  As I was out checking for new born calves with Jake today I got a few pictures of the finished well pad.

Found one - bring the tagger.

This pad is in the field where we are calving one group of cows.  As you can see the pad is large, approximately four acres.

When calving cows - never ignore your intuition.

Jake, the girls and I left last evening on our way to Jefferson County for the Tri County Beef Banquet to deliver a message on behalf of the Ohio Cattlemen's Board where I serve as a director.  The entire trip Jake kept talking about this cow and how big she was. He said, she has to be having twins, I really need to check on her when we get home.  By 11 PM when we arrived home, Jake was debating if he should go look for this cow or wait until morning.  I know Jake's intuition is usually correct and I told him he should go find her. I knew he wouldn't sleep unless he found her first.  I  put the girls to bed and he went to check on her.  He returned saying she was laying with another cow looking big, but content. I could tell he wasn't satisfied. Then he said, "but I am going to get going early in the morning to check on her". So he did.  By the time I was leaving to take the girls to school, Jake called to say he pulled twins out of that cow and that both of them were coming backwards.  I asked the dreaded question, anyway. He responded very discouraged that they both were dead.

By 10AM Jake called for me to bring him a birthing strap, lube and some gloves.

I arrived with the supplies and there in the chute is the feature cow from, How the water sack ruined date night. Jake said here she is the cow that ruined our date night last year.

The next minutes progressed like this. Jake assesses the situation. He finds a hole without teeth and a tail.  On the bright side he did have two legs. I was thinking he had a chance to redeem himself from the twin death just a few hours before.

The feet were found and now Jake needed to get this calf out.

 The problem with calves coming backwards besides being difficult to get out of the birth canal is that they have fluid in their respiratory system.  If you can get them head down for about 30 seconds, they usually can get a cough and are good to go.

Jake thought he would check and make sure there were no more feet.  Surprise, he found two more feet and a head this time.  The final calf was coming the "right way". First two feet  . . .

and then the head.

Jake redeemed himself with two healthy twins.  We were talking on our way to setup a corral in another pasture. Had he not got this cow in and checked her, there is a good chance these two calves would have died also.  If he wouldn't have gotten up early to pull those two twins that did die, the cow may have died.  Jake went on to deliver two more calves tonight. The final calf he pulled late this evening was just because he wanted to come to the house for supper.