More Cattle Bloat Info

Since having a cow that had bloat earlier this week I have done quite a bit more research on the topic and thought I would share the information.  That said, I am NOT a vet and you can decide to use this information or not.  If in doubt, I ALWAYS opt for calling the vet.

Cattle bloat is basically just indigestion that leads to excessive gas being built up.  When this happens, burping is unable to relieve all the gas.  There are certain feeds which are more prone to causing bloat such as: legumes, alfalfa, too much grain or finely chopped hay.

As the cow bloats, the left side (where the rumen is located) of the belly gets larger than the right side making the cow appear lop-sided.  As it worsens, both sides will get larger.  When this happens, there is more and more pressure being put on the lungs and heart.  This makes it very hard for the cow to breath and can quickly cause death if not relieved.

While there are feed supplements to help prevent bloat there are some things that can be done other than that.  Don't put cows on wet legume pasture as this ferments easily and don't rush them when moving them in or out of pasture.  Movement irritates the rumen and can make bloat worse. Also, the time they spend in lush spring pastures may have to be limited.  Also, there are cows who are just more prone to getting bloat than others.  In this case, the question arises whether or not to sell them or not.  The risk with keeping them is that if they bloated and you didn't notice,  they could die.

Treatment for mild to moderate bloat includes a tube passed through the left side of the mouth or nose, through the esophagus and into the rumen.  This can require a tube many feet long depending on the size of the cow.  Through this tube mineral oil can be given to break up the foam.  Also, using a bite block works well to prevent the cow from biting the tube.  

If the cow is having difficulty breathing, this may require more immediate emergency actions involving a needle or trocar inserted through the belly into the rumen to immediately relieve the gas.  If the cow is in dire need and taking it's last gasping breaths, a pocket knife can be used to make a hole which can be stitched by the vet after the emergency is over.  One may need to use their fingers in order to spread the opening larger if the foam is too thick to allow the gas to escape.  I also read that the vet can insert a permanent valve for cows that bloat often. I don't know any details on that, but it is something we will keep in mind for our heifer.

All of the information I found has been helpful to us in dealing with our young lady.  We tried her out on grass this morning and it appeared that her belly was growing again so I put her in the barn again where I believe she will remain until the calf is born.  I am not sure what the problem is, but suspect it may be either the positioning of her calf or the size of it.  Either way, I will be keeping a close eye on her in the barn due to my suspicion of problems with labor and delivery!

I hope this information is helpful, but please also remember that I AM NOT A VET! I am publishing this information as just that- information period.  It is not meant as medical advice or as a replacement for contacting a professional!

Cattle Bloat

With our small herd of cows we have been extremely lucky so far and never experienced any of them bloat.  That being said, I have yet to "see" bloat and am naive in recognizing it --until now, that is.  I have read enough, though, that I thought I would be able to at least suspect it.  

A couple days ago one of our pregnant heifers looked bigger to me.  This happened over a couple days and she is very pregnant -due any time.  I debated that day what was going on and bloat did cross my mind, but she was acting fine so I thought I was just overreacting.  When I checked on her since then she looked the same and still acted normal.  

Tonight, I had my son and husband take a look at her and, yep, sure enough they diagnosed bloat.  She had a slight hump to her mid-back and her left side was much larger than the right.  This happened to her once before when she unknowingly stole another cows alfalfa hay at the county fair.  I wasn't there, so I didn't see it.  The boys said it was much worse last time with her belly hard as a rock.  Tonight the top of her belly was slightly firm and tight, but not rock hard.  

She is such a great tempered tame cow that she allowed my son to put in an orogastric tube while haltered and tied in the barn.  She definitely did not like it, but tolerated it.  Some of the gas did escape through the tube before she expelled the tube.  She also got a dose of mineral oil, which she found less than tasty.  She is now stalled in the barn and feed is on hold until her belly goes down a little more.  She is belching some nasty smelling gas which makes us very happy!  Hopefully she will be feeling better soon and have a beautiful calf for us in the next few days.   

My lesson is learned -if I suspect something isn't right, I should follow my instincts.  Now I also know what to look for to recognize bloat.  We will be keeping her on less lush pasture from now on. I am so thankful we didn't lose her due to my lack of knowledge!  

Farm Happenings

There is lots going on at our farm in the past couple of weeks!  Last Thursday evening our heifer "Red" looked kinda funny in the pasture.  She is the one that had an enormous bag but the hind end wasn't really puffy yet.  My hubby went out to check on her(I would have but I was getting supper ready) and I got a call a few minutes later telling me that he could see hooves.  Of course, I dropped everything and rushed out hoping to see the birth.  I did see it and my daughter got to too!  It was the first birth she has been home for and she was so excited!

I did get photos on my phone (which I will post later this week) of the entire birth and, believe me, Red was an all-star. I should have taken my camera out there, but I was hurrying so I didn't miss it altogether.  She had a beautiful heifer calf that is, of course, solid black.  Glad it isn't the kinda icky brown that she is.  We love her anyway.

The very next morning I went out to do chores and our heifer "Tiny" had a little membrane hanging out.  After a bit she didn't seem to be progressing.  I was all over the pasture that morning looking at her and the others.  I left her alone for a while and when I returned an hour later to check on her all the cows were in the barn lot, including her.  I walked around the corner of the barn and nearly stepped on a new black calf.  A little confused at first, I finally came to the conclusion that since the calf was cleaned off and I saw him stand and drink for awhile, she had already had him when I first saw her!  What I was seeing was the afterbirth, but there was so little of it I couldn't tell.  I felt like such an idiot that the calf was probably bedded down in the pasture I had just been in a little while before.  He was a healthy black bull calf that wasn't as small as I thought he might be considering she was our smallest pregnant heifer.  

All the calves, we have 4 now, are doing really well and were jumping around the barn lot tonight.  They all seem very happy and healthy.  It is extremely exciting having so many!!  We have 1 cow left to calve and my son has one to calve also.  Each one is just as exciting as the last and I feel blessed to have witnessed 2 out of 4 births this year so far.  

In non-animal related happenings I was able to, with my daughter's help, get our garden all planted this evening.  Actually we have 2 gardens!  I always feel so good about getting that done in between the weather!  It was extremely windy here but that didn't stop us!!  We have some new crops this year and I planted some more herbs, too.  The asparagus has begun and I need to get out in the pastures to check it again soon.  The rhubarb is growing well and all the fruit trees are beginning to bud.  

I love spring and all the new life it brings!

Udderly Enormous!

All the girls were up in the barn lot tonight so my daughter and I decided to go out and check on them.  We have a heifer, Red, that is due in a couple weeks with her first calf, but she has really been bagging up recently. I am so excited to see what her babies will look like since she is built like a brick, well, you know the rest.  When we looked at her tonight all I could do is feel sorry for her as it must be so uncomfortable, but this is what we saw:

This photo taken with my phone doesn't quite do it justice but believe me she is gigantic!  I think if she doesn't calve tomorrow I will start taking bets on when it will be or if it will be before she has an udder explosion!!

On a cute note, I got some decent photos of my little girl (she might become my favorite) in the barn lot. I love to look out in the pasture to see her playing in the field by momma.  She is just the meaning of adorable!

Love this girl!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day and I will post as soon as our next little beauty is born!

More Pics of the Babies!

I cannot resist these cutie pies! I had to post some more pics of them as I have taken a ton of them already!  They are doing great and seem to be healthy.  They both drink from mommas well.  The little girl runs and jumps around the pasture but the little boy still lays around a lot.

 Little Mr. (no name yet)

Little Miss April

Such cuteness at the farm here now!  It was definitely worth the wait to see these two.  I am so excited for the others to arrive.  

Happy Easter!!

Our Cow's Labor Stages

Yesterday as I was driving past the pasture I noticed our cow, Mabel, standing with her tail straight out and looking like she was straining with nothing coming out (or so I thought from that far away).  Also, she was in the corner of the pasture away from the herd.  This was about 2:30pm.  I rushed right down with her in time to catch all of this:

 This is what she looked like when I first saw her.

When she turned I could see this discharge from her vaginal area.

After a few pushes like above it seemed she was pushing harder and her tail would curl.  This went on for a few pushes. 

Finally I was able to see just a little of the bag starting to appear.

More and more bag appeared with each push.  She seemed to be progressing just fine.

Finally she laid down to push.  Even more bag was visible.

A few more hard pushes and it is hard to see with the weeds, but the baby is being delivered in this photo. (Unluckily she moved behind these weeds just before this) This was around 3:30pm.  This all was right at or just over an hour after I noticed labor had begun. (Not exact on times due to watching cow not my watch!)

It took momma a minute or so to get up after delivery and I was starting to get a little nervous because I couldn't see the baby moving.  A couple licks from mom and I could see movement!

Baby is all black and is still being cleaned off just minutes after birth.  Already seems very alert.

And baby calf stands!  This was the first full stand after a few failed attempts.  This was roughly 10 minutes after birth.

Later that evening we went to check on the calf and found out he is a boy!  He is 7/8 angus and 1/8 maine anjou.  

Today we were able to check out the black white-faced calf born earlier yesterday and she is a girl!  I am so excited about that because she will be retained for breeding.  Both calves are great looking babies and we are so happy with them.  I feel privileged to have witnessed such an event.  I did stay back a ways so that momma could have her room to do her thing, but she is a wonderful gentle and tolerant cow so she lets us touch and pet the calf anytime.  She is also very protective and rarely leaves his side.

We feel so blessed this year already and have a few more to go!  

Long Awaited Arrival

It is days like today that make all the hard work and money spent all worthwhile.  It seems like I have been waiting forever to see our first new arrivals of the year (pretty much since the bull was here) and we are calving much earlier this year than any previous year.  

I have been keeping a close eye on the cows out in the pasture with binoculars from the house when busy doing housework and everything else.  Today after lunch I noticed the cows were within sight so I whipped out the binoculars to check on them.  To my shock and amazement there it was, a little black white faced calf running about near it's mother, Maria.  Yep, Maria was the first to calve and a first time mom who did it all by herself without a hitch.  What a tremendous calf she has(as I believe they all are).

Of course, I headed out to check it out and snap some pics of it.  We still cannot tell for sure if it is a heifer or bull calf, although my husband thinks she's a girl and I sure hope so.  If so, she will definitely be a keeper!

I then had to go into town to get our weekly ration of feed for the goats and chickens.  Driving by the field on my way home I noticed Mabel was in the corner of the pasture again as she was when I was out earlier.  I had checked on her then with no signs of labor.  She was now standing kinda funny with her tail straight out, but she wasn't eliminating anything.  I just had a feeling she was maybe in labor.  I ran in the house, grabbed the camera and my phone and headed back out determined to see the whole thing.  I did get to see it and it was an amazing hour.  I got lots of pics of the whole thing, some of which I will be posting maybe tomorrow in a "step by step of labor post".  The end product is a beautiful little boy that is as black as night and also oh so wonderful.  

Mabel is a wonderful momma and let us pet him this evening.  What an experience that was.  She is an amazingly gentle cow who is one of my favorites if not the favorite as far as temperament.

We still have 3 to go and each is sure to be as amazing as the others! My son also has a heifer to calve.  With all the events of today, one never knows what tomorrow might hold!

The Waiting is Killing Me!

I wait and wait as patiently as possible every year for our cows to calve.  This for me is not easy as I am not a very patient person.  It is now officially driving me CRAZY! 

This week marks the third week that Mabel has been oozing mucous from her behind.  It is getting thicker day by day.  Each day I get excited when I see this and check on her often -usually 2-3 times per day.  So far, no additional progress except that her milk bag is enormous.  In my past experience, which is not vast by any means, once they start this process it doesn't only take a couple days to deliver the calf.  

Maria is also getting close as she has a behind that is so swollen it looks like it will explode.  No other indications that it is impending, except that her bag is also getting full. They both have difficulty getting up from laying down and look so uncomfortable.  According to the vet's calculations last October, these 2 are both due around today!  We always try to guess who will be first and this year it is truly a tossup.  I won't even venture to guess at this point, but I do think that Red will be the third to calve.

This year is extra exciting due to our horrendously cold winter months we had.  Spring, hopefully, is definitely here!

Also, if you haven't noticed yet please check out my new page: Our Girls.  It is a tribute to our breeding girls!

Time to get outside and enjoy this wonderful weather! 

(forecast 74 degrees here today!)

Bulls and Sex of Calves

As we await the arrival of our first calves, this is the time of year we begin thinking about breeding this year and coming up with our plan.

Last year we decided to purchase a bull, use him for a few months and resell him at the local cattle sale.  This did work out for us, but being an older bull with worsening feet, I was very worried something would happen to him before we could get him sold.  Everything worked out fine and he was sold in October and it ended up costing us roughly $300 to breed 5 cows.

Thanks to a very nice woman who raises some of the nicest polled hereford cattle I have ever seen, we will be purchasing our own 2 year old bull. He will not come to our farm until we are done calving this year. His name is Apollo and he is a magnificent looking creature that will add some color to our herd, which is important to us(mainly me).  Everyone in Iowa has black cows and we prefer each cow have it's own look, because they all do have their own personality!

Apollo

I have learned a great deal from this nice older woman whose family has been raising polled herefords since before she was born.  One of the most interesting things I have learned is that the bull "picks" the sex of the calf.  She said that in her experience if the bull lunges to mount the cow, it will almost always produce a male.  If the bull gently atops her, it will produce a female.  So, if the bull is young  and has to kind of jump up there it should produce more males. It has something to do with the difference in speed, agility and longevity of the sperm.  I remember reading this sort of information about people when I was in my baby-making days.

I will be keeping track this year of the sex of our calves born to kind of test this hypothesis.  Our bull last year was a massive 4 year old that I would say did not lunge, so by her rule I predict we should have mostly bull calves.  We shall see!

I hope everyone has an amazing day today! 

Happy April Fools Day!!  

Photos of Babies and Big Girls

I took these photos the other day out in the barn.  I love taking pics of them and the big girls. They are such characters! Finally the weather is bearable enough for me to get out and do this.

 One of triplets -whether

 Mistletoe peaking

 Twin buck - I love his color!  We will probably whether him so that one of our kids can show him at the fair.

 Triplets that are being bottle-fed.

 Twin doe -little sister to the buck with all that color!

 Our big billy and the producer of all that color.

 Heifer named "Big Red". She is built like a tank and will be calving in a few weeks!

 "Mabel" was our first baby cow born here and will be one of the first cows to calve in early April. This will be her second calf.

"Snowflake" likes to rub on everything!  She is not bred this year, but will be for next year.

This is "Maria". She is a first timer at calving this year also. She is a polled hereford that is a little standoffish still, but she is getting better.

There you have it, our first photo shoot for 2014! There will be lots more photos to enjoy throughout the year.  Hopefully we will have calves to take photos of soon!

Oh yeah and all photos ARE copywrited! If you chose to use one, anyway please include a link back to this page!  Thanks!

Artificial Insemination vs. Natural Breeding in Cows

My debate continues between artificial insemination and natural breeding our cows with a bull.  There are many pros and cons to both sides as I will list, but it really is a matter of preference for each farm hobbyist or full time farmer.  I know some farmers who AI all the cows and never have had a bull and some farmers who swear by keeping a bull.

By artificially inseminating cows there is no other mouth to feed, it is relatively low cost and no aggressive bull to worry about while out in the field checking or working with cows.  The downside is that it is very time consuming for the owner scheduling the vet, watching for heat and rescheduling the vet, watching for re -heat and watching for miscarriages down the road and heat again. 

Keeping a bull is a huge investment to begin with.  They are pricey, but if you can find a decent deal, when finished with him you may make your money back at the sale barn.  There is another mouth to feed and another animal to worry about getting hurt or worse.  Which would also mean loss of a huge investment and not having cows bred --HUGE RISK!  The benefits of having a bull are that cows are getting bred -hopefully- without any real work on your part.  Also, if he misses one or one doesn't stick he will get her next time around.  The overall successful breeding rate of bulls vs. AI is much greater.

 

With all of this in mind and our AI trial last year,and only having 1 calf, we decided to purchase a bull.  We bought a 4 yr old from a local farmer who rotates the 4 yr olds out to the sale barn.  Since we only wanted him for a couple months --I do not want to worry about having a bull who is not as tame as our cows in the pasture any longer than I have to!-- this would work great.  He is a full blood angus and looks amazing.  He has a couple curved front toes that don't affect his breeding capability at all and is the reason he will be going to the sale barn in a couple weeks.  Our hope is to make back most of our investment and come out no worse than we were financially and have pregnant cows to boot!

That is the plan and hopefully all works out well for us.  I pray every day that he doesn't get hurt.  We haven't had any issues with aggression or attitude.  He simply would just as soon be away from us and us from him.  He seems pretty gentle, but as I told the kids a thousand times "you just don't know for sure and cannot trust him".  Soon I am going to schedule the vet to come out and preg check the cows so we know where we stand and how soon we can sell him.  I haven't seen him on anyone this cycle so I am hoping they are all bred with some cute little ones that I can enjoy next spring.  It gives me something to look forward to all long gloomy winter!

Make sure to make today a great day!!!

Our First Artificially Inseminated Calf

On May 31, our first AI calf was born!! He is a well built bull calf.  Officially he is 1/2 Hereford, 1/4 Angus and 1/4 Maine anjou.  His momma always has nice calves!  This was our first attempt at AI and our first time breeding with herefords.  I love the way he turned out. 

We had 3 cows to breed last year and thought we would try our hand at artificially inseminating them.  It was a lot of work to line up the vet to come out for each stage of it, watch the cows for heat and then watch them after insemination for signs of heat in case it didn't take.  We had one first-time heifer that was done 2 times and never took, which I hear is pretty normal.  We also had another heifer that took and was preg-checked positive and lost it.  So, out of 3 cows inseminated this will be our only calf :(  I was really hoping for at least 2/3.  The cost was cheaper than buying a bull, but pretty expensive to only get 1 calf! 

I have decided to buy a bull for this year and hope he does his job!  For some reason I feel much better knowing there is a bull out there doing his job over and over if it doesn't take the first time or the second time.  We don't, however, want a bull to keep around all the time so he will probably get sold back and we will have a new one every year. 

This year we have 7 heifers and cows to be bred and I cannot wait for all the little ones next year!! 

I have tons of farm news to report and hopefully soon I can get it all on here!!  Life has just been so busy lately!

Signs of Spring

Today, as the temperature was a seemingly balmy 45 degrees, I decided to venture out.  I cannot remember the last time I ventured out just to enjoy the day.  If I did, it was with uncomfortable full winter garb on.  I am feeling so tired of being cooped up in the house with the windows shut and freezing my buns when I have to go out to do chores!  While outside I decided it was nice enough to let the chickens and ducks venture outside also.  They loved it.  The ducks played in a puddle and the chickens were looking at the outside like "we haven't been out here for a while".  The goats and cows were just laying around soaking up the sunshine. 

While out there I noticed some sure signs of impending Spring!!  Yay!  There are buds on the trees!  It is muddy as ever around here, which I don't enjoy.  The kids usually bring in plenty.  The best thing I saw, though, was some little white flowers up and in bloom and my daffodils are starting to poke out of the ground!

With next week being the first day of spring and my self diagnosed seasonal affective disorder (spring fever) at its peak, I am DEFINATELY ready!  I already have a list a mile long of things that need done outside like fences and better goat pen to house the mommas and babies away from Billy. We will also be starting round 2 of pasture reseeding. Tomorrow is looking to be a wonderful day, too, then it looks like back to cold temps.  Double ugh!  I love Iowa and everything that entails EXCEPT winter!!

I am still waiting on baby goat kids and keeping a good eye on her every day.  When that finally happens I will be sure to post some new kid pics!  I am hoping that I may even get to see the birth.  If so, I am going to try and video.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Escape Artist Cows

Thought I would share this funny little story about what happened to us the other night.  It would be funnier, but since we have a definate hay shortage it is less humorous!

We were moving a round bale in with the cows off the trailer in the middle of our most recent snow storm when my husband and I were talking about how fat our 2 hopefully pregnant cows looked.  I was thinking "boy they are huge for this early in pregnancy".  Our biggest one was as big as a barrel.  I had just looked closely at them a couple days before and they hadn't looked that big.  I offered a handful of hay to her and she just sniffed it, which is totally unlike her.

My daughter and I went into the barn to get a look at the other one when I looked up and the big girl was heading up the aisle to the inside of the barn where the hay is stored!  She looked over at me as if she was saying "oh s--- she saw me".  I told my daughter to go get dad, quick!  I jumped the fence and got in front of her not paying any attention to the hay bales we do have left.  My husband came in and opened the door so they could back out.  We got them out and looked at the stack of hay . . . partially demolished! 

We don't think they ate as much as it looked like at first but it's hard to tell.  No wonder they were fat and didn't want the round bale!  Someone had either left the small door leading in there not latched all the way or we have cows that can unlatch a door.  We now have a pile of hay to use out of for the miniature horses and goats instead of small bales.

I made my husband go out later just to make sure they hadn't gotten in there again! 

Deep Well Pump Problems

We have learned so many lessons these past few years and gained a wealth of knowledge, but as we were reminded of this week --we have sooooo much to learn!

On Monday morning I went out to do morning chores and when I turned on the well pump NOTHING happened!!  Called my hubby who said the handle must be frozen due to our amazing Iowa winter that has seemed to go on forever.  He would take care of it when he got home --NOT!

After 4 days of carrying 5 gallon buckets of water (my poor husband's back was at the brink of breaking!) from the house to the cows, goats, etc I finally called a repairman.  Keep in mind that we have never had our well pipe freeze and it has been lots colder here than it is now.  I was sure it was the pump gone bad or something horribly expensive to fix.  The repair man was here Thursday for 5 minutes in the pit and knew it was frozen.  Apparently the southeastern winds freeze them faster than anything.  We informed him that we haven't ever had this problem.  He replied "I've heard that a thousand times this last week". 

He also informed us that we should have a pressure tank in the pit so that when the pump does it's job and pumps tons of water that the spicket cannot possibly pour out fast enough it doesn't burn up the pump eventually!  Had no idea that this could happen to a pump that he says should go forever!  That would have been a cool $1500 fix!  Yikes!  While we had him here we decided the $350 investment for such a pressure tank was a good investment and had him install it as well as put in an outlet for a heat lamp.  Took about an hour and voila running water again!  Yay!!

This morning the darn thing was frozen again due to the heat lamp he put on it was shattered, so again we thawed the pipes which was a 30 minute fix and replaced the heat lamp bulb.  Hopefully the new tarp, hay and wood we put over it all will fix the heat lamp problem and we are good to go for the remainder of winter --which I hope is not much longer!!

This summer will be a revamp of the whole coverage we have on it to hopefully prevent all this in future years!

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND STAY WARM!!

Parmak Solar Fencer



We have now had our Parmak Solar Pak 6 fencer installed for a few weeks and what a SUPER BUY!  We couldn't be happier with it.  Every day I check it and it's so easy to check with the charge gauge on the front.  All I have to do is look at it to know if there is a problem!

The installation was super easy too.  It took minutes to do it.  We did already have a ground rod in, but it would have only taken a few more minutes to put in a straight copper 6-8 foot ground rod with the fence pounder.  All we had to do was mount it and hook in the wires and turn it on.  Immediately the charge gauge went up to the green and a little beyond.  We even ran the fence about twice as far as we had planned due to the cows kept getting on another part of the fence in the pen they were in to eat lucious grass on the other side.  We figured this way any animal in there would stay off it.

The cows have been out pasture grazing once again (saving my hay for when its really needed) and staying away from that terrible south fence.  We used the electric tape with the fencer and that works great.  It is easily visible so the kids, or I, don't forget it's there.   Kudos to Parmak for making a fencer that works tremendously well, is easy to see if there is a problem and is pretty affordable!  Thank you also to jefferslivestock.com for selling it at a great price and shipping in a reasonable amount of time.  (I did see today that horse.com has it on sale right now for $157.)

Pasture Disking

The pasture has finally been disked!  Since the fields have not been plowed up in at least 50 years it took three times over with the disk to break all the sod.  We also had giant ant hills in this pasture that got broken down with the disk.  This field looks really great now with no trees, no big clumps in it and all the junk grass dead!  This process took about 4 hours for roughly 10 acres.  The average price per acre in this area is $10-20 for disking. 

There is now only one process left for this section:  PLANTING THE SEED.  I will be extremely excited to get this part completed and be done worrying about it for the year.  Then in the spring I can begin worrying again about it coming up!  Our seed is ready at the seed dealer and we can plant anytime after November 15th and before the ground freezes -called frost seeding.  It will just be a matter of which day our guy can plant it and throw the fertilizer on.  He will broadcast seed it then pull the harrow over it so it goes in the soil.  This method is less time consuming and less costly than seed drilling due to the different sizes of seed and the need to plant them separately with the drill.

This has been a long and time consuming process and I'm not really looking forward to doing the larger field next year, but I am looking forward to a beautiful pasture that can sustain lots more animals than we currently have and give us our own hay for winter! I am sure my husband will want to purchase a hay baler next so we don't have to pay someone to do that!  

Anyway, progress is being made and soon it will be completed.  I have learned a lot of things while trying to get this first section completed and will already be aware of the in's and out's of the next section so it shouldn't be near as time consuming.  In the end it should make for some happy cows, horses and goats! 

Solar Fencers

After much time spent researching solar fencers I finally decided on one.  I didn't know much about them at all in the beginning.  Now, I feel a little better versed in solar fencers!  I had no idea when I began that there were so many brands and so many differences between them -it was a bit overwhelming.  I read tons of reviews and looked at the specs of many.  I do believe in knowing which item will give me the most for my $$$.  All the local guys told me Parmak was the best.  Only one of our local stores, however, carries Parmak.  I ended up ordering the Parmak Solar Pak 6 from www.jefferslivestock.com with a savings of nearly $40 even after shipping!  (I usually try to buy local but the savings was just too much to pass up this time)  I did buy all the fencing and stakes local, though.  This Parmak fencer says it will do 25 miles of fence.  There was only 1 bad review I came across when researching it, all the others were highly praising.  It really made the choice easy. 

The Parmak fencers seem to have a high range capability compared to some other brands.  This was a factor in our choice.  It also seems to be a quality built product that should last for years with minimal problems.  Some of the other brands I researched are Gallagher and Zareba.  I'm not at all saying these aren't good fencers, it just seemed to me that the Parmak would work better for us.

It took only a few days to get here and I was so excited to get it out there so the cows could go into the big pasture that still has much to eat and we could stop feeding hay so soon this season.  I unpacked it and saw a tag on the front "must charge outside 5 days in off position before using".  My excitement turned to "wish I would have known that" very quickly.  So, here I sit with the fencer outside charging and still feeding hay to the cows.

We will be able to put it up on Tuesday.  I also thought that we could get all the 1/2" electric fence tape up early so it would be ready to go, but got quashed on that idea as I was informed by my husband that the deer would probably tear it up jumping the fence and would make a mess of it.  I will be more than ready on Tuesday to get it all up and turn the thing on!  The cows will be so excited to go out there and eat like, well, like cows! 

Each day I have thrown around the idea that if we just put the cows out there they would have so much to eat that they wouldn't care about the almost non-existent fence at the south side of our property.  Then pictures of me chasing cows out of the neighbors corn field would fill my head and I just didn't want to risk it. 

When all of our pastures are reseeded and the south fence done this fencer will be used to run each of our paddocks.  Hopefully we chose wisely and it will work like a charm!

Fences are My Nemesis!

Fences are my nemesis!  We have been battling old hedge post fences from day 1.  The fences weren't something we gave much consideration to when we bought this place since we had no animals at first, but we knew they weren't in top condition.  They have contained our animals for the most part for the past few years.  As the interior and property fences get worse, we have been replacing them as fast as we can afford but FENCES ARE EXPENSIVE!

Our dilemma now is that our whole south fence is pretty much barely a fence anymore.  The horses stay in there and we're not sure why.  They could easily walk right over it.  Our problem is that we have the cows in the small pasture that is almost out of vegetation for them and the large still lush pasture is the one with that awful fence and a corn field on the other side.  Much too inviting for the cows!!  It is roughly 1325 feet long so it will be an expensive venture.  The cows need to eat so we either will have to replace it quickly or buy electric fence. It is too far out to run electricity, though so we will have to use solar.

After pricing the solar electric fencer from Parmak, which I am told is the best, our decision is clear for now.  For about $350 we will have electric running the whole fence with maybe a day for installation.  The new fence would cost at least $2000 and take lots more time to install.  Eventually that will have to be done, but hopefully the electric will hold them until the pastures are reseeded.  

It always seems as though if it's not one thing, it's another around here.  Someday I am hoping that we will have all new fences that will last the rest of my lifetime!  Too bad I don't have a secret fence fund just to get them all done!  Lesson learned this time that maybe we should have looked into fence cost a little more closely when we bought this place and replaced them before we got any animals.  That would be my sound advice to anyone thinking of buying an old farm that needs updating.   



Fall Vet Visit to Preg Check Cows and Vaccinate

So, the vet came yesterday afternoon and first vaccinated and wormed the calves.  They were fairly easy to get into the chute since they had no idea what it was!  It always looks very medeival but doesn't hurt them.  Three calves down, two momma cows to go.

After the slightly unpleasant task of loading the first into the chute, which wasn't as hard as usual for any of them, the vet whips out this device, a probe hooked to glasses with a cord.  I asked what it was and he said "the ultrasound".  I had thought he was just going to palpate for the sac in the uterus.  Wrong!  I was so excited that he would actually see something.  After a couple of minutes he told us she was pregnant!!!  I made a "woo hoo" out loud and he chuckled at me.  He took off the video glasses and let me put them on.  Wow!  I could see it.  The next momma went exactly the same although he couldn't see the baby only the embryonic vessicle, which he said means she is pregnant!

So, for our first time trying artificial insemination we had 2 out of 3 take the first time.  That's not so bad.  This is also our first time using a hereford bull named Traditions from www.SelectSires.com -usually it's a angus bull from a local farmer. The 3rd heifer we probably won't have preg-checked.  If she is then she will calve about July 9, 2013 and if she isn't we will re-breed her at a later date.  I still haven't decided if we will AI next year or rent a bull.  There are pros and cons to each. 

A big thanks to such a wonderful vet that not only understands my excitement, but answers all my questions and offers tons of info and explanation to aid my learning.

Our little ones are about an inch long right now and hopefully they stay put!  We haven't ever had trouble maintaining a pregnancy, but he said it does happen.  At least we are out of the woods for super hot temps now.