Saturday, October 10, 2020

Weaning Week I

Another busy week here on the ranch. The pens would soon be filled with bawling calves and in preparation, DH and I cleaned out water troughs last Sunday afternoon:

Another ranch-wife workout:


And more fish were transferred as DH was adding medicine to the water


We weaned the beef calves on Tuesday. 


I spent most of the week in the kitchen while the boys gathered and cut the calves from their mamas. The beef calves are on the north side of the ranch and the boys loaded trailer after trailer and hauled them to the pens where they ran them through the chute to separate the heifers from the steers and for vaccinations:


Heifers on one side


Steers on another


While DH mans the chute 


The beef calves will stay here over the weekend


DH rides through them each day, vigilantly watching them for any signs of sickness. Weaned calves are stressed and more susceptible to falling ill, but we do all we can to keep that from happening.


Last year, the guy that bought our calves said he's never received healthier calves - they didn't have anything to doctor. He wants our calves again this year, but DH has been fielding multiple phone calls from interested buyers all week:


On Monday, he'll drive them out to pasture where we'll keep them for 30-45 days before sending them to their new home. For the time being, these babies are singing us to sleep


5 comments:

Sherrill said...

That's exciting that your calves are in such high demand!! It will make it a little easier to listen to them while you're trying to sleep. HA Hopefully the upcoming week will be a little less hectic.

Sally Langston Warren said...

I love this glimpse into your ranch life! The photographs are wonderful and the narrative is great! Do you add fish to the water tank to keep the water clean? I bet the guys were hoping for some more of your Cowboy Lemon cookies! (I made them and they were delicious!)

Nancy A: SewingGranda@gmail.com said...

I love have these glimpses of your life on the ranch. Wanted to tell you that we tried your BBQ over the baked potato, and it was a big hit. It is definitely a keeper, and I am sure we will go to it often.

Gwynette in NW Arkansas said...

I had to laugh about your evening serenade. Our neighbors, who live a quarter of a mile away, separated young calves from mommas last week and we’ve been hearing the “lonesome cattle call” a lot!

Shelly said...

I always wanna stand out there and cry right along with them!

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