It’s a Tuesday morning and the sun is rising. Take a look outside and there’s a herd of cattle chomping on short fall grass. They moo’d at you last night because they aren’t ready for hay yet, and the human must know.
Ah! The day has started with a birth. Momma Layla is 8 days past due, and is past due no longer. Little calf on the ground. She’s a great momma and needed no help, and is slightly removed from the trampling feet of other cows.
Alright little guy, lets give you a check over. Breathing, strong neck, has eyes and ears and lips and tail and feet. Still soaking wet and covered in the softest fur on the farm. The tail is oddly curly, but nothing much to do about it. Oh, it’s a boy!
Go forth young bull, find that milk. Our work here is finished.
Go back inside, get to work on career job stuff. Finish work, bundle kids to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class, come home, dinner, read bible and pray, off to bed. Jenny goes to check on the meat birds. We just moved them outside the day before and they should be downright giddy on their grass still.
“Robert we massacred the chickens!”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
“No! There’s at least ten dead!”
Sure enough, 10 of the 45 birds over heated in the day. We made some shade adjustments and monitored the next day. A handy roll of radiant barrier was in the shop. One of the cats kindly ripped holes in it for her claws. Now it has a new use for protecting sensitive chicks from the sun. We haven’t lost one since, but it was a day wrecker.
Well, since we’re out here anyways, let’s see how the new heifers are doing.
We drove 2 hours each way on Saturday to pick these up near Temple Texas. Stopped at the world famous, Texas sized gas station, Buc-ees in Hillsboro. If you go around the back there’s a bulk chemical tank for their BBQ sauce.
A young man and his wife have their first child due this week, reasonable possibility it was on this Tuesday. He picks up calves on the fringes of the auctions nearby and bundles them together for buyers like us, also on the fringes of the system. He gets to pay bills, we get to build the herd for next season. These three heifers have mingled in nicely with the herd. All in all, not a bad Tuesday.
