Hmmm, what to write in a second post…
For the past two years I’ve been helping out my family with misc. farm and ranch duties. My aunt has 70 head of cattle. She runs a small Cow Calf operation and it takes a lot of time. Between vaccinating, Worming, Branding and generally taking care, not a weekend goes by that something doesn’t need to be done. You feed once a day everyday and let me tell ya, flaking hay off of a bale that weighs more than your pickup can be a test in patience and strength. We keep the cows on a separate property just outside of town. It’s nice to get out on the plain and see the valley from a different prospective everyday.
Valley in Spring (winter is hard to take a GREAT photo of)
Here in town we keep replacement calfs that we feed on a bucket, we just acquired two pigs (Wilbur & Panda) they’re KUne KUne pigs, so little compared to your regular meat breeding stock, but good for small operations. We also have 4 sheep and horse! who knew you could have so many animals on a small property, though I almost think it is more complex without the land to let them roam completely free, an acre can reach its limits pretty quick.
The day starts at 7am with feeding the bucket calves, the sheep and the pigs. At about noon we feed the big cows and bulls. 7pm it’s time to feed the calves, pigs and sheep again. It’s hard on the “mature people” but a little easier when you have some young blood around.
Pardon my photos, thinking of getting a new phone if I’m going to try and make this a regular thing. Let me know what depths I should go in the comments. I think when you’re new at this sort of thing it can be hard to get into a groove. Maybe I’ll keep it random. Hope you like!
Wilbur (right) Panda (left)
Grandma With
Bucket Calves (Onsie and Twoie)
