Farming can definitely be frustrating. There are many factors beyond your control the largest being mother nature and the independent thinking of a living animal. To make a long story short this summer has been a trial of patience and perseverance. In June we started renting additional land from John who we currently rent from. He had about 6 cattle in an 80 acre pasture that he could not get up to sell. They are Wild. This was mistake number one. So if I wanted to rent the land it would be my job to eventually get the cows up this fall. We turned out 4 of our cows with his in mid June. I had been trying to feed them to gentle them down. One day I went to feed the cattle and when I walked up to them, one of his spooked and ran through the fence into the neighbors pasture. All the cattle ended up getting out and after a lot of work, fencing, and persistence we were able to get all back but one cow.
This is her. She is number 17 and we raised her from birth. We call this color Mousy. Like the color of a mouse.
I hadn't seen this cow in over a month. She was hiding in the neighbors woods. You would think a 1100 pound cow would be easy to spot, but she was not. I had actually given up on finding her. Well about two weeks ago, she was back. She had given birth to a calf during her hiatus. The calf was still in the neighbors field, and I pushed the calf across the fence to his mother. They have managed to stay there for the last 2 weeks. Lets hope she doesn't get a wild streak again.
Her calf is the "Mousy" calf standing behind the other young calves. As you can tell by his expression, he is still not very trusting.
To add to our stress in the past month, our neighbors bull and some of his cows got into the field with our cattle and we had to separate them on horseback. Then the next week one of our cows gave birth to a calf that was dead and she escaped the pasture and was standing in the middle of the gravel road when we drove up to check on them. Luckily Melissa was with me and we were able to get her back where she belonged. This has tested our patience and desire but for now we're still farming. It definitely takes some faith and a positive attitude to do this.
Remember Rosie?
She had her calf back in April and the color is...
Blue Roan.
Blue roan is a mixture of black and white hair. Kind of like salt and pepper. This color is common in a breed of cattle called Shorthorn. I suppose Rosie is a mixture of Shorthorn and Hereford but I'll never know for sure. This picture was taken today, so he's about 4 months old now and weighs around 350 to 400 pounds.
In closing I would like to thank everyone who has purchased beef and supported our business and family.
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