round up

A couple of times a year Daddy Bird and I help our good friends the Paces round up and work their cattle.

I've known Clint

and his dad Fred

almost as long as I've known Daddy Bird.

Fred recently married one of the most kind and delightful women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  Caroline and Fred are truly perfect for each other!

Just look at the newlyweds!

Anyway, back to the cattle.  Depending on the time of year we gather approximately 100 head of cows and their calves and either work them, wean them, sort them, or whatever else needs to be done.
Gathering the cows wouldn't be such a big deal except for the fact that they are on like 300 acres and it's just one big field with lots of places for them to hide, a creek or 2 to cross, and they really don't want to be rounded up in the first place.

I wish I had some photos of the whole rounding up cattle drive process, but honestly it takes all my concentration to make sure my horse and I are in the right place at the right time and not allowing any stragglers to get past us.  I can't do that and take pictures at the same time!

There are always stragglers.  Here's Clint bringing up the last of the group

After we herd all the cattle into the holding pens, the sorting begins.  This time we were weaning, so the calves had to be seperated from the cows.  It's during this process that I'm always amazed that no one gets killed.  It's usually a bit of a rodeo.

Something always gets roped.

Here are some random snapshots from the day.  I'll let them speak for themselves.

Whew what a day!  I always leave filthy and tired and sore, but it's such a treat to spend a day outdoors, enjoying nature, my horse, and my friends and family.

foggy morning

Last Saturday we woke up to a really thick fog.

That dang fog was thick as pea soup.  Have you ever heard that expression?

Anyway, we needed to sort out a crazy cow that Daddy Bird had been needing to sell for weeks, and we had to do it in the fog.

I went out and took feed to the cows to get them to come up into the pen, and Daddy Bird brought up the rear on Pedro.

Here come the stragglers.

Remember the twins?  There they are with their mama.  They're not as big as the other calves, but that's what happens with twins.

Here comes Pedro.

It was really creepy how I couldn't see anything coming until it was right up on me.

We were a bit concerned that crazy cow wouldn't come up with the rest of the herd, but everything worked out well.

It's amazing how motivating food can be.

Our other calves are getting big.

Here are the three amigos.  That red heifer on the right is my favorite.

The fog burned off by late morning and we went back later in the day for the previously mentioned "nasty calf incident."  We looked across the pen and saw this enormous steer:

nursing his mother through the fence!  I wish I had gotten a shot of that for y'all.  What makes it even funnier is
1.  He's been weaned 2 times already and
2. She actually stood there next to the fence and let him do it!

If you look really closely you can see the milk dripping off his chin hair.

I guess other species have trouble weaning their babies too.

jr. league horse show

How was your weekend?

Ours was busy, but great.

A few weeks ago, one of Daddy Bird's vet school classmates called and asked us to join he and his wife for an evening at the Junior League Horse Show.  Of course, we were thrilled to join them!  Brad is a veterinarian at Rood and Riddle, an amazing equine veterinary practice in Lexington, and they were sponsoring a class at the show.

We had great seats.

Hello there.

Can you tell how great our seats were?

The evening was great.  No kids.  Adult conversation.  Catching up with friends.  Not too hot, and just a little sprinkle of rain.  Just enough rain to make my hair frizz.

That's ok.  My life is just one big bad hair day.

Brad and his wife Susie are some of our dearest friends.  Like, the kind of friends you don't see every day, but when you get together it's like no time has passed.

As I mentioned before, Brad and Daddy Bird were friends at Auburn.  We have lots of crazy fun memories with Brad, one in particular involving catfish, and illegal fishing at night.  Another involving a hurricane.

The best word to describe Susie is delightful.  She is honestly one of the nicest people I know, and always fun to be around.  I remember when Brad and Susie started dating, and I think I told him something like "you'd better not mess this up, Brad."

He didn't, thankfully.

Why yes, I am currently nursing.  Why do you ask?

Anyway, back to the horse show.

I know nothing about Saddlebreds.  Daddy Bird knows more than I do, since he was an equine vet in the Saddlebred capitol of the world, but when it comes right down to it, we are quarter horse people.  Cow horse people.

We try to make our horses calmer, and quieter.  We use our horses for work.

We do not shake plastic bags at our horses.  We do not shoot off fireworks at our horses.  I find this absolutely fascinating and hillarious.

Like I said, I know nothing about Saddlebreds, but I do have an appreciation for them.  I think they are very beautiful, and incredible athletes.  I appreciate the amount of time and training that is involved to allow these horses to compete at this level.

And there's just something really fun about Saddlebred shows.  They are truly spectator sports.  I love the people watching, and all the yelling and hooting, and I love to hear trainers yelling instructions to their riders.

We were in a box right next to a trainer and it always cracks me up to hear things like, "more leg!  more leg!  too much leg!!!!!"  and "sit baaaaack!!  sit back farther than you've ever sat in your life!!!!"

We were all obsessed with this grey horse.

He may have been a total plug, I have no idea, but he was so pretty!

Thanks Brad and Susie for treating us to such a fun night out!

working cattle

As I mentioned in my last post, we've spent a lot of time lately with our cattle.  It's just that time of year.  A couple of weeks ago, we had to do what's referred to as "working" our herd, and I thought I'd share with ya'll exactly what that means.

Working cattle can mean different things, depending on the time of year, and also what type of producer you are (cow/calf, vs. backgrounder).  We are primarily a cow/calf operation, which means we breed cows to have babies, and then either sell those babies when they are weaned, or starting last year, we keep the babies that are suitable for us to raise to maturity for grass fed beef.  When we work our cattle in the spring, it generally means we deworm them, vaccinate them, castrate any bull calves, replace ear tags on mamas and place ear tags on babies, and sort out any cattle that need to be sold for any reason.

First, we have to gather all the cattle into a large pen.  We usually do this on horseback, as it is the most efficient and stress-free method for us to gather cattle.  We feed them in this pen, so they usually walk in pretty well.

I don't have a shot of Daddy Bird gathering these cattle, but here's Pedro after the job was finished:

Pedro is just hanging out in case we need him again.  Good job Pedro.

Once the cattle are gathered in the large pen, we must sort out and temporarily separate the mamas from the babies.  This is because we run the cows through what is called a chute and head gate and the calves are a little to small to go through properly.

The sorting process is usually accomplished on foot.   Here are Daddy Bird and the father-in-law sorting out the mamas.  If there were audio to these photos, you'd hear a lot of arguing going on.  Somehow I managed to stay out of this whole proccess this time!!  That's a first.

They are saying things like, "get that one, not that one!" and "Dad, I told you stand there!" (Daddy Bird), followed by "If I knew where there was, I'd be standing in it!" (father-in-law)

It's usually pretty entertaining.

Once the mamas are sorted out into a smaller pen, we push them in small groups into  a chute where they are caught in a headgate, like this:

The father-in-law isn't crazy about this mama swinging her head around!

We catch them in the head gate to hold them still so we can replace any lost ear tags (kind of like getting their ears pierced with a numbered tag), deworm them, and check to make sure they are pregnant.  That's the Daddy Bird's job.  It involves a long plastic sleeve:

Ah, the work of a veterinarian.  You should see the laundry.

After all the mamas are finished and let back out into the pasture, it's the babies' turn.  I don't have photos of this because I actually had to get out from behind the camera and help with this part.  It's pretty much a rodeo though, and it involves roping the bull (male) calves, vaccinating and castrating them and placing ear tags, and then roping the heifers (females) and vaccinating and tagging them.  It also involves a lot of grunting, swearing, lifting, poop and mud.  I'll get some photos next time.

Then the babies are released to go find their mamas:

It always amazes me how they just go right back to whatever they were doing, just like nothing happened, while we are covered in mud, poop and blood, and sore for days from the work!

Another word about working cattle.  We try to work our cattle in the least stressful way possible for them.  We try to move quietly around them and get them to stay as calm as possible.  We generally don't use electric cattle prods either.  All this keeps things as stress-free as possible for them and for us.  When cattle are stressed it keeps them from gaining weight as efficiently, and when they run around unnecessarily, it produces tougher meat.

Plus, we believe in using humane practices in handling our animals.

There's your lesson in working cattle.

Happy Saturday!