We had a long Sunday night bring in new calves out of the cold. Here is to hoping for a warmer weekend next weekend. I went to work and the kids and Ben stayed home working in the cold. Toni has a jerk boss that never gives her a day off (she is her own boss to those of you that do not know). Kade rode, Kaine worked on his pickup, Anna and Ben cleaned out the heavy pen, turned out everyone that had calved. Ben and the boys put out 4 more big bales with the horses on Monday. Toni wanted to ride Friday even thought she could not get on with all her clothes, so Kade had to roll her up there. Friday was happy since she got grain and was only rode for a little bit. Then Toni groomed her for awhile just to get her gnarly mane cleaned up. 142 calved and Anna brought them into the barn for a while since it was so cold. We still have Spark and Dandy in so they get extra feed, just due to the cold. We continue to work on them just because.
Tuesday everyone was back at school/work. Toni checked in the morning, no new calves. Toni and the kids worked on the two colts. For some reason dad put bunny ears on Sammy, and he was not impressed. The auctioned started on Tuesday and King got a couple bids early. Toni got some good some pics of the cows on Tuesday. It was cold but no new snow on Tuesday.
We had snow on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, the kids had a two hr delay from school. A few more bids on King on Wednesday. Anna would normally check, but worked on some school stuff so Toni went and checked the cows after the kids left. It was snowing while she checked, but luckily nothing was calving or had calved. Chores take a while now due to the snow, rain and freezing temps. Toni took Dandy and Spark out for a walk about tandem. They are both really funny colts and so different from each other. At this point we are just doing fun stuff with them and continuing to improve their abilities.
On Thursday the kids got out of school early due to the freezing rain. So Kade wanted to go ride MC in the freezing rain and Toni did not allow it. Toni went and stayed with grandma on Thursday night. The sale ended at Billings. We didn’t get as much as we wanted for King but he sold for an amount we would accept. It is always hard to sell studs and especially hard with the weather being crappy. On the other hand, it is done. We REALLY appreciate all of our friends helping spread the word. Toni bid on a couple of other horses but we don’t really need anything so just put some minimum bids in. The ones we want usually sell for more than we want to spend. We really enjoyed using Billings to sell King. Jann and her team were great to work with. We would definitely consider doing it again.
On Friday the kids did not have school, they were all excited. They were supposed to have a half day, but due to the weather, the school district just canceled it. Anna took the camera out and got pictures on Friday. The Dansies came over and looked at the foals. We have felt that Dandy would be a good colt for them and they agreed. They met Dandy and decided he would be a good fit for their family. We are excited that he has such a wonderful family to go to. Marlo did not come and do chores due to the snow/rain situation. The roads were actually better Friday night then they had been all week. I went and stayed with grandma on Friday.
More freezing rain Friday night, but the roads were actually not as bad as expected on my drive home from grandmas. There is always work to be done in the winter, breaking ice, feeding, sorting the heavy cows out and putting them in the heavy pen. Saturday night we got some fun snow pics with the yearlings. They are a really fun pen. I had to chase them to get them to run, but they finally got running around having fun in the snow. Toni mentioned again that she wants to keep Jex. We all know she does. Toni and Kade got some pics of MC without the saddle on. Again, the white ground really made MC pop. The darker horses can be harder to take pictures of in the snow but the background of snow makes the pictures kind of fun, particularly when we don’t get snow much (although the last few years have felt like we get plenty!).
On Sunday we tagged calves. We had someone call wanting to come and look at show steers, so we went down to get the ones in out of the alfalfa field, and I saw that Red Robin had a cut. So Anna and I went back and got the trailer and we loaded the two steers in the front and Red Robin in the back and hauled everyone home. Toni worked on Dandy and Spark and turned them out so we could put Red Robin in that pen. She was ready when I got there with Red Robin. The good thing with winter injuries is the lack of flies. Even though the cut was gross, it was in her chest which Toni says is a good spot. A few years ago we met a gal that sells Lubrisyn, so we have been using that product which we think gives really good results. https://www.lubrisyn.com/
Red Robin is an old soul so she wasn’t hard to doctor and was very enthusiastic about the grain. She didn’t even mind being in the round pen alone, it may have been her plan all along? Tulip seemed happy Red Robin was in the round pen because now we can’t bring the next, and final, 2 in for halter breaking. This halter breaking crap is going to last forever.
There is an interesting facebook post about people that raise horses versus breeders. It is pretty accurate. A true breeding program takes a plan, takes dedication, checks and balances, devotion to the foundation of the plan. A breeding program doesn’t follow trends it follows the core values of the breeder. It is easy to raise horses, it is much harder to be a breeder/rancher. While the winter is out there raging, I wanted to recognize friends, family, and fellow ranchers who are out there keeping livestock alive in these harsh conditions. Keep up the good fight!
You must be logged in to post a comment.