Cattle again

I am back in the cattle business.  This past cool and rainy Thursday Dan and I drove to Missoula for the cattle auction.  We got to the auction grounds at 10 am but the cattle auction had not started as planned.  There weren't a lot of cattle so they were taking their time.

Walking back to the holding pens to take a look I didn't see many cattle.  With the smaller numbers they were being held in the center pens.

There were some good cattle in my desired weight range of 500 to 650 lbs.  It looked like I could put together a group of ten.

The auction started at 10:40 am.  There weren't many slaughter cows so we got to the feeder cattle relatively quickly.

As is typical with me at auctions it was difficult for me to bid on the first real prospect.  It was a single steer and my doubts about eventually getting ten head, about what was the right price, etc., etc. held me back from bidding and then the steer was sold.

After a couple of misses I finally bid and I won the bid on three heifers.  After that it was easier to bid on cattle in my desired weight class.  Another four brown heifers.  A red steer.  Another two black heifers.  I had ten head.  I was on a roll.   When another black small heifer came up at a good price I bought her.  She was less than my weight range as she weighed 425 lbs.  But since she was small I figured I could get one more head.

When taken together the cattle average 535 lbs.  Ten girls and one boy.  It is hard to get steers.  What steers there were at the auction sold for more money which held me back from buying them.

Evan was at the auction.  To save money he asked if I was willing to hold the cattle at the auction until Tuesday,  He was coming up to the Flathead on Wednesday to get cattle for next Thursday's auction and I could save money by waiting.   But then he saw another guy who lived closer to the Flathead and he asked Kenny if he would haul the cattle today for me and he agreed.

The feeder cattle were done being sold at 11:40 am.  Dan and I left and returned home.  Here are some photos of the Mission Mountains on our drive home.  It had quit raining by the end of the auction.  The photos don't do the mountains justice.

While waiting for the cattle to arrive I decided to move the metal feeder from the coral to the NE pasture as I plan to use the wooden feeders.  The metal feeder is very heavy so the only real way to move it is to tip it on its side and roll it.  The feeder on its side is much taller than me so getting it up and then back down was a challenge.

I also put the boards back into the wooden feeder.  I finished this puzzle piece after the cattle arrived.  Minutes after the cattle were unloaded from the stock trailer it began to rain.

When Kenny brought the cattle I learned that seven of the cattle were ones he brought to the auction to sell.  Three heifers he was interested in buying back from me when I sell them in September.  In fact he said he would be interested in buying all the cattle.  It is nice to have an option outside of the auction.

Here is my rainbow herd shortly after they arrived.

This herd is calmer than most new herds I get. A few cattle are jumpy when they see me, others already are coming up close to me.  The steer is the "odd man" out.  The seven heifers from Kenny know one another.  The other three heifers seem to be fitting in. The steers is feeling like a third wheel.  He is missing his friends and often looks around and bellows as if calling them.