Calf 1 day 2

 Last night after 11 pm I checked on the baby calf.  She and her mother were standing away from the straw and near the old broken red feeder.  The calf looked to be fine.  And not cold.  I thought about letting them stand there but then remembered calves will go and go until they are tired, then they will lay down to sleep wherever they are.  The sky was clear of clouds and would get colder and I wanted the calf back under shelter and in the straw.

So I "walked" (pushed her rear end to make her walk) the calf back to the straw.  The mother wasn't happy I was pushing her calf but they both went back to the straw.  When I checked at 2 am they were both laying in the straw.  This was good as the temperature got down to 17 degrees overnight, colder than the predicted low of 23 degrees.

At 8 am they were laying in the straw.  At noon they were laying along the fence in the snow.  By now the temperature was warmer so I left them alone.

Donna came over after 4 pm to help me ear tag the calf.  Donna holds the calf's head still while I straddle the calf and tag the ear.  It makes the process much easier and better.

Later the calf was laying in the snow next to west fence.  I let her be.  Later I looked and the calf was now laying in the noon spot next to the fence.  The sun had set so I got the calf up and walked her back to the straw.  The mother who was eating hay came over to see what I was doing with her calf.

Later I'll end up checking that the calf stays in the straw overnight.

Red feeder

Noon nap time along the fence

Newly ear tagged.

Calf 1 born in 2021

I had predicted I would have a new calf on January 29 as last year the bull broke in the corral to satisfy the cow 34 days after she last gave birth.  Close enough.  The calf was born today, January 30.

I had been checking for a new calf late at night and early morning this past week.  No calf at 9 am today.  No calf at noon today.  A new calf when I checked at 3 pm this afternoon.

The calf was already cleaned off.  The calf's fur was still slick, but not wet.  The fur was slick as it was still drying from being licked clean.  The calf was up and walking around already.  In fact when it saw me it came out from the area with straw and walked over to check me out.  The mother was mooing softly to tell her calf to not leave her and approach me.

I looked, and since the calf walked around I wasn't 100% sure, so I reached down to verify the calf was indeed a heifer.

Usually I prefer male calves as they are worth more money than heifers.  But I wanted this calf to be a heifer.  That is because female calves seem to be stronger than males shortly after birth, and a January calf needs to be strong from the start.  And secondly, since I plan to get a new bull after Toby does his job this year, I also plan on keeping some of Toby's heifer calves for the new bull next year.  This calf will be the oldest heifer, and the older the heifer, the better when it comes time to have their first calf.

While the mother, #60, is a white faced cow, the calf is all black.  So much the better.  She's a little cutie.

Thankfully the weather and temperature today, and for the next few days, is fine.  The temperature highs will be near 40 degrees, slightly warmer than normal.  And no wind.  The overnight lows will be in the low to mid 20s.  If the calf stays in the covered area and straw it should be warm enough.  I didn't see any sign of the calf shivering today.

Even though the roofed area had straw, the straw had been laid on for a few days now.  So it wasn't 100% dry anymore.  I got some fresh straw to have a drier area to lay for the calf and her mother.

I just checked, and the calf and mother were standing in the new straw.  They looked fine.

I think I will name this calf: January.  Or Jan for short.

When Donna came over to see the new calf it spent the whole time sleeping.  Just after Donna left the calf got up and walked around and drank from her mother.

Here is a 1 minute 26 second video of the calf walking around: https://youtu.be/QfgAeUZu4Rc

Adding straw

This afternoon I added straw to the area next to the barn in the south corral.  I think the one cow's due date is January 28 or 29.  I want her where I can easily check up on her.  Also having the straw will make it easier and warmer for the new born calf.

When I had the cattle in the corral as I took out a new large hay bale for them to eat later, I also put out their vitamin supplement lick.

The cow who I expect will give birth soon.

To keep the cow company, and also cut down on how much walking the calf with white muscle disease has to do, I also put him in the south corral with the cow.  And this will give him more hay to eat as due to his slow walk, the other cattle eat lots of hay before he gets there.

Some cutting on a north pasture fallen tree

Earlier I had mentioned about the wind blowing over a few trees in the pastures.  I still haven't walked all the pastures to see if more trees fell over.  But for the tree that fell over in the north pasture I've noticed that since the tree fell the cattle were eating the needles off the tree, as this is the only pasture the cattle can be in right now.  This is not good as pine tree needles can be harmful to cattle and may cause them to abort their calves. Pondarosa pine and lodgepole pine trees are mentioned.  The trees that blew over were spruce trees.  I don't know if they are white spruce, black spruce or Engelmann spruce trees.  Spruce appears not to be as acidic as pine trees but they still do have some acid in their needles.

I've have to keep an eye on the cows.  Abortions usually occur within 6 to 10 days.  Or a cow can have a stillborn calf.

The cattle have all the hay they want to eat, so why would they want to also eat needles from trees?

Over the past few years I trimmed the tree branches to be higher up so the cattle can only reach a few lower branches here and there.  But now I seem to have to get right on it when a tree falls over.

Yesterday and today, for the tree that fell over in the north pasture, I cut part of the tree up.   But almost all of the tree's needles have already been eaten.  I cut the branches off the tree and was able to cut over half the trunk using a handsaw.  Knowing what I know now about the tree needles, I would have cut the branches off right away.

From the previous photo you can see how the top of the tree split into three sections.  In the photo below are two of the three sections.

Bad fall

This morning I fed the cattle some small hay bales from the barn.  During Winter I place a few boards on the floor by the barn door.  That is to stop snow from blowing under the barn door and into the barn when it snows and blows.  I had to step over the boards.  After putting out the bales I swept the floor to clean the loose hay off it.  I then picked up the swept hay and carried it outside to put in a feeder for the cattle, who were still waiting outside the corral.  Somehow I stepped on part of the boards and fell.  And I fell hard and fast.  Before I knew what was happening I hit the ground.  The hard ground.

My right arm, mainly forearm, and my right calf took the impact.  The forearm went against my right chest.  So all of these are sore.  Even now.  I didn't take my shirt off yet but I'm sure I'm black and blue.  Nothing broke. 

Fortunately I didn't hit my head.  Otherwise, after my previous head injury, it could have been all over for me.  Once a while, even recently, if I lay my head a certain way, even if my head is laying on pillow, my skull can feel.. I don't know exactly, but pressure or an odd feeling until I reposition my head.

When riding my bicycle I now wear a bicycle helmet more often than not.  But I am more safe riding my bicycle - well, except for idiot drivers.  I may have better balance on my bicycle than walking.  Since the head injury accident I've had accidents off the bicycle than on the bicycle.  I probably should wear my bicycle helmet when off the bicycle rather than when on the bicycle.

A sunny and calm day.  I rode 31 miles this afternoon.  No problem.  I didn't feel sore when riding.  But otherwise, I'm sore from this morning's fall.

In the afternoon I put out a large hay bale for the cattle to eat.  They can pig out for a couple days and I don't have to feed them twice a day.

Wind and Trees

We had a strong weather front come through today.  Rain overnight.  Warmer temperatures.  Then this morning the wind picked up.  It was windy when I fed the cattle hay this morning at 8 am.  By 11 am the wind really picked up.  The weather service had wind gusts to 45 mph.  A newspaper story said winds of 101 mph was tracked on Mt. Aenaes, a nearby mountain.  On Hornet Mountain in the mountain range north of Flathead Valley they had a gust of 96 mph.

The wind started to slow down during the afternoon.  I went out to check my mail and had to pick up a few tree branches.  One branch was on my barb wire fence.  A larger branch was on the opposite side of the road.  Those branches came off my evergreen trees.  Fortunately they missed the power lines leading from the road to my house.  It was good that this year I had the electric company trim some of the tree branches.   Further down the road I could see branches along the road that came off neighbor's trees.

When I went out to feed the cattle before dark there were a lot of tree branches in the north pasture.  I had a little under a half a pickup load of branches from the front yard, and once I got the north pasture branches the pickup was now full and heaped high.

One tall evergreen tree snapped off near the ground and blew over in the north pasture.  I could see one tall evergreen tree had snapped off and blown over in the middle pasture.  Tomorrow I may walk around and see if any more trees in the middle pasture blew over, or if any blew over in the south pasture.

What a mess.

Cattle, Mama, and her calf

Some cattle photos.

Right now I am feeding hay to the cattle twice a day.  Otherwise they overeat the hay.  After every few bales of twice a day hay, then I put out a large bale and let the cattle pig out on that bale.

The black cow didn't like the red cow eating next to her and pushed her away from the feeder.

Last Spring cow #60 appeared to be in heat early.  Instead of the normal 50 to 60 days, she went into heat 34 days after giving birth.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2020/04/january-28-2021-calf.html

I wasn't sure she would get pregnant as it was so early.  January 28 is about two and a half weeks away.  So I looked at cow 60.  That is her in the following photo.  See how the tail looks a little more 'humped' and off as it enters her body? None of the other cows look like this now.  A 'cock-eyed' tail - to me - is a sign that a birth is starting to get closer.  Right now I think the odds are she will have a calf the end of January.   I'm not thrilled by this as January weather can be bad.  Right now the weather and temperature is decent.  In two and a half weeks... who knows.   I could have a problem in two and a half weeks.

Since Toby's leg seems fine, and I don't want him to get an idea about the corral fence, I let him out of the corral so he could be with the cows.  The ground is frozen, and some of the snow had earlier partially melted, so some areas can be icy and slippery.  Toby walks slower than the other cows.  He walks with his head down looking at the ground and tries to avoid icy areas even if it means extra walking.

Since Toby is out of the south corral I put Mama and her calf into the south corral for now.   Mama's calf walks with stiff back legs.  He always had an unusual walk.  With the cold temperatures and hard ground he walks slower now.  And I haven't seen him drink from Mama for a while now.  That doesn't mean that he isn't drinking, but I don't know.  Even though he is the oldest of the three calves, he is the smallest.  Part of that may be that his mother is the smaller cow.  Or he isn't getting enough to eat.  He is always the last one to get to the hay to eat.  I walk faster than he does.

So to make sure he gets enough to eat I put him and Mama into the south corral where the hay is just theirs to eat.  This will last just a short while before I let him and Mama out so they can rejoin the other cows.

Mama's udder is smaller than she normally has when she has a calf.  That is why I think she has 'kicked the calf off' and weaned the calf on her own.

Here is her calf.  I think why the calf walks stiffly is that the calf was born with white muscle disease.

https://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinfo/258/white-muscle-disease/

Before I had only heard about white muscle disease, and that calves can die days after being born due to heart problems.  Donna said years ago she had a calf die many months later after being born.  So I don't know how this calf will do.  He is seven and a half months old right now.  I'm sure due to the stiff walk I won't get anything for the calf if I sold it.  So it looks like I will keep the calf and try to raise it to be large enough to butcher.

The calf can still walk fairly well, even if it is an odd walk.  When it came time to get him to go into the south corral to be with his mother, he didn't want to go or else Mama ran to the gate so I couldn't leave the gate open and then herd the calf.  Around and around the calf and I went in the corral.  Many times.  Finally Mama was not near the gate and I was able to leave the gate open slightly and then herd the calf as he was close to the gate.

A 34 second video of the calf walking.  I didn't get a long enough video of the calf walking as he wasn't interested in walking much when I had my camera to take a video.  https://youtu.be/jKvku7rJx9U

Another corral fence break

This time Toby didn't break the fence. He was still in the south corral section.  The other cattle in the main corral broke one board in the loading corral fence, and pushed another section loose on one side of the section.  Again no reason to try to get through the fence.  They may have been roughhousing, and being so big and heavy, the damage was caused by being pushed into the fence.  Maybe.  I don't know.

I noticed the damage a few days ago. This morning after feeding hay to the cattle I remembered to repair the fence.

The broken board is just to the left of the middle of the picture.

Not pretty, but it is fixed.

Corral fence break by Toby the bull

Late yesterday afternoon when I put out hay for the cattle then Toby the bull, I noticed that a number of boards were off the corral fence.  What? I built that corral fence to keep the animals in the corral.  While the bull can pretty much do what he wants to do, unfortunately at times, why would Toby want to get out of the corral to the hayfield now?  The ground is covered in snow.  It's not like there is good grass to eat there right now.

After I gave Toby more hay I put the boards back up on the fence.  Toby had broken and completely removed a '2 section' board.  In one section he also completely removed the two boards above that.  The bottom two boards were still on the fence so that may be why he was still in the corral.  I am a little surprised he removed the top board as it is a bit high.

As it was getting dark it was a quick fix.  For the last couple of boards it was getting hard to see the nails to pound them into the railroad tie to attach the board.

I moved the red feeder to be in front of this section as I know how Toby acts once he realizes he can do something.  He does it again.  So I was glad I hadn't gotten rid of the broken down, useless, red feeder.

This morning I saw Toby laying next to the red feeder.  The long board was again broken, and this time only partially removed.  The red feeder must have slowed Toby down.

So I quickly re-nailed the board back to the railroad ties. I planned later to place some wire to the boards.  This was some leftover wire I had placed on the fence rebuilds I did last Summer.  For now I bungie corded the wire to cover this area.  Once I got to the afternoon I had time to fix the fence right.

I had a little of the wire fencing left so I placed it on another section of fence.

I'll see how Toby acts now.  There are other fence sections with no wire.  If he decides to work on those sections I will have to place wire on those sections sooner than later.

Toby seems to have recovered from having his bad back leg. I don't see him limping anymore.  He moves slow at times, but that may be because of the snowy/icy hard ground.  Still, for a little while longer I plan to keep him in the corral so he doesn't have to walk too much.

7400 miles

2020 is over.    For the year I rode exactly 7400 miles on my bicycle.  This is my second highest total ever.   7100 miles used to be the second highest total.  I averaged over 616 miles a month.  Or over 142 miles a week.

I already rode 6 miles today.  In 2021 I will try to ride a little less miles.  Maybe I'll get more projects done around the ranch.