Cattle into NE pasture

The weaning is going well.  Not much mooing now.  Of course when a cow or calf does moo now, most of their voices are hoarse.

This afternoon I let the cows into the NE pasture. Some more green grass before it will be time to put out another large hay bale for them.  After I let the cows into the NE pasture the calves did some mooing.  Not for the weaning, but because the calves wanted to join everyone else in the new pasture.  The calves all lined up along the corral fence to watch the cows in the NE pasture.

Beulah

I also left open the gate into the fruit tree area.  It didn't take long for the cattle to go there.

The pear tree has lots of pears.  I haven't picked them yet.  I was talking with my neighbor Rusty this morning.  He waits until after a freeze before he picks his pears.  He says the freeze softens the pears.  When I pick one of my pears right now they are hard.  It takes days for them to soften slightly.

Of course some of the cows immediately tried to eat some pears.  But I have a high fence to stop them from doing so.

Weaning has started

Late this afternoon the calf weaning has started.  Kari and Donna came over after 5:30 pm to check on No Tail.  She is doing fine and no disinfectant or fly spray was needed.  Her wound is no longer open.  Her eye seems to be still blind but it does look better.

Not the greatest photo of No Tail but it was the best I could get of her.

Yesterday, in preparation for the calves, I placed a large hay bale in the corral.  Here are the calves going to auction along with No Tail.

Herding and separating the calves was fairly easy.  The cattle's large hay bale had been eaten and they were eager to come into the north pasture.  Herding them into the corral went quick.  Then it was time to herd the cows back out of the coral while leaving the calves in the corral.

Then it was time to separate the three heifers I am keeping as replacement heifer from the rest of the calves.  First I had to decide which three heifers to keep.  It was harder to get these three heifers out of the corral one at a time.  The calves move faster than the cows, and the calves all wanted to stay together.  But Kari and I running around and around got it done.

Here are the three heifers I am keeping. Once they were separated from the other calves we let them out of the corral to be with their mothers.

Later this evening the mooing has started.  Not as bad as I expected.  Tomorrow probably will be noisier.

Yarrow weeds picked

Yesterday I got the rest of the yarrow weeds 'picked'.  By 'picked' I mean I pull the yarrow weed then break off the seed head and toss it into the bucket and leave the yarrow stem on the ground.  Therefore I can fit more yarrow weeds in the bucket.

Days/weeks earlier I had got all of the yarrow sprayed to be killed.  But by the time I sprayed them they already started to form the seed heads.  It appears that before the yarrow completely dies they finish off the seed head.  Therefore, it is now time to 'pick' the seed heads so no more yarrow weeds come up next year. 

Off all the weeds in the pastures, yarrow is the most I have by far.  Still, I initially thought it would take me a day or two to 'pick' the seed heads.  Nope.  Over a week.  I would put the seed heads in a 3-gallon bucket.  My north pasture I filled three and a half buckets.  The middle pasture I filled four buckets.  The south pasture has few yarrow weeds, and I had 'picked' / pulled those weeds a while ago.

I would have taken a photo of the bucket filled with yarrow weeds but my camera' battery had died.  I wasn't going to wait as this was my last bucket of weeds.  I got rid of the weeds and took this photo today.

Also, not the greatest photo of the yarrow weed.  But again, my camera's battery had died before I could take a photo of another yarrow weed.

Now on to the next project.

Eye screw, day 3

Today Doctor Kari, and Donna, stopped by to check on No Tail's condition. That meant we had to get No Tail back in the headgate.  It was harder this time as No Tail's calf did not want to leave No Tail's side.  Once I got the calf out of the loading corral, we worked on getting No Tail into the headgate.   No Tail knew what was going on and resisted.  Finally I walked to the house to see if I could find my zapper to encourage No Tail to move forward.  Before I could get out of the corral No Tail decided to try to get through the headgate.  The headgate triggered and held her in place.

Then the attempt to put the harness on her head.  No Tail resisted and moved her head.  I dropped the harness and was knocked backwards.  Donna was right behind me, didn't see me coming, and got knocked down.

Kari worked on inspecting the wound.  Looks good.  It is filling in.  No blood or signs of an infection.  Kari cleaned the area again with the Betadine.  She also rubbed the fly spray/rub on No Tail's head.  Around the wound, around the eye, and elsewhere on the head.  Flies are a problem for the cattle this year.

While Kari did this Donna left.  She had talked about getting an eye patch for No Tail to protect against flies.  But after waiting a bit, we called her and found out she had gone home to lay down as she had gotten nauseous.  So we released No Tail from the headgate.  Her calf immediately started drinking from No Tail.

No Tail looks to be doing good.  No checkup planned until Saturday as Kari is back to working days until then.