Two new cattle

Today I bought more cattle.  I bought a bred cow and her last year's bred heifer.  They were bred to a black bull.  The cow is 3 1/2 years old.

In the back of my mind I thought I could support one more cow and was open to getting one.  I should have enough hay for this Winter.   There was a Craiglist ad for these two cattle.  Also included was the cow's heifer from this year.

I don't need or want a heifer calf.  If I got the heifer I would have to keep her separate from Buddy until April or so next year.  Even then the heifer may still be a little too small for Buddy to breed as he has gotten pretty big.  So I interested Dan in the heifer and he bought her to go with the four steers he bought from me.

All the cattle are very nice stock.   If the calf was a steer I would have kept it until Spring.  Since cattle prices are so low right now, now is the time to buy if one follows the "Buy low, sell high" strategy.


Tom and Pat (the owners), their son Chris, Dan, Donna and I loaded the cattle into my stock trailer.  The owners and their son had the cattle use to treats and that helped in loading the cow and bred heifer into the trailer.  I placed them in the front half of the trailer and closed the divider to keep them there.

The son and I had to re-position their temporary corral panels to encourage the calf to also get into the trailer.  When herding the cattle I used Dan's sorting stick as I forgot mine.  The cow and calf each kicked once when being herded and the stick allowed me to keep my distance when sorting.

If I used the trailer's back sliding door it had a lip and I felt that would make the trailer entrance even higher.  So I swung the back door open.  I had backed the trailer up to the loading corral.  To close the door that meant driving forward a little bit.  To prevent the calf from bolting out the back of the trailer and getting away the son and Dan slid one corral panel behind the trailer and moved it forward against the trailer as Donna drove my pickup and trailer forward. Once we had room I swung the back door closed as the corral panel was slid to one side.

Everything went well and everyone agreed the cattle loading went better than expected.

I went to Dan's place first and unloaded the heifer.

The loaded cattle with the calf in the back.

The heifer on the left meeting her new buddies (my four steers I sold Dan earlier and who are getting fat).

The steers were all curious about the new girl.  One steer tried to mount her already.  Boys will be boys.

I am keeping the cow and heifer in my corral for a while.  This will allow them to get used to their new home and new friends.  Also, so the cow and heifer don't go wandering off to look for the cow's calf.

Overall all of the cattle are calm and easy going.  The cow does moo occasionally. Even now as I write this post. Probably calling for her calf.

My cattle coming in to see the new cattle.

Mama, Rose and Big Red.

Beulah and the new cattle.

The cow.  She is named Sugar. Probably because of the little white around her udder.

Greeting one another through the corral fence.

My cattle greeting the new cattle.

Sugar.

The new heifer.  Donna thought of naming her 'Spice'.

The Swan Mountains near where Tom and Pat live.

Since Tom and Pat no longer will have any cattle they sold me their seven corral panels. I got them for a good price so I also bought the bent one and the one missing one 'leg'. Tom and Pat once had a calf get its head stuck in the leg and they had to cut the leg off to free the calf.

Tom and Pat are interesting people and both are talkers like me.  They were selling their cattle as he is 85 and she in her late 70s and they no longer wanted to care for cattle over Winter.

Tom is a motorcycle aficionado. He had a half dozen old racing motorcycles he restored (and still restores) and rides.  He has a beautiful old Ducati motorcycle and a Norton motorcycle from the 1960s.  For his 85th birthday Tom he said he took his Ducati out for a ride and (briefly as he is now 85) rode the Ducati 85 mph.  Both Tom and Pat look (and act) younger than their ages.

All of his motorcycles have small seats that really only fit one person.  If you are very young and skinny you can maybe squeeze your wife or girlfriend in very close behind you on the small seat.  And she would have to hold on to you very tightly to keep from falling off.

What a life.