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Wranching the rong way in foto phorm, March 11, 2008

S

Soapweed

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
16,264
Location
northern Nebraska Sandhills
I know we are calving at the wrong time of year and working against nature instead of with Her, but here are some pictures anyway. :wink:
Thereisanewcalfortwooutinthebunch.jpg

There is a new calf or two out in the bunch, so it is time to sort heavies again.
Theherdnearbyandthecutbeyond.jpg

The herd nearby and the cut beyond
Thecowboycrew.jpg

The cowboy crew
Myjobistolookatthebacksidesofthebla.jpg

My job is to look at the backsides of the black bovines.
Onemoreoutthegate.jpg

One more out the gate
DontdareturnlooseortheredbeagoneGoo.jpg

Don't dare turn loose or there would be a gone Goose
Portraitofaprettyproficientpony.jpg

Portrait of a pretty proficient pony
Heifersintheirdaylot.jpg

Heifers in their day lot
Plentyofnooksandcranniesforthemtose.jpg

Plenty of nooks and crannies for them to seek privacy
Saddletrampcheckingthefarcorner.jpg

Saddletramp checking the far corner
Oneofthenewestones.jpg

One of the newest arrivals
Itsnotasgoodofastoryasitlookslikeit.jpg

It's not as good of a story as it looks like it could be. :roll: :wink: Actually he was leading a one-eyed horse through a gate, as another horse took a nip at that horse. The horse flopped his head, and Brady got a black eye.
Thetaglady.jpg

The tag lady
 
Yur right...you should be calving in coveralls..blowing snow...ice on barbwire...tree's covered in snow...what's the deal calving in sunny warm weather????lol

Looks like yur keeping busy too...thanks
 
I sure like your pictures Soapweed, and I especially like the commentary that goes with. Sure wish we could see the grass here, the snow is melting but we still have a long ways to go to see bare ground. I had an experience similiar to Brady's black eye, mine had a little deeper shade of purple, tie downs are a wonderful thing! :wink:
 
It works real well. Peach Blossom has tagged calves out of some pretty woofy cows, and done so safely. The remarkable thing about the Calf Catcher is that when a calf is in there, and the cow is outside, the cow seems relatively at peace with the situation. That same cow would be bellering up a storm if you grabbed her calf and dragged it to the other side of a fence to put in the tag.

We try to do things slowly and safely around here. It just pays in the long run. The ironic part is that it was a bucket calf that has injured the most key player of our team.

We have a twin that has been a bucket calf for the last few days. There is another calf out of a heifer that doesn't seem to be getting quite enough milk. We decided last night to also make a bucket calf out of him, dry up his mother, and sell her. Peach was feeding this new calf. The calf was standing up, and she had him clasped between her legs. The twin became jealous, and was trying to come in from the front. Finally the twin went head to head with the other calf that was getting the attention. The twin went completely under the other calf, which caused that calf to buck forward, which caused my dear wife to tip over head first and hit her head on a steel portable corral panel. She said the blow nearly knocked her unconcious, and hurt her neck. She will probably go in to the doctor's office today to get it checked out.

It ain't no easy game, boys and girls. :roll:
 
Tell Peach I feel for her! I have two bottle babies at the moment and they are aggressive little buggers. Moved them last night to a new pen where they can stick there heads out to drink so I don't get mauled :) Sure hope she didn't do any serious damage.
 
Oh, poor Peach Blossom!!! I hope she checks out ok. Golly!!

I had a friend that ran alot of sheep. She had a ewe that had twins and wouldn't take one of the lambs. She finally got a piece of pipe and when the ewe fought the one lamb, meaning to hit the ewe over the head with the pipe, she actually missed and hit the good lamb. Of course, her first thought was that she killed the one the ewe wanted...

but the lamb survived and she did eventually get the ewe to take both lambs.

Yes, not always a fun business...but generally interesting.
 
Most years we bottle fed lots and lots of calves. This year it doesn't seem very profitable (milk replacer is high) so the kids will just have their calves for 4-H and call it good. My mother, two little ones, and I normally do the feeding session. The eldest had to learn on her own the reason you wear boots and not flip flops to fed calves. Sometimes you just have to learn these things mom just cannot tell you. :( Due to several stepped on and minor injuries from butting calves my Dad made stalls along the yard fence out of pallets that feed sit on. They worked awesome and the calves just got so they each went in one and waited to be fed.
 
We had a couple of bottle calves named by my daughter Hailey. One was knockdown and the other was wag. Wag was her favorite as the tail started before she could get in the pen, but ol' knockdown, well, you get the drift. Even when i was put in charge of feeding him he earned his name. It's amazing im still not singing the high parts! :lol: Good luck to Peach and hope your calving is "Peachy" too :!:
 
newtondak said:
Have you added something to the front? I don't notice the darker colored bars on the front of yours on the one on their website?
Click to expand...

Yes, our son (who has his own welding shop) made some gate guards, so that in the event of the calf catcher coming up against a fence, the swinging gates don't get damaged. The calf catcher works real well, with or without our add-on gate guards. My wife does all the tagging, and does so in relative safety with this shark cage between her and aggressive cows.
 
Hope Peach is doing well. My thin littl wife had about a year of working out some injuries. The bright side is it really improver her health as she is in a lot better shape....

Wrong Ranching? I have seen enogh of your photos to see that what you do works very well for you,

PPRM
 

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