Rancher’s work hard to ensure their cattle are healthy and safe during the winter season…

Calving season is always my favorite time of year on the ranch…it is like opening presents on Christmas day, you finally get to see what you have!

Over thanksgiving the heifers (a heifer is a female that has never had a baby before) started calving.  During calving season, which for my family is from now until the end of February, you never know what the weather will be like. There are some nice, sunny days and others that are blustery and snowy! It is the rancher’s job to make sure that  all the cattle are tended to, have food to eat, fresh water and something to block the wind. When it snows, we put hay out for them to eat and roll hay on the ground so they have a dry, warm place to lay. This is especially crucial with newborn calves because they cannot withstand the cold as well as the cows. 

While I was home, one of the heifers had difficulty calving.  When this happens we have to manually pull the calf to make sure that the calf is born healthy and the cow is safe.  If there are problems and no assistance is given, there is a possibility that neither the mother or calf will survive the laboring process.  The cow and calf that we assisted both ended up being perfectly fine! As soon as the cow was turned loose, she immediately went to lick her calf.  Shortly after, the calf was standing on its’ feet and nursing.  Here are some pictures showing the entire process. 

This is when my Dad started pulling the calf, you can see its hooves. It is important that the cow is caught in a tight space to be sure that she is kept safe as well as the rancher who is trying to assist her in the birthing process.

Here Dad is rubbing the calf to make sure it is breathing properly. You can see that it is already holding it’s head up! The cow and the calf will be kept in the barn with hay for bedding to make sure the calf stays dry and warm for the first few hours of it’s life.

Keep checking in on my blog to learn about more ways that ranchers take care of their cattle during the winter season.

SUPER FOOD – LEAN BEEF!

This was found in the Cosmopolitan magazine…all I have to say is Toby Amidor is my hero!  We need more good, positive publicity like this that tells people the true story about beef!

Did you know there are 29 lean cuts of beef? Many of them you have probably heard of….T-bone steak, flank steak, sirloin steak?? Ring a bell? Did you know that ground beef (hamburger meat) that is 95% lean qualifies as one of the lean cuts of beef??

When you go to the grocery store and stand at the meat counter, it can be a very overwhelming purchasing experience. There are so many different cuts and options…how do you know what to buy?

This website contains information about beef in general.   The specific link I have posted contains a downloadable, lean cuts wallet card. This is a pretty neat tool and can really take the confusion out of purchasing beef!

Hope you find this helpful!

http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/leanbeef.aspx

Working Calves

After the calves were hauled home from grass we let them get acustomed to their new surroundings for a couple days and then it was time to vaccinate them. The reason why we vaccinate our calves is to protect them against viruses and some diseases. It's a lot like a mother taking her child to the doctor for routine checkups and shots. As the calves come through the barn we get their weight and give them vaccinations. By getting their weight it allows us to get a good inclination of how they are growing. All this information is written down in a notebook to be trasferred into a herd database. By keeping accurate records, we know each time a calf was moved to a new location, given a shot or medicine if it is sick, and all of its' birth information (who the calf's parents are, what day it was born, and how much it weighed).