Calving in Paradise

I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it is to be calving less than 20 cows at NCC. After our dispersal sale my heart was torn at the thought of only having a small number of females left. We have purchased a couple of donor quality females to add to our remaining herd and I am also calving a few first-calvers that we raised and kept back. I can tell you right now that calving these elite young females is proving to be wonderful. First of all, almost every one is broke to tie or completely halter broke. Second of all they are all eye-candy and calving out beautiful cows is FAR more rewarding.

It seems like every year we have "barn" names for the calves when they were very young and there always seems to be a "Doink" in the bunch. That's the calf that everyone hides behind the barn whenever somebody comes to visit because he's got some goofy look that would embarrass even his own mother. Amazingly enough he's the one that never gets sick and usually thrives all the way to weaning when you load him up in the dark of night and slip him into the salebarn under an alias! THis year however, there is no Doink. I am hard pressed to pick my least favorite calf thus far. Calf for calf they are very interesting.

This is NOT a sales plug for Gigolo Joe but I have to say that I think I have found his calling. I kept back a few young heifers out of our best cows that were crossed with Heat Wave and Sun Seeker. I bred them to Gigolo Joe to see what kind of look they would have. I have to say that I am amazed at the style, bone, thickness and hair on these calves as well as the calving ease. Everyone of those calves is going to make it to our sale I believe. They have a fabulous look about them.

I am also excited about the calves out of the recips. All of my recips are calving at another location...thank GOD! We have around 30 recips that are carrying some interesting calves. There will be several full sibs to Hugh Herfner. A couple have already hit the ground and they are massively thick and easily better than Hugh. We also have several calves coming out of a daughter of Mona Lisa and sired by Captain Morgan. I think I am most excited about the Meyer 734 calves out of our PB Angus heifer, 360, a full sister to the Lut heifer that Steeles showed so successfully last summer. So far the calves are tremendous and almost all have blaze faces. The Maximus heifer calf that is her natural calf is a barn-burner.

Needless to say I am excited about the calves and I am looking forward to getting pictures up for everyone to enjoy. There is going to be lots of color in our pastures this spring, smokes, herefords, paints, blacks, WOW! I hope you will stop by if you are in the area. We have a lot going on this spring at the bunkhouse including semen sales. We are selling a full lineup of Lautner bull semen as well as our 26T2 and Gigolo Joe bulls. Sit around, chew the fat, have a cold one and enjoy the sunshine while I fill your tank with semen and/or nitrogen.

Rainy mornings and Cocoa Puffs

Some days are just a battle, more so than others. I guess the same holds true for some years as well. We all hope and assume that when we comment about how bad this year has been that next year will magically be better. How could it be as bad?

I had one of those years two years ago and ironically it was followed by another that was quite possibly worse. My daddy didn't raise a quitter but there were several times that I was close to throwing in the towel. I recall sitting on the step inside the barn one day with my head buried in my hands and sobbing uncontrollably. I was as close to beat as anyone could be. I couldn't take another second of dying calves, bad weather and exhaustion stacked up against all of the other things going on in my life. Something changed in me that day; something that changed me and made me a better person/a stronger person. I guess it was one of those life experiences that defines us a human beings. I look back on that time and that feeling very often. I will NEVER forget how I felt and what it did to me.

What that experience didn't do was break me. I made it into something positive and I think I am a better person for it. Today as I sit here at my desk on a gloomy cold rainy morning eating a bowl of Cocoa Puffs I am reminded of those times and what I took away from that experience. I have a good friend that is fighting the same battle that I fought a couple of years ago. My heart aches for her because I understand so well what she is going through, anguish, pain, frutstration, disappointment, anger, fear... and I hope that she will be able to get beyond this and find her soul. Times like these make me understand how precarious our lives are as far as what direction we go and how things in life truly do affect us. I know what kind of cloth she was cut from though. My money is on the girl. She reminds me of me.