Nap time at the O.K. Corral

I experience an excited/dread feeling every year when it's time for ultra-sounding cows and freeze branding heifers. I can't wait to see if my girls are bred to that exciting bull that I have put painful thought into choosing for each one of them. If you have ever had a year when you completely strike out during breeding season you can understand what that anticipation feels like. We used several bulls that had very high priced semen and that always makes me nervous. Combine that with the fact that I thought our heats were pretty quiet and that I never saw one come back around and you can imagine how worried I was that we were just missing heats and nothing was going to be A.I. bred.

With the exception of two cows that calved very late and are very short bred or open yet, ALL of the cows and heifers are A.I. bred. I was ecstatic as each cow shuffled through the chute and was pronounced bred to her A.I. date. Next spring we will have a nice selection of Monopoly, Heat Wave, Rocky Balboa, Who(the original), Grizzly, Uno Mas and Gigolo Joe babies running around the pasture. How exciting!

Freeze branding went terrific as well. All of the heifers are now wearing a puzzle piece on their front left shoulder. Any heifers that are going to stay in the herd are also wearing their herd number and "X" on thier left hip. Brad and I laughed when I ran one of the two smokey heifers into the chute. I honestly have no idea what will happen there but I am hoping that the hair will be whiter than the rest...if not then they have invisible brands. LOL.

It is now late afternoon and I have taken my second shower for the day...probably not my last...and I am going to finish up on the computer and go join Darby and my blanky for a nap before I crawl out to do chores. I feel like a huge stress has been lifted and I plan to spend the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying my family.

Where's my camera when I need it?

I was driving north west out of Denison yesterday afternoon to look at some calves and glanced in my rearview mirror to see a funnel dipping out of the clouds directly behind me. We had received almost two inches of rain in the morning but the bad weather had long passed. There were plenty of clouds but I was still wearing my sunglasses because the sun was shining through intermitently. It really didn't look like tornado weather...or what I thought seemed like tornado weather. I called my daughter to have her look at the radar but she didn't see anything. The funnel kept lowering and lifting and was really interesting to watch...in my rearview mirror! I told several people that I talked to after that about seeing a funnel and they all laughed at me. This morning I logged onto my weather site and found this storm report:

Local Storm Report


07/30/2010 0420 PM

2 miles W of Denison, Crawford County.

Funnel cloud, reported by Emergency Mngr.


Emergency manager and public reports of funnel cloud
dropping out of cumulus cloud.


I'm just saying....

I love the fair!!

The Crawford County Fair is going on this week. No matter how old I get I still enjoy going to the fair. The smell of funnel cakes, cotton candy, exhaust from the tractor pull and the pungent smell of the animals mixed with various other aromas of hair products used on the animals. Why is it that a brat from the Lutheran Church stand smothered in kraut and ketchup, eaten while walking around the varied industries building when it's 100 degrees out tastes so delicious? And what about those homemade pies the church ladies make? It almost makes me want to change religions!

Despite the heat and despite the rain I think that the fair went very well. I know that Nelson Cattle Company had a great year. The Welch family that just got started this year in 4-H purchased a very nice Heat Wave X Hereford steer from our Labor Day sale last year. "Eeyore" weighed 1322 at the fair. He place fourth overall in rate of gain and was the Reserve Champion County Raised Steer. Nic Welch did a very wonderful job of showing his first year and it was nice to see his parents and grandparents be so supportive and helpful. Nic has a lot to live up to next year! (I did tell him that I have a full brother to Eeyore on our sale this year! :)

The Staley family exhibited the Reserve Champion Cow/Calf Pair. They purchased the cow from us on our dispersal sale two years ago. Since then the cow has raised two fabulous Heat Wave calves and has most likely more than paid for herself. The steer calf this year was also the Grand Champion Feeder Steer at the fair. Congrats to the Staleys!!!

The Smith family (Makayla) exhibited the Grand Champion Cow/Calf pair. The bull calf is a Gigolo Joe son. The pair also went on to win Supreme Champion Breeding Female of the entire show! How exciting. Makayla also showed a Nelson 26T2 heifer she purchased from Nelson Cattle Company that also won her division and stood third overall. Congrats Makayla!! Dalton, her younger brother, exhibited a Heat Wave heifer that he bought on our Labor Day Sale. She was a division winner as well. Congrats Dalton!! What a great year. Best of luck at the Iowa State Fair.

I just had to add a picture of Makia Smith. (There are so many Smiths that I can hardly keep them straight)She was having such a great time with her lamb. She is also the main care-giver to "Baby Joe", Black Betty's calf. The kids do such a wonderful job and have a great work ethic. Their parents should be very proud of their hard work and determination.

When it's time to let go

I saw this apple picker in the back of someone's pickup the other day and it reminded me of that Swiffer commercial where they put the old mop out in the trash but it keeps trying to find its way back into the house. There is one thing I know for sure. I would hire the owner of this picker to work for me ANY DAY!!! Obviously that person was committed to his work; enough so that he became attached to this particular picker up until the point where you couldn't even use it to speer a watermelon! Even at the point where he realized that it no longer served its purpose he was not able to throw it on the burn pile to let nature take its course. I think we could all take a lesson in being conservative and less wastefull. I am a guilty as anyone for just running to the store when something breaks instead of trying to fix it. However, I think that there comes a time when you just have to let go and succomb to the fact that it's time to let go. There is obviously a point when efficiency is more important than being conservative.

Just dealing with the heat.

My sister, Kris and brother-in-law, Dan are visiting from Oregon this week. Dan always asks if there is anything that he can help me with so I promptly pulled an ace out of my hat and asked him if he would like to help me put up my 20x40 shade canopy for the calves. Of course he jumped at the offer not knowing at all what I was even talking about. Our spouses agreed to be our support crew and were supposed to meet up with us at the barn after we gathered our tools (ladder, climbing shoes and band-aids) It was a warm evening with little or no wind; perfect for putting up a giant tarp that could double as a wind sail. Dan and I looked like a couple of handicapped monkeys trying to bungie cord the tarp in place. We took turns cursing as the small elastic holders would sometimes snap us in the knuckles. Amazingly our support crew arrived just as we were finishing the task.

I tried to repay Dan with an evening at the bunkhouse sipping cool beverages, eating Iowa Strips on the grill and making liquid nitrogen ice cream. I think he forgives me. If he asks me again for something to do I think I will duct tape him to the mower!!

******
I don't think the calves knew what to do this morning when we turned them into thier new pen with fans and misters. They ran around like puppies even though it was already very hot. I think it felt twenty degrees cooler under the canopy. It is a wonderful place and much cooler and healthier than the barn.

And They're Off!!

Well, the heat has hit but that isn't slowing down the thrill of the cattle show. Today is the annual Darrell Nissen Memorial Steer show held at the Crawford County Fairgrounds in Denison, Iowa. Despite the VERY hot weather the turnout was fabulous. It is exciting to see some of the calves that are going to be consigned to our sale standing in the winners circle! Congratulations to the Smith Family and Nick Anderson/Anderson Show Cattle. They are bringing a fabulous offering that are already putting together some championships.

Pennies in the Doorway

Now I'm not much for "voodoo" but every now and then I scratch my head and wonder if some of that hocus pocus stuff really works. I always joke with my ET people that I wave dead chickens over my donors when I am giving shots and that is why we are always so successful with our flushes. I honestly think one of them believes me! Fact is, if I really thought it would help I would probably do it.

I heard a good one the other day though that beats waving a dead chicken all to heaven. Somebody told me to put six new pennies in a ziploc bag with a little water and hang one in the doorway of my barn...or anywhere in my barn. The story goes that the flies see the pannies in the bag and freak out because they think they are a predator. They fly away, never to return. You can't imagine how hard I laughed at that one. This guy hadn't even been drinking either!

I am always fighting flies at the bunkhouse. Even though I have a screened doorway they still find their way in or cover the screens like butter when the evening rolls around. I hate them and most of all I hate spraying toxic chemicals to detract the little boogers. OK, I know it's crazy, but it was such a tall tale that I just HAD to try it out. So I set about hanging penny laten water bags in the doorway and inside the bunkhouse. I am tough, I can take the ribbing and laughter from everyone that has stopped by. Funny enough though...I defy them to find a bothersome fly in the bunkhouse. Guess it beats a dead chicken!

Some things just say it all.

This was an item that was offered on the silent auction at the Junior National Maine Anjou show in Spencer, Iowa last week. I didn't have my glasses...:( so I couldn't read the authors names for whom I would love to give GREAT credit. I sometimes wonder how many people in the business really "get it"? That love of cattle is what really makes this business rock. I hope you will enjoy...and share it with your parents...or the parents of any kids you know that share your love for cattle.

Lots of happenings to catch up on

There has been a lot going on here over the past month so I haven't been very good about keeping up with my blog. The most exciting thing that has happened is that my daughter, Hayley, has finally returned from her year-long Rotary exchange in Bolivia. It was a wonderful experience for her and we owe it all to Rotary International. She kept an incredible journal and photo-journal of her experiences that she hopes to make into a book for her family.

Since Brad is currently serving on the board of the Iowa Maine Anjou Association we have both been busy with the Junior National show which was held in Spencer, Iowa just a week ago. Russ and Sue Salton deserve a round of applause for the immense work they put into planning the show. We spent a little over a week in Spencer setting up and helping with the show. I think it was an amazing success. Hayley actually spent the entire time volunteering to help during the show. She really isn't much "into" the cattle part of our operation but she loves the kids and the people. It was a great experience for her as well.

The week just before we left for Spencer was a little stressful as we discovered that we had a SERIOUS infestation of Army Worms in our front pasture where we hold our pasture sale. In less than 24 hours the worms had completely devoured every blade of grass and they were working their way across the road to the neighbors and also into my parents carefully groomed and watered yard. Our local Co-op was called to action and they were stunned at the amount of worms they found. They said that they had never seen anything like it. Our paved driveway was actually slimy with the stinking little boogers. The ground actually appeared to be moving. All I could do was spray a barrier around the perimeter and let them live out thier short life-cycle. I spent the week of Jr. Nationals wondering if our pasture would survive and get re-growth before our sale. The rain-gods obviously smiled on us and when we returned much of the brown mowed off pasture was once again finding its green and starting to grow.

The calves are doing great. I am especially excited about the calves out of our Gigolo Joe daughters. The Heat Wave steers are pouring on the power and seem to change every day. I find the Captain Morgan calves(two smokes and a black) out of a Maine cow to be very interesting. They are freaky fronted, sound, correct and super hairy. I had a small group on recips in another location and they were weaned VERY early. They are a little more green than most of my calves but are really coming along. I think there could be a real sleeper in that group. I have two Grizzley steers that are very interesting as well. They have a very soft look and are incredibly correct with lots of hair and eye appeal. I think they are the later maturing type but I love how they are looking now. If you are looking for some great Maine heifers you won't want to miss the offering we are going to have this year!

It's been raining raining and raining here and things are looking soggy but green. If any of your are bored please feel free to stop by and test drive our John Deere 850zero turn mower. It runs like greased lightening. I'll let you spend as much time on it as you like! LOL!