Thursday, March 6, 2014

Foggy morning calf sightings


It hasn't been the best calving weather in western South Dakota for us thus far, and by that I mean it has been awful. Multiple nights at -30 degrees with windchill and multiple days where it struggled to reach 0. But, our mama cows came through it like champs, and everyone is loving the warming temperatures we're experiencing this week.
The only calf that hasn't thrived this year was this red guys twin, who was huge for a twin. He got cold before we found him, and despite five hours of rubbing and blowing him dry with a hair dryer and multiple space heaters in the middle of my bathroom, he didn't make it. I wonder if he didn't have some additional issues we weren't aware of, and while that was a frustrating way to start, we have been blessed with very few issues since.
Yesterday we had a great fog before the sun came out and turned us from white to brown, causing a general rise in spirits along the way. I tagged along for morning feeding chores with my new 7D camera to get some photos of all our new arrivals before the cool, foggy atmosphere disappeared.


 This little gal has aspirations of being a model someday. Keep your eye out for her in western ag publications.



While I think our multiple red babies are cute, and photogenic, the boss man is less than impressed that all his work to breed homozygous black cattle has resulted in more red babies than he's had in years. I can see his point of view too, but again, how cute is this guy?!



 Baldies are the best : )



"What do you mean I have freakishly big ears, and who is 'Dumbo'?"