Feeding in the Snow

 We've been getting some snow this week. Here are a few photos from feeding our yearling heifers and two-year-old cows two days ago. Have a fantastic weekend!

Cleaning Corrals

Since returning from Canada, most of my time has been spent typing typing typing. But, I have been out and about to help with a couple summer ranch projects between articles. One of my tasks this summer was to clean out our corrals.

Cleaning corrals removes manure and hay and anything else that has built up while livestock are held and/or fed in them. Keeping them clean is done for both sanitation and efficiency reasons. If you don't clean all this old manure and cellulose matter, it makes a big mess to drive and walk through, and can hold organisms that will make your livestock sick.

Another perk to this mixture is once you put it in a pile, and let it set and do it's thing, it's the equivilant of a giant compost pile. Considering we live in an area with an inch or less of topsoil, we get really excited about things like composted manure, and use it on our lawns, in our windbreaks, and in a variety of other ways.

Ranchers that live near farmland often put their manure on their crops, as it is a natural form of fertilier. We're all about recycling, and efficiently using everything possible on our operations, even manure.

Kyle had already pushed some of the manure in this pen into a pile. I made another pile, then hauled it all out of the corral, one bucket full at a time.

Here is our compost pile, where I dumped everything. My dad also mentioned leveling it out in this location, and planting a garden next year if my mom is interested. Gardens like topsoil too!

Then you back into the corral, turn around, and do it again. Repeat until the corral is down to bare dirt, then move on to the next pen. I also used some of this to fill the washed out areas in the corral from all the rain we've had this year. Like I said, you have to be efficient and resourceful every day as a rancher.

My dad was kind enough to grab the camera and snap these pictures for me. Did I mention that tractor has AC?! Not a bad job on a hot day.

Here is the pile after day one. It's about eight feet tall. Once everything has settled, and we get around to it, we'll pull those boards out and throw them in our dump, if the Termites don't eat them first.

Here's the correl after. Nice and smooth, without any mucky manure/old hay to sink and stumble through every time it gets wet!

Gates are back to swinging like they should, and next on my list is moving this feeder I welded during my 4-H years out of the way. Then I'll continue with my cleaning in the rest of the correl.

Lets Take Note America

Talk of how to inform and accurately educate the public about agriculture and it's positive impacts on American society is a discussion that occurs at a multitude of ag-related meetings, conferences and forums. Well, let's take a look at what our neighbors to the north are doing...

Hello giant tent in the center of Calgary Stampede grounds, which is filled with live animals, a grain bin, computer programs about growing healthy crops, people in the industry to visit with you, posters, interactive activities and more, all with the intention of educating and showing people what Alberta agriculture is all about, why it's important, what they do to produce a safe food source, and countless other facts, figures and examples of ags importance to the country.
One sheep producers that was working in the tent informed us there is a people counter at the entrances, and at or over 35,000 people a day go through this during the Calgary Stampede.
That's over half of Wyoming's population that walks through this educational tent over the course of the Stampede.
Wow! That's a lot of people not tied to agriculture getting a realistic, positive look at what ag is all about, and what the people involved in ag do to put food on their tables. I'm thinking we Americans should take a look at what they're doing, so I took pictures of some of the things in the tent to show you.

There were educational charts that explained the value of agriculture produced foods, like beef, in a health diet. We use this same ZIP acronym here in America. There were also drawings for beef related prizes.

Interactive activities taught people about their food, like this one that showed where different cuts of meat were located on the animal.

The live animals were a huge hit with people of all ages. Here is the milk cow exhibit, which featured cows of different breeds, history of milk cows, differences between breeds, and other general information. At each animal station were producers to answer questions.

Right next to the milk cows was a dairy area, fittingly enough. More positive facts and figures about milk and dairy in a healthy diet.

Everything you can see had a purpose, and made a point about milk and dairy products. The tent was bursting with positive, truthful information, backed by facts, and made interesting to see and read about.

You could also participate in interactive activities, like milking Bluebell. Based on the line, Bluebell got milked A LOT over the course of the Stampede, and was a huge hit!

There were computer stations for kids, where they could learn about what it takes to grow healthy plants, and what Alberta farmers do to grow the food they eat.

A grain bin was set up to show people how grains were harvested and stored.

Lots of stuff for both kids and adults!

Agriculture doesn't just feed you, and the Canadians covered other ways it benefits their country, like showing how oilseed crops are used to produce biodiesel.

You could spin this plate around, and read different facts about Alberta lamb in the cut-out window.

As I mentioned earlier, the animals were by far the biggest hit. Here is the sheep exhibit.

No opportunity to share information was missed, and people were stopping to read it.

We visited with this man for quite a while - he's who told us about the numbers of people that go through each day. He was there to tell people about sheep, and was happy to do so.

This is what surprised Adam and I the most, and isn't something you would likely see anywhere in an "educate the public" related event.

A gilt and her piglets, in a farrowing crate. This display was packed with people, and clearly showed the pigs were all content in their crate. The mother had access to food and water, and her babies weren't getting squished. It showed hog farmers in a great light, as they should be represented.

People swarmed to get a glimpse of the momma and baby pigs, and as a result were exposed to what a farrowing crate really looks like, and how and why farmer's use them. See that man siting on the far side of the picture, he was the hog farmer, and man was he popular with these people, who had questions and comments to discuss with him. Loved this!

Also in the pig area were some weaner pigs, and a young boy (on the right) to tell people about them.

I was so impressed by this tent, and the huge impact it has in a just few days each year! I think it's an ingenious idea. As someone who lives in Wyoming, where another of the largest outdoor shows on earth (Cheyenne Frontier Days) occurs, and in one of the most agriculture-oriented states in our nation, I can't help but think of the potential to do something similar for tourists that attend our event. Great work Canadian agriculture!

Treating Scours

Scours are diarrhea in calves, and can be caused by grass, too much milk, or more serious bacterial or viral issues, and are one of the leading health issues in baby calves were my uncle lives. If the bacterial or viral versions are left untreated in young calves, scours can lead to death. We treated several of his calves for scours while branding. Ranchers are always taking advantage of the opportunity to improve the health of their livestock, even if it isn't the primary job of the day.
We give calves a low-grade antibiotic and sulfur pill - think an Imodium AD pill for cattle, to treat this issue.


The process goes like this:

You pull back the cylinder of the pill gun, and put a pill in the end. It kind of sticks in there a little bit - you can just see the end of the pill in the above photo, and that the circle at the end is pulled out.

You want to give the calf the pill when his head is up, so we tip our chute back down after we're done branding the calf. This method works really well for us.

Kyle is our best pill-giver. He sticks a thumb in the corner of the calves mouth to open it. The calf is unaware of the benefits of the pill, and isn't necessarily excited about taking it, much like little kids and medicine.

He holds the calf's mouth open, and inserts the gun into its mouth and down it's throat.

He makes sure he keeps the gun sliding down the esophagus to the stomach, and not into the lungs. This is the tricky part that makes some people nervous, and he feels along the calf's mouth and neck as he guides the gun.

This same approach is used when tubing a calf. Tubing is when you run a special tube down a calf's throat, just like this. The tube is attached to a pouch of milk, and when you get the tube into the stomach, you allow the milk to pour into the calf's stomach. This is only done when the calf is too weak to drink milk, and is a last resort to save it's life. If you put the tube into the calf's lungs instead of his stomach, he will drown. The thought of drowning a calf makes a lot of people (especially ranch wives in my experience) nervous - they don't want to kill the calf. Kyle's level of skill in this area is much appreciated by everyone, and he can tube a calf very fast and efficiently too!



Once the gun is in place, he pushes that circle on the end, which forces the pill out of the gun and into the calf's throat, or stomach. He uses his leg to hold the calf's head still, and prevent it from trashing around. If you just put the pill in the calf's mouth, he would spit it out. We go through this necessary procedure to ensure the calf gets the medication it needs to recover from scours.

The Kyle gently pulls the gun out of the calf's mouth, and off it goes. Sometimes bad cases require multiple treatments, but a lot of times one pill will do the job in mild cases.

Pulling a baby lamb

Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago I haven't been able to get on here before now. While at Adam's place, he had to get in a ewe with a cold lamb. On the way to the barn Adam stopped and helped her deliver lamb number two, mainly to ease her and the partially born lamb's discomfort. It went like this:

This is another example of the lengths ranchers are willing to go to in order to help their animals, and keep them healthy and safe. After both lambs were born, he promptly picked them up, and took the whole family to the barn, out of the wet, cold outdoor elements.

Checking Heifers

I've been talking about checking heifers during calving season, and realize this may not make sense to everyone. You may think we stake out in a lawn chair, armed with binoculars, hot buttered rum and a walkie talkie for communicating....you may not be that far off either.
Checking heifers is one of those things that can mean different things on different ranches. But, the general idea is that ranchers check their heifers regularly during calving season in case they need assistance. By regularly, I mean they set up a schedule that encompasses every 24 hour period of the calving season - there is no time off, be it day or night.
These girls are having their first calf, and they don't have a clue whats going on. When you combine possible bad weather, backwards calves and any number of other issues with a heifer that doesn't have a clue, it results in additional help being necessary from time to time. That additional help is the rancher.
Some people check all of their heifers on a strict schedule, say every three hours, and they do this around the clock. Others will sort off the "heavies," which are those they believe are closest to calving, and only check those around the clock. People also generally contain heifers in a smaller pasture, or lot, during calving season so it's easier to do these checks, and gather and assist the heifer when she needs it.
We put our heifers in a lot, and it's an ideal location because we drive by it all day while we're feeding and doing other tasks. At night we check the heifers at 10:00 p.m., 2:00 a.m., and 5:00 a.m. If a heifer is just starting to calve at 10:00 p.m., you leave a sticky note with her tag number on it on the door for the 2:00 a.m. person. If she's well into calving, the 10:00 pm person is responsible for the safe delivery of that calf, and will stay up until she's delivered. You can see how a few deliveries in one night can result in little or no sleep for the people doing the checking.
When we check ours, we drive through them on our 4-wheeler, which has a mounted spotlight for this task. We also have a flashlight, and binoculars, to aid in our checking. A lot of people also use horses, and some pen their heifers in a corral at night, and just walk out on foot to check them.
What we are checking for are heifers that are going into labor. Once she's started, we keep checking her to make sure all is going well, and she doesn't need help. After she's calved, we may continue checking her to make sure the calf gets up and drinks, especially if it's really cold outside. If, at any time, it is determined she needs additional assistance, it is provided as fast as possible.
When a heifer is calving, we give her every opportunity to do in on her own, and she usually does. We've spent a lot of time refining our genetics, buying low birth weight bulls that have a narrower head and shoulders, in an effort to reduce our calving problems, and its worked great. We rarely have any calving-related issues these days, but we still get them in and watch them just to make sure every one is a success story, if at all possible.
This year we used a new batch of bulls on our heifers, and there has been a lot of ice. Ice is a big issue because if a heifer (or cow) slips on it when she's near her due-date, it can shift the calf and he will be born backwards. When a heifer has a backward calf, she will need assistance more often than when her calf is positioned correctly. These two factors mean we are stepping up our heifer watch program compared to the past few years.
There are countless tricks, ideas and tried and true methods ranchers use during calving season, and no two operations are exactly the same. However, the overall goal is unanimous across all ranches, and that is to get as many live, healthy calves as possible.
This often results in many sleepless nights, and some ranchers hire one or more people just to watch and calve their heifers, so the rancher can get other things done.
Now you know what I'm referring to when I say we're checking heifers.