We'll take what we can get!

Its been a dry year... to say the least.  With over 75% of the country in drought conditions, its hard to complain about a little snow, or even a lot of snow!

So when it started coming down a couple weeks ago we bundled up, went outside and did a little dance.  Afterall, snow is moisture and the earth rejoiced.  But then it kept coming, and coming, and coming! With a day in between the two biggest storms, the guys had just enough time to push their way through the drifts to get big ol Bertha down the road.

As with every time we have severe weather, our cattle are on the forefront of our minds. But when we have little babies hitting the ground every day, 12 inches of snow makes matters even worse.  Luckily, cows are notorious for hiding their babies out of sight and out of the wind so 9 times out of 10 the little babies wake up after the storm dry and warm and ready to go sledding!

And, with the passing of every storm, there is always the promise of yet another day. Another sunrise, another sunset, another day to give Thanks.

Who are you calling a Heifer!?

Keeping with the theme of playing, "What went on on the ranch"....

Running a registered herd is quite a bit different then running a commercial herd.  With our Black Hereford herd, we are quite anal about keeping meticulous records.  From very specific birth weights, weaning weights, calving ease even down to specific dates of vaccinations.  This helps us build up data on our herds so we have everything we need to present to our buyers and prove what an amazing group of cattle they are!

So, just like the bulls, we have to get yearling weights on our little heifers.  It's a pretty quick but necessary step  of their lives but, like most women, the heifers would rather look away from the scale then have their weight shouted throughout the barn. We use this data to calculate their average daily gain, something we are very proud of with our Black Herefords.

Nonetheless, its always pretty incredible to see how quickly our little girls have grown from 70-90 lb little newbies to 900 lb teenagers.  It brings a tear to my eye... they're all grown up!