Happy Halloween

Hope that everyone had a great weekend and is all ready for Halloween and Trick-or-Treaters tonight!

Fall Pictures

Along with the picture of Rival, we also pictured the bred heifer, Prom Date, and the black bull calf, First Time.

We are selling Prom Date in Checkers as a lot where we will sell 2/3 animals offered. She is being offered along with her mother, Dream Date, and her sister Play Date.

The bull calf will be sold either this fall, or in the spring through a sale. We sure like him, and he will be shown with his mother both at Agribition and Farmfair this year.

Top 5 Looks- Charlize Theron

Charlize is someone who is not always on the red carpet. When she does make an appearance this South African beauty is almost a guarantee on the best dressed list.

5. Casual Chic

4. Perfect Pants

3. Dior Girl

2. Dazzling Dresses

1. Best Dressed

Wordless Wednesday: Best Picture Ever

I won't say to much other then this is the best picture I have taken. I love this one, and think it really shows this calf off!

Rival

Picture Day on the Farm

This weekend it was picture day again on the farm. It seems like we are always taking new pictures of the cattle, especially the calves, as they are always changing and growing. 

Before we can take the pictures we always wash and blow them dry. Some clipping may be done, then we head off to our picture location.

The Eng helped us wash

Our picture location is down in one of the fields at the main farm. Because this is usually away from the other cattle we will take 2 or 3 down at a time. They usually stand better knowing they are not the only one there, and it makes it easy to picture a few animals at a time.

The Eng and First Time

Dad and Prom Date

Once and a while we will even get a few visitors coming to see what we are up to. We can make some pretty funny noises so there are always a few curious ones. Last weekend in was the new bred heifer we bought at Remington's dispersal sale.

Our new purchase

We got some pretty great photos this weekend, one that will be up tomorrow. Pretty excited too as I think it is the best photo I have ever taken!

Harley the Hedgehog

This weekend after getting home from the farm, we had a new visitor to our house. Growning up I always wanted a hedgehog. I thought that they were so cool and would make a great pet.

Shaun was being the delivery guy for this hedgehog dropping it off at a friends house. But until he could get to the friends house, he got to spend the night at our house!

Meet Harley

I never really knew what there attitudes were like, just that I thought they were really cute. Turns out they are not so friendly, and very poky. Notice the heavy gloves Shaun has on.

The coolest thing about them is that their defence is to curl up in a ball. When they are hiding you cannot tell top from bottom and make a perfect little ball. Plus with their poky quills they are protected from predators.

Although Harley was fun to have for 1 night, I am sure glad that I never did get a hedgehog. They are extremely boring and just not good or fun pets!

RJY Paradise 1T

We have some pretty sweet cows on our farm, some that we are really proud of. It seems like the ones that have been shown over the years usually are the better ones, but there are also some that have never had a halter on them before that are just as good if not better.

One of those cows its Paradise 1T. Paradise is a Red Label cows out of CMS Paradise 05P. The 05P Paradise was purchased from Czech Mate Simmentals as a heifer calf, and later was selected as the pick of our herd at the 2006 World Congress Sale. 

Before we sold 05P we had flushed her to Red Label, and this cow is the only resulting progeny we have out of her.

RJY Paradise 1T

Each year Paradise does a great job raising her calves. She has never had a miss, and now has put a few daughters back into the herd. Most recently the breeding combination of her and Revolution has really clicked. Last year her heifer calf was part of our show string, and she placed 2nd in class at Agribition.

This year we have a full brother and he is a stand out in the bull pen. Earlier this year I had posted calf pictures about the no ears bull calf that I really liked. Well now he is grown and weaned off his mother 1T.

Who knows what the future holds for 1T around the farm, but I know I sure would take a 100 cows just like her!

Top 5 Looks- Sarah Jessica Parker

SJP is one of my favorite style icons. She may not always look the best, but she is not afraid to take a risk and try something new!

5. Ladylike SJP

4. Working the Killer Gowns

3. Short and Sassy

2. Beloved McQueen Fan

1. Best of All Time

Wordless Wednesday: Photos From the Farm

 

Cattle Sales the 21st Century Way

This past Sunday was the Star Lake fall sale. With our family becoming good friends over the past year, we were wanting to watch part of the sale and see how it was going to go. The problem is that it is just not economical to fly to Oklahoma for a few hours to watch a sale.

Now thanks to companies like Live Auctions, and Cattle In Motion, we are able to watch and bid on sales that we are not able to attend. These companies are hired by the sales to do a live video feed of the sale. Those people who cannot attend can either just watch the sale, or they can make bids on animals that are selling!

The sales start with a sale order. If you are at the sale you would pick one of these up and follow along so you know where each animal sells in the sale. Since we were not at the sale we printed ours out to follow along.

On the sale order there many be notes about each lot. On the Star Lake one there was updated weights as well as some terms of the sale for each animal. This particular one they were selling only part of the bull. It is important to know what you are buying before hand so that there is no confusion between the buyer and the seller.

Once you have reviewed the catalog and the sale order the sale will be next. Each company does it differently, but this is Star Lake's sale that was done through Live Auctions. A camera is set up so that you can get a view of the ring. You can see the animal and the auctioneer and there is also sound so you can hear what is happening as well.

The price will change as the people both online and at the sale make their bids. This one is lot 108 and the next bid they were asking for was $9250.00! I think this bull ended up selling for $15,250.00

It was a great sale that the Blin's had. They averaged over $8000 on the females and $7300 on the bulls. This is excellent, and a true testament to how hard the crew works at Star Lake.

Feeding for the Fall

The fall is always a busy time around the farm. Because we do not make any of our own feed (we buy all of our hay and grain from other farmers) our summers are a bit slower. Once we start to wean the calves off their mothers the work starts to build as we get ready for the winter.

Part of this work involves feeding the animals that we will be showing at Farmfair and Agribition. Each animal gains differently, and some need to be fed more then others. Although there is only 8 animals that we are feeding grain to right now at home, we have them in 5 different pens. Yes this does make a bit more work for everyone, but we need to make sure that they get the care and attention needed.

These two calves we are showing along side their mothers. Because they are not weaned and still milking their mothers, they get a different amount of grain then the other calves who are only eating hay and grain.



These are the 2 calves on the cow/calf pairs we are showing

 This is the bred heifer and red bull calf. Because they are larger animals they to get fed a different amount of grain. They are not getting the added nutrients and energy from milk like the other calves so they need to be supplemented in a different way.


Prom Date & Rival

The other one that is getting fed by herself for a few days is Southern Elle. Usually she gets fed with the other calves, however, she was in heat over the weekend. The heifer calves will begin to cycle this time of the year. They are to young and small to get pregnant yet, and the bulls are getting to the age where there is a chance that their semen could get one of them pregnant. So for a few days she gets to be by herself so that we can make sure she will not get bred by one of the bulls.  

Southern Elle

Not all of the cattle are home from pasture yet, actually very few of them are. The rest of the bull calves are still out at pasture. They have been weaned off their mothers, and are eating grass. The grass is not enough food for them, and so we have a creep feeder out for them so that they will gain more weight. A creep feeder hold grain for the animals and releases it as they eat. The black bars are set at a height so that just the calves can get in and not the bigger animals. Using a creep feeder makes it easier to feed as you are not needing to keep them closer to home and feed them with pails each day.

The bulls will stay out here and eat out of the creep feeder until the water freezes and the snow starts to fall. We will then bring them home and continue to feed them at the farm until the spring when they will go for sale.