Wedding Wednesday

While out taking engagement pictures we had to not only take some with our family dog Bud, but my cow Elle was also on the list of must haves.

Not many people have a request like this, but our photographers were all for it. Luckily Elle is a baby, super quiet, loves attention, and would do anything for a scratch. Elle has had her picture taken many times both at our house and down in the USA where she came from. However, I am not sure that she ever seen herself getting pictures like this done.

Elle and Nina because pretty good friends, and lets just say Elle is not camera shy!

Eng's Ramble #2

As many of you folks that read Stacy’s blog know, I’m a born and raised city boy (I’ll have a blog to follow later on talking about us “dreaded city folk”).  Since dating Stacy and spending time out at the farm I have been exposed to many things that are well outside my wheelhouse.  From time to time I’ll pick some of these stories and share them with you.  Being that many of you have lived on the farm your whole life you may forget many of the “first times” and hopefully I can take you back down memory lane and remind you of some long forgotten memories.  I figured it probably makes the most sense to talk about the first time Stacy took me out to the farm.

Since we started dating I continually bugged her to take me out to the farm and put me to work.  Finally, in June some time (we started dating in February to give you an idea) she took me out while her parents were out of town.  I’m fairly confident she waited for a time when her parents were away in case I turned out to be a real tool on the farm causing her parents to question her life choices.  In any case, before we went out I told her that she better be putting me to work because I didn’t want to go out there and just sit around.  She assured me that I would definitely be put to work and she’d make sure to keep me busy.  Some of what we did was expected, but much of it was really not something I saw coming…

We checked pastures and did the usual chores, but then when Stacy let three calves into the barn, put halters on them, tied them up, and then handed me a brush, I really had no clue what the hell was going on.  And then yup, sure enough, we started brushing calves.  Really?  This is what you had in mind when I said “put me to work”?  But that’s what we did.  We worked on calves starting the process of training their hair for showing later that year.  Looking back now it really doesn’t seem too foreign and idea at all, but that’s really the last thing I would have expected to be doing my first trip out to the farm.  Since then I’ve washed cows, brushed their hair, used a massive blow-drier to dry them off, and yes I even wiped crap off their backsides when they went to the washroom on show day.  Getting involved with a farm girl I can’t say that this is what I would have expected to be doing, but I thoroughly enjoy all the experiences I have gone through so far and can’t wait to keep learning.

Wedding Wednesday

A few weeks ago Dan and I headed out for an afternoon of pictures. My friend Jade from the Naked Lip was over that morning doing some make-up, and soon enough we were off and running.

Because our photographers are coming from the USA, it just was not practical to have them come and do engagement photos as well. Dan had a good friend who does photography in Edmonton, and they were the perfect option to do our photos.

3 hours later we had been to the farm, the pasture and the lake to snap some pictures. We just got them all back this week and are having a really hard time narrowing down to just a few to use for the wedding!

Thinking of Home

Dan and I have been in Hawaii since Friday afternoon. The weather is amazing, and it is stunning here. If it were not for these guys we may never come home!

Elle up to her knees in mud

Elle x Joker Bull Calf- Wildcard

Sweet Talker heifer

This guy has the baldy gene! He was 90% this year

Farmer Dan and his dog Bud

See all of you next week with lots of updates and pictures!

2012 Sale Bulls

It is officially that time again, bull sale season that is. With the Simmental sales already have started, we are busy getting our bulls ready for the sale that they will be consigned to.

Each year we sell about 1/2 of our bulls off the farm. The other 1/2 will go to a consignment sale as we do not have enough animals to have a sale of our own. This year we will be again selling at the Red Deer Bull Sale on March 19th.

We will have 6 bulls in the sale this year; 1 black and 5 red bulls. All of them have been semen tested and will be halter broke.

Joker x 2N Bull

Revolution x Talladega daughter

Revolution x Caesar daughter

Revolution x Cosmo Daughter

Revolution x Master Link daughter

Revolution x Talladega Daughter

For more information on these bulls please visit www.highcountrycattle.com or call 780-696-3643

Blazed Babies

I love going to the farm this time of the year to see all of the baby calves. I was especially excited to see this years calf crop as we are getting a few Elegant Force embryo calves, and we were just hoping to have baldies born. A baldie is an animal who has a blaze on their face. The rest of their body will either be red or black. In this case ours are mainly black, however, there are a few red ones as well.

The baldie marking is really hot right now, as it gives them a bit more eye appeal then just being a solid colour. This marking can get tricky as each one is different. The white can extend past either eyes, just be a spot, and in some cases they will also have white on their bellies or legs. We try and keep the white just on the face, but it is easier said then done.

2 day old heifer

Elegant Force x Joker heifer

 Last spring I put in 3 embryos of my own. Unfortunately, I only got 1 pregnancy so I was really hoping that the calf would be something special. The calf is about 2 weeks old now and was a bull calf. He looks awesome, but the coloring was just not quite right....


He looks great from the front



But not so good from the side...

Ideally he would have no white on his tail, or his legs, or on his belly. Unlike his 2 sisters he is just marked a little funny. You will even notice that he has blue eyes. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but he sure is a great calf!

Is 2 Better then 1?

Twins always seem like such a neat thing. 2 calves, 2 times the money, and most times 2 times the work that go along with them.

Each year it we usually get a set or 2 that are born at the farm, and each time we see twins it is a bit of a disappointment. There are lots of different mind sets when it comes to the disadvantages of twins. The big one is that if the sexes of the calves are a male and a female, if there were in the same sack during development the heifer will be a free martin, and unable to breed. When it comes to there being 2 bulls, some people believe that a bull can pass on the twin gene and do not like to purchase them for breeding. The big thing is that regardless of the sex of the calves, the cow simply does not do as well on the calves as there is 2 she is feeding rather then 1. This can lead to lower weaning weights or the cow not getting back in calf.

In some cases if we have a cow who has lost a calf we will try grafting one of the twins onto another mother. This can be a time consuming process, and does not always work, but it is better for both the mother of the twins, and the twins themselves.

One of the twin bulls this year

One big happy family of 3

Calving in the Cold

Each winter it seems like we get a blast of -30 to -40 degree Celsius weather. Not only is it cold for us humans, but the cattle are just as cold as us. Factor in that our cows are also calving at that time, and it makes for a very long week with the cold weather.

This year we got our week of cold weather, and it all started when Mom and Dad were in Denver and "The Eng" and I were out calving cows. On the last day that we were at the farm we got a record 6 calves in 18hrs. Not that many by most standards, but when it is -30 with the wind blowing and a tiny barn jam packed with cows and calves, it makes for a long day.

Fortunately, most of the calves were ok, and are all doing fine now. We lost an embryo calf that was born dead, but the rest will live to tell about the cold day they were born on. There will be a few frozen ears and a bit of a frozen nose, but nothing that will effect their performance or breeding ability.

One little guy was born outside and was very cold when we found him. "The Eng" probably saved his life by getting him into the house and warming him up as fast as he could. 13Z was back out with his momma later that day, and now is out playing with the other calves. Not bad for a guy experiencing calving for the very first time!

The Eng and his new friend 13Z

Big Bad Bulls

Ok well the bulls really arn't bad, but they sure are getting big. We have 6 bulls left in the pen, and these ones have been carried over to sell in the Red Deer Bull Sale in March. 5 of these bulls are paternal brothers to the $40,000 RJY Rival bull we sold at checkers.

Over the next few weeks we will continue to clip and tie these bulls up. All of our bulls are sold tie or halter broke for easy handling. Once I have a few more pictures I will be sure to post them, but for now here are a few shots of the bulls from this past weekend.

Revolution son that will sell in March

Getting Rival ready to head to Alta Genetics

Calving 2012

Calving has officially begun at the farm with over 20 calves now. They are looking great and I will have more updates and pictures in the coming weeks. For now here is a little taste of a few of the calves.

You Know You Have Made It When...

The last few months I have seen this #4 bus driving around Edmonton. With the help of "the Eng" I finally got a picture of it. 

I guess you know you are a big shot in the cattle business when you have a City of Edmonton bus that reads your farm name. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Fall on the Farm

We have gotten all moved in and settled into Farmfair, but while we are here, we still need to make sure that the rest of the cattle at the farm are taken care of as well. With the help of some neighbors and family, some of the jobs will be done for us, but Mom and Dad will still drive back and forth to tend to the rest.

All of our cows are still out on pasture finishing up the grass that we have left for them. This helps cut down on the amount of time we have to feed them in the yard, and also on the cost of having to buy extra hay. We have a well on the pasture, but need to pump water into a trough every day as it is ran off a generator. In the summer this can be done a couple of times a week, but once it freezes this becomes a daily job.

The cows will stay out on pasture for the next week, and then be brought home for the winter to be fed. They will be at the farm until May when the snow has melted and the grass has grown enough for them to return to the pasture.

Their calves that were born in 2011 have been weaned off and are now at home. The bulls are being fed and will be sold in the spring to cattlemen, and the heifers have been sorted and the top end have been kept for our herd. These young heifers will become the next generation at the farm, and take over for some of the older cows in the herd, or cows that are not the best producers.

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!

Wordless Wednesday: Photos From the Farm

 

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.