Tompkins Corner Chronicles

 On January 6th we sold our calves from the year.  Here's a timelapse of them loading out.   Within a cow/calf operation selling calves is basically the one day of income for the year.  Technically there is selling old or open cows as well, but the vast majority of the income is 1 day of the year.  It is a day wrought with lots of emotions. Nervousness with how market dependent it is.  Relief having these squirrely, fence crawling, needy calves gone, and also sadness to see some animals that you've seen nearly every day go.  Here's a brief story of one such calf:   In late March we were mostly all done with our first calf heifers calving.  Just a few remaining.  On March 18th we knew a snowstorm was blowing in, so we went out and rounded in all of the heifers and calves up close into shelter behind the windbreak.  I was pretty sure I got them all, but next day we went out and seemed to be missing one calf.  The wind a...

Back last spring before moving back to ranch while I was still working at the doctor's office I had asked a friend (the husband of a Nurse Practitioner) who raises cows what his go-to agriculture podcasts were.  He named a few: A regenerative agriculture podcast called "The Working Cows Podcast", Kansas State has one that covers markets well, UNL has another.  UNL’s is called “The beef watch podcast” with Aaron Burger (who happens to have one of the best names for a beef podcast). He did a series of episodes on virtual collars that have started to come into the United States over the last couple years.   The main goal of the collars is to have more control on where the cows are and to incorporate rotational grazing.  This can bring better land utilization, allowing areas to rest as well as fuller grazing over areas that get passed over for "sweeter grass".  Guided by GPS and a mapping app, they use a combination of beeps, shocks, and vibration to steer the ...

My last post over a month ago was regarding several cattle losses we've had over the summer due to anaplasmosis, which is a blood disease that causes fever and anemia.  Thankfully since that time we have had no more cases.  Likely mainly due to the changing of the weather.  Far less tick and flies cuts down on disease.  With the changing of the season also comes time for moving from summer to fall and winter preparations.  Hay bales need moved off of the hayfield, calves weaned, and cows pregnancy checked. But on top of that we've had lots of steps happening with the house renovation and addition.   For my birthday I received a drone which has been more fun than useful, though not entirely without utility.  I took it out with me while moving bales. This is a pass I took with it around the place in September. With weaning we bring all the cattle into sorting pens, let the cows back out and hold the calves.  Then  the cows are given access...

 Throughout the summer we had several cows die in seemingly unrelated ways. Two died in late July in two separate pastures.  One was 9 years old, and another was 10.  The life span of a cow can be 15 years old.  I've heard of steers getting into their 20s if they were treated like a pet. Though My dad has typically sold them as cull (to slaughter for hamburger) around the age of 11 or 12.  The first of the July deaths we simply found a cow dead in the pasture with no obvious reason.  A week later cow #649 had gotten foot rot, so was lame.  She seemed really weak and immediately pretty irritable. Covered in flies as well.  Pitifully she would get easily into fight mode and try to charge but then her legs would give out and she'd crumple beneath whoever she was charging at.  After getting her sprayed for flies and bringing in a tractor and a lot of patience we got her up into a small pen.  Fed and watered her, gave her an antibiotic shot, ...

 This summer has been revealing to me what effect a small thing can have.  Battling flies is a constant issue for livestock. Just YouTube "dealing with flies on cattle" and you'll see the struggle in their faces. Cows are large animals and yet when swarmed by hundreds of them it has a pretty detrimental affect.   What I have seen is it stresses the cows out, they then clump together and often go down into muddy low areas to try to get away from the flies.  The two effects we have seen this summer is Pink Eye for one. where the eye begins to go pink and then white, resulting in blindness.  It can be treated if caught and we've had a couple have a slight recovery of vision, but it can result in having to get rid of the animal.  The main reason is they are more dangerous to work with, especially a bull.  Here is an example of pink eye. The other effect of the flies is not directly from the fly, but instead from standing in the mud.  And that is ...

 Over the last couple months since moving back to the ranch my wife, parents and I have been getting into the "All Creatures, Great and Small" series based on the Jim Harriot short stories with it's name sake.  We've really enjoy it, though we only get an episode watched every couple weeks or so, but that's okay.  It has great story telling and I've found myself getting invested in the future of the characters.  Very wholesome show.  In the same, though much inferior, vein I wanted to tell a handful of animal stories over the last month or so.   Our dog, Baron continues to be my eager sidekick.  He is really living his best life as a ranch dog.  No more narrow, two lot boundaries like he had in town.  The cats and cows to chase as a big plus.  But by far, to the point of shaking with excitement, his favorite is riding along in the pickup or 4-wheeler.   Here he is checking cows with me: And here he is lounging on the 4-whe...