Skeeter Control

In an effort to maximize the bank swallow population which decimates the mosquito population, we have tried a home made facsimile.  You can see the bank in the background where hundreds of them nest but experience the tragedies of bank collapse and even foxes and coyotes clawing up and digging them out.  This boarding house should be safer but I'm told that bank swallows will not buy in to such contrivances.  Hopes are that if they habituate we will be able to move them to other parts of the farm.

#18 has Black Bull #35 4/27/14

#18 had a healthy black bull #35.  Froze pretty hard this morning but still not enough to freeze down to the frost line.  Will be in the 50s this afternoon.

13/44 has very hard delivery 4/26/14

13/44  had a more than 24 hour labor that ended in pulling a large 105 lb bull that didn't make it.  Hard work!

Priscila delivers bull #34

Priscilla had her second calf- a normal black bull #34.  Priscilla bears tag #1 which she inherited from her mother who was the herd matriarch.

Note that so far if its white its a heifer and if its black its a bull.  So far 4 heifers and two bulls.  We'll see how long that statistic lasts!

#8 delivers Heifer #33 4/25/14

Number 8 delivers another large heifer #33 in the same vicinity where she had her first calf.

12 has large black Bull

#12 was cleaning up a robust large black bull as the sun came up 4/22/14.  He is #32.  He is lucky because that tag had fallen out of my pocket somewhere in the pasture yesterday.  I found it but later found I had misplaced the applicator!

4/21/14 #25 delivers Stillborn

#25 evidently delivered during the night and appears the calf never lifted her head- a large heifer.  Either coyotes or wolves had already started eating.  Mom was crying around there for a couple of days.  Evidently there is a grizzly around too.  No worry about the leftovers.

Matriarch Tierra delivers orange Easter Baby 4/20/14

Tierra #2 delivered large heifer #31 that looks like she must have been swimming in carrot juice for amnionic fluid.  First time that has happened even though they are all eating about 100 pounds of carrots every other day.  I'm assuming this will turn white with the first rain?  Was about 30 degrees this morning.

First Galloway Mom for 2014 # 19 delivers #30

#19 dropped our first calf for the Galloway genetics.  She hit the ground at 3 PM and by 3:30 was walking around.   A large white heifer  with black points that got tag #30.  Today was also the first day the  Canadian geese were in the fields looking for those first sprouts of grass.

Adelaide delivers first calf of the year 4/7/14

Adelaide the family milk cow delivered the first calf of the year- a strapping bull named Gideon.  Added to the family was orphan Simeon 4/15/14.  He is half dexter from the Havemeister herd.  On June 6 Gideon was tagged #42 and Simeon # 43.