The weekend is over, phew, and it always goes too fast. It started slow with a houseguest, on his way to a custom harvesting job and ended strong with fishing. Working a full time job and moonlighting as a cattle producer makes for some long days and sore muscles. So as it goes for spring, we split our time getting cattle bred and getting the equipment ready for hay.
While getting the cow-calf pairs split off to go into the right breeding groups I realized that my husband I had said less than two words to each other the entire time. To most couples, this may seem odd or be the effect from a fight but for us having nothing to say signifies how united we are. You see when you have 50+ cows and calves in a corral with a plan in mind it is hard to communicate through words for those people working around you. The cattle move quietly from the new lush pasture into the old wooden corral that was built years ago by my husband and his father. We do not use any horses or ATV and have conditioned our cattle to respond well to human interactions, there are NO mean cross cows who bolt at the sight of us and the calves learn to imitate their mothers (somewhat). All the cattle are quieted after they find their calves and look to us as they ask with their eyes “What do you need us to do?” As we start splitting off the pairs I realize how lucky I am to get the opportunity to work with the cattle in a setting that most people only see on TV. That combined with a untied crew makes for a wonderful time, looking over the cows and enjoying the opportunity to work together.

Transition

To most people the changing in the season’s means a change in the weather, which is a wonderful change to the monotony that comes after so many months of the same ole stuff. When the calendar flips to another season for cattle producers and grain farmers, it ushers is a new task to focus on for the next 3months or so. The terms I use to describe the seasons are calving (winter), breeding and planting (spring), haying(summer) and weaning (fall). Ironically, my favorite season in “farming terms” is winter because I love calving season, it is also my least favorite season due to the cold and snow. The same is true for summer, as that is the prime time to harvest the hay, a job that my husband has recruited me for as a full time position and I find tedious and dull.
As I am writing this I am in the first part of spring. The weather cant make up its mind whether to snow or rain, and last night it decided to do both at the same time, an occurrence called thunder snow. Just as the weather is transitioning, so is the farm. We have taken advantage of the “good” weather to get out the machinery and complete any repairs and make sure everything is greased up and ready to go. I have never been much of a mechanic but my husband is in his element,bringing piece after piece into the shop to be welded, greased, repaired or whatever else needs to be done. After the rain quits falling and the ground dries up a little we will be ready to begin planting.
The cattle are relaxing in the fresh grass and enjoying the warm days. We moved the heifers, those are young stock about 14 months old, who will be bred for the first time this spring. They are always jittery after being on pasture for months and are usually a challenge. This group was very quiet, well behaved, and I am excited to see these gals grow into cows.
That is all for now until we need to work more cows.