The Changing of Seasons

This fall has become a blur of events many of which are still keeping us busy. The farm is still much alive and running as we are finishing up harvesting the fall crops of sorghum (milo) and soybeans. As well as harvesting we are preparing for the next year's wheat crop, with sowing our winter wheat into the fields. While the farm keeps on rolling the cattle part of the operation is in full swing. We are getting ready for this upcoming winter season. This is the time where we are getting our cows off of the summer pastures on which some have calved on (fall cows). Our cows are usually very hungry for some candy when we go to bring them home or to just check on them (cubes or cake is what we call it). Soon the cows from our pastures will be filling our pens, winter pastures, and wheat pastures. Once the cows and calves are at home we will vaccinate them with boosters as well as working the calves giving them similar vaccinations and preparing them for the possible harsh winter that might be coming.

This weekend Mark and Warren also have been prepping some heifers for next years calving season. They will be artificially inseminating them with the semen finishing up this week. We do this so that we can select bulls who have a different genetic line than the ones that we have on our farms. There are many pros and cons to artificial insemination such as, selection of sire, breed, and birth type (new sexing semen) but as well as cons being more processing time, veterinarian costs, and lower conception rates.

            This past week the weather has been great…up until Saturday it was WINDY! The family gathered up to catch some cows and bring them home. It isn’t always fun and games though, the wind made choring a real pain…dust flying everywhere and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. Although the weather changes around the farm we continue to work. Sometimes the weather is unpredictable such as today. We began the day with sunshine and a few clouds, and the day turned into a rainy and windy day. The rain came as a welcome sign as we have been dry throughout the entire summer; this makes us able to start to play catch up.

            Well hope all is well with you and yours. I will try and keep the blog up to date…more than I have been! We did feel the earthquake from Oklahoma, nothing really happened except some vibrations, glad we don’t have those more often.