Preg Checking

On Tuesday Jared and Dave got to try their new cattle handling system out (well that's not entirely true, they did de-horn some calves last week, but there were only 9 to run through)!  Jared woke up that morning with a terrible tummy ache, he was so nervous that their single file alley would be too small!  He had visions of having to tear it all apart and move it out about six inches!  Well it turns out it worked beautifully!  The crowding tub and the back up gate that Jared welded was amazing, and super effective!  I was so proud of all his hard work!

This is Jared's back up contraption, is worked so good!

The vet, Dr. Mike arrived at around 2pm, and that's when John, Buck and I went to round up the cows and bring them into the alley!  Well, this took us forever, much like the day when Jared and I resorted the calves and cows, they did not want to go through the gate, and if one happened to wander through she quickly changed her mind and turned around!  It was so aggravating!  And to top it all of, notorious number 14 charged at us several times!  She happened to be open last year and was also completely crazy, she jumped the fence in our corrals and got all the other cows all riled up.  We kept her with all the rest last year, and Jared was even thinking about giving her another chance because she seemed to have calmed down.  When I told him she charged at us, he was again contemplating getting rid of her.  When she got into the squeeze, she decided her own fate rather quickly!  She reared up inside the squeeze, got her two front feet tangled up above and when she came down she happened to de-horn herself.  And then as if she had forgotten what happened the first time she reared up she did it again, only this time I was sure she was going to hang herself.  Thankfully she came down and before the vet could test her, Jared opened the squeeze and let her charge her way into the open pen!  So really other than her, things ran rather smoothly!

It did take all of us to get the cows out of the corral though, and we only planned on taking groups of 15 at a time, but when we saw how long it was taking them just to get into the alley we didn't stop them once they all went through.  The only problem with having all 56 cows in the alley was the constant fear of having them break through the barbed wire.  That is the one thing Jared really wants to change, he would love to make the corrals a lot stronger by using wood, in time this will be done!  John happened to stay with the cows in the alley to keep them calm and make sure they wouldn't break through.  Buck and I moved them up into the crowding tub and on through the single file alley.  Dave pushed them further up into the squeeze.  Jared ran the squeeze and sprayed the cows that were pregnant with a de-licer, and Arren did our record keeping!  We finished exactly at 5pm.  Our results were not what we were hoping for especially after having 19 open last year.  This year we had 14 open, and only one of those open this year was also open last year.  We also got rid of other cows, one had bad feet, another had a prolapsed cervix and even though she calved last year and had a healthy calf, it is something that will just continue to get worse.  Another cow may have aborted already, and then we got rid of crazy number 14.  So we sent a total of 18 cows to the auction yesterday.  We also sent 11 of our heifers that also tested open to the auction yesterday.  So yesterday the boys and I tagged along with Buck, Arren and Lily to the auction, it was lots of fun and I could not believe how good all the kids were, it can be boring sitting there watching cows run wild in the pen while the buyers decide if they want to buy them or not!

The wood structure behind the squeeze is the single file alley, which really did work perfectly!  The entire design came from Temple Grandin's book, "Humane Cattle Handling Systems"

Anyway, back to preg testing!  One cow that Jared has been concerned about took a little longer to get her through the squeeze.  When Jared was doing his nightly walk through of the cows he noticed this one cow growling at him, he seriously thought she was mad at him and was trying to let him know, when he got closer, he realized it was how she was breathing.  He asked the vet about her while she was in the squeeze, she happened to be pregnant, so when the vet decided to treat her with an antibiotic and then as we was checking closer he noticed she had a hard lump under her jaw, he further investigated by sticking his hand inside her mouth to feel from the inside.  She had punctured a hole inside her mouth which caused the lump, which was pressing on her airway causing her to breathe funny.  He lanced the lump and drained the puss out of it, which was totally disgusting.  Jared watched every step in case he ever has to do it.  He found it fascinating.  He also got to hold the harness and was elated when he was able to take it off of the cow.  The poor cow, she experienced the vet at both ends!

I love watching Jared with the cows, he has such a tender heart for them.  When he would let them out of the squeeze he would first calmly put his hand near their nose and say shhhhh, sometimes he would even lightly pat the top of their head, I think it did help calm some of them down, some of them would walk so gently out to where they were to go.

Calum desperately wanted to help Grandma with the dishes, it was so sweet of him to offer his "help"!

Myrna was also such a huge help to as, she not only took care of Calum and Armin, but Lily also.  She made supper and cookies for us too, and when Emry came home from school, Gil also came home with her, so Myrna probably had the hardest job of all!  Thankfully when Lily and Calum are together they usually play so good.

I love working with the cows, and even though it has been a ton of work and has taken all of Jared's free time, it is also so rewarding.  I know we will be in our house soon, and I know Jared is doing all he can to make that happen sooner than later.  I am so thankful he fully has his heart in the cattle or they would definitely not be here on our farm.  I look forward to when we get to run the cows through the squeeze again it was a lot of fun, and without the help from wonderful family it would not have run as smoothly!