From a dear friend on cattle

Calves are easy as long as their big enough to eat grass. Bottle feeding the day olds is another story. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about that!

Pink eye is most often caused by dry, dusty conditions, and is seen in Herefords more than any other breeds. We had a problem with it once and had to put ointment in their eyes. My rancher uncle says they get over it on their own, but I always treated mine. These are Herefords if I remember correctly, luckily we are not yet suffering from dry, dust conditions, yet.


Just be sure you have plenty for them to eat and they won't be as tempted to cross a fence. They will need a bloat block or at least a mineral block-ask the feed store which they recommend in your area. We always kept a bloat block out for ours. Calves need hay for optimum growth, even if you have good grass. And we always gave ours sweet feed each day. We had raw pasture (we didn't fertilize) so we couldn't be sure the grass had enough protein for them. Giving them the sweet feed provided extra protein for them. I have seen bloat blocks out in the fields, my Brother-in-law did not bring one, nor did he bring hay.

Don't name them if you plan on cooking them later. My experience was to try to handle them each day to keep them semi-tame. It makes it easier to load them or doctor them later. I didn't name them. I call them by their tag numbers, but the brother-in-law did name them. I will try to handle them everyday. Unfortunately my husband has rigged the gates were I can't get into them. Have to have him correct that tonight.

If you have a corrall or loading pen, start feeding them in there (sweet feed). It makes it easier at loading time if they are comfortable in the pen. They are in a pen. We didn't have time to re-fence the field.

I am so jealous!!! Although, if I had calves this year, I would be selling them right now, or travelling the country trying to buy hay--which I would have to pay for by mortgaging the farm. It's bad down here right now. Your grass looks really good up there! That doesn't sound like fun. We have been getting a lot of rain.

Thank you my friend for that advice. I really needed it.

Cattle

We received a few guests today. 5 calves! My brother- in- law decided to bring them out here for a few weeks, he claims he has to fix some fencing. I informed him, he was not being a good cowboy if he has to store his cattle with us.


I have never in my life, taken care of cows. I have no idea what I am doing here. I know my Brother-in-law, I won't see him until it is time to take them home. He mention something about pink eye and poop. Great, how does this help me?


So It looks like tomorrow after I take care of my livestock and his I will have to consult my books. And knowing me, I will be out there tomorrow night singing to them if that what the books suggest I do.
For our troubles we will be given one of these fine bovines. This is something that my husband and I discussed before, but I don't think I am ready. I guess we'll find out. Stay tuned, the mistakes are just beginning.

Something else I should look into buying.

Trees

One of the biggest mistakes we made when buying our land, was buying a place with very few trees. There is no wind blocks. And a typical day in Kansas, you will be greeted by at least 20 mph winds. We set about ordering different types of shade and wind blocking trees. Soon we were ordering fruit and nut tress along with berry bushes.

mail order trees. Fruit and nut

In four years we have planted over 100 trees. We walk through our fields looking for a wild saplings to transplant. And now have a small orchard that in a few years will start producing, and we will have apples, cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches and many different nuts. We learned two winters ago how important trees really were. An ice storm fell hard on us, with no electricity and nothing to block the bitter cold, we had to leave our homestead and stay in the city for a few days. Then a few months ago we had a dust bowl. Our small trees did nothing to stop the grit that found it’s way into our mouths as we tried to tend to the birds.

The grey sky is dust

Mulch

Each year our garden gets bigger. This year it is 4,000 sq ft. Larger than our house. And each year that our garden get bigger the less mulch we have to cover it with. I made an attempt to use dried field grass, but I only got one and ½ of the rows covered. I received 15 bags of mulch from a friend in the city, that only covered one row of corn. Yesterday, my thumb literary green, pulled weeds and laid them out to dry, hopefully they will smother any new weeds. But only 1/4 th of my garden is mulched in. A neighbor is a free dump for tree trimming company, we will raid his mulch pile in a couple of days to see if we can cover the rest of the garden. I am tired of my hands being so stiff and swollen from plucking deep rooted weeds.

Do you have any peanut butter recipes?

I do, but I have yet to try them. This will be my first year making peanut butter from scratch.

I need to get a pair of these.