One of the most special parts of running a cow-calf operation, is seeing the bond between mama cow and her baby. I captured some sweet moments over the last few days and wanted to share here. These “babies” in the pictures below were born in spring-2019. This is our first year on a delayed-weaning schedule. Normally, the calves would be wintered separately on the farm. It has been interesting to observe their behavior this winter.
Through the years, we have retained many heifer calves. We currently have three mother-daughter pairs (both of breeding age) on the farm. I enjoy observing the interactions between mama cow and daughter. I will often see a mother-daughter pair laying side-by-side, basking in the sun, with their big, pregnant bellies! And one time, I watched a cow head-butt her way into the mineral barrel and proceed to block entry for any other cow. Then, I saw her daughter walk up and I wondered what would happen. To my delight and amusement, she let her daughter step right up to the mineral barrel and get a lick.
I am far from an expert on cattle behavior. But, I have spent the last almost seven years observing the behavior of our cattle on the farm and there is no denying that at least for our cattle, the mothers recognize their daughters, no matter how old the daughter is. I feel honored to capture such moments as the ones shown below. Makes me look forward to calving season #7!
Just one more lick and then you can go play with your friends…. January 27, 2020
This is the same mother-daughter pair as pictured above! May 2019 It’s been a long day, baby girl…. January 25,2020This is the same mother-daughter pair as pictured above! May 2019
This winter is a bit special and it has nothing to do with the cattle. This winter – 2019/2020 – will be the last winter before our BABY starts school. School?! Oh my…where have the years gone? Our youngest is often on herd check duty with mama, while big brother is at school. I was talking with my mom recently and she reminded me to enjoy this season in life, because a new season will be starting soon. One chapter will be closing and a new chapter starting. It’s all good. It’s all how it is suppose to go. But, it does make this mama a little teary eyed to know the baby years – the years before school starts – will soon be behind us.
Hanging out in the snow.
Hi, Mama!
Heading home. He took an hour nap soon after getting home. Tending cattle is hard work!
Tending fence lines, from hay bale site to hay bale site. January 2020
Winter is well underway on the farm. We had an early start to snowy weather, with our first big snow storm in early November. Not uncommon in recent winters, though, to have winter start early. Just seems to be the way it is now. What has been unusual this winter is that we had two separate rain/thaw events in December. Temperatures spiked to the 40’s, which is extremely rare for December, and the rain POURED down and down and down. Quite a bit of snow melted off during these events, which was just fine by us! As a result, our snow-pack is bit behind pace this winter. But, Mother Nature is doing her best to catch up, and we got hit with a nice size snow-storm this past weekend. The fresh snow, coupled with the snow we already had accumulated, put me on fence wire lifting duty! This job is exactly what it sounds like – lifting the wires higher up on the fence lines. Luckily, I only have to do this along the fences in which the cattle have access to.
Keeping the wires above the snow level is pretty important for us in our winter hay bale sites. Unless we want the cattle getting into the wrong hay bale sites and throwing our whole system off-kilter, those wires gotta be lifted!
Here are some pics from a few of the fence lines.
Wire and snow getting a bit too friendly…
That’s better.
Wire is very close to the snow in this pic and actually buried under in some parts.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of making sure you have an effective fencing system. If we were to give only one piece of advice to a starting-out cattle farmer, it would be to invest the time and money into putting-up an effective, durable and strong fencing system. In regards to our own fencing system, we technically have two types of fencing on our farm: a permanent, perimeter fence for each pasture, and temporary fences that we put up in conjunction with our rotational grazing system. We employ a rotational grazing system during the summer and fall grazing months. Each pasture is like one big pie (or pizza or cake), and each time we rotate, we are serving up that next slice of pie in that particular pasture.
Our perimeter fences stay put. They do not move (well, unless a moose moves them!). The perimeter fences consist of a mix of wooden and conduit pipe fence posts. We are shifting away from wooden fence posts to the more flexible, conduit pipe post. A conduit pipe post has some bend to it, flexibility that simply isn’t found in a wooden fence post. As such, these posts tend to hold-up better against a moose than a wooden fence post. As our wooden fence posts start to rot, we replace them with conduit pipe. We do the same for any wooden posts damaged by a moose or other means. Any new fence lines are and will continue to be put-up with only conduit pipe posts. All perimeter fences are run with a double-wire set-up. We drill a top and bottom hole through each conduit pipe, in which the wires are attached. For our wooden posts, we use plastic insulators, in which the wires rest on.
All of our fences, permanent and temporary, are electrified. We have a shed up by our house that houses our energizer, which supplies the electricity for our entire fencing system. It is up to us, though, to make sure that we correctly set-up our fences to allow for strong energy flow through all of our fences/wires, from pasture to pasture, as well as in our winter hay bale grazing sites. Being able to fix broken fences and wire, and properly restore energy to an electric fence is an extremely important skill to have. This ability is not one of my strengths, but I have certainly learned a lot of what not-to-do’s over the years.
One winter, I proudly showed Jer how I fixed a fencing situation in a hay bale grazing site and restored the electricity. Well, yes, I restored the electricity alright – I restored it all to one steel t-post. Sigh… I had wrapped the wire around the t-post without using an insulator. As you would imagine, I was losing a ton of energy to that t-post. That was a major lesson for me, and a lesson that made me finally understand the true importance of post insulators!
The correct way to attach wire to a steel t-post. Use a post-insulator! Please learn from my mistakes!
Post insulators are especially critical when running an electric fence that utilizes any sort of metal posts. A post insulator allows the energy (i.e., electricity!) to continue along your wire, post after post. We use a variety of plastic insulators for all types of posts – fiberglass, steel, wood and conduit. While a wooden post will not absorb an electrical charge, post insulators still provide protection for our wires and allow for a strong, well-placed fence line. For our conduit pipe posts, the top and bottom wires are strung through drilled holes allowing the energy to flow down the wires. We also use post insulators for all of our non-clip fiberglass fence posts in our winter hay bale sites.
See below for a list of some of our go-to fencing supplies:
*Fiberglass Step-in Electric Posts & Poly Electric Step-In Posts*
We use these fence posts for setting up our temporary fences during the rotational grazing season, as well as supplement fence posts elsewhere on the farm. In addition, these posts are a critical part of our winter hay bale grazing sites. These type of posts are light-weight, which is great when you are carrying an armful of posts a long distance. They are durable, reasonably priced and conveniently built with clips at multiple heights for wire placement. The fiberglass posts feature four clips, with the poly fence posts featuring eight clips. Both of these types of fence posts are self-insulating. No post insulators required!
We also use the fiberglass posts without clips. These type of posts (paired with post insulators) are perfect for inserting into hay bales, and for fencing our winter hay bale sites. In these sites, we need posts that can drive into the ground and into our hay bales at different depths, which is not possible with posts that have clips on them!
Fiberglass rod with plastic post-insulator
*Conduit Pipe*
As mentioned above, we now prefer using conduit pipe for our fence posts. We cut the pipe to size (if needed), pound into the ground, and drill two holes for a top and bottom wire. With the exception of our weaning fences, all other permanent fences are two-wire.
*Steel T-Posts*
Steel t-posts sure come in handy on the farm. Just be sure to use a post insulator when dealing with electric fencing! ha!
*Fence Wire Reels*
Fence reels are essential to our entire fencing operation! Especially for fencing with rotational grazing and in our winter hay bale sites. We use both 1:1 and 3:1 gear ratio reels. The 3:1 gear ratio reels are well worth the cost and investment when running long lengths of fence for intensive rotational grazing. I was blown away the first time I used a 3:1 gear ratio reel. The time it took me to reel in the fence line and set-up a new line was a fraction of the time it took me with a 1:1 gear ratio reel. The 1:1 gear ratio reels reel in slower, but they really are sufficient (and much cheaper!) for fencing projects that do not require long fence lines and/or frequent reeling in and out of wire. These reels work primarily for polywire but can certainly be used for smaller gauges of wire, as seen in the picture below.
1:1 gear ratio reel spooled with wire, in our winter hay bale site.
*Electric Polywire*
Electric polywire is our go-to wire for rotational grazing. Don’t underestimate this type of fencing wire – it is just as effective as your standard high-tension fencing wire. Composed of stainless-steel wire, polywire is extremely effective at carrying a strong electrical charge. We have witnessed cows and calves get jolted by this wire. And, we have gotten jolted as well, accidentally. Polywire dispenses and reels back-up very well on our spinning rod and reels. We currently use polywire in both white and orange colors.
*High Tensile Galvanized Steel Wire*
For our perimeter fences (and other fencing and farm projects, as needed), we use 12.5 gauge high tensile galvanized steel wire. We prefer the 12.5 gauge – multi-purpose for fencing and farm projects, not too thick and easy to put up fence lines with. Further, the smooth, high tensile properties of this steel wire allows for more space between fence posts.
*Fence Tensioners & Wire Tighteners*
Fence tensioners and wire tighteners are critical in ensuring a high tension fence line. We use plastic fence tensioners when running poly wire fences and high-tensile wire tighteners on our perimeter, high tensile wire fences.
*Post Insulators*
Post insulators – in one form or another – are everywhere on the farm. The type of post insulator we used depends on the type of posts we are using.
*Jumper Leads for Electric Fence*
Jumper leads are a definite must-have tool when setting up temporary, electric fence lines. We use these jumper leads to electrify all of our temporary poly wire fences.
Take the time to research and plan-out the type of fencing that works best for your operation. This will very likely involve more than one fencing type. Invest your money in good, quality fencing supplies. If your fencing system is not effective, then everything will start to unravel. All it takes is for one cow to take advantage of a weak fencing system. Whether you have 10 cows or 100 cows, that one cow can start the domino affect. Trust us on this one.
And a final reminder – Don’t forget your post insulator!
Does your current cattle vaccination regime include a dewormer? If not, you may want to consider adding it. Pour-on topical dewormers, like Ivermectin, serve as an effective way to help control and manage internal and external parasites in your cattle.
Ivermectin is cost-effective and a little application goes a long ways in keeping your cattle healthy. Dosage is based on the weight of your animal(s). Using an applicator gun, this dewormer is easy to apply right in the chute, along with your other vaccinations.
We run all of our cattle through our cattle facility every fall for vaccinations, including Ivermectin. Applying a dewormer in the fall-time works best for our operation, as lice can often be a problem during the winter months. Our winters start early and last a good six months, at the minimum. Further, depending on how bad the flies are in the summer, we will often apply a broad spray application to the cattle right in the field, using a back-pack sprayer.
