The Red Angus bull that we are leasing for the 2014 breeding season. Don’t mind the spots, he is recovering from a bout of ringworm that he got at a different farm.
Here on the farm, a new breeding season is officially underway. Our leased Red Angus bull arrived at the farm a few weeks ago and our 10 heifers and 10 cows enthusiastically welcomed him! Our ten calves were a bit curious at all the excitement. In way of introduction, Nebula bull sniffed the rear of each heifer and cow. After he made the rounds and satisfied himself that no breeding was needed at that particular moment, he commenced to grazing.
With one breeding season and one calving season under our belts, we have learned a bit more about what we want in a bull. We have high hopes for this bull and all reports lean towards him being a calving-ease bull. Time will only tell. Check back with us in May 2015! 🙂
As with our breeding season last summer, we are taking detailed notes on any and all breeding activity and signs of estrus/cycling in the herd. A large majority of active breeding tends to happen between the hours of 7pm and 7am. Therefore, we are conducting our twice-daily, 30-minute minimum observation sessions during this window of time. We transfer our written notes into our CattleMax software. Cattle Max allows us to keep an organized account of breeding as well as notes on cycling and related behavior.
Ready or not?!
Nebula bull is a very interesting bull to watch. He is extremely thorough and he is constantly checking each female to see if she is ready for him. When Nebula isn’t eating or drinking, he is making the rounds of the herd. We are extremely pleased with his performance as well as his personality thus far.
Fleman responseFlehman response.
I have seem him exhibit the Flehman response (curls back upper lip to detect if female is cycling) more times than I can count.
We are just three weeks into our 60-day breeding season, but we believe that the majority of our 20 cows and heifers have been bred. Jeremiah or myself have either witnessed the breeding act itself or observed a bent/lifted tail on one of the heifers or cows that had been followed by the bull, which would indicate a recent breeding. Of course, there is no guarantee that all of the breedings took or that the pregnancy will be viable. As the breeding season progresses, we will be watching closely to see if any of the females that we thought were bred come into estrus again. If some or all do not cycle again, we will feel confident saying that that animal is pregnant!
For the next month and a half we will work hard to continue with our observation sessions and note-taking in the hopes of our remaining girls being bred. In November, we will once again have another pregnancy check and see how well Nebula bull performed.
Finally. Our very first calving season is officially over. The majority of our calves were born in May but we had two late-calvers: one on June 13th and the last calf born on July 9th. For the last few weeks I have been trying to get an updated photo of each calf but they are quick, sneaky and camera shy little buggers.
Without further ado, we introduce the Wood Farm 2014 calf lineup, in order of birth:
In a previous post, we discussed pregnancy checking our 10 heifers and discovering that we were 10 for 10. All 10 of our heifers were pregnant.
Still grazing on November 24th!
At that time we were in mid-November and winter was getting a slow start in northern Maine. I mean a real slow start: We were still grazing! No winter hay had been consumed on our farm yet.
Hay bale grazing site awaiting winter grazing. Early-November 2013.
This would be our first winter with cattle on the farm and we were a bit anxious of all the what if’s and unknowns that come along with overwintering livestock in snowy, cold regions. To our way of thinking, we had three primary components of animal welfare to consider and manage for during the winter: 1) Animal Health, 2) Nutrition, and 3) Shelter/Cover and Pasture Safety. We wanted to manage our herd in such a way that would lead our heifers into their calving season strong and healthy and in the best body condition possible.
Animal Health
A heifer getting her shots.
All 10 heifers received the following three vaccinations during their pregnancy check: 1) Decotmax for parasites, 2) MultiMin90 as a mineral supplement, and 3) Bovi-Shield Gold 5 for a range of respiratory diseases.
Having a consistent vaccination schedule, with the appropriate vaccinations for the needs and requirements of your herd, is critical for your animals’ health. Furthermore, when dealing with pregnant cattle, keeping current on shots is important for the welfare of the mother cow and her unborn calf. Vaccinations, while important, are no replacement for good animal husbandry, though. It was our responsibility to ensure that our heifers received the care needed to sustain a harsh, northern Maine winter.
Getting a head count of the herd. April 2014
To assess our heifers’ health and condition on a daily basis, we continued with our twice-daily herd checks over the winter months. Whenever we approached the herd, it was an automatic act for us to immediately get a head count of the herd.
Our young son assessing the condition of the herd. April 1, 2014
Once everyone was accounted for, we would check on each heifer individually. Since our heifers were pregnant, we were paying special attention to any signs of a miscarriage, such as bleeding.
Patches of hair rubbed off due to lice.
At one point during the winter, we noticed that our herd was having a major lice problem. So, we applied a pour-on delouser to each heifer. This is something we may not have noticed if not for our herd checks.
Nutrition
On our farm, we strive to maintain a grass/roughage-only diet with mineral supplements and when needed, protein such as barley. Therefore, throughout the winter, our heifers had access tohay and a mineral supplement high in copper and selenium, which our soils in northern Maine are deficient in. Prior to hay feeding in the fall, we provided 1-2 lbs/head/day of barley to supplement the lower quality grass that our cattle were feeding on in late fall.
By providing our pregnant heifers with a consistent supply of high-quality hay and mineral throughout the winter, we hoped for them to be in the best possible condition coming out of winter. Springtime would bring calving and shortly thereafter, another breeding season. We wanted our heifers to be strong and healthy, with the endurance required to handle labor and delivery, the summer breeding season and hopefully, another pregnancy while still providing milk for their calves.
Springtime would also bring green grass and a return to our rotational pasture grazing; it is at this time that we expect to see an increased rate of gain as compared to the winter months. The amount of food consumed during the winter months tends to slow down, with animals displaying compensatory gain in the springtime when on pasture. They are eating to make up for any losses they incurred, weight wise, during the winter.
Shelter/Cover and Pasture Safety
Hay bale grazing, with a large wooded area in the background for shelter.
Through the course of the winter, our heifers hay bale grazed in three separate sections on our farm. In each of these three sections, they had access to hay, water (mainly in the form of snow), mineral and shelter.
Spruce tree serving as a wind break for this heifer. Note blue mineral barrel at the base of the tree. Our mineral barrel set-up has changed to an upright system.
Since we currently do not having any housing for animals on our farm, our heifers sought cover/shelter during inclement weather in wooded areas (e.g., fir, spruce, cedar, dogwood, alder, birch, aspen and willow stands).
As we did during the grazing season, we continued with our pasture and fence checks. We repaired fence as needed and checked for any dangerous objects and removed them.
I cut away the blue, bale twine after taking this picture.
In particular, we wanted to remove any objects that the heifers could get tangled up in such as twine and string from the bales and tarps and the tarps themselves.
Shoveling snow off the top of a hay bale.
In addition, we had daily maintenance with our hay bales, and shoveling snow and chipping away at ice was an almost daily task.
To help organize our thoughts and observations during the winter months, we continued with our note-taking and record keeping for both the cattle (health, nutrition, etc) and the property (fence damage, snow level, temperatures, etc).
See ya in a few months, fence!
We made notes when the fence line disappeared under the snow pack, when the voltage on the electric fence plummeted with high snow pack and so on.
It takes work to tend to a cattle herd – no matter the size – during the winter months and when your winter season lasts half your year, the daily grind can become pretty monotonous and tiring.
On days when the wind was blowing and the snow was piled high, I would remind myself, as I was trudging my way to the herd, that I signed up for the whole kit and kaboodle when I became a cattle owner. Not just the sunny and warm days. It is not supposed to be easy.
That doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy what we are doing. You have to love this way of life – hard knocks and all. Jeremiah and I embrace that this way of life is hard. Life as a cattle owner will stretch your limits, your pockets and your patience beyond what you thought you could ever handle. It will break some and make others. We hope to be in the latter category. 🙂
It certainly was one long snowy winter here on the Wood Farm but that all seems like a distant memory when we look out the window at a sea of green grass and a healthy crop of young calves frolicking in the pasture!
Hopefully, this little heifer calf will help with growing our herd.
As beginning cattle farmers, we are always on the lookout for opportunities to expand our herd, staying within the capacity that our land can support.
As we often say, being in the cattle business takes hard work, dedication and patience. These same principles apply when selecting animals for your herd.
Our very first cattle herd – 10 Red Angus Heifers July 2013
A lot of patience, perseverance and consideration went into the purchase of our first cattle herd. Deciding on the heifers that would be the foundation of our breeding program was one task that we simply refused to “rush through” or “just settle” on.
At one point during our search process, we thought we had found our herd. For many reasons, though, the deal fell through; we walked away from that experience a little wiser and a little more cautious. We also walked away with a very valuable contact, Dr. Simon Alexander of Exeter Veterinary Services. He recommended that we visit with Gene Lawlor of Lawlor Family Farm. Jeremiah immediately contacted Gene and set-up a meeting with him at his farm.
Lawlor Family Farm
From that day forward, we never looked back. Meeting Gene and seeing his cattle operation changed everything for us.
We had found our first herd of genuine commercial beef cattle AND we were blessed with gaining a mentor and a friend in Gene. It was literally a dream come true for the two of us.
Gene and his wife Barb have been in the beef cattle business for a long time and have gained a tremendous amount of respect in the beef cattle industry in Maine. Their cattle are top-of-the line with great bloodlines, excellent conformation and easy to handle and work with attitudes and dispositions. They breed for various traits such as calving ease and strive for that balance of a medium-framed cow with a nice, deep chest, well-proportioned neck and a strong, overall feminine look.
Furthermore, Gene keeps meticulous records, has a consistent vaccination schedule and a strong animal health plan, and runs a clean, safe and organized operation. If cattle could be called happy, his certainly are. They are healthy, good-looking animals.
Our farm’s founding mothers!
So, we took the plunge in June of 2013 and purchased 10 commercial heifers from Gene and Barb. So far we’re very pleased with the performance of our herd and realize how fortunate we were to stumble upon Gene and his cattle operation.
Round 2!
In fact we have been so pleased with our herd, that just this past month, we did it again! We bought another 10 red angus and angus/hereford heifers from Gene and Barb.
Red Angus heifers. Check out the nice brockle face on the one in the middle.
We look forward to watching these girls progress as they get bred this summer and hopefully, deliver strong, healthy calves next spring!
I am a stay-at-home mom who is blessed to be able to run and manage, with my husband, our 28 and counting head of beef cattle.
Red Angus newborn calf taking his first steps.
We are rapidly approaching our 1 year anniversary of being cattle owners and every day is a new adventure. Whether I am fixing fence, hauling hay and water, watching a newborn calf take his first steps or rounding up a stray cow, I am constantly reminded of what is important in life.
Checking the herd with my favorite farmhand!
For our young son to grow up in this environment is truly a blessing.
The view from my desk!
My office chair and desk may be a little bit more mobile than most but you can’t beat the view! 🙂
