Merry Christmas Everybody! We are winding up the last of the 2004 things so we can get ready to start calving the first of February.
We finished working the cows. Yeah! We took advantage of the high markets to thin the commercial and registered cow herd somewhat. We sent quite a few older cows to be sold as bred cows and got along pretty well. We kept the older cows that had settled AI and will just hold those open next summer, early wean their calves and get them gone in August before the cull market falls off. One of my favorites, 809 is in this second group. She's a 1988 model, weighs 900 lbs soaking wet and does a great job every year. I'll be sad to see her go. However, her teeth are gone; she IS 17 after all. That is one of the harder things to do though; selling those "favorites." We had to let a really nice registered cow go this year too. I had an AI date on her but she must have lost the calf. However, we are uncompromising when it comes to open cows, especially the registered ones. We don't want to risk propagating poor reproductive performance.
Fall cows are out with the bulls. Those cows are all commercial. Typically we don't do much AI because of time constraints.
The commercial and registered steer calves were sent out to Ward Feed Yard in mid-December. This represents all of our commercial steers and a number of registered bulls who didn't make the first cut. We expect those to slaughter in April and May. In addition, we have our fall steers on feed at Kniebel Feed Yard. They will be ready beginning in January. So far, weather has been tolerable so gains should be right on target.
Bulls are on test down at the Kniebel's (our Red Angus partners in the sale). They are doing well and really developing the bull look. We'll weigh them off test during February.
We had some absolutely beautiful weather right after Christmas. A couple of 60 & 70 degree days! Not too many of these kind of days during the winter. We got out the horses on the 26th and went for a purely recreational ride in our shirt sleeves. In December, mind you. Took along a few snacks and discovered that Anna's pony Dolly likes Wheat Thins and mozzarella cheese. Both the girls' horses liked playing in the creek too. The next day we moved some cows off of some spent corn stalks. On the way home, we rode down the old RR bed and we tried out some of the side paths made be the 4-wheelers in the area. The girls wanted to try out some "steeper" terrain. We weren't quite "Man From Snowy River" caliber, but we had fun.