The trailer backed up to the barn door for the last time yesterday. We've been busy bringing a load or two of heifers home from across the road each day. Summer pasture has dwindled, so it's time to bring them home so they can keep growing on silage and hay.
For the fifth straight year now, we've been averaging 80% heifers! Sure, it can be a blessing, but when your land can only support so many cows, it can be a challenge making sure that we have enough feed. We are very thankful that we have them though, because this has been a hard year on our older cows. We just shipped two yesterday that we didn't want to try to baby through another winter. One had a broken bone in her foot. She limped quite bit during the summer, but the limp was undistinguishable by early Fall. We were afraid she'd have a hard time getting up and down when they spend more time in the barn this winter. I hate having to make the decision to ship any cow, but we have to make room for the next generation to take over.
One of the heifers that we brought home is actually due in a week. She sure doesn't look like it -and boy is she ever touchy! We have her in the barn now, trying to get her used to the daily routine of hearing the milkers run, stepping in beside her to milk her neighbor, and so on. She sure likes the silage - that's a big help!
Time to head to the barn - then head out to the hayfield to graze the herd by horseback two hours before getting ready for work. One more week of grazing the old hayfield and it'll be done. The horses always look forward to taking the herd out. Once the cows are contendly munching, my horse gets to graze the grass along the edges of the field. He sure enjoys that!
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