Countdown? Countdown to what? Calving, of course. Tis the season for calving! The time of year of little mooshrooms dotting the green fields, zoomies with white tipped tails held high and bursts of wild rodeo antics which sometimes causes mama distress as to why her little one went off to the races without her.
The heavies are getting rounder, looser in the back end and some becoming a little ‘cuddly’… as in pet me or brush me kind of ‘cuddly’. Even the somewhat standoffish gals are a little less standoffish.
But we are still a few weeks away. Not to say a calf can’t show up a little early per the date when the herd sire was turned out with the ladies, but per our calendar it should be sometime mid-month when we should start to see the little brats calves showing up. Even Betty is starting to get that look in her eye that her annual trip to the Sinclair is being planned.
Gestation for Hereford cattle is roughly 283 days…. give or take. Nine months waiting for a calf to go from conception to birth and that doesn’t include the time of the breeding cycle. We don’t want cows dropping calves in snow or freezing rain. Wild animals and birds don’t generally have their young in those kind of conditions due to survivability. Calves don’t regulate their body temperature until they are 2 weeks old, so why fight against nature? We can’t predict the weather but generally it isn’t bad this time of year (knock on wood).
We want our cows to have their calves on green fields with growing grass and warmer temperatures. Opening day of breeding season is scheduled to occur on a certain day to meet our calving season requirements. Last year was July 7th. So what is involved on the opening day of breeding season? Well, glad you asked…. a little detective work (like the picture game ‘Where’s Waldo?’, except it is ‘Where’s Fletcher?’), an atv to transport a crew plus bribery snacks (for the bulls, not the humans), a sorting stick (mostly for steering purposes… ‘steering’ as in turning/moving the bovine, not the operation…) and a good pair of walking shoes (for me, not Fletcher).
Until next time…
~hobo
ps… (update 4/5/22 – apparently the video had a glitch (shocking) so we’ll try again. Hope it works!)
HR hobo 
Hobo, glad to hear from you and that things are going “relatively” on target. I remember “breeding to meet the seasons” was subject that Gene Logsdon often talked about in his books.
How is your weather this year? Looking drouthy?
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Snow was like it was dehydrated. We had some good wet snow with moisture (snowball type of snow that stuck together) but the majority of it was like it was fake snow. Didn’t melt at all like it should have. The Month of Mud last around 2 weeks with little flooding like years past. I wonder if the ‘experts’ and their cloud-seeding had anything to do with it? Hard to say. But if we don’t get the spring rains or warm up, things aren’t going to be all that good for grasses.
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Looking at the weather at The Ranch, it looks like we have still been getting some rain. Headed out next week; hopefully I will have some reasonable news to report.
But yes, not a great sign.
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Unable to access the 45 min video….message said PRIVATE
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Good morning – it took 45 minutes to get Fletcher from point A to point B… I shortened the video to around 8-9 minutes…. 45 minutes of looking at the backside of a bull moseying along the road would be… well, boring. I generally end up “riding the drag” (eating dust). The hazards of being a camera gal.
The original video had a glitch when I posted, fixed it and deleted the old one. You may have the old video link. Try again from the post or cut & paste the link https://youtu.be/PU9t-5ktnTA
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That’s weird the bull sounded just like I remember Hoody doing when he was in the water and thinking his bottom time was up.
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heh… no comment 😉
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