Winter time to tend to cattle herd

link Audra Brown

Winter approaches quickly. Hopefully, all the peanuts and milo have been harvested, the hay cut and maybe even baled, the wheat planted and grown to a good stand, all the farming ready for what one hopes will be a wet winter.

As the daily demands of farming slow slightly from the normally busy rhythm, it becomes time to catch up on all the cattle work that has been put off and delayed in favor of some sort of seemingly more pressing business.

For anyone who owns cows, the matter of weaning calves needs to be addressed, if it hasn’t already.

Gather the herd and sort off all the calves but the handful that were born late out of season. Give them their second round of vaccinations, something to keep the bugs off their back, and possibly something stronger to ward off any sickness that might try to take hold during this, their moment of stress.

As far as workings go, weaning isn’t usually the worst. No branding, tagging, or gender-identifying this time around. That should have already been done. If it got put off all summer, then I’ll shut my mouth.

Weaning and branding all together is quite another bucket of oysters. It’s just like putting the two events together, but only needing to gather once. That and the fact 500-pounders aren’t quite as easy to manhandle and cut.

But either way, the result is similar. The cows get turned back out, but the calves stay in. They get fed the expensive feed that helps them cope and the freshest hay for a week or two.

Then they usually get a free ride on a truck and it gets even better for these newly emancipated cattle. Out they go onto the wheat patch for the rest of the winter with nothing to do but eat, sleep, and get fatter.

Or so one would wish, but the carefree cattle have a work-causing tendency to go and get sick and otherwise cause trouble.

And so in contrast to their green pasture, the cattleman spends his winter days, checking up on every single one of those calves — tending their needs, putting out hay, fixing the water, practicing medicine, mending the fences, and as always, gathering strays.

Audra Brown writes about life on the farm. Contact her at: [email protected]