May is #beefmonth. Through the month we’re following through the cycle of cattle. Last week we talked about calving and what I carry in my calving bag at all times. This week we’ll focus on what happens after that.
We calf three times a year, but the cycle is the same just as different times. Our cows have a calving cycle of about 60-80 days. After most, if not all, the babies are born, we get the cows in. We work them before taking them to grass or turning them back out on grass.
What do I mean by working the cattle? The cows get their annual vaccination. They also get some dewormer. Cows can get internal worms by eating grass. It’s like a cleanse like humans do, kind of. The medicine cleans the cow’s guts. We also pour the cows to get and keep lice and ticks off those them. Just like we put flea and tick medicine on our companion animals, we want to do that for the cows since they literally live in the grass.
The calves get a shot of blackleg (an awful disease that is fully preventable with this shot), pinkeye (helps prevent fly problems), they get branded with our brand, and the bulls get castrated.
After this they are ready for grass season. We open the gate and let them go. The most satisfactory feeling in the entire world is working a group of cattle and putting in a long, physically demanding day then opening the gate when we’re done (usually right around dusk) and letting the cows go to graze on the fresh new grass. It’s like a baby happy coo. It just makes you feel like life is all okay.
Then it’s pretty easy time. We rotate the cows about once a week, if not more. They get really used to always moving to fresh grass. I can move them on the four wheeler simply by calling them and leading them. The calves are growing, the cows are breeding back for the next season and life is good. The calves won’t wean for a while (we’ll talk weaning next week), they are simply growing. We have the least amount health issues in this stage because they are on good grass and doing good.
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