There's a new breed of cow on the ranch. (The Braford breed is being phased out.)They are three quarter English (Red Pole and South Devon breeds) and one quarter Brahma. Erik says they breed well even when they are thinner. They are called "Deseret Red". Have a look:
We are in calving season right now. It's usually from mid-December to mid-March. The calves are soooo cute!! In September they will be weaned and shipped either to our grazing land in Southwest Georgia or to our feedlot in Kansas. They will be bought when they are about 1000# and a year old. Some of the heifers will be kept here on the ranch for replacement cows. In 2011 the ranch shipped 32,000+ calves with an average weight of 625 pounds.
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| These calves ran away when I got too close! |
One Saturday early this month when I started off for my walk, Chuck warned me that he thought he saw a still-born calf when he came back from town. Sure enough, there was a mother cow hovering over her calf near the fence and the calf was definitely not alive. The mother cow was valiantly trying to keep the circling buzzards away. Erik & Renee Jacobsen were also walking, so I told them and Erik said he'd take care of it.
Poor mommy cow!
