New Arrivals

     Our family has been looking forward to a new arrival.  For the past several months we have been patiently waiting for a new grand baby.  On January 22nd we received the news from our daughter and son-in-law that a little girl named Harper Grace had arrived.   We journeyed to the hospital with gifts for the baby and big sister, Ella.   Three year-old Ella had been preparing for this day by moving into a big girl bed and watching mommy get the baby room ready.   The adjustment to a new baby is easier on the family when the future needs are thought about ahead of time.  Similarly, in a feedlot we plan ahead for the arrival of new cattle to make things easier on them and on us.

Our daughter, Ginger, holding
Harper Grace in the hospital.

       When cattle arrive to our feedlot they generally weigh between 600-700 pounds.  The calves come from small farms in Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and other Midwestern states where they’ve been on grass with their mothers.  We refer to them as calves because they will still need time to grow as they finish out here.  There are usually 70-80 head in one load.  As the cattle walk off the truck and down the ramp they are counted and visually inspected for health.

The cattle are just starting to walk down the ramp.

      The calves walk from the unloading area to one of our starting pens.  A starting pen is a smaller pen that keeps them closer to their food and water as they adjust to their new surroundings.   The pens are also located near the central part of the feedlot so we can see them several times a day.

      As the calves walk into their new pen they are welcomed with hay in the bunk and a water tank with fresh water.  The pen conditions are also prepared so that the calves have a dry place to lay down.  

The calves were all resting until they saw me trying to snap
a picture.  We put corn stalk bedding down for them to lay on.

      The calves will explore their pen and acclimate themselves to their new surroundings very quickly.  The ration they receive is what we call a starter ration.   Calves often come to us straight off of grass so we want provide a ration that gives them energy yet doesn’t upset their digestion.   All of our rations are about 50% modified wet distillers, an ethanol by-product that is a good source of energy and roughage.  The calves also receive hay and a supplement loaded with vitamins and minerals.   Our focus the first day is for the calves to eat, drink and rest.

Cattle like to climb.  We have to pile the bedding up to keep
dry areas for cattle to lay down.  In the winter the temps are
cold and snow mixed with bedding makes the pile very hard.

     We like to vaccinate new calves the day after arrival.  We bring them up to our hospital barn for processing.  Processing cattle involves vaccinations, tagging, deworming and implanting.   Our veterinarian worked with us to develop the best vaccination program for the type of calves we buy.   The facilities we use are designed by Temple Grandin to be as low stress as possible for the calves.  Low stress for calves is low stress for people, too, so it is definitely a win/win.  

Steve is giving this steer a tag for identification.

      Eventually the calves settle in to their new surroundings and their pen becomes home to them.  Our little granddaughter, Harper Grace, is settling in to her new surroundings as well.   She has the comfort of a warm home, clean clothes, good food and a great family to smother her with love. 
 

Grandma Joan getting some snuggle time with Ella and Harper!

      As we treasure time with our little granddaughters in Omaha we look forward to the arrival of another grandchild this summer in Chicago.  Through the gift of modern technology we recently received a sneak peak at this little baby that is about the size of my fist!! 

Baby Cortina due the end of June!

Cow Pie Recipe

Many blogs have recipes on them.  I would like to share with you the recipe for cow pie.

A cow pie is a combination of ingredients according to available feedstuffs and the needs of the recipient.  I will share with you two of our recipes. 

The first recipe is designed for growing bodies.  The ingredients are measured in pounds according to a percentage.  The recipe is called a ration when feeding livestock.  Our growing ration utilizes an ethanol by-product, wet distillers grain, called Synergy.  The ration also includes corn silage, a supplement and ground alfalfa hay.  The percentages of each ingredient can be seen in this picture.

The second recipe will be for the finishing steer.  This steer has had time to grow his frame so that now he can put on more muscle.  This phase often lasts around 180 days in a feedlot.  In this recipe we include the wet distillers grain.  The ground hay in this ration is usually made from crop residue like soybean straw and corn stalks instead of alfalfa.  Hay is a term that often refers to the roughage used.    Corn and a supplement to balance needed vitamins/minerals are the other two ingredients.  Here is the percentage picture of a finishing ration.

Once the ration has been formulated it is loaded into a feed truck with a mixer that blends it all together just like our kitchen mixers do with cookie dough. 

The ration is distributed to the pen using a scale on the feed truck  for precise and timely distribution.  The feed is digested throughout an amazing system God put into the beef animal allowing the making of a cow pie.

Here we have a cow pie!

Side view!

Now, what to do with the cow pie?  We use them for fertilizer on our crops.  I learned as a child the value of cow manure.  When I was growing up we had a neighbor that would get a few pickup loads of manure on his garden every fall.  His garden in the summer always looked like it should be on a magazine cover. 

The pioneers used cow pies for fuel. Trees were scarce so they used dry grass and manure to make heat for baking and keeping warm.    We are expecting a winter storm today so perhaps I should save a few of these just in case the lights go out and Steve still wants supper tonight!