Pregnancy Checking and Vaccinations: Fall 2013

preparing to vaccinate and pregnancy check heifers and cows

 

It was a gorgeous, sunny day! Today we pregnancy checked a herd of 57 cows and heifers that will be calving next spring. As Dr Baird pregnancy checked each cow or heifer, I recorded the information for our records. Our cow herds are due to calve in March and April. With Dr Baird, we also vaccinated our cattle herd with our pre-calving health program. We will be pregnancy checking and vaccinating the second herd of cows another day.

2013 Replacement Heifers

one of my 2013 replacement heifers



 

This afternoon, we vaccinated our calves. We have created a health program for our cows and calves with guidance from our veterinarian, Dr Baird. For this year, we selected twelve heifers to add to our cow herd. Our replacement heifers were calfhood vaccinated and tagged with a new, red numbered ear tag for identification. The heifers will be turned out to pasture in April. And at the end of May, a bull will be turned in with the heifers for the breeding season. 

Friday on the Farm

the sun rises over cornstalk bales

Early one morning, the sun rose over a harvested field of corn. The sun slowly peaked over our round bales of cornstalks. I watched in amazement on the brisk, fall morning. The sunrise was in brilliant colors of orange and purple. It was so gorgeous! I absolutely love mornings like this on the farm!

Friday on the Farm

weathered emblem of the farmall m

 

The Farmall M has history on the Stevens farm. My grandpa Stevens owned Farmall tractors. My parents now own the Farmall M and Farmall 450 that are still used on the farm. In my family, the love of red tractors is as much of a tradtion as farming.

Friday on the Farm

a cow herd grazes a harvest corn field 

Our cows graze cornstalks after harvest. During the fall, our cow herds forage on cornstalks in the fields. I snapped this photo on a sunny, fall morning as I walked through the herd.