The End at Last

At last the end has come, it was a short day today, we were done by 3 pm.  With the exception of one looney toon young cow (a perenial thing with her, and yes she has a red star beside her number....) the rest of the animals were calm and quiet..even the bulls went through with no problems and no fights broke out, always a good thing where 2000 lb + bulls are concerned...

We all came inside for hot chocolate and cake and it was all over but the weeping...that comes after we pay the bill.  I am sure it is a $2000. one, but it will save us time and money all summer long when we don't have to be treating cows with hoof rot.

I was told last night that if it is dry again this summer we will be doing a major culling of the herd...the last time we had drought and grasshoppers we sold 50 cows, cutting our herd to half and boy the next couple of years after that were tough going...working with only half the income we were used to. so it could be frugal times ahead for us. So keep your fingers crossed and send good weather karma our way...we need rain... If we do have to sell off some cows it will definitely be the kooks and bad feet that go first.

It is so dry here the past few years...it has become the normal and for the past 3 months our well has been pumping sand in the water...we have had to start using bottled water for drinking and cooking and I am very worried.  We NEVER have well problems...

Well life can get back to the new normal here, next week we have to run the cattle through for vaccinations before breeding ...I wonder how many of them will forget the trauma of the last couple of days and come up for grain...ahahahahah  the really old 15/16 yr old cows have long memories.