Calving 2012

Over the past week and a half, some of our kids’ cows finally had their calves and Wednesday, the most important cow in the whole herd finally calved. Annabelle, currently our only Hereford cow and the kids’ first bucket calf that started their herd, had her calf. Every calving season it’s a big deal in our family when Annabelle finally has her calf. We keep every heifer calf she has for the kids’ herd.

In years past we eartagged all of the calves but my husband got irritated that some of the calves lost their eartags and felt it was a waste of time and money. For the past couple of years we’ve done away with eartagging calves except for the kids’. I tried to suggest going with a different brand of eartags but my husband was fine with his decision so I didn’t push it. One less thing we have to stay on top of when we’re busy.

We’ve also finally started seeing baldy calves show up.

Since we’re partial to black baldy cattle and it has been about ten years since we’ve run Hereford bulls with our cows, I suggested last spring when it  was time to get some new bulls that maybe we should run some Hereford bulls to get some baldies back in the herd again. The bulls were tested, but we hadn’t seen any baldy calves for a few weeks. I was beginning to regret making the suggestion and my husband was making plans to have the bulls retested, but in the last week or so we started seeing some baldy calves have started showing up; putting our minds at ease.

My husband and I concluded that our new Hereford bulls probably just got run off by the other Angus bulls the first few weeks after we turned the bulls out with the cows last spring.

It’s been fun when my husband and I go out and check the herd for new babies and are surprised by a new baldy calf. The recent weather we’ve been having has been a real blessing and has made calving and checking a lot easier and less stressful. One of my favorite activities this time of year is “calf watching.” I love to see baby calves bucking and running pell-mell all over the pasture. They’re so curious and funny. Good times on the Kirk ranch!