Category: Kirk Cattle
-
Calf Daycare
This is a pretty common scene in the morning at feeding time—one cow with a passel of calves. Even though it may look to some people that this cow had all those calves, she’s actually just the babysitter. All the mothers of these calves went to feed. Art and I joke about this scene when we see…
-
“Amy’s Hereford”
A while back I wrote a column about “Amy’s Hereford.†During calving season last year we got a cute little Hereford heifer calf in our calf crop. Since she arrived I’ve kind of fussed over the little gal and my fascination with her got to be a joke whenever we’d see her. If we spotted her while…
-
Will Chase After Food
Awhile back I’d written a column about how our food was hard-earned and how sometimes we’ve had to chase it down. That column was inspired by an event that happened with our butcher critter. He’s been kept separate from the heifer calves by a corral fence and an old cattle panel my husband custom fit…
-
A Simple Alternative Christmas Gift-Giving Idea
Photo credit: Reneé Kirk The time to do Christmas shopping is upon us. Are you ready? I know I’m not. I’m one of those people who dread Christmas shopping. I dislike how this annual holiday has become “Retail Christmas,†whereas the true meaning of Christmas is hard to find amid all the merchandise beckoning me to buy for…
-
Getting Cows Out to Summer Range
 {Silly me, I took my good camera but forgot to put a memory card in it so all I had for a camera was my phone.} A few weeks ago the family moved cows to summer range. It’s been over 15 years since we moved cows to summer range from the Reed Place pasture…
-
Photos of Our Baby Calves After A Spring Snowstorm
Earlier this week we received around 10†of snow over the course of two and a half days. Since the storm finally broke by daylight yesterday, I remembered to grab my camera and got some photos of my favorite calves. Getting the day’s forecast is an important part of our cow feeding routine. We like…
-
There’s More Than One Way to Pack A Calf to the Barn
When a new calf seems chilled or a little slow finding its grub, we sometimes opt to intervene and move the cow-calf pair to the barn and out of the elements so we can assist them better. Packing a new calf even 100 yards to the barn can wear a person’s arms out quickly (and…
-
Meals on Wheels
A lot of today’s ranchers have modernized the way they feed their cows by using a hydraulic bale bed. My husband refers to ours sometimes as a “tractor†because the system replaces feeding cows with a tractor and is considered valuable equipment on our outfit. Our bale bed feeder is a DewEze. What’s handy, and…
-
Cow Sorting Tip
 It’s been a very hectic few weeks since I posted on my blog . I’ve had a lot of big writing and speaking projects in addition to our normal fall ranch work and once I finally got caught up and had time to get back to my blog, I couldn’t get my photos to upload….
-
What Does ‘Working Cows’ and ‘Vaccination Day’ Mean?
Every fall we work our cattle to implement our vaccination program on our cows against known cattle diseases to ensure individual animal and overall herd health. We schedule a Saturday with our vet to vaccinate and pregnancy test our mother cows. Last weekend was our vaccination day. Working cows entails friends and neighbors working together…