calves

All posts tagged calves

Great way to start the day!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 27, 2012
Posted in: Border Collie, Farm Life, Herding. Tagged: , , . 3 Comments

Especially if you are a border collie 🙂

It was time for my brother to move the cows to another piece of property and we went along to help if needed.

My son had a great time warming the dogs up by playing a little ‘fetch’ with them.

Newt is Rose’s brother and is just as obsessed with retrieving as she is.

Time to go to work!

The goal was to move the 120 mama cows and their calves to the working pens and separate them, so they could be trailered to the new property.  My brother parked his truck and trailer across the road and we were to block the holes and convince the cows to go into the pens.

Here they come!

I just love the little guys!

Kate wasn’t sure what we were doing…these big things didn’t look like sheep or geese or anything else she has worked before.

She was happy to bring up the rear with the other dogs though.

The cows were very cooperative and it went a lot smoother than my brother was anticipating.

Next, the calves had to be separated into a different pen.  This is for their safety while in the trailer.  The cows are moved first and then the babies are brought over later and everybody is paired back up.

There was a lot of bellowing going on.

The dogs were very eager to help, unfortunately they weren’t really needed for this job, so they had to sit back and watch.

In no time at all…

the calves were all in one pen and it was time to get the trailer.

The dogs could feel that the job was done and this guy took advantage to roll in something REALLY good 😉

 Kate thinks she would like to do this again very soon.

Good for the Soul!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 3, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , . 20 Comments

Taking pictures, from horseback, in the sunshine…it doesn’t get much better than that!

This morning I went with my brother and one of his friends to move the cows to a new pasture.

There wasn’t much ‘moving’ to be done because the cows were headed to the new pasture when we got there, they must have gotten the memo that was on today’s to do list.

That was ok, because it was still a great day for a ride.

In addition to managing the cows, my brother also manages the race horses for the company he works for.  Here he is ponying one of the soon to be 2-year-olds.

He was such a good boy!

Going in water and over little creeks and he didn’t even flinch when the dogs were running around him.

Such a pretty horse.

This was Nelly’s first time ponying another horse and she did a great job, even though she wasn’t very happy about it.  He was being sweet, but was in her space and touching her – two things she was NOT ok with!

 

You can’t move cows without a couple of dogs, this is Newt.

This momma cow came down the hill with two calves.  From what we could tell, both are hers!

 I can’t put into words how much I enjoy just going outside and taking pictures, it really is good for my soul.

and look…a picture of me!  Since I am the one with the camera most of the time, this doesn’t happen very often.  I made Wyatt work for me a little bit more today than the last time I rode him.  He is a big, funny guy.

The smile says it all, we had a great time in the sunshine!

Checking for calves

Posted by kenleighacres on January 12, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Photography. Tagged: , , , , , . 8 Comments

No, we don’t have cows, but since we still have a few more days until anymore lambs are born, we thought it would be fun to go with my brother and check for calves at the ranch he manages.

The really fun part…

 is we got to check for them from horseback!

The big moose on the right, is the one I got to ride.

I told my son that he would probably have to ride with me because I didn’t think my brother had enough horses for all of us.  Even though he has only been on a horse once before, he was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to ride by himself.  Much to his delight, there were 4 horses in the trailer and there were 4 of us.

Here he is on sweet Mae.  They were a great team!

There were 4 horses, but unfortunately there were only 3 saddles.

  

Luckily my brother said ‘no problem’.  His mare, Nelly, had never been ridden bareback, but she handled it like a pro.

My saddle was nice and comfy 🙂

My brother’s son has been riding since he could walk and his horse, Cowboy, is a cool dude.  He looks pretty good for being 32 years old.

My brother wanted to check on the first calf born.  Can you see it hidden in the blackberry bushes?  It is a couple of days old and mama was up on the hill eating while the baby stayed hidden.

So cute!  Mama trained it well and it didn’t even bat an eye when we rode up to it.

Next, we headed up the hill to see if there were any new calves.

I love the look of this cow, but she wasn’t what we were looking for.

Here is what we were looking for!

A new calf with a protective mama.  My brother rode up to check on them and all looked good.

Beautiful country to take an afternoon ride in!

The boys weren’t quite ready to stop, so they headed out for one more loop around the pasture.