February may be the shortest month as far as days, but I'm here to tell you it always feels like the longest month of the year. We calve our heifers in February and it is a lot of work. This year, however, we have had mostly great weather, which makes calving so much easier.
Even with the warm weather we still have some mix-ups. Being first time mothers they sometimes need some help finding the right calf. This is why we put a number tag in the calf's ear, which matches the mother's tag. We do this shortly after the calf is born.
About every other day we take the two day old calves and their moms out of the calving pasture and move them to the next pasture over. Getting the calves out helps with the confusion.
The process of moving the little tiny calves and keeping them with the mommas is slow. It helps to have several riders to move them along and keep them paired up.
The little stinkers are cute, but not always very cooperative.
They test our patience.
The horses learn patience too. Well, unless I'm on Jewel. She likes to hurry things along a bit.. I have no pictures of that I guess. She's like a cow dog and nips the calves to make them go.
If there is an obstacle within a 100 yards the calves are drawn to it, and always seem to get hung up.
Thank goodness for our good, and patient, crew.
This guy is part of our crew every year. He and his partner are here every calving season. I feel like they are our supervisors. It is really fun to watch them and be able to be so close to such an amazing animal.
As if there isn't enough going on with the heifers , the cows on the desert range aren't behaving. Dave and I went out last Sunday to take this herd back to water. I'm not sure where they thought they were going. The cowboys are often chasing cows on the desert when they aren't with the heifers. It's just that time of year. Busy busy.
We'll keep plugging along and enjoying this beautiful place we are lucky enough to live in.
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