pictures from the past few days

[creekdrive]

Some pictures from the past week or so. Still too wet to combine or bale or even haul bales so life on the farm has been a little slower. It has given us time to catch up on our corral building and stuff around the yard so that's a good thing I guess, but it would be nice to get the crops off the fields though before the snow flies...

RA Bull Calf - born April 21 - 82 lb bw

RA steer calf - born March 29 - 109 lb bw

RA Bull Calf - born Apr 7 - 82 lb bw

one of my favorite heifer calves so far this year - born Apr 27

heifer on left born April 30, bull calf on right born April 6 - 72 lb bw

RA bull calf - born Apr 10 - 80 lb bw

first calf heifer (daughter of the cow above) with RA bull calf - born April 6 - 73 lb bw

another first calf heifer with bull calf - born May 11 - 76 lb bw

purebred cow - the heifer calf is sired by our bull that is mostly angus with a touch of Sim (1/16 at the most). planning to keep her as a commercial replacement.

one of my favorite RA cows

RA bull calf - born May 20 - 78 lb bw doing quite well I think for being a bit younger

RA heifer calf - born April 6

RA bull calf - born May 8 - 55 lb bw

hauling this group to the auction tonight - yearling heifers, a couple steers, and a few cows (will wean their calves & keep them for a bit). bought the heifers last fall as lightweights (300 lbs), fed them and turned them out on grass for the summer. Should do alright I hope.

Last but not least a couple sunset pictures:

Thanks for letting me share!

 

[Bestoutwest]

Really nice pictures. Thanks for sharing. I really like that first heifer. You Canadiens sure have some good cattle up there!

 

[gizmom]

:heart: the cattle and the pictures! That cow in I think about pic 9 with the sun should be framed!

gizmom

 

[Backbone Ranch]

I always enjoy seeing your cattle. You have some very pretty cows and some exceptional calves.

 

[Nesikep]

I like your pick on the favourite heifer calf.. and the April 6th (K1?) looks pretty too

All in all a nice bunch, hope you do well at the sale

 

[Lazy M]

You're a very talented photographer and have awesome cattle to boot

 

[creekdrive]

Thanks everyone.

I like your pick on the favourite heifer calf.. and the April 6th (K1?) looks pretty too

All in all a nice bunch, hope you do well at the sale

The K1 heifer is on the 'keep' list as well. I just did a quick scan through the calving sheets and there is at least 9 other K1 cows on the farm. So not only does she look good but that cow family always seems to make good cows. The original K1 cow would've been one the grandparents bought back in the 90's sometime.

We will keep roughly 30 heifers this year. Might sound like a lot to some but I could easily pick out twice that many that would be worth keeping. Decisions, decisions....

 

[Nesikep]

We started with about 18 cows.. I'm down to bloodlines of 6 of them now, and 2 of those are down to 1 cow that I consider terminal... From one line I'm up to 8 cows, and keeping another heifer from it this year. We had one line with a lot of problems, but with excellent milk.. I think I'm close to getting rid of the problems.. Got rid of the last prolapse cows, the hooves and udders are all pretty good now.

I think after 25 years I might be halfway to where I want to be... I'm keeping 3 this year

 

[cow pollinater]

Great pics. I just bought a bunch of semen on a red angus bull for my own cattle. I feel a lot better about that choice looking at your girls.

 

[KNERSIE]

You've got nice stock. Really like that 188C calf. One can use that as an example to explain what it means to stand foursquare.

 

[creekdrive]

Thanks again everyone. I love having this outlet to share my pictures

Took the yearlings, 3 cows & a bull to yesterday's sale (hauled Wednesday night). It was a very small sale, 194 head. Prices are definitely down from a couple weeks ago (sounds like that is one of the reasons it was such a small sale - everyone is upset that the price has came down and holding on a little longer hoping they will come back up). We probably could've done a bit better had we sold a couple weeks ago but I still think we did pretty good I think.

the 10 heifers that we bought as 3 weights last November all sold as 1 group and weighed 823 and brought $2.32. I think we paid about $900 each when we bought them so I'd say we did alright. The little red heifer with the horns in the picture we paid $532 for last year and she weighed 190 lb - she weighed 645 yesterday and brought $2.41. The black steer behind her did probably the best, he weighed 950 lb & went for $2.395. Not going to start complaining about those prices

took this picture last night - Gelbvieh sired heifer calf out of Angus x Char cow with maybe a little something else back there too?
Will probably keep her as well.

big red steer, BA sired out of a tan cow

saw this guy when I was dropping the guys off at their balers. He was catching grasshoppers in the swath

 

[Nesikep]

I just looked at the prices here http://www.bclivestock.bc.ca/market_report
the stuff I sold 2 and 4 weeks ago would have taken top price in every weight range according to this weeks numbers.. 2 weeks ago was already down from 4 weeks ago, and I would have sold the big bunch 3 weeks ago, but there was no sale that week.. Being weaned for a couple weeks didn't put weight on them either, but the buyers knew they were weaned, which may have helped a little.

I had a long yearling steer, 845 lbs and he brought a surprising 2.40.. full of feed he's certainly a haybelly, so I was glad he didn't get fed too much... I didnt' make money keeping him, but I didn't lose either.. I just didn't have use for him so I decided to let him go