Summer is for Babies

As usual, summer goes way too fast.  Isaac and Walker are both back in school and we are starting to adjust to a more normal routine.  

Because...nothing is routine around here in the summer...except for routine chaos.  

I always think summer is busy...but I have no idea what happened to this summer.  

Walker was the main farm hand this summer because everyone else was working full-time jobs off the farm.  

To be quite honest... there hasn't been a whole lot going on with the herd this summer.

​Which is how we want it to be.  

We have cows at three locations this summer, so Walker has put a lot of miles on the 4-wheeler.  

The main herd is here at the house, the show herd is around the corner in  the "show barn" we rent, and portion of the herd is at a farm the next road over on pasture that we rent.  

Thankfully, all three locations are easily accessible by cutting through neighbors property so Walker can make the rounds on the 4-wheeler whenever he needs to.  It sure has saved the chauffeur a lot of time!

Years ago our we used to have an all spring calving schedule.  One year a couple of cows didn't breed back  for a few cycles and we ended up with some fall calves.  We have always intended to get back on an all spring calving schedule...but it seems the harder we try the worse it gets.  We now kind of have an all year round calving schedule.

However, we have decided that year round calving isn't all bad.  While there are some really bad times to have calves, especially here in Ohio, some of those winter calvings have worked out really well.  It give us a chance to have a set of cows at their peak maturity for just about any show we are going to...which is helpful since we show all year long.    

We started calving last November during Louisville...well, our neighbors started calving since they were farm sitting for us.  We came home to two new calves that week.  

We really like the timing of the November and December calves because they are at their prime for the Louisville show.  We have done really well with this age of calf as they are a little bit older and more mature, but not so mature that we are having to hold their condition.  They seem to be at the perfect age for our fall and winter show seasons.  Plus, we can sometimes get two years out of their show careers instead of just one.  

Autumn and Bronx are just starting their show careers, but we are really liking what we are seeing.  

Spring and summer brought us a few more calves.  These guys are still young, but have a few more months before they will need to be weaned.  This batch will be ideal for our spring and summer shows.  

Not all of our cows make it to the show ring.  Most of our steers will be fed out for meat and some of our heifers will make better herd cows than show cows.  

Some calves we know right away will be something special.

Some, we think have potential and as they grow we realized they aren't going to make the cut. 

​Others, really surprise us and turn out to be better than we expected.  

Calves are like kids.  

As they grown they have the really cute stage, and then they hit that weird gangley stage.  Some grow out of it and some just don't have that much luck.  

We wait and watch.

Sometimes they end up at the backdrop and sometimes they end up back in the field.  

I had fun roaming the farm this weekend taking pictures and seeing how much these calves have grown.  

​Hope you enjoy the view.

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