We were lucky for a while...

Yesterday we had to pull our first calf. Since we have been in cattle, we haven't had to assist any of our cows, so I guess you could say we were lucky for a while. We did have to get rid of our Brangus bull, Mojo due to any injury to his hoof separating from his leg. We put him in a pasture by himself to try to let it heal, but Shane took him to the stockyard once it did. The vet said it would be a risk to keep him because chance were it would happen again when breeding time came around.

I checked on the cows earlier in the day yesterday, and didn't notice anyone with a new calf. When Shane came home from the West Alabama Marketing Ruminants Conference (Livingston, Alabama), he noticed one of our cows in labor with 2 legs coming out. He watched her and she seemed to be having trouble, so he and I had to get her to the back of the field to the catch pen. We finally got her back there and put her down the alley toward the head gate. Luckily she went on in and Shane was able to shut her head in the head gate so we could check her. Long story short, we ended up having to pull the calf. It ended up with it's head completely backwards and Shane was unable to turn it around. Of course after 2 hours of us trying to help her with laboring, the calf didn't make it. Now we are watching the cow because she hasn't been able to stand on all four legs. Her back legs can get under her, but she seems weak. We are hoping that she will improve, but she did go through a difficult delivery. She is getting a little TLC for now. We will give her a few more days to see how she does.

Goats on the move

We had to move our does to another pasture to help keep the clover under control. Last year, it grew so tall and thick that it killed off our summer grass. It is a blessing to have so much forage available for the animals, we just have to do a lot of moving them around. We need more cows and goats to keep up with this growth rate. Shane has purchased a few young heifers as well as some older cows to replace the ones that were sold earlier in the year. I believe he is in the middle of possibly purchasing a few more to bring in.

When moving the does to the new pasture, they went through those gates and realized they were free. They went wild and crazy eating things (briars mainly) like never before. Then they spotted the rose bush and ran to it. Shane's grandparent's old house is in the middle of our farm, and it happened to be a rose bush his grandmother had planted. It was a sight to see all 30 something goats trying to eat one bush. Shane did get them contained with the help of our border collie Davie and 4year old daughter. Here they are making the mad dash...


We have had 4 does kid that we purchased at the Cream of the Crop sale this past fall. They were all bred to CPK Rooster Cogburn. I really like Rooster's kids thus far. Shane and I are already talking about who gets bred to Rooster this fall and who gets bred to Pistol Pete.

Here is a photo of the last doe to kid some of Rooster's kids. She is the wildest goat ever. She has that crazy feral goat thing going on; and she happens to hold her own with our LGD puppies and border collies.

Our newest guardian....

Meet "AZ" (short for Aslan - Turkish for lion ) our newest guardian. He is a full brother to Kimba but out of a different litter. "AZ" is 9 months old and we expect great things from him. He still has a little pup behavior wanting to play with the goats, but overall he is a very good guardian so far. We have him in the small pasture with our bucklings that have just been weaned.

Newest arrivals

Here are some photos of our newest arrivals. It has been so much better for these kids to be born in the warmer spring weather. It has rained two days of their lives so far, but they are fine out in it. It is better than the freezing icy rain, wind, and snow we had this past winter....MUCH BETTER! These were sired by Rooster, and I really like the looks of his kids. I know looks aren't as important as how they do on performance, but I still like the way they look. There is nothing better than watching newborn kids. They just grow up too fast. Just like our children... Another thing to mention is that all of the kids sired by Rooster this year are born to first timers. So far, they have all had twins and out of the 6 born, we have 4 doelings and 2 bucklings.

Kidding again

We have been waiting for the does we purchased at the Cream of the Crop Sale in Corydon to kid. Our first kids from them started on Easter. The picture is right after she kidded and our LGD Kimba is assisting in cleaning up and checking things out. This doe is a Purebred out of ECR's Oreo Blast. These are our first kids out of our buck Rooster. We also had another set of twins born yesterday out of a Raiz'N'Kane/BBM Nick's Girl daughter. I will try to get more pictures posted of the new kids as soon as I can.