Move calves, more chickens, more cold

I took off early on Friday to go with Mama and Grandpa to get a couple more calves. I had not met the dairy farmers who had been selling us the calves so it was a good opportunity to get out and see the operations they had. Both farms, owned by two brothers, are in the Windthorst area so it is about forty minutes drive from our farm.


Like most dairy farms in this area the farms were nothing fancy. They are both big operations. I am not sure how many cows they milk but it is quite a herd in both cases. Both farms have large growing herds of replacement heifers and quite a calving operation – which is the backbone of the operation; no calves, no milk. Without the replacement herd, the dairy operation ceases. It is a very forward looking operation.

From the first farm we got two calves. One was four days old, the other was only born the day before, making him two days old, but he is huge. He looks like he is several weeks old. He picked up the name, Big Boy. The second calf from that farm was a typical calf but he has a bawl that sounds like a full grown bull. It is neat to hear him above all the rest of our herd when they know we are there to feed them.

From the second farm we got a little fellow. He was born two weeks premature so he is just now, at two weeks old, putting on some weight and filling out. He got the name, Tiny II. The “two” came about because Norman and Grandpa had a Tiny in years past. He should do fine. Grandpa is very attentive and very proactive. We had to give two of the new calves a shop to help them get over some mild sickness, but they are eating well and starting to get stronger. It was worth the trip.

Mama and I went to Trade Days Saturday morning. We were not planning on spending any money but we blew through $50 anyway. We found one seller who had some very large Buff Orpington hens for a great price, so we got two. We did go to look for some dog collars so we can put the calves out into the open lot yet keep them on a leash. We got four of the collars.

We also found a guy selling small galvanized buckets – they are great for feed for the small calves – and we picked up three of them.

Right now we are getting ten eggs per day routinely. We have gotten an even dozen before and that is Mama’s goal. The chickens are her own little part of the production yields of the farm. She did have the hens separated into the older group and the newer group, but as she tended to them on Saturday evening, the two groups got mixed and the pecking started in earnest.

Mama was temped to break it up and separate the groups again but a lady we bought some of the hens from suggested that we put them all together and walk away. (She told Mama to close her eyes). The pecking order is part of the nature of chickens and there is no way to get them to stop until each little hen knows her place. Our rooster thinks our little chicken coop is Nirvana; he now has thirteen hens to take care of.

It turned much colder this weekend. It never got above fifty degrees on Saturday. Last night there was a frost warning issued for our area. There was frost on the windshield of the little car this morning when I left for work. It will definitely hinder the growth of the grass from this point on if the fields got a significant frost, but the next couple days are supposed to be in the low eighties, with nights warming back into the sixties.

Fall is here; no complaints from me.