Week 7 - Cows and Calves

Cattle are a very important part of our family farm.  This week we sold our calves from the spring of 2017.  We sold them to a feedlot that was based out of Imperial, Nebraska.  There were 3 semi trucks that made the 14 hour trek up to Rugby, North Dakota from Imperial.  When they got to our farm they were very tired from the trip, but they didn't slow down for a second.

Our calves in mid-December. 

The day before the trucks came we weighed the calves.  One of the buyers brought a scale to the yard and we ran all of the calves through and recorded their weigh.  Because they are being sold to a feedlot it is important that the weight of the calves is calculated.  The calves are sold on a weight basis.

There is a lot of work that goes into producing healthy and strong calves. Every aspect of the operation from pregnancy to finishing off the calves plays and important role in the process.  We have about 350 head of cattle on our farm so there is never a dull moment.   

We calve our cows in mid-April.  Once they are calved we are able to put the cow/calf pairs out to pasture.  The cows spend much of the summer in rangeland feeding off of the prairie.  Once the pastures start to lack production we bring all of the cows back to the farm.  This usually occurs a few weeks after soybean harvest.   

My grandpa Arlen standing in a pen with our calves.

We plant cover crops in many of our fields close to the yard so that the cattle have something to feed off of in the late fall and early winter months.  This year, we had a mixture of millet, turnips, radishes, and oats.  The cover crops made for a great feed for the cattle.  We have been utilizing cover crops as a source of cattle feed for about 6 years.  

It is an emotional day when we sell the calves.  There is a lot of sweat, blood, and tears that go into producing high quality calves.  We have seen the calves go from 64 lb. newborns to 735 lb. steers and heifers.  It is fun to see all of the hard work pay off.  Now onto the 2018 cattle season!