Farm Girl

April 1. April Fool.

Snow!

It was 8F this morning when I woke up. Yes, 8F. On April 1st.

So tired of winter, cold, and snow. Spring cannot come soon enough.

One of the best parts about late winter and early spring is that the new calves start to be born. The first calf of the year arrived just 2 days ago. A pretty little Hereford heifer calf. At only 68 pounds, she is a bit smaller that most of the calves born to the herd, but they grow fast. Our oldest granddaughter gave her the nickname of Little Peanut. The granddaughter didn’t like Bop’s choice for the official name (Appolonia18).

This morning, granddaughter1 tried the halter for her for the first time. For both of them. Granddaughter1 is hoping to show the calf, but she has never worked with one, and has no idea what that entails.  Today, they got started:

 

Luckily, Mama cow is very accommodating, and allowed Granddaughter1 to play with her calf. We have a few other Mamas who would not have looked favorably on that. The calf looks as though it will be a good-looking cow someday, so maybe if she does show it, they could do well.  It  was an embryo, and had been implanted in an Angus cow. No discrimination in the bovine world!

It has been amazing to watch the relationship between Granddaughter1 and Merle grow over the past few months, as she has become more interested in his cows. They are nearly inseparable. She hangs on his every word, and repeats them word for word to others. Merle loves to teach. It was his favorite part of a previous job, when he taught undergraduate college students about beef management. Now he has one quite special student.

She had been thinking of showing a yearling calf named Penny. Everything was about Penny. Now that there is a smaller calf (by the time she shows it, Peanut should be about 500-600 lbs, vs. 1000 lbs for Penny) I am beginning to hear Peanut’s name a lot. She loves helping at “the farm”. We are renting the space to raise the cows, and it is just a couple of miles away from our house. If we actually lived on a farm, I think she would be out with the calves all day. She loves to ride in the big red pickup truck, and helps with the feeding and bedding of the cows. If she has her way, she will be helping with vaccinations, weighing, and separating the cows to go out to pasture. Once she and her family move into their own house two weeks from now, she won’t be able to be there every day, and she is already feeling bad about that.

Merle has been enjoying having her with him.  They are cow buddies. He has always loved cow, and now he has an eager listener for all of his knowledge.

Now if only those cows were horses, she’d be in heaven.

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