Spring Roundup

Last Saturday was spring roundup at the old Busted Handle calf factory.  Amy, Kathy and I were joined by Jeff and Krista, Ed Kearn, and Lauren and Kyle Trodden to gather and treat 27 cows, 20  baby calves and 1 bull.  It was a beautiful day, cool but sunny, and we started with a nutritious breakfast of Texas-shaped waffles.

Breakfast

Then we went outside and called them into the pens.  With the extra help it went pretty smoothly, and we separated the calves to work first.  They each got an ear tag, matching tattoo and one shot.  Jeff started tagging and tattoing, Amy giving shots and bossing people around, and everybody else opening gates and keeping the chute loaded.  Kyle soon picked up tagging and tattooing, giving Jeff's knees a rest.  There was so much I help I didn't have to do much and we finished the calves pretty quickly and took a water break before starting on the cows.

Lauren and Ed move calves

Tagging and tattooing calves

The cows each got 3 shots and a pour-on anti-parasitic, as well as a quick general health evaluation.  Kyle started as the pour-on moron but moved up to wrangler, allowing Lauren to move into a skill position.  She, Krista and Amy gave shots and Kathy kept the records.

Krista comforts a calf

Don't drink it, Lauren

We replaced our new Angus bull's ear tags with some custom Heyroth Ranch ones and gave him 2 shots.  We heard him introducing himself to a few of the cows through the fence and making some dates for breeding season.

Tagging the bull

New tags

It was a great day.  Sunny enough to get sunburned but cool enough to not stress the animals--bovines or humans.  We all got nice and dirty, a little tired, a little burned and had a lot of fun and followed up with good BBQ brisket sandwiches.  The cows and calves are back contentedly grazing in the oat field.  I'll catch them once more soon to separate them into breeding herds, put the bulls in and let nature take its course.

Thanks to everybody for your help.  You're all invited back for weaning in the fall.  Come join us and we'll put you to work too.