With no pictures.
I picked up Linda at her house
Monday at 2:ish.
Her daughter and family had arrived
an hour or so ago, so they got to visit
for a bit before she left.
We had a lovely drive up to the ranch.
I took the "scenic" route.
I didn't want to drive through Orlando
AND Ocala during rush hours.
It was a beautiful day and we had a
wonderful visit. (It's a 4 hour drive.)
We stopped in Ocala at Rural King
and I bought $100 worth of feed.
50# chicken feed
200# sweet feed (cows & horses)
80# beet pulp pellets
80# alfalfa pellets
A lovely young man loaded it all
into my trunk (with one bag in the
back seat...)
Then Linda suggested we drive to Gainesville
and have dinner a Chuy's.
I've never eaten there before...
there are a couple in Tucson!
But the closest one here is in Orlando.
Nope.
Anyhow.
We had the Monday special.
As usual, we ended up each ordering exactly
the same thing. We always do that!
Stuffed avocado with Ranchero instead of the
3 alarm stuff it normally comes with.
And chips with the most delicious creamy
jalapeno sauce / dip.
SO YUMMY!
(Kyle opted out of joining us...)
After a lovely dinner,
we headed to the ranch.
Linda picked up her truck and headed back
to Gainesville to her hotel and Kyle and I
headed into Bronson to the Dollar General store
to pick up some wasp/hornet spray since he
nearly got stung minutes before we got there.
(The nest was ON the squeeze chute...)
Then across the street for a Subway sandwich
for him for dinner.
(He re-hung a bunch of the gates in the facility
so they swung better - the cows beat on them
and they start to sag after a bit.)
We sat on his couch and watched a couple
episodes of West Wing on Netflix and
then headed off to bed.
We were both up this morning at 6:30.
The cowboys were coming "just before 7".
Sure enough, 6:59 they pulled in!
Two trucks, two trailers, two cowboys
and they each brought their daughter and
their ponies.
Clair was FOUR and Dixie was EIGHT
(it was her birthday today!)
They "work" with their dads every day
during the summer.
They were both really good little cowgirls.
Oh, and 5 or 6 dogs.
They headed off into the mist to gather
the herd - next thing we knew, they were
thundering across the pasture in a big
group, out of the pasture and into the
long alley. Once they hit the alley
(no way out) they slowed down and walked
them up to the front of the property and
into the facility.
About that time the vet showed up.
(7:35 - he missed the turn - we watched him
drive by and took bets on how far he would
go before he figured it out... lol)
They got set up and got to work.
One cowboy (Lint - like the stuff in your pocket)
started pushing cows around the wing,
into the sweep and down the alley to the chute.
The little girls pushed them forward.
The other cowboy (Bob?) worked the squeeze.
The vet stood at the back and opened the
gate to allow one cow at a time into
the chute, then slipped a "wand" into the cow
and did an internal ultrasound.
He called out the cow tag # and whether she was
pregnant, the gender and how far along
or if she was open.
We were really afraid we were going to have
a 50% open since the bull was an untried
2 year old. The last time the vet was out we
"synced" all the cows (gave them a shot) to
bring them all into heat at the same time.
A week later the bull showed up.
Out of 27 cows we ended up with
2 - "open" un-bred (going to the auction)
1 - "mummy" (last stages of an aborted fetus)
also going to auction
22 - at 4 months gestation
1 - at 80 days
1 - at 45 days.
WOW!
Linda stood next to the vet with a clipboard
with each cow's number where she made a
note about whatever the vet said.
Most of them he was able to sex the calf,
there are going to be a good blend.
One the little guy was "swimming" and he
couldn't get it to hold still enough to get a
good look but all the others he identified
what was in there.
His ultrasound beamed up to a visor like
a virtual realty thingie so he could see
really clearly what he was looking at.
But it also beamed to Linda's phone so she
got to follow along. She was in heaven!
(Kyle and I stood on the other side of the
chute - close enough to hear what he was
saying, but out of the way.)
He ran the last animal (a surprise little bull
calf that was born AFTER his last visit)
who needed to be castrated, ear tagged and
given his baby shots at 8:00!
Thirty minutes to run 27 cows and 13 calves!
IMPRESSIVE!
The cowboy doing the pushing kept them
going in a steady stream.
Kyle and I usually work a group of 5 or 6
and then gather another group of 5 or 6
and it takes us about an hour if we stop to
weigh everybody.
I don't think we can do it any faster.
But it was fun to see it move so smoothly.
Lint (like the stuff in your pocket) is also the
President of the Levy County Cattleman's Association.
He was VERY complimentary on Kyle's facility.
He had worked this same herd before Linda
bought them - using the old facility Ronnie
had cobbled together out of random junk.
He was VERY complimentary on Kyle's facility.
(hahahahahahaha)
We also had a really interesting conversation with
the two cowboys and the vet when we were all done.
The field they gathered the cows out of looks
REALLY good right now.
It's Pensacola Bahia grass which self-seeds and
since the cows have been off it for 30 days,
there are tons of seed heads and the grass looks
really good. They said we should call this guy
they know (gave Linda a card) who will come and
harvest those seeds and pay her for them!
Who knew!!!
They also recommended she lease out the extra
pastures to another guy who comes in early spring,
deep disks, spreads Dolomite (a form of lime)
and plants a peanut crop.
Since peanut is a legume, it replenishes the soil's
nitrogen content, and then part of the deal is
he leases the property for $50/acre and after he
harvests his peanut crop, he RESEEDS with a
winter rye / bahia blend!
So you make a little money, improve your ground
and end up with a fantastic pasture!
(That's why the other pasture looks so good,
they leased it out for peanut the year before
Linda bought it... the next pasture over was leased
out for watermelon and was supposed to be peanut
the next year when the property owner died and
everything just stopped.)
Anyhow.
Linda and Kyle are both really jazzed about that.
The guy that comes in has all the RIGHT equipment
to disk / seed / etc which means Kyle doesn't have to
do all that work and try to deal with using the
wrong equipment for the job.
Exciting for everybody!
And, since they had such a great success rate
with this year's breeding, instead of Kyle building
4 new holding pens they decided to cut that in half
and only build 2 right now with the potential to
build the other 2 down the road if they decide
they need to. (They need these extra pens for
cutting the herd but also for fence weaning and
private selling the cows / calves they are
getting rid of.)
So Kyle was heading down to Orlando to pick
up the wood this afternoon and get started
on that "little" project.
After the guys left we rode out to the pastures
and took a good look at them
and had a really good "meeting" to make some
future plans for the property and get everybody
on the same page as far as projects and
priorities.
And then Linda and I packed up and headed
back down south.
We got home about 1:30 so she could spend
the rest of the day with her Grandkids.
A successful day all around.
And now I'm going to take a nap.
Hahahaha
