Our first calf of the year has arrived! This prompted us to move the cows to “maternity“ pastures. These are coming three and four-year-olds moved into our Triangle hayfield. Water will be pumped to them by a battery powered pump from the spring-fed stream.
Gary and Rocky hauled several loads of hay last weekend as we try to replenish what we lost in our fire. We are thankful for amazing friends and neighbors who have helped us in this time of need!
These heifers will spend 8 hours daily chewing their cud, indicating they are relaxed, comfortable and eating a healthy diet of fiber (grass). Cud chewing produces a lot of saliva, which acts as a natural antacid and promotes a healthy ruminant digestive system.
Today has been a hard day on our farm, but we could not have gotten through it without the help of our community. There were so many people who came to help and worked for over 8 hours to save our barn. Fortunately no people or livestock were hurt today. Thank you to Bywy Fire Department, Reform Fire Department, Union Fire Department, Mathiston Fire Department, Choctaw County Sheriff’s Department, Choctaw County EMS, Eupora City Water Department, Mississippi Forestry Commission, Webster County Emergency Management, Larry McClain, Hugh Wilson, Greg Fondren, Derek Jones, Lee Gilliland, Lee Ellington, Johnny Black, Jessie Bright, Jim Wright, and many others who I could not possibly name.
Our calves rate their breakfast experience at Southern Cross Farm as five stars and in a few months consumers will rate their steaks as five stars!
Weaned calves were excited to be moved to fresh grass. Day 9 of weaning and they are looking great.
Less than 48 hours after weaning and the calves are coming to the feed troughs with no problems. These calves were not creep fed or exposed to feed while on their dams, but were used to the troughs for minerals.
We practice fence line weaning on our farm. Studies have shown that it reduces stress, decreases illnesses after weaning, and prevents weight loss from weaning. Marbling formation (the pretty white flecks in the rib-eye steaks that make them taste so good!) can be accelerated from a good weaning program.
Fast growing annual grasses were planted where we are reclaiming pasture land from timber production. The grazing cows will add organic matter from their manure and help disperse the seeds.
Beautiful weather for baling hay and listening to the birds sing.
It was a beautiful day to rotate the bulls to a new pasture. The bulls are kept separate from the cows during the summer and winter months so we can have a controlled breeding season.
Cows require salt in their diets, and it provides a good way to add less tasty required minerals and medications. Our minerals contain an ingredient to prevent fly eggs from developing in the manure, lessening the insecticides needed on the cows.
The result of when cows are trained to work from the FRONT. It seems counterintuitive, but these 8 cows were sorted off from 26 other head by only one person! By standing in front of them, the ones needing to go to the chute for removal of CIDR’s were sorted from their herd mates by sending calves and non-needed cows one way, and desired cows were sent down a gravel road. You can read more in this articlehttps://effectivestockmanship.com/PDFs/CattleHandlingPointers-7-18-16.pdf
Cows are amazing- the bacteria in their forestomach convert this renewable resource (grass!) into calories for the cow. These mature cows are producing milk so that their two month old calves are gaining over 3 lbs of weight every day now during peak milk production!
Our last calf of calving season has arrived! We had 166 calves born in 77 days with no hormone synchronization products administered.
The rain and cool weather has spurred the growth of clover in our pastures. The cows will search to graze the clover, as it is high in protein, and allows us to be sustainable and not purchase protein supplements for the mature cows.
Cheap fix to providing cattle clean water from a stream or pond. A $35 12 volt battery powered marine bilge pump ordered from amazon.com. Our stream is fenced off from the cows, and the weeds and sage grass along the steam provide cover and food for wildlife. Low water pressure, so the hose has to enter above the water surface.
Rotational grazing means routinely moving the cows to fresh pasture. Videoed here are our mature cows. These girls range in age from 4 to 15 years old! All the calves don’t realize that Independence Day July 4 is when they will become independent (weaned 😊).
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