Cow walks

Out for an evening walk with Emma... pretty sure the neighbors think it's a little strange.

Nursing calf video

Here's a short video of our first calf Fiona nursing, hopefully it works. This mama cow always has more than enough milk for her calves, and you can easily milk her. Fiona is doing great. Still waiting on our others. Guess I missed their gestation dates by a month!

Emma

Getting her​ shots and a brushing.

Halter time...

First calf of the year!

We welcomed our first calf of the year yesterday!

Spring time

We're expecting our first calf any day now. The cows are on fresh pasture and loving it. Still some fertilizing to do and the winter paddock to clean up, but very nice to have some warmer weather... though the rain doesn't seem to want to stop completely yet!

Horned cattle hay feeder

This is the first winter season that we are using our new hay feeder.  In years past we have hayed the cows on the ground and in old tractor tires, but they always wasted so much of it.  We already had a hay loft in the barn and thought it was finally time to make winter feeding easier and more efficient for us and to hopefully cut down on the amount of hay trompled and wasted.

We covered the back wall of the barn with tin to help protect it and my handy husband built a feeder out of long metal bars that look like rebar.  We cut a hole in the hay loft, and now we can drop a bale of hay right down into the feeder... no more carrying them across the yard!

There is still some waste and we wonder if the bars shouldn't have been slightly closer together​, but it is a vast improvement over ground feeding.  The cows can reach their noses and tongues right through the bars. Cleanup has been easy this winter too with the addition of concrete in the barn area.  

UPDATE: We added a wire cattle panel to the back side of the metal bars and it helps prevent even more waste!

Northwest Highland Cattle Association meeting

The 2017 NWHCA meeting has been scheduled for Saturday​, May 13th in Mollala, Oregon.  The information came out in the last addition of The Fold newsletter, but I haven't seen it on their​ website under the events tab yet, so I just wanted to send out an FYI so you can put it on your calendars.

Since the meeting is close to our farm this year we are planning on attending.  We've never attended in the past and are looking forward to meeting and talking with other highland breeders and enthusiasts.

Cows love their carrot treats!