Monday, February 28, 2011

Calves in the Snow


We now have 22 calves including Libby.  We just finished putting tags in the calves ears. We also put a tatoo in their ear, just in case the tag comes out for some reason then we still have an ID on them.  This tatoo is required in order for them to be registered animals.  The tatoo is green and the number on their tag.  We then weighed them.  Boy have they grown already.  Most were around 80 pounds when they were born and now weigh a little over 100.  Their mama's milk is really good for them.

Isaac

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Another Storm

Its is snowing again.  Everything is closed.  But the heifers heavy winter coat keeps them warm. They look like red snow monsters.  The new calves are in the barn because they are not ready for the cold and snow.

Isaac

Libby

Here is Libby.  She is a twin to a bull calf.  Because her twin is a bull she is not likely to have her own babies so her mama is raising the bull calf and Libby gets to be our bottle calf.  We feed her two times a day milk replacer from a bottle.  I get up and feed her before I get on the bus. The cats keep her company so she isn't lonely.

Hannah

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Kitties

Even though it is cold today the cats don't mind and are happy to see us always. Maybe because we bring them good food. We found out that they really don't like dry cheese pizza. They really like us petting them even out in the snow and purr really really loud.

Isaac and Hannah

Monday, February 14, 2011

Piggies!

Saturday I got to go see the gilt I showed last summer - "Big D". (The D is for Duroc - the breed of pig - durocs are red with floppy ears.) While I was there "Big D" had piglets - this is called farrowing - she had a huge litter of piglets.  We thought she would have 7 or 9 babes but she had 16.  Only 11 were born alive, the other 5 were born as mummies.  The mummies had died much earlier and were being absorbed. I saw several gilts farrowing and got to clean off the newborns and trim the navels - then helped them start nursing from their mother.  The picture shows my gilts piglets nursing they are so tiny - it is amazing to think they will weigh close to 300 pounds in August. It will be great to see them again to see how they have grown and changed.

Andrew

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Its is still cold


We put extra straw to help keep the lamb warm and dry.  It is bad for the lambs to get wet in this really bad weather. I don't mind fluffing the straw because it is good for the animals.  We also got two more calves, a bull calf and a heifer calf. We will try to get a picture up soon.

Isaac

Monday, February 7, 2011

Lambs are fun


We went to help Grandpa with the lambs. The ewe (female sheep) is really a good mama taking good care of her twins.  This year we are having lots of twins and triplets those mamas work hard keeping their bellies full.  The lambs look black now but in a few months will look more like their mother who is a Suffolk sheep. That means they will have black heads and legs and white neck and middle.  When the sheep has her lambs we put her in a small pen called a jug.  This will give the lambs some time to get stronger before they join a bigger group.


Some times the mama needs some help with her lambs.  We get to bottle a few lambs to help the mama.  This is fun - they really wiggle their tails.

Isaac

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Cold tonight

We put extra bedding "straw" out tonight to try to keep all the animals especially the new baby calf.  We also put most of the cows in the calving barn to help keep it warmer inside.  I hope to have school tomorrow because I want to see my friends.

Isaac

The First Calf!!!

This morning at about 3am our first calf of 2011 was born to a first calf heifer.  This means she is only 2 years old and hasn't ever had a baby before.  She had a bull calf. We had a snow day today so we had to go and help him dry off and get him to walk and drink milk.  This took awhile as dad gave him milk earlier. To help him get warm so his ears wouldn't freeze Andrew put him in the calf heater. Now he is back with his mama. I will get you pictures of him up soon.

Isaac

Introduction

Hi I'm Isaac and I am growin up on a farm in Minnesota. I am the baby of the family having Samantha, Andrew and Hannah as older siblings.  On our farm we have Red Angus Cattle and in the summer we have show pigs. We also have alot of barn cats, who dad doesnt like very well.  Down the road grandpa houses all the Suffolk sheep.  I've spent my summer going to lots of fairs ever since i was a baby watching my siblings show untill I was old enough.  The reason for this blog is to let everyone who doesnt live on a farm know how wonderful it is all year round.  My siblings and I will try and give you a taste of our lives.