Calendar Girl

 

This trio of calves was my March "centerfold" on this year's family birthday calendar.

It was one of my favorite baby calf photos of last year. And when family members were thumbing through the calendars at Christmastime, they invariably commented on these cute little faces. These portraits also ended up on notecards.

I'd been looking for "my little calendar girl" on the right this winter. With her unusual markings, I wanted to see how she looked now that she's all grown up. 

 

Here she is in the heifer lot earlier this winter, awaiting my daily delivery of silage to the bunks. 

And here she was in the working chute. On Tuesday, No. 87 - along with 24 of her "friends" - began the next step toward motherhood.  It had me singing Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl" in my head.

 

Calendar Girl 

by Neil Sedaka

I love, I love, I love my calendar girl

Yeah, sweet calendar girl

I love, I love, I love my calendar girl

Each and every day of the year

Babies are always special. My "baby" will turn 33 this year. (Not sure how that happened so fast.) And it's now been a decade since we first learned we'd be grandparents. 

(This was Kinley's first "photo" on Kim's County Line.)

So why is No. 87 the one who caught my eye? Her buddies were equally cute as babies. But her distinctive facial markings had me looking for her this winter - just to see if I could find her among the crowd at the bunks when I fed every day. (She didn't have the eartag when I took the photo, so I was trying to match facial features while running the auger on the feed truck, getting it positioned, etc.)

 

It's "birds and bees" time on our Kansas farm. On Tuesday, No. 87 and her fellow heifers went through the working chute in preparation for this season of "love," or, more accurately, lust.

As I wrote earlier this week, the bulls had their doctor's appointments with Veterinarian Bruce Figger to make sure they were ready to fulfill their job description here on the County Line. But the bulls aren't the only factor in the "birds and bees" of a Kansas cattleman. The heifers who will become first-time mothers next winter also have been getting some extra care.

Because they require some additional attention for calving, we want to get the first-time mothers to come into estrus (or heat) at the same time. It gets the heifers' reproductive cycles "in sync" to shorten the calving season for the heifers, which saves labor at calving time. (Well, it saves some labor for the humans - not the mama cows.) We check them frequently in case they are having trouble calving.

This year's OB/GYN candidates were born in early 2020. In 2022, they will become mothers for the first time. 

Beginning March 11, our 25 yearling heifers had their silage topped with MGA. MGA is melengestrol acetate, which suppresses the ovulation cycle for the heifers.

 

 For 14 days, Randy added the MGA to the silage and fed the equivalent of 1/2 a pound per head per day.

Then, on April 13, we ran the heifers through the working chute to give them a shot of of Lutalyse, which makes them come into heat.

Here's No. 87 as she's arriving for her "appointment."

They also get a vaccine to prevent respiratory issues and diarrhea when in the chute, but the Lutalyse is part of the "birds and bees" equation.

We also used a pour-on insecticide to guard against lice and other critters.

When I opened Facebook Wednesday morning, guess whose face was staring at me as a Facebook memory? Yep, it was my March calendar girl and friends. It was a year ago that I first published No. 87's photo on Kim's County Line with this blog post, Social Distancing in the Cattle Lot.

Out of curiosity, I looked to see if I recognized any other of the babies from that year-old blog post.

No. 80 (who looks like she was playing hide and seek on Tuesday) was also part of the 2020 blog post. Here she was a year ago:

March 2020

 And lo and behold, there was another one. No. 75 now ...

... and then.

March 2020

And here's No. 54 in March of last year, waiting her turn in the lane before entering the calf cradle working chute.

No. 50 - who was in the photo with No. 87 near the top of the post as they were waiting for breakfast - was also in the March 2020 "social distancing" post. (Look at those eye lashes!)

 

I knew I had a photo of No. 01, since she would have been the second calf born last year.

February 2020

It was a trip down memory lane. And it's one of the rewarding things about operating a cow-calf operation. The girl babies sometimes become part of our herd after they are all grown up. And we get to watch them have babies and continue the cycle as the years pass.

After their shots, we turned them out into the lot with the bulls where we let nature take its course, so to speak.  

"Hey, ladies! Welcome to the neighborhood!" a couple of the bulls appear to say.

Maybe they are finding their "calendar girl" right about now, too!

Candid Camera

 

I read an article not long ago about new facial recognition technology for cattle. 

On a recent day in the cattle pen, we weren't trying out the latest technical advances from our alma mater, K-State. But the article said that the university is capitalizing on the power of artificial intelligence to build a database for the cattle industry. 

Like humans, each bovine has a set of unique facial features that modern technology can scan and later use to track the animal throughout its lifetime. According to K-State extension beef cattle specialist KC Olson, who helped develop this idea, the technology is based on the geometry of the human face. It uses intricate biometric measurements to put a permanent identification on a person and is capable of nearly 100 percent accuracy.

I couldn't help but think about that as we were testing bulls last week. That day, our veterinarian Dr. Bruce wasn't paying a lot of attention to the facial end of the bull. Most of the attention was focused on the opposite end. 

However, each bull - and cow - has its own personality and characteristics.

This guy, for example, likes to have his head rubbed when Randy feeds a hay bale.

As I was standing there, I couldn't help but notice his white chest, too. He is unmistakably the daddy for No. 012, born in February a year ago. I used this photo on Valentine's Day 2020. 

February 2020

Now, No. 012 is one of the heifers who will calve for us in the winter of 2022. As she comes up to the bunk for feeding, I still recognize the heart shape on her chest. This morning, she and her cohorts will go through the cattle chute for the next step in their journey toward motherhood next winter.

Anyway, the new computer technology came about as Olson and a group of K-State experts in computer engineering, veterinary medicine and animal science began discussing how to apply facial recognition technology to cattle. Then, last fall, the research group made short videos of 1,000 feeder cattle that were restrained in a chute, taking a panoramic view of each calf’s head. From the videos, computer engineers parsed individual images and uploaded it to a neural network.

Once the pictures are loaded, Olson said, the system “teaches itself which of the biometric measurements are critical.” The K-State team recently tested the reliability of the network, also using images of cattle already in the system. Olson said it was accurate 94 percent of the time.

K-State is working with Kansas City-based company Black Hereford Holdings to build a smartphone app called Cattletracs,which will allow producers to submit pictures of their cattle. The app is due to be released soon, though its full capability is not likely to be in place for several months.  

When we unloaded our feeder cattle in Pratt this winter, there was a "be on the lookout" notice for stolen cattle. Maybe this new facial recognition invention will ultimately help with that. 

But, in the meantime, this big guy seemed ready for his close-up, too.

His fellow Angus buddy was a little more camera shy. (He hasn't been around here quite as long. He doesn't have the paparazzi schtick down as well yet.)

But, as I said, their faces weren't the real reason we were there. 

And it wasn't for a lesson on extension cord rolling - though that was a topic of the morning, too. (I've decided it's kind of like folding fitted sheets.)

No, we were there to make sure the four bulls were ready for their "job" this spring and summer. Quality bulls are a big part of the beef business. It's a good management practice to test bulls before you turn them out into the pasture with the heifers and cows each spring. Bulls have no value if they can't perform.

This time, Dr. Bruce brought along his own new portable working chute. In the past few years, our larger bulls have outgrown our home chute. Dr. Bruce's chute is wider, giving more room for the girth of the bigger boys.

Once the chute was set up, the rest of the routine was familiar. 

Dr. Bruce measures the scrotum and checks for defects. The extended period of sub-zero temperatures this winter was a concern for cattle producers - not just for baby calves but also for bulls. So it was especially important to test this year.

The bull is electrically stimulated so that the veterinarian can obtain a sample. 'Nuff said.

The sample is tested for motility, its "swimming" ability to travel to the cow's egg.

Dr. Bruce then smeared the slide with a dye, which killed the sperm. He could then look at morphology, the shape of the sperm. He was looking for abnormalities in the shape, which could indicate a problem with the ability to breed. 

After the successful tests, Dr. Bruce gave each bull vaccinations to keep them healthy during their summer in the pasture.

It's similar to giving our children vaccinations for their optimal health.

Dr. Bruce also applied a spray-on dewormer.

 All the bulls passed and are ready for action, so to speak. 

After their doctor's appointment, the bulls were hanging out in one of the lots. But after we get done with the heifers this morning,  they'll be heading for greener pastures with their lady friends.

County Line file photo from a different bull's arrival to a pasture, 2013

Stubborn Streak: Cattle vs. Wind vs. Farmer

Baby calves and mamas with minds of their own weren't the only impediments to working baby calves this spring.

The Kansas wind also kept up its stubborn streak for most of our three days of working calves.

 

At least the baby calves are cute. The wind is just annoying.

 

I loved this one's heart-shaped face!

 

Our first day of working baby calves was the most pleasant from a wind standpoint. It provided enough breeze to keep working conditions comfortable and wasn't so strong that we needed dust blinders.

And it's a good thing: That was the day we drove cattle from the Peace Creek pasture half a mile to the pens and working chute. By "driving," I don't mean that we chauffeured them with a limousine. Instead, we used 4-wheelers to "encourage" them from Point A to Point B.

 

For awhile, my job seemed to be keeping them from traveling too far to the west. The guys were back in the pasture, trying to get a baby calf to come out of the fence. By the time they decided it wasn't going to happen, they couldn't see me anymore and Randy thought maybe I'd accomplished it myself.

I wish.

Instead, I was trying to get them to turn back toward the farmstead. It was a lot easier once reinforcements arrived. (I took a grand total of this one photo during that time. I was too busy running the 4-wheeler accelerator to pull the camera out of my pocket.)

 

I had a little more time for camera "clicking" while the babies were in the chute. If a young bull calf was undergoing the operation to become a steer, I took a brief time out for a few glamour shots.  

 

The calves got glamour shots ... and regular shots. When Jill and Brent were little, I took them at the appointed times to get their vaccines at the pediatrician's office. Our baby calves undergo a similar process each spring. For this appointment, Randy fulfills the role of "physician's assistant." He certainly doesn't have the education of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. We do use a veterinarian for many of our cattle herd's health needs, and we ordered the medication from our vet, Dr. Bruce. But this is a task that Randy does, with help from me and a neighbor.

 

The babies go, one at at time, down a lane and into a calf cradle - a miniature squeeze chute. (That part takes some pushing, thanks to our neighbor, who's much younger and much more spry!)

The first order of business is giving each calf a number tag and notch in its left ear. This year, the numbers all start with "1" to indicate the baby was born during the 202"1" calving season. 

 

I didn't get many photos, since I was busy as the "doctor's" assistant, handing him the ear tagger, syringes, etc., in succession.

 

Then the baby calf and his friends got Tic-Tac-sized growth implants in their ears. The hormone stimulates the pituitary gland and helps the calf grow. The $1 implant will bring a $3 return. Randy believes it's a matter of using the technology available to more efficiently grow food for consumers. And, yes, we eat the meat that we produce here on the farm and share it with our children and grandchildren. 

We give each calf two injections. One is an immunization to prevent blackleg. The other prevents viral diseases in cattle. People often question the reasons for giving immunizations to animals that will eventually enter the food chain. But these injections are like giving immunizations to our own children. It helps keep the calves healthy, and healthy cattle provide a good source of protein in the human diet.

The bull calves also become steers during their time in the chute. 

 I might have had a little eyelash envy with this one.

We could tell when a few of them were born, just by looking at their ears. This one began life during one of the coldest parts of our winter, so his ears got frostbitten. It was a little tougher to get the ear tag in those ears, and we had to go through a few extra tag buttons to get the job accomplished.

Once we were done with the baby's "doctor" appointments for our Peace Creek inhabitants, we loaded the babies into a cattle trailer for their short ride back to the pasture.

The mamas did a good job of following the trailer, with only a few minor diversions caused by lush green wheat.

However, Randy let the baby calves out of the trailer a little prematurely and many zoomed out of the gate again.

However, it didn't take long for mamas and babies to be guided back to the right location - with only a slight detour. 

The system changes from pasture to pasture. At some of the locations, we separate the mamas and the babies from each other. We then haul the babies to the working chutes with a cattle trailer.

 

The mamas protest this forced separation. 

 

But, it's not long before they're back together again. 

 

The mamas and babies will be in their appointed lots until we take them to summer pasture in early May. 

 

Check: Another item off the to-do list!