Messy Eaters

It's always good when you see your guests are enjoying the buffet, don't you think?

While waiting for the vet to arrive one day, I imagined this conversation among our feeder calves:

 

Our current feeder calves are the "baby" calves born this past January and February. 

 

As I took a look through the "family album," I felt a little like that aunt who always says, "My, how you've grown!" (Below, I did find 7106 which was "talking" with its mouth full during the imagined bovine conversation. Sorry for the blurry photo, taken after we worked the calves in mid-March.)

During their time in the summer pastures, the calves bulked up on mother's milk and - just like human babies - they began adding solids to their diet . (Below photos were taken during a pasture check in July.)

We brought the calves and their mothers home from the Ninnescah pasture on a foggy day in early November.

The calves were weaned from their mamas when we brought them home. If their messy faces are any indication, the calves are thoroughly enjoying their daily buffet of silage and hay. Actually, they are kind of like toddlers, in that their food ends up on places other than their faces. (Read about our silage harvest at this link and all about alfalfa at this link.)

 Some of the mamas are now cleaning up sudan and milo stalks.

 

Others were initially on wheat stubble, eating volunteer wheat (below).

Last week, we moved those cows onto an alfalfa field to graze. (After looking at the photos, I realize that we've had a lot of overcast days while moving cattle this fall. Unfortunately, that didn't lead to any rain, and our part of the state is now in a moderate drought.)

 

It seemed we interrupted this mama in mid-chew during the cattle move last week. But just like the rest of us during the holidays, she'll find plenty more food on the buffet.