More cows!!

Since my last post, we've added to our herd.  We've bought some lovely ladies and their babies.   (They don't understand when I ask them to all pose together! )  We've bought 4 black cows with their calves and 4 charlois mix with their calves and one red cow who is still to calve.

 One of the gals haven't calved yet, so we're anxiously waiting on the Belties and one other. 

We also added a hereford bull to the group.


He was already with some of the cows we bought and he seemed really gentle and a good

price.  We just couldn't resist!

  We chose to purchase from individuals rather than chance purchasing from the sale barn. 

We could see them in the pasture and observe that they were not really wild or mean.  We

certainly don't want that!  Everyone seems as happy as can be just grazing away!   We've

moved them once since they have all been here and they moved very easily from one

pasture to the other.  We didn't really know where we would need gates in this electric

fence, but it's easy to add one when you need one.  It just requires adding  brace posts to

your two gate posts and a handle for your gate wire.  It won't be long before the herd

needs to be moved again to let the pasture grow and eat the previous one down again. 

We've got so much grass this year that we're keeping them off of 3 of the paddocks which

will be cut for hay soon.  We worked out a deal with a local man to cut and bale for us on a

60/40 share.  The cattle are to be rotated around the paddocks when they have eaten the

grass down to a certain height, but it's a little difficult to tell as they don't eat the grass that

is tall and putting on a seed head. 

Hopefull I'll be able to post pictures of a new calf soon and the first one born on the farm!

The Cows have arrived!

Well...it's finally happening!   After 4 years of blood....sweat.....tears and a  LOT of HARD WORK, our dream is coming to fruition!  On the 17th we had two beautiful Belted Galoway cows delivered to the farm.

We should be expecting calves from them both in the next couple of months.  These are such a docile breed.  We can walk right up to them out in the pasture and pet them.  I think they'll make great cows for our farm herd.

You might have noticed the electric fence that they are grazing close to.  We have chosen to use a rotational grazing system.  Our farm is broken up into 5 different paddocks.  The perimeter is standard 5 strand barbed wire fence.  The interior is diveded with the electric fence.  The cows are moved from pasture to pasture as the grass is eaten down.  This allows for newer more tender grass for the cows and should also help with some of the plants being eaten that they wouldn't normally eat.  Some weeds will be eaten when they are young and tender, but not when they get older and tougher.

It's spring and has been in our area for the last couple of weeks.  Last week we received about 3 inches of rain and the grass is showing it.  There is just more grass than those cows can possibly eat. 

We've also purchased 4 more cow/calf pairs as well as another pregnant cow and a bull.  They are to be delivered soon.  I just hope they are all as happy as the Galloways are!

Stay tuned....There's more to come!