Parker's Report: Week 4

Week 4: A Different Day, A Different Job

May 31- June 3

                  Even though the week was short due to the holiday it was jammed pack with things to do. Tuesday began the week with my normal barn duties. I was amused when I noticed that certain horses like a certain side of the barn with a few even preferring certain stalls. Trudy has healed well. She has a small scab now and that is it. I helped block a hole in the road so that a group of cows could be moved to the cattle pens to be worked the next day. Then I began my rounds mowing the office and houses. I had just started on Seth’s house when the PTO shut off. I turned it off and on several times but every time I moved forward with the PTO on it would shut off. Baffled, I took it to the shop where Carlos took a look at it. It turned out that the belts that turn the blades runs right next to the wires that control the belts and the belts had cut through the wires. It was late in the afternoon and a storm had popped up so I held off finishing mowing. On Wednesday I had planned on getting to work early enough to feed the horses before working cattle but it turned out that we were working the cows earlier than I had originally thought. When I got to the pens I settled in for a long day keeping up with the paperwork. We worked four groups vaccinating, deworming, and recording weights on all the cattle as well as castrating the bull calves. One bull calf had been born late and was still small and cute. He was well behaved going where he was supposed to and chilling in a corner of the pen until it was his turn to be run through the chute. Because he was so small we had to hold him down manually to castrate him. Even then he was mild mannered. One group of cows we worked were the A cows. These cows were all born in the same year (designated as year A for universal record keeping). I asked Mr. Mike why they were still together as a group instead of being split up after having their first calf. He explained that it was for management purposes. Rebreeding a cow for her to conceive her second calf is the hardest and therefore they need extra attention. Thus it is easier to retain the A cows together rather than split them up. That was something that I had not learned in my Beef Management class this past year. Mr. Mike also pointed out that the only other group of cows based on year were the C heifers. Calf prices were so high a few years ago that they sold all of their calves, heifers and bulls, born in the year B. Even though it was late by the time we finished working cattle I still went to the barn to check on the horses. I was going to move them to a different pasture but when I opened the gate they ran straight to the water tank. Puzzled I went to check the water tank in the pasture they had been in. It was bone dry! I felt so bad that I had left them in a pasture for two days without water. I stayed and watched them for a few minutes and when I felt confident that they were all ok I clocked out. On Thursday I finally finished mowing and spent the afternoon bush hogging. Friday was quiet as I took care of the horses and bush hogged.

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