So, we were really surprised by an early Christmas gift

Every deal has some catch to it.  After a lot of searching, we finally found some really nice Red Angus heifers on the other side of Dalton.  They were too small for what the breeder wanted (big feedlot cattle), but just right for getting fat on grass.  We agreed to take all that he had to offer at the time. 

Then he asked if we would be interested in a young cow that had a calf last year but had a problem this year.  The local vet said she had a cyst in her reproductive tract and needed to go.  The owner wanted to send her to the sale barn, but didn’t have a trailer right now, etc., etc.

We went to look at her and immediately realized the catch in the deal.  She was as long and tall and wide as a box car – no kidding, at least twice as big as the other cows we were bargaining for.  She was almost as huge as the Hereford bull in the pen with her.  Anyway, after the owner mentioned the “big red cow” two or three more times it seemed like we pretty much had to take her if we wanted to cut a deal…so we did.

We took them all home, started them on a natural mineral program, put them on fresh grass every day, and they’ve been doing great.  “Big Red Cow” is easy to manage and we use her as the lead cow to get the others where they need to go.  Everywhere except the corral where we weigh them and look them over.  She’s just about too big to go through, so we just turn her back out. 

All that means is that she gets access to the 24/7 salad bar without having to step on a scale.  It also means we haven’t kept as close of an eye on her as all of the others.  She had some small signs that something might be going on, but nothing very obvious.  I guess we shouldn’t have been too shocked when we found a nice, big white-faced bull calf next to her last week, but we were surprised to say the least. 

Merry Christmas and we hope you have a great start to 2022!

Happy Cows,

LaDonna, Stephanie, John, Tim, Chad, Dylan, Dustin, Colton, Tate, Braeson, and Gracelyn

Big Red Cow and Son of Big Red Cow

Heading off into the sunset