"You never buy a pig in a poke"
That was one of my dad's sayings. Yet when ever we buy some dropped calves or weanlings. The 4 of us always offer our opinion on which cattle will do best. We are usually proved wrong and cattle grow like humans in fits and bursts. Some times you think:
"Was she out of an old cow or a first calfer?"
Any road. We have 3 very nice heifers in one pen in the slatted house and 2 "Okish" to one who looks she is a runt. Hmm m?.
"What do you do when shoes let water in?"
That was one of my mum's quotes.
We (number one son) rang the man from Osmonds (animal medicine man not the Mormon pop band: "Crazy horses.") who lives and works in West Cork. He keeps Dairy cattle and there isn't much he doesn't know about them. He told us to get them a bucket of mineral lick and inject them with one of his drugs. This is said to kill stomach worms, fluke, mange and biting flies.
So we put them in the crush and gave them all an injection, just under the skin. Lets hope they all start growing to the size we want them to be. Keeping cattle is like growing vegetables. You can feed them and nurture them but they always never grow the same. Even the two pigs are different in size. One is a fat pig and one is a slim pig. One is a very greedy pig and one looks like it gets it's nose pushed out.
That was one of my dad's sayings. Yet when ever we buy some dropped calves or weanlings. The 4 of us always offer our opinion on which cattle will do best. We are usually proved wrong and cattle grow like humans in fits and bursts. Some times you think:
"Was she out of an old cow or a first calfer?"
Any road. We have 3 very nice heifers in one pen in the slatted house and 2 "Okish" to one who looks she is a runt. Hmm m?.
"What do you do when shoes let water in?"
That was one of my mum's quotes.
We (number one son) rang the man from Osmonds (animal medicine man not the Mormon pop band: "Crazy horses.") who lives and works in West Cork. He keeps Dairy cattle and there isn't much he doesn't know about them. He told us to get them a bucket of mineral lick and inject them with one of his drugs. This is said to kill stomach worms, fluke, mange and biting flies.
So we put them in the crush and gave them all an injection, just under the skin. Lets hope they all start growing to the size we want them to be. Keeping cattle is like growing vegetables. You can feed them and nurture them but they always never grow the same. Even the two pigs are different in size. One is a fat pig and one is a slim pig. One is a very greedy pig and one looks like it gets it's nose pushed out.
Hey Dave. Would love to see some pictures of the livestock? Hope all's well with all of you :o)
ReplyDeleteHi CT. You can see pictures of the livestock on last years blogs. Will post some new ones soon. Thanks!
DeleteA good old mineral lick can work wonders. I can remember when we had a small herd of Jerseys we used to have "licks" hung all the way along a fence for them if they got a bit out of peak condition. It soon did the trick. Best of luck Dave.
ReplyDeleteThe cattle look a lot better today Rachel after the mineral licks. How many Jerseys did you keep? Thanks!
ReplyDelete