Calving season is business as usual on our family farm near Airdrie, Alberta. Amidst a global pandemic, the world still needs to be fed, and we are hoping that cattle prices won’t take a nose dive by the time we sell calves in the Fall.

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For me, Coronavirus hasn’t effected the way I “do life”. I continue ordering my groceries online (like I have for the past few years), going through Starbucks drive-thru, doing my banking online & picking up my takeout orders from Airdrie’s Tony’s Vietnamese or Taj East Indian. And then to add to that, we are just starting calving here which means until the end of May I will be calving cows. It’s traditionally a time where I “don’t get off the farm much”! My heart goes out to those who are juggling home school, or facing a scary time; home from work with bills to pay. As someone who has been happily single for a long time, I’m used to taking care of just myself & my animals.

I keep thinking how grateful I am, to have started Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step program last year, January 2019. It was a blessing in the disguise of hard work and character building. I’ve worked the program to become debt free with a 6 month emergency fund as of early 2020, before COVID 19. Now, I’m used to living on a budget and am wise with my spending. If you are curious about Dave Ramseys financial program to become generous & wealthy, there has never been a better time for that guidance in your life. Just reach out to me if you have any questions, or tune into the Dave Ramsey show wherever you listen to Podcasts. Because I’ve worked through the program, I have a line item in my budget for generosity, and for these next few months that may mean employing a few friends that need the work to put food on the table.

I keep reminding myself to be the best version of myself during this time. This is history in the making. No one I know has ever experienced anything like this.

I hope to follow up with more photos of calving, as I have more babies here!

Back in Time..

Calving 2015  ||   Calving 2017

The barn from my yard. It is so beautiful, I could never imagine NOT having this view. I’ve said it many times, that if I ever moved, I would need to build a hip roof barn that matches this one for my soul!

72G and 52G (both black white face) are both 75G’s birth year sisters. They were raised together, same age, and still working in the cow herd. I suspect all 3 are by the same bull. 75G is pictured further down.  

First calf of the year is about 1 week old now! She is so cute!

I sold my Speckle Parks (except for 1) to my brother, which is a new venture for him. For me, with my Char program, I was having to play a bit of mental gymnastics on how I was going to breed my Speckles. I didn’t want to breed them white, or red, which are my bull options for my Charolais, and the farm owns the black bulls. Right now at this time it made more sense for me to stick to my Chars.

Taking photos today I was reminded how much I love them, and how pretty they are.

Sisters in the snow.

With the temperatures this week ranging in the -5 to -15 the cows have been brought up and locked into the yard, with tons of windbreaks and straw bedding, and extra hay for the tummies. Instead of the usual protocol of calving on 160acres of open cultivated field. 2018 was an incredibly hard calving season (horrible cold temperatures, snow and wind) and we have learned a lot from that season. It’s honestly best and safest for the girls to stay in the yard, although my Dad hates it. Its a little early, we don’t expect calves until March 24. A few early babies occasionally. At this point we have 4 calves / around 160 cows due on the ground. 

My Speckle Park cow, Speckles.

One of my Chars in complete bliss! We took one of these “no longer useable” street sweeper brushes and fashioned it into a cattle scratcher. The girls are very impressed. 5 star reviews.

75G is a good old cow. She is a black white face cow that is 10 years old at this point, 8 calves in her lifetime. She had trouble delivering her second calf, and prolapsed. Dr Nagel put the prolapse back in, in the field. Not a single problem since then and she is still one of the soggiest cows we have. She has great feet, great bag, and type wise a really sound cow. I’ve kept a female from her, and I’ve made sure that Dad keeps all her heifers. She is a great foundation cow for us and her daughters perform well. She does get offended a little when she first calves, and so does her daughter of mine 147R “D.D”. 

Cockshutt with the grain mill on the PTO. 

Sage’s insanely cute face (and Robins bumhole)  to end the blog post! Chat soon friends!