03/02/2009 Monday: Oh No, An Unbred Cow (Cally)

03/02/2009 Monday: It was positively warm this morning, something I like to see. In Chehalis the sun was shining. Where we live it was raining. On my way home from LCHD I could see the clouds gathering. By the time I got to our home it was not only raining like a son of a gun but the gusts almost pushed me off the road.

I was not happy when I went to do chores this morning. Juan had left the Dexter's door unlatched and five of the cows got in and pulled all the hay I had stacked up onto the floor and proceeded to piss and poop on it. I scooted them out and locked the gate. I did yell, some.

This is the second time that Juan has caused me to lose money but even more important he's cost me time. All the scattered hay has to be picked up and the bad parts separated. Anything worth eating will be put in the Dexter's feeder when they empty their feeder of the round bale Chas and I put in Saturday.

Re: work on the Lewis County HD project. I'm really moving on making links to the data I've collected and filling in some new variables. I might actually end up getting most of them listed in BRFSS plus a few more.

On the way home I drove over to Del's Feed Store to buy all-purpose feed, some milk replacer and some cracked corn for the chickens. The woman who helped me suggested that if I could wait to come in on Wednesday when all feed would be on sale for 15% off. I decided to wait.

So, when I got home this evening after working Charles mentioned that the little bull calves were trying to mount one of the cows. That means one of my cows either lost her baby or didn't get bred. One of them might get her but I think she might have to be turned into steaks. A cow that doesn't get bred when exposed to the bull may or may not be given a second chance.

Cally (I think that's her name) appears to be in heat. When I got home I sprayed her with orange paint and took pictures of her so that I can take a closer look at her tomorrow. It was hard to do because the baby bulls kept getting in the way. She should be out of heat tomorrow and I'll take another set of pictures if I don't get rained out.

Plus, it looks like she has an abscess on her left shoulder.

I grabbed my camera and an orange spray can and took pictures of her and sprayed her so I'd be able to identify her tomorrow. She's clearly given birth but I can't remember what her name is. I think it's Cally because of the hole in her right ear.