Bonnie and Max come home... FINALLY!

First, my daughter's Facebook message after seeing the doctor:
Just a quickie before my boss catches me on FB at work. :) We still don't know what they're going to do, surgically, and likely won't for a couple of weeks. MRI tomorrow, genetic testing being sent to lab today, and more test results to come. Pathology reports had some stuff we suspected, but a few good surprises, too. It's a 2 out of 3 as far as how aggressive it is, but it's fairly slow-growing. More updates to come. Shhhh! Here comes the boss!

We went to Phil's house to fetch Bonnie and Max back home, after more than a month away from us.  She seemed really glad to see me, and let me pet her nose through the fence.  She definitely lost weight while she was there, not because Phil doesn't feed his animals well, but because she was the runt of the herd and got pushed back from the hay quite a bit.  

  Home sweet home!  Don't worry, we'll get her back to her fighting weight.  She's the boss around here.  

Max, on the other hand, did not suffer any weight loss, but kept on growing as always.  Of course he did.  He had his mother's milk!

Jody and Max were SO happy to see one another, they immediately got into a head-butting contest, just like old times.

Babe was so glad to see Bonnie that she stayed this close to her for a long time, and they grazed side by side.

"I've missed you so much, Bonnie-the-Jersey-cow.  Please, never leave again!"

"I missed you too, girl friend; those cows over there were SO mean!"

The Herd

As you can see, the cows are now a herd.  Babe is indeed the boss.  She is also eating me out of house and home... or I suppose I should say barn and pasture.  The larger the animal, the more calories they need to consume.  Hopefully we have plenty of hay to get these beggars through the winter.  
There is a problem we often have with new animals on the place:  They have to learn how to drink from our in-ground waterers.  This was no problem with Babe, though, because Cliff's brother has the same type of waterers; it's what she was already used to.

Her first day here she knew exactly what was behind that black rubber curtain.

She had no trouble at all pushing it back with her nose to get a drink.  


Babe only has one other thing to learn, and it really isn't essential:  The pasture behind the house has a lot of alfalfa in it, so we don't want the horses going in there due to the risk of founder.  It's surrounded by electric fence, which Babe is familiar with.  We want the cows to be able to graze there, so Cliff has fashioned a walk-through entry that's big enough for the cows but not tall enough for horses.  Clyde, Bonnie's calf last year, never entered that pasture; he was always afraid to go through the opening, so he'd graze with the horses while his mom grazed the good stuff; it certainly didn't hurt him, because he is delicious.  We'll wait and see whether Babe ever goes in with the other cows.

Babe, previously known as Annie, comes home

Experience has taught us a few things about introducing a new cow into the herd.  
For instance, if you turn a new cow out into a pasture, one of the first things she will do is walk the fence looking for a way out.  With fences like ours, it would be very possible that she would find a way out and start looking for her herd, which in this case is twenty-five miles away.  Another reason for keeping her in the small pen:  If the horses see a new cow, they'll chase her mercilessly.  Once they can become accustomed to her presence across the fence, they'll behave themselves and accept her once she's turned loose.  
To prevent this from happening with Babe we had Cliff's brother unload her into the small pen behind the barn.  Cliff suggested we put Jody in with her so she could be getting used to one of our cows at a time.  

I wish I had been able to get a picture of what happened first:  Jody, being young and foolish, decided to get into a head-butting match with Babe.  You can imagine who won.  Cows have a pecking order, and a new cow always has to figure out where she belongs in the world of cow-pasture politics.  Once she firmly established that she was Jody's boss, they settled down and became friends.  They spent Babe's first night here together, and most of her first day.  
Yesterday afternoon I called Bonnie and Max up and let them into the pen.  Oh, poor Max.  Once again, I wish I had a picture, but by the time I got my camera it was over:  Babe actually got him in a corner and got him down on the ground, continuing to head-butt him.  No harm was done, and poor Max now knows where he stands in the herd.  I believe he is low man on the totem pole.  I don't have a picture of Babe and Max after the TKO, because I decided to put him in the stall so I could milk Bonnie this morning.  

A lot of times the oldest cow, the one that has been on the place the longest, is the boss cow, so I watched Babe and Bonnie with interest.  Well, Bonnie has been hauled to Phil's farm to visit the bull a couple of times, so this ain't her first rodeo.  She obviously knew she would lose any skirmish, so each time Babe-the-bully walked toward her, she scurried away.  It must have been a good psychological tactic, because within a half-hour the two were hanging out together just fine, and there had been no scuffle at all.  
So Babe is the new herd boss.  But why wouldn't she be?  She weighs at least twice as much as any of the others.  
By the way, Cliff's brother already had a perfectly good name for Babe:  Annie.  
However, Cliff's first favorite cow back in 1967 was a Polled Hereford named Babe, and I think he likes the idea of having another Babe.  Most cows do not know their names, so changing hers is no big deal.  
There are several little tricks Babe is going to have to learn in the next few days.  Here's hoping everything goes well.  

So why another cow?

I had originally intended to watch for another Jersey, since they're my favorite breed.  And who knows how long Bonnie will last?  We aren't positive, but we think she was in heat last weekend.  Before it's time for her to cycle again, we'll take her to visit Cliff's brother's bull and hope for the best.  Poor thing, one of her quarters no longer gives milk and another is compromised; she seems to have a displaced hip, so she walks with a peculiar gait.  Not that this destroys her quality of life... shake a feed can at her and she can run at the speed of light to get to it.  That cow lives to eat!  
We went to the livestock auction a few days ago and were astounded at the prices beef cattle are bringing.  High-grade 600-pound calves are bringing as much as $900 each, so I thought to myself, "We have grass and hay to spare, and it's just going to waste.  We could have another cow on the place making us money."  
I finally realized that since I already have one Jersey cow and a Jersey heifer that will probably be having a calf in eighteen months, I'd be wiser to consider a beef cow that wouldn't have to be milked at all.    
We no longer have a pickup or trailer with which to transport cattle, so when Phil said he'd let me buy one of his cows (and he'd deliver it), we jumped right on that deal.  Lindie asked in a comment if the cow we're buying had been pregnancy checked; no, she isn't far enough along to check.  But Cliff's brother would make it good with us one way or another.  After all, he's the one who lets us use his bull for Bonnie, free of charge.  He's a good brother.
So we'll get Babe, the new cow, accustomed to the place, turn her loose, and wait until she has a calf and raises it  up to weaning size, then sell the calf.  Free money, right?  
Not quite.  I don't count the cost of mowing and baling hay, because Cliff mows this place like a park anyhow.  Just remember, though, that the calf Babe has in September won't be ready to sell until June or July of the next year, so it'll be eighteen months before we see a return on our investment.  And if she has a heifer calf, we might keep it.  On the other hand, we could probably take her to the sale barn when she's about ready to calve next September and make money on her.  Not that we plan to do that, because then we'd be looking for another cow to buy, wouldn't we?  
There's always the risk of a cow dying.  We once had a pretty weaned Holstein heifer that drowned in a shallow pond, in less than two feet of water:  The pond was iced over, the heifer walked out on the ice a short distance, the ice broke, and she couldn't make her way out of the ice-covered pond; she thrashed and struggled until she dropped from exhaustion, and was already dead when we discovered her there.  Years ago a lovely registered Jersey heifer was frolicking through the pasture, we assume, and ran right into a barbed wire fence, which wrapped around her neck in a hideous way.  She was alive when we found her, but her neck was broken.  Any time you are dealing with livestock, there's a risk.   

Even though it will likely be a year-and-a-half before Jody will have a calf and start giving milk, I'm getting her used to the feel of the stanchion now.  Bonnie hates it when I let another cow in the barn because she knows they are likely getting fed there; she bellows her displeasure until Jody is back with the herd.

We bought a cow today

Having seen how much calves are bringing, and because we have plenty of pasture and hay, and because it's raining money around here lately... I made the decision that we should buy a cow.  Not a milk cow this time, though.  I suggested to Cliff that we should perhaps go to a few auctions and look for a bargain.  
Of course, that's a little "iffy".  You don't know where the animals come from or what problems they might have.  
So Cliff told his brother we might be looking for a cow, and he asked what sort of cow.  Cliff relayed the question, and I said, "Something that's already bred."  
Phil called back later and said he had a couple we could pick from.  

The one in front kept looking at me as though saying, "Take me home, please."  She's a heifer (in other words, has never had a calf), and was bred in December, so she would calve in September.  

This one has had a calf, and would have had a second one by now, but Phil got rid of the bull too soon.  She also was bred in December.  She spent a few months on our property when she was being weaned, so she'd be familiar with our place if she has a good memory.  Notice the young one in the background still looking at me as if saying, "Take me home with you!"  

This one... still staring at me....

Or the older one.  


Well, we chose the older one.  She's bigger, she's proved herself as a mother, and she's visited here before.   Meet Babe.  She'll be coming home next Monday.  

That's her on the left, back when she visited our place.