New Babies...

One of my favorite parts of ranching is getting to see the results of hard work in person. Many people probably think you just throw a cow out in the pasture and put a bull out there and voila you get calves...but it's not quite that simple.

First you have to have the right kind(breed) of cow for the climate, the kind of cattle you want to produce...etc. Then you have to have the right kind(breed) of bull to cross with the cow to get the kind of offspring you desire.

For our program I picked cross bred cows (means they are mixed breed) with Brahman influence. Brahman cattle have large ears (helps them with the summer heat,) they are naturally bug resistant and they are very protective mothers (good for us since we have coyotes that would like to eat the babies.) Most of our cows are black in color but I also have some tiger stripe, red and red baldy cows. So in order to get a uniform group of calves (meaning they all look similar...this makes them more valuable when you are selling a large group) I was somewhat limited on the breed of bull I could use. I ultimately picked Charolais bulls. They are whit and will usually produce a white or tan calf not matter what color the cow is. Charolais are also very meaty and grow really quickly. Which is good since Brahman influenced cattle tend to be on the lighter muscled side and slower growing.

I went to 2 bull sales last year and bought bulls I was very proud of. I finally have my first group of babies on the ground from those bulls which brings me back to what I was originally saying...it's so neat to see all that work come to fruition.