"After the Storm" clouds.

Hailstones picked up in the city of Leola, 9 miles east of the ranch. We didn't get any hail at the ranch in this storm!

We're almost done with our second cutting hay crop. After we bale the hay we move the bales off of the fields with our bale mover and row them.

Our spring cows and calves are all out on pasture and we're getting ready to pre-condition our spring calves. Here are some pictures of the calves out on pasture!

These three calves are out of our donor cows their sires are (from right to left) Schuler Endurance 2101Z (bull calf), Bieber Roosevelt W384 (heifer calf) and a Paringa Iron Ore E27 (heifer calf).

An Andras Fusion R236 bull calf.

Here is a Bieber Hard Drive Y120 bull calf. 

Two heifer calfs also from Bieber Hard Drive Y120

A heifer calf from Paringa Iron Ore E27.

A heifer calf from LSF RAB Exclusive 2793Z. 

Two heifer calves both from LSF SRR Triumph 3100A. 

Two heifer calves out of Leachman Vision A278Z.

Four bull calves all out of Bieber Roosevelt W384. 

A Bieber Roosevelt W384 heifer calf. 

A Schuler Endurance 2101Z heifer calf. 

Two shots of a Bieber Stormer Z433 heifer calf. 

Fireworks over Mina Lake from Eric & Megan's dock.

This past week on the ranch we pulled the bulls from their natural service bunch of spring calving cows. To pull the bulls we set of portable corrals in a few central locations. For most of the bunches we walked the cows and bulls to the corrals and used the corrals to load the bull on the trailer. For a few of the groups we sorted the bull from the cows and left the bull in the pasture. We then combined bulls into a few different pastures with other bulls that we knew would get along with each other. The bulls will stay out to pasture until they are needed for the natural service breeding period on our summer calving heifers and cows. After we got the bulls sorted from the pairs we combined several natural service groups of pairs into three large groups of cows. When we ultrasound these cows we will ultrasound one bunch per day using portable corrals and ranch headquarters. 

Here are a few of our Spring calves:

5 heifer calves from Andras Fusion R236

A bull calf from Bieber Rough Country A523

Here is one bull calf and three heifers all out of Bieber Hard Drive Y120.

Two bull calves from Paringa Iron Ore E27

Two bull calves from LSF SRR Triumph 3100A

Two GMRA Peacemaker 1216 bull calves

One bull calf and one heifer calf both out of Bieber Rollin Deep Y118

A Bieber Rouse Samurai X22 bull calf 

Lastly a Bieber Stormer Z433 heifer calf.

While we're busy haying the spring pairs are out on pasture in their natural service sire groups. Over the next few weeks we will pull the bulls, combine all of the pairs into larger groups, then ultrasound the spring cows. Any open cows will re-bred AI and put into another natural service sire group and bred to join our summer calving cowherd.

Here are a few of this years spring calves:

The three bull calves above and the two heifer calves below are all out of Andras Fusion R236. 

Here are two Bieber Rough Country A523 bull calves (below).

These next five calves are all out of Bieber Hard Drive Y120.

Here's one Paringa Iron Ore E27 bull calf.

These last five calves are all out of Bieber Rollin Deep Y118.

Our pastures are full of nice green grass. How is the pasture and hay crop looking in your area?

A bull calf out of Bieber Spartacus A193

Left: A heifer calf out of Bieber Hard Drive Y120

Right: A Bieber Rolling Deep Y118 bull calf.

Above: A Bieber Spartacus A193 bull calf 

Below: An Andras Fusion R236 bull calf.

Left: A Bieber Rollin Deep Y118 bull calf 

Right: A Bieber Hard Drive Y120 bull calf 

Left: A Bieber Hard Drive Y120 heifer calf

Right: A LSF Exclusive 2793Z heifer calf

Below: Another Bieber Hard Drive Y120 bull calf 

One of our newest summer calves, a bull out of a Durheim cow and a Makin Hay son X390.

Above: A Bieber Hard Drive Y120 bull calf.

It's been a cold week here in Leola with a couple days in the negative teens. So far we are 135 calves into the 2015 Calving Season. We are almost done with the AI bred heifers with around 25 left to calve along with 57 bull bred heifers left to calve. The AI bred spring calving cows are set to start on February 22nd. In the next week or so we're going to start cycling pairs out of the calving barn and out to pasture so we can start to bring in the cows. This week we installed some panelling to create a calf pen in each of the pairs pens. This gives the calves a place to rest that keeps them safe from being accidentally stepped on.

We vaccinate each calf intranasally with Inforce 3 for the prevention of respiratory disease caused by BRSV. Here are some shots of CraigH and Dillon vaccinating a pen of pairs. After they vaccinate a calf they mark it with a paint stick. 

This week with temperature around -10s and wind chills well below that it's too cold even with the new calving barns for a newborn calf. The fully enclosed old calving barn makes it a bit warmer and we can keep the individual pens bedded extra heavy. On these really cold days we try to walk heifers down into the old barns as soon as they start to calve. That way she can calve in the old building and we can pen the pair as soon as she has the calf. If they calve in the new building on these cold days we will sled the calf down to the old barn. Once the calf is dry, has successfully nursed and bonded with it's dam, we walk the pair back up to a pairs pen in the new calving barns. When the temperature is warmer we let them calve in the new barns and dont bring the pairs down to the old barns. 

A brand new calf born in the new calving barn. We sledded him down to our old calving barn where the pair stayed until he was dry.

Craig H walking a group of heifers who had all just started to calve down to the old barns to have their calves.

Here are some more pictures of our 2015 calves so far!

Last Wednesday Peggy was putting the finishing touches on the powerpoint presentation that is available for viewing in the Bieber Red Angus booth out at the Black Hills Stock Show going on now for the next week in Rapid City, SD. If you're visiting the stock show stop by and see us!

Here's the booth all set up!

While Peggy was working on the powerpoint Craig and CraigH were working on writing/editing footnotes and making sure the layout and data is correct in the catalog! 

It's been another wonderfully mild week. We've seen temperatures in the mid 40s! Although starting today it's supposed to get a bit cooler down into the 20s. Even at 20 degrees it's still great weather to calve heifers! They started earlier this week and have been calving at a nice consistent pace. The 160 AI bred heifers are all due to calve now, with 57 bull bred heifers due within 30 days. The AI bred spring calving cowherd is due to calve on February 22nd! It's going to be a busy next couple weeks in the calving barns!

Tom bringing the girls breakfast!

The warm weather has the calves feeling extra spunky!

Overall we like the new calving buildings but are still getting used to them. After we have used them a bit more we're planning on posting a more indepth review of the buildings. Including what we like and what we would change for those of you thinking about making a similar investment. We would like to invite anyone interested in seeing the buildings in action to stop by the ranch anytime or plan to join us at Bieber Fever VIII on March 5th here at the ranch!