This week we're taking a look at some of our summer calves. The summer cows were AI bred the beginning of August and are currently out with their natural service sire groups. After weaning the summer bulls and heifers are split into their own pens in our feedlot. The summer heifer calves are developed and added to our replacement heifer group to be AI bred in the spring. The bull calves are developed in the feedlot through the winter and are turned out to pasture for the spring/summer months. In the fall those bull calves are brought back into the feedlot and are developed and sold on the Fall Production sale as Coming 2 year olds. These bulls are virgin bulls that have never been offered for sale prior to the Fall Production sale!

Here are a few shots of this years summer calves:

Two summer bull calves by Andras Fusion R236.

A summer heifer calf by Andras Fusion R236

out of a Bieber Rough Rider 10712 daughter.

A RHRA Gold Rush 710T summer bull calf out of a Chief Sequoya R336 daughter.

Another summer bull calf from RHRA Gold Rush 710T

out of a Bieber Victor 10535 daughter.

Two summer bull calves from Bieber H Hughes W109.

Bieber Roosevelt W384 never misses an oppourtunity to pose for a picture. This time from the next pasture out where he's in with his natural service sire group.

Summer heifer calf from Bieber Real McCoy Y124.

Two summer bull calves from Bieber Rollin Deep Y118.

Summer Heifer calf from Bieber Roosevelt W384.

This week on the ranch we have been working on a few fix-it projects to get the feed yard ready for weaning in just a couple weeks. One of the main projects was fixing a concrete panel in one of our bunkers. The panel fell down and broke after a heavy rainstorm this spring. We replaced it with a spare panel that we had and the project turned out to be quite the challenge.

Here are a few shots of the action:

The 'all fixed' shot. This bunker will store this winters corn supply in a couple weeks.

This week we also finished up our second cuttting haycrop. We'll get all of our round bales that we put up this year moved into our hay yard and stacked to be fed this winter. We also buy some small square bales of hay to feed in our calving barn pens during calving season. Those bales were delivered this week in our large calving barn. We then loaded it into the skidsteer bucket and lifted it above the calving pens where it was stacked. 

We took a break Saturday to attend the Rumble on the Prairie: Bulls & Broncs in Leola. The ranch sponsored the pickup men.

This week our big project was to ultrasound the spring cowherd and gave all the spring calves their preconditioning vaccinations. It's always a big job but this year we had plenty of help around the ranch with Erica, Grant, Alex and Sabrina there to help!

Erica & Sabrina riding Blondie.

We preconditioned and ultrasounded 2 days here at ranch headquarters and 1 day at Durheims. Each day we started out early to gather the group and walk them into the corrals. Then we sort the cows away from the calves, and then sort the heifer calves from the bull calves. All of the calves recieved 3 vaccinations, One Shot, Ultrabac 7 and Bovi-Shield Gold FP5 L5 along with a dose of Multi-Min, an injectable mineral supplement. The vets also give all the heifer calves their Bangs vaccination and cooresponding tattoo. All of the calves are then tattooed with our breeder code RAB in their right ear and the calf's individual identification number (tag number) in their left ear. 

After we're done working both the bull and heifer calves we then pregnancy ultrasound the cowherd. While the cows are in the chute we trim the hair around their eartags to make sure we can read their tags! Out of the chute we sort the open cows off, pair the cow with her calf and keep them grouped seperatly to be bred to join the summer cowherd!

Last week we AI bred our summer cowherd. We synchronized all of the cows using the 7 day CIDR protocol for the cows and a 14 day CIDR protocol for the heifers. Next week Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday we are pre-conditioning the spring calves, so they'll be ready to wean in mid-September.

This week we also had a tour group from Anderson County, Kentucky. The Anderson County Cattlemen's Association takes a trip each year to tour farms and ranches across the country. They began taking these trips over 30 years ago with groups up to 58 people. A few years ago the group visited their 50th state. They were wonderful people who were excited to learn about agriculture throughout the country. We really enjoyed visiting with them and were honored that they choose to visit BRAR. 

Looking through the first group of spring calving cows.

Erica and Belle dog keeping the cows close so the group can look through them, while Alex, Luka and Mike (below) watch the other side of the cows. 

Looking through the second group of spring calving cows.

Walking through an old farmhouse in one of our pastures. Ron calls this house a Transition house. When they built the house they couldn't get insulation and instead insulated the house with sod between the walls. 

We finished the day by looking through our summer bulls. These bulls were born last summer and will be sold as Coming 2s on our November Production sale. After the tour we enjoyed a great supper at the Ten-45 Cafe in Leola where they served our guests some German classics including cheese buttons, fry sausage with sauerkraut and Kuchen.