Cattle get lost in a Blizzard…

So one of our two red cows had a calf the other day, but he actually ended up dying. So we took the bottle calf that we have and grafted it onto her. But I don't know if they love each other yet. Yeah, that was perfect. We were going to make him suck, put her in the head catch, but she did it up for us. So that works. Nice. But yeah, he needs a little help figuring it out. Is that bubs? Think he sucked? Huh? I don't know, maybe he has sucked her down. Her tits are pretty empty. She must have got her drink sometime. He's got to figure it out. So we skinned the dead calf of this red cow and put the hide on this bugger. As you can tell, he's a lot bigger than the dead calf was. She didn't take to him right away, so I'm going to leave the hide on him for another probably day or so. It's okay. Say hi. We'll just let him figure it out for a while. He knows he's got the right idea. Oh, he loves you. Sometimes. Not all the time. He's just got a lot of energy. And he likes my hair. Yeah, he wants to eat your hair. I don't blame him. It's pretty luscious. Oh, good morning, buddy. Nice day, huh? We got some snow. What do you think of that? Not very enthused about it. Let's go feed the cows, okay? Let's go feed the cows. Morning, girls. Morning, everybody. We're in the middle of a little spring blizzard here. It's not too bad. We've probably got three or four inches of snow. It's about 25, 30 degrees. But it's supposed to get a lot worse from what they're saying. It's supposed to get a couple feet of snow or maybe a foot of snow. I don't know. But the cows, they're ready to eat. These spring storms do make things a little more difficult. But we're really thankful for the moisture. Usually, these spring blizzards, the snow's got a lot of moisture in it, which we know we're going to need real soon to get the grass growing. And there's a lot of snow up in the hills. It's still probably up to your knees up there. I think, total, they've probably had eight or nine or ten feet. So it's going to be some good grass up there. Going to fill up the little creeks and all the little dugouts full of water. It should be perfect for the cows grazing this summer. Well, we got one group fed. The wind is picking up. Snow's starting to blow a lot more. Just going to take kind of a quick look over all the calves and make sure everybody's feeling good. I'm not sure this is all the cows out here, though, so I might have to go look for the rest. Doesn't look like it's all of them. Everybody looks to be doing okay. Yes, sir. Easy, cow. You guys got a nice spot. It's really important we find the rest of these cows. They are bred for these harsh winter conditions, but if they don't get feed, then they aren't going to fare nearly as well. So they're probably in a draw somewhere. I don't know where. We'll go look for them. But they're probably up, hidden in a draw out of the weather somewhere. If we do get two feet of snow like they're talking. Okay, buddy. If we do get two feet of snow like they're talking and the wind picks up like it's supposed to, they could get drifted in in that draw with no feed. So we want to make sure they come, find the hay that I'm feeding the others. We're probably missing 100 pairs or more. And since these cows are lactating, they're feeding their calves too, they got to keep up their milk supply. They really need to come and get some feed. Really. So we better go look for them. Huh, Angus? Yeah, let's go look for them. I went and looked for the rest of the cows because that definitely wasn't all of them. Found the rest hiding in a little pocket up here. Come on, cows. Let's go. I got some food for you down here. Come on. G'mas, g'mas, g'mas. I want to make sure they go find the hay. Otherwise, they'll just stay up here in this hole all day and not get anything to eat. G'mas, g'mas, g'mas. G'mas, g'mas. We found them, buddy. Man, they're excited to find some food. Well, it's a good thing we found them. We got them back with the rest. Got them to where I've been feeding the others or where I fed the others this morning. And they are excited to see that hay. Yeah, that looks a lot more like it. Well, they'll just keep coming. There's only a couple left. They'll all be down here. Only got three bulls here. The rest must be down in the draw, too. They'll come up. This pasture's not nearly as big as where the cows are, so I'm not too worried about them. They know where their food is. They feed them at the same spot every day. Bud, these three, they're going to get some delicious cake. Here's a couple more bulls. Oh, they're all here. Come on, boys. I got some cake. Come on. You want some cake, Bud? Come on. There they come. Bulls are putting on some weight again, which is great. They're looking in good breeding condition. This one bull that was sick last fall, if you guys can remember, he's starting to bounce back a little bit. He's filling out a little more. They must be fighting. He's kind of probably the weakest one of the group. But they must be fighting. He's got a bloody spot on his hip. Maybe they pushed him into a fence or something. He looks the worst of all of them, but he looks a lot better than he did. So he's on the uphill, man, which is great. He keeps eating. Get some cake. Get some nice feed. He'll be ready to breed some cows, too. What's up, big fella? Looks like they're all here. Thankfully, we aren't really calving now. We might have 20 stragglers or so, but not many at all left. Most of these in here have calved. We're just working on taking them, getting them all sorted out. But, yeah, I'm glad we aren't calving today. There might be one or two. We'll keep an eye on them. But for the most part, we don't really have to worry about them too much. The last 20 or so late ones are just going to kind of drag along for a little while until we're all done. And it sure feels good to have empty barns, to be done calving. It's a busy time, a great time. But there's no better feeling than being done. No cows except the one that Damaris and I grafted. I'm going to check on it real quick. There she is. Look at that. Looks like he was sucking. So they're getting along. Nice. Good job, mama. There you go, buddy. You're free. While she seems to like him, I just took the skin off of him. And he was just sucking again without the skin on. So I'm going to say they pretty well like each other and they're paired up. So that is a good feeling. This graft wasn't quite as smooth as the other ones. I think I grafted it yesterday or the day before. That little clip with Damaris and I at the beginning. So we just left them in a pen for a day or two, and they finally came around. Doing all right, little squirt? Yeah, you feel good. How about you? Oh, yeah, you feel nice and warm. All right, good. Got our little calf alleyway finished up. Seems like it's going to work real nice. Let calves in. Drop it, keep a whole bunch in here. Then right to the shoot now. So everything's set up and ready for branding. It's supposed to warm up to 60s after the storm passes in, like, two days. And after that, we'll probably brand our first group. I'm excited to see how this will work. Find a bed, buddy. Find a bed. Good job. Good boy. Hey, honey. What are you cooking? A lot of things. A lot of things? Yeah. Some supper. Some supper and some cookies. Some cookies. Those two are flops. I don't know. They're bubbly. Oh, I love flops. What kind of cookies are they? They are lemon poppy seeds. Wow. They need a glaze. Do they? Yeah. How's Bubs feeling? He's okay. Looks like he wants off his belly. Yeah. He caught a little cold this week. So he's not feeling great. But you think he's feeling better today? No, I gave him Tylenol. Oh, you did? Hey, buddy. Are you singing with the otter? Hey, pal. You want to roll over? You can do it. There you go. Hi. Hey, bud. Hello. Are you feeling okay? How about we turn this off? If we can figure it out. There we go. Hey, cutie. How you doing? You want to go play in the snow? You're not that old. No, probably not. Maybe when you're a little older, huh? What is this thing, huh? You want to hold it? Here. There you go. Now you're filming. Not too bad. Well, thank you guys for coming along today. We'll see how bad this storm gets. It's supposed to get a little bit more snow, but I don't know. Then the wind is supposed to pick up. And it should be pretty fun. So we'll see you in the next one. I'm going to eat some yummy food. And some flop cookies. They're pretty good, honey. Maybe they're all flops.