Friday, October 05, 2007

New Cattle in the Stoneyfield Herd

Yesterday we took a family trip down to the farm to check out the new cows in the daylight and to do a little work around the farm. I was able to help my dad mow a little bit of hay. Hopefully, weather depending, it will be baled on Saturday. It is not a very big section, but will yield around a 100 small squares and it has a decent amount of clover in it. Just a little more to add to the stock pile. If we are able to make some more we will possibly be able to sell some this winter. Also, we set up a new pasture for the herd, but didn't move them there yet. We will be doing it soon once we get a couple more pieces for the fences. All in all it was a good day.

As you have noticed I have added a few pictures of our new Dexters. The first picture (above) is of most of them in the lower part of our pasture. We close it up from time to time to let the grass come back a little bit, plus we had it closed the first night we brought the new ones home because it is enclosed with two strands of electric fence. We just thought it wouldn't be a fair fight with them not knowing where the fence was in the dark and all!

The second picture down is of A.A. Mandy. She is our ten year old cow and is bred, due to calve sometime this coming year. I am glad that we have her because she is an experienced cow, but at the same time she has her faults. That is part of the reason I have been trying to research bulls so much ... because we have plenty to improve upon!

The picture on the left is of our new 13 month old heifer, Billie of K&K. I really like the looks of her so far. I'm no expert, but when I look at her compared to some others I've seen I see some decent traits. Again, she needs a nice bull to improve some of her flaws in her calves, but I like what I'm seeing so far. I can see her sticking around Stoneyfield for a quite awhile if she is a good mother. Also, I like the slightly darker shade of dun that she is sporting.

Finally, this picture on the right is of our unnamed two and a half month old bull calf. I'm not sure what is going to happen to him yet. I do like his looks so far, and I believe he comes from some decent linage. Right now we are just going to let him grow and see how he develops. It is kinda fun having the little guy around and watching him in the pasture. I took some other photos and some video so you will need to keep checking back for those updates. I'll get to them sooner or later!

I'm also happy to see how well RAD's Victoria and our steer are coming along. They both seem to be filling out nicely and are really starting to get a nice shine on their coats. Like I mentioned, it was a very enjoyable and relaxing day. There is just some relaxing and quiet about being around these Dexters ... I really seem to like it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A.A. Mandy has some udder! Are you milking her? She looks like she is about to calf any minute. She does come from some nice lines. Those red/duns in her lineage I would bet are actually duns as the Woodmagic line only had duns to my knowledge.

Anonymous said...

I have never figured out how to long onto these forums. This is Linda/Clover Bell from Vanleer Tennessee. I left you a pm on the new Irish Dexter site that Olga from Arkansas set up. Feel free to respond via the same. Thanks

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