Skip to main content

At the Sale Barn

 On Monday, we borrowed a stock trailer from Aaron's grandparents and went to get ourselves some cows. We had been wanting to for a while but we had a really dry summer and a busy summer. It finally started raining in July so we decided to go get some cows with more of a long term view in mind. The girls and I wanted a calf/cow pair and Aaron wanted a steer. The nearest sale barn is in Calhan which is about an hour and a half to the east of us. The sale started at noon. We got there and got our number. They were auctioning pigs at the time so we decided to get some hamburgers and corn dogs at the sale barn cafe as we weren't interested in pigs. The food was good. We finished eating and then watched some goats and sheep get auctioned off. Finally it was time for the cows.
 We knew there weren't many calf cow pairs available so we were nervous about getting one. The first pair that came out was really pretty but went too high. The next that came out had a wild mamma. She ran around the ring, nearly trampling her calf. She butted the rails. As soon as she came out you could just feel everyone in the sale barn saying, not taking that one. They finally separated her from her calf and sold her by the pound and then sold her calf separate. They also randomly threw out single calves. Some had bunged up legs and went for very cheap. They put an bigger bull calf in that looked healthy. No one was bidding on him. The price went down to $150 and we decided to take him. He was smaller that what we were originally planning to buy but it was a deal that we couldn't pass up. So that took care of the "steer".  They sent out a bony and old mom and calf and then finally another mom and calf that had come of f of drought range but still looked decent and the mom seemed docile. We waited for the bid price to go down as no one was bidding. The auctioneer finally took them down to $800 and us and one or two others started bidding and we got them for $860. Mom looked a bit bony but she still weighed in at over 1000 so felt like we did good with that as well. We got our tickets payed and were loaded by 3:00 or 3:30. We headed home and go them all unloaded into the corral without incident.
 On the way home the girls named the calf/cow pair Midnight (calf) and Chloe (mamma). The bull calf was named Mooey. Mooey has turned out to be a very appropriate name. Mooey apparently misses his mamma very much. He has a very loud voice and has bawled a lot since coming to our place. Hopefully he will quite that in another day or two or we may have a problem with our neighbors. He is a very friendly little guy and likes people and likes having his head scratched. Chloe seems very calm but she is not to interested in people coming close to her or her calf.




I will try to get better pics of the herd later. The grass in the corral was so tall we could hardly even see the little calf one we unloaded everyone.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is great! I look forward to more tales of Mooey Midnight and Chloe!
brittany
August 6, 2018 at 11:44 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Animal Happenings

 It looks like the last update I posted on animals was about going to the sale barn and getting cows. As a reminder we got a calf/cow pair and a "weaned" calf: Chloe, Midnight, and Mooey. Chloe and midnight are some kind of black angus mix and midnight is part Holstein. Midnight and Mooey will eventually be our meat cows. We hope to AI Chloe sometime in the near future for another calf. Midnight, her calf pictured below (much littler in the pic than he is now) is a very good looking steer. He could go to the fair if he wanted. This is a picture of him getting out of his fence and coming in the yard. He still gets out from time to time. Having a mama calf keeps both the steers in line though. They are much better about not getting crazy, unlike some other steers we could name from the past, but won't. We ended up having to feed quite a bit of hay this winter as we had snow cover from November to end of March. We got our barn built about January and began collecting more ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getaway to Ticks Bend....I Mean Beavers Bend State Park

 Back in April, we decided we needed to do a short family getaway after the semester was over. The last time we'd been on vacation just to vacation (not going to see family in CO) was when we went to San Antonio when Maddy was 3 months old. We found Beavers Bend State Park close to Broken Bow, OK and decided to go there. We booked a cabin in the state park and eagerly awaited the day we could take off for our getaway. We left on Sunday afternoon and stayed through Tuesday afternoon. It was short, but so fun and relaxing. We had no computer and no cell phones while we were up there. We just got to enjoy being around each other and the beautiful scenery.  We built a fire and roasted some marshmallows. Also popped some jiffy pop. Aaron had never done one of those before.  This is a 100 year old cabin they had at the visitor center. I like the mud chinking ( I think that's what it's called). A couple named Comma and Mabel lived in the cabin when the CCC was building t...
4 comments
Read more

Raccoons

We've been plagued with the nasty devils this week. We accidentally left dog food on the porch one night. Fortunately, Aaron saw the raccoon sneaking a snack before he headed to bed. We chased it off but woke up to find one of our chickens had been it's victim. I have been super careful to make sure no food has been left out but the raccoon has been back. I heard a terrible confrontation in the woods on Tuesday night between a raccoon and SOMETHING in the woods. The SOMETHING whimpered as the raccoon hissed and spit. I hope that whatever the SOMETHING was it is ok. It sounded like a dog so I am wondering if it was a coyote vs. raccoon showdown. One of our cats stays out all the time and I thought at first it was her. I was out banging a bucket with a stick and yelling trying to get the raccoon to leave. Turns out the cat was on the deck cool as a cucumber. We had been letting Whiskers and kittens stay outside as well but now we go through the nightly routine of putting them in ...
Post a Comment
Read more