Friday, December 14, 2012

The "new era"

If you remember this post, you know that Grandpa and his brothers quit milking and sold all their dairy cows last August. They didn't retire completely, however. They're still farming, and recently they've acquired some new livestock to take care of. The young ones arrived this week on Wednesday, so since Courtney was here again yesterday after school, she and I went over to see them and take some pictures.

It was somewhat dark in the barns, so photo-taking wasn't the best. Here you can see a lot of eyes!


This next one's a little better (with a little editing help). These are the new "babies"... 150 holstein bull calves. Yep, black and white... just like the ones that used to be born there. If you look closely, you can see a red and white one in there, too. I guess there are a few of those.


Photos turned out much better when the calves came closer!



After visiting there, we went to what used to be the dairy loafing barn. Because it's cold now, everything is closed up for warmth, so it was pretty dark in there, too. More eyes:


This barn has 172 head of bred angus cows which arrived a few weeks ago. They pretty much all look like this:


There are a couple with some white markings. I managed to get a not-very-clear picture of one of them:


These animals take a lot less care and time than dairy cows! It'll be interesting to see how it goes when they begin having their calves in February.

Courtney wasn't too excited about seeing the cows and calves. She enjoyed the dog more.


That's "Scoobie". She's getting pretty old and slow. This chair in the break room is her preferred spot on cold days.



Lucky dog, huh?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! You got some really good shots in the barns. I love the shiny eyes and your commentary.
Some of those shots are almost spooky.
A new era indeed!
Good picture of Scoobie in her chair.

Dale

Grandma G said...

Thanks, Dale!

Anonymous said...

Those men can not give up cows and I love it that they went back to Holstiens. If they got any other kind you would have had to write a syllabus and have orientation and training classes. As always Mark

The Luedtke Family said...

I like the comments about the eyes! Totally helped give me a picture. Hope all goes well!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the pictures of the new "bossies". I have been wondering what they look like. Glad to see Scoobie is hanging in there too...such a sweet dog.
Ellen

Grandma G said...

They're learning that angus don't handle quite like holsteins, Mark! They're a bit more challenging in some ways.

Thanks, Becky!

You're welcome, Ellen!