Busy Weekend! - Cattle & Scrapping

Last weekend we started setting the cows up to be Artificially inseminated. CIDR's were put in and first hormone shot were given. Tomorrow I go to purchase and pick up semen at Camp Cooley for a Santa Gertrudis bull, Yogi. We have the semen we need to inseminate the Lowline Angus. Saturday morning CIDR'S will be removed, a patch to detect estrus will be adhered to the top of the hip, and another hormone shot. Sunday is yet again another hormone shot. Monday morning we AI. Then the girls go to the specific pasture where they will be with a bull in case they do not conceive using AI. You might ask why we do this. Artificial Insemination allows us to introduce a top bull in a breed into our herd that we do not own. This gives us genetic diversity which is very important in any purebred breeding operation.

I have another thing to do this weekend. I'm attending a National Scrapbooking Day Online Crop! This is my one year anniversary for attending A Cherry on Top's NSD Crop. A Cherry on Top is an online Scrapbooking store and community. They host four crops a year. So come join us for a great time of games, prizes, classes (great ones scheduled), and just plain fun scrapping! Make sure you have your digital camera handy to post your layouts to the gallery! If you have never scrapped, stop by anyway, you might discover through the gallery it is something you might want to try. I heart A CHERRY ON TOP!

Photo credit: Photos of my layouts shared at ACOT.

Need a bumper sticker?

My bumper is free to hold a bumper sticker and I decided I needed this bumper sticker. Today it is free for registering at Humane Watch! So you might now be asking, what is Humane Watch? If you have followed my blog for very long you know I am not in favor of "Animal Rights" groups. I find them to produce spin which makes them appear to be animal welfare groups, coin terms that become common terminology, and basically turn unsuspecting Americans against Animal Agriculture Producers like me. Over time I have been called an animal abuser, factory farmer and just plain demonized. A visit to the ranch would show I am not an abuser of our cattle. We work very hard to provide an environment beneficial to both the cattle and wildlife. Then there is those cattle I have an emotional attachment to who are very special to me: Peyton and May are two. If we overstock our cattle then the wildlife can not thrive. If I manage for wildlife then my cattle thrive. Come join me and learn just how "Animal Rights" groups are slowly chipping away at your right to own an animal as a pet, in livestock production or your ability to hunt at Humane Watch or HumaneWatch on facebook.

A Day in the Life of a Farm Vet

With the numbers of rural vets dropping at an alarming rate across our country, it was a great treat today to find this blog and their page on facebook. Do you often wonder what really happens on a dairy (cow or goat)? Do you wonder what equipment I use to protect my animals while we provide routine or critical care in a beef cattle operation. Now you have the chance to see just how important a vet is to our production of beef cattle. I hope you'll follow "A Day in the Life of a Farm Vet" to learn more about how livestock producers bring you the safest food system in the world! Photo Credit: A Day in the Life of a Farm Vet