Tag: calving season

Calving Season

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My Blog2 Comments

I’ve been contemplating, ruminating, & pondering life this week. Do you ever have phases like that? Seasons where life feels deep? Not because it’s bad—it’s not. I’m truly grateful for each day that God gives me breath in my lungs. 

It’s more like: there’s a yearning for more. A longing for growth. An awareness of a “not yet, but someday moment.” As a deep thinker and feeler, sometimes I miss what’s right in front of me because I’m stuck inside my head. 

So this week, I’ve tried to pay attention to small wonders. They are frequent & everywhere—mighty miracles masked in ordinary rhythms. Sunsets. Raindrops slashing against concrete. The taste of fresh berries. The slurp of a baby calf. 

Right now is calving season. The newborns are frolicking through fields & playing hide-and-seek.

As most of you know, it’s possible when twins are born for the mom not to claim both. We had that happen recently. Mom only claimed one—leaving us with a bottle calf. 

The last couple days, I’ve had the chance to bottle feed. The calf is so excited to see you, they dance to the bottle & head butt you when it’s empty. 

The miracle of life is so grand & yet so simple. Eat, play, love. Watching a baby animal reminds me of the importance of the ordinary. The mighty miracles masked in the ordinary: Food. Shelter. Snuggles. 

When life feels weighty, maybe it’s a reminder to stand in awe of the basics. The kid stuff. The simplicity. We are so fortunate to have each day that we are given—and all the miracles saturating every moment. 

What mighty miracles do you notice in your every day life?

Nearly Calving…

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

cardwell ski day, cattle pics 074
Some of the new girls.

It’s almost that time for us–calving season! I know its cliché, but calving season and spring are true reminders of the cycle of life. The snow will stop (although sometimes in Montana we wonder). Trees will become green. Everything that slowed for the harsh temperatures and weather patterns of winter will indeed come to life again in the spring.

As I’ve mentioned before, we downsized when we moved, selling our herd. We’ve had short-term cattle and steers and now we are building back a small herd. We picked up a few “late” calvers from some friends. They begin calving in January, but we prefer to aim for the first of April. Their lates were our on-times.

Most every rancher has their calving preference. Some like after the first of the year because it allows for older calves in the fall, it doesn’t interfere with spring farming, and rebreeding happens before you turn them out to pasture in the summer.

We like April calving because the temperatures are milder and we don’t have indoor facilities. We have very minimal farming on our place and historically our calves gain well by November. This timing works for us, but each producer must do what works best to fit their needs. Where a small group didn’t fit the winter calving bunch on one place, they were a perfect addition to our pasture.

Wouldn’t it be handy if everything in life worked that way? There are avenues were it does: that’s why craigslist and garage sales are successful.

Don’t you ever wonder sometimes though–what does work best? Certainly trial and error are great teachers. If you happen to have heritage on a place, perhaps time has shown you what works best. However, conditions (people included) change over time. It isn’t ever a bad idea to create a business plan for ranching. (More on business plans in ranching next week.) Having a vision of where you are going will help you take steps in the right direction.

We began ranching from scratch and we are thankful for the piece of land we have now. Is it feasible to stock it with a lot of cattle? Absolutely not. It’s going to need a few years of TLC before it reaches maximum production. It is in our best interests to have a small scale operation focused on instilling quality grazing for meat production. Our goal this fall isn’t to sell to a feedlot, but to sell high quality veal to consumers.

We believe in a symbiotic relationship between land and animals. This vision gives us an opportunity to grow and care for both land and animal alike with a family focused production. We’re quite excited about this spring…

Let the calving commence!