Nov. 9th,’09-A perfect day to rodeo it up @ Welcome Home Farm. We usher the belloring bossies to the back of the cattle lot. Doc Tom and I working silently and just subtley spread the herd towards confinement. It’s a mish mash of Mama’s wanting their 6 month old calves @ their sides. The beef calves are weaned around 600 pounds.  Mucky mud sucks @ our tall boots as we step off the concrete cattle lot to push the girls. I venture in the pen that will hold the weaned calves when we seperate them from the cows. Tom has the shed all bedded up with corn stalk bales and the calves are momentarily distracted with sorting the corn husks out of the un-rolled bales. There’s 5 Mama cows that needed sorting out yet. It’s black or red angus calves with the potential to fire a kick @ us. It’s deafening belloring and the calves stare @ me as they feel the strong desire to return to the brood cows. I wave a arm like a traffic director. Just silent communication as I move a hand and wave the mama’s out of the pen with Tom running the gate. It’s us being silent, slow and patient with them. It’s really like watching a careful dance between Tom and I and our cattle.  We appear non-chalant and when I move the whole herd I fan my gaze over them all. When there’s one animal that needs to be re-located-I lock onto it’s eyes and tell it where to go verbally,then use gesticulations and a few soft vocal clucks and clicks to entice them towards the desired location. The dance is done and we discuss over the balling calves, when to vaccinate and work them and how to set our schedule.  Patches, Tom’s 20 year old pet Simmental Cross bossie,  and her  black calf are adding to the belloring.

Weaners are belloring!!

Sue and Doc Tom Roskos