Summed Up!

So here is how things have been shaking around here lately!  Aside from the usual hustle & bustle of spring in the Midwest and being married to a seed salesman/farm supply company manager, things have been fairly calm!  Calving is DONE....I repeat....CALVING IS DONE! Check, check.  We also have our "wintering" pastures chiseled, mulched and seeded back down and ready for some sunshine & moisture!  For those that aren't familiar with my jargon - "wintering" pastures on our farm are simply little pastures/lots that we put our cows and their young calves on until its time to go to the "big" pasture.  In our case, that time is early May.  Once early May arrives and the grass at our pastures has had a chance to get a head start, it's freedom at last!

This may sound crazy, so do not judge me, but I really think they sense where we are going when we start loading them on the trailer!  They've had their calf and they have hopefully been bred back for their next calf and it's GO time!

This year I made a point to walk out of the barn lot and down the hill in front of them so I could snap some high quality iPhone photos! Yes, there is a big white barn that I would love, love, love to restore and make it a home (LOL), but we only rent the pasture and it's out of our neighborhood....like 15 miles! I know, WOW, 15 miles - not that far.  We cannot haul all the cows and calves on one trailer.  Hello awesome friends that help out when needed!  I'll help you haul cows if you help me _____________________ <insert random farm work here>.  We try really hard to load the cows and calves on the same trailers for simplicity, but it doesn't always work that way.  We keep them in separate parts of the trailer to ensure the calves' safety.  A calf with a broken leg is a bad thing!  We arrive at the pasture and make sure the gate to go out of the barn lot and into the pasture is closed.  If you think a calf with a broken leg is bad, a calf that is disoriented and cannot find it's mama is even worse!  Once all the cows and calves are together we open the gate and away they go! No literally, they run and jump and kick and don't have a care in the world.  As a producer, I am just as excited and ready as they are.  Cows are born to graze.  Cows have grazed the grasses of this country for many, many years.  Let them be!

Below are some pictures I snapped with my trusty iPhone that day!  You can check out more pictures of daily "things" on our farm on my "A Day In The Life" page here on my blog!



Cows, calves, beautiful green grass, a windmill, blue
Illinois sky and a big white barn!


They are in heaven!


I have taken a lot of pictures of this creek over the past few years.
Mainly about a year and a half ago when it was about dry.  It's flowing freely
these days!


I was (patiently) waiting for a ride back home from the rye field so I
walked across the road and found our first calf heifers were pretty
curious and photogenic!  


Lovely May evening!