Home, home on the winter range....

The cows are out on the winter range now. Thankfully, the grass is not buried in snow but the snow that is there is good for the grass because it softens it up a little, and with each bite of grass the cows take, there's a little drink of "snow water" that goes down with it. Each day from now until they calve, we go out to them, honking the horn and calling for them to gather them up for feeding, and they come on the run for they know the hands that feed them! We feed them alfalfa cake, which is alfalfa (type of hay) that is compressed into a 1x4" cylinder which is easy for them to eat and easy for us to store. The cake is high in protien which provides that extra boost of nutrition for the calf growing inside each cow.



I wish you could hear my husband call the cows. We each do it in our own way, but it goes something like this: "WOOOooooo cows, WOOOOooooo cows, Calvies (lilting), Calvies (lilting), WOOOooooo cows." A good rattling of the buckets or a slamming down of the end gate is another good "cattle call." They know the sounds of unloading cake.