Last night at 2:30 am my alarm clock starts chirping at me forcing me to pull myself out of my perfectly warm and cozy bed…time for another cattle check. I stumble across the floor trying to pry my eyes open as I make my way out to the freezing cold Minnesota winter weather. As I make my way through the herd looking at all the up and coming mother cows I long to sink back into my nice fluffy blankets for a few more hours of peaceful slumber.
In all honesty, apart from the dreaded night checks calving season is one of the most rewarding seasons here on the ranch. It is a really neat experience to see the circle of life that takes place throughout the year. One of my favorite things to do is to just sit and watch the calves as they play and you can start to see their personalities coming through. And they are just plain cute!
We were lucky enough this year to get a set of twins from our prized milk cow! There is a lot that can go wrong during labor when a cow is pregnant with twins but for this cow she couldn’t have had a more perfect delivery! The morning I had found them in the barn I had been running on 4 hours of sleep that night due to working a late shift at the restaurant and coming home to a cow who was calving at midnight. Waking up that next morning at 5:00 am wasn’t an easy thing to do, but it was definitely rewarding to walk out to the barn to find two beautiful babies on the ground. This particular cow, named Crystal, is one that was born here at K Creek Ranch many years ago and has been serving us well ever since. We will leave the calves on for a little while to give them a great jump start on growth before we start milking the cow and feeding the calves with a bottle. Crystal produces the best tasting milk we have ever drank, she is definitely a gem to have around!
And here is one of my favorite little faces of the year! I am very partial to the Black Angus/Hereford cross genetics. Not just because they are the cutest darn calves on the planet but they are also a very productive breed to have around. K Creek Ranch started with 3 bred Hereford heifers when I just knee high to a grasshopper. To this day we still have their genetics running through the herd, with daughters, grand daughters and great grand daughters producing calves for us each year. This calf in the next picture is a grandson to one of the original Hereford cows that started our ranch!
Even though calving season comes with a lot of sacrifices it also comes with a lot of joys! I will be keeping you updated with news as we continue on with this great season!
Here’s to loving what you do and thanking God for the many blessings!
I’ll see you soon!