Pearl got her brand today.

Well, I just got the update from David about Pearl's brand.  I want to update everyone and also share some more information on how and why this is done.

First of all here are the branding irons for my farm brand.  

Conser Run Farm Branding Irons

Here is a picture of the completed brand up close.

Pearl with her CRF (Conser Run Farms) brand up close.

Here she is after completing her checkup and branding.  She was understandably upset during the process but shortly after being let loose her and her herd mates were all back to playing and eating again.  

Pearl with her CRF (Conser Run Farms) brand!

Most of all animals in the west and upper west are grazed on range land.  This is public and privately owned land where the animals are allowed to roam and forage for food during the better months of the year.  In the beginning branding was started as a permanent way of marking cattle for ownership and to track who they were.  Several hundred years ago plastic and metal ear tags were not available.  Most brands started out simple.  However, over time, many different people needed to mark their cattle and the brands increased in complexity and size and number of characters. One famous one in the USA is the King Ranch which is the same W mark you see on the luxury package for the best ford trucks.

Here in Ohio most of all animals are well contained so plastic ear tags and simple neck chains with numbers will suffice.  However, if an animal does get loose and cannot be found and manages to tear the tag off then there is no way of identifying who the animal is or where this animal belongs.  A brand is a permanent, tamper resistant, easily identifiable way of marking an animal for owner ship and other identification reasons.  When animals are running on range lands they can easily end up in with someone elses animals.  Another problem is theft.  Before any animal, in states with branding laws, can be sold the owner of the brand has to sign off on the sales slip before the sale can take place.  This stops someone from simply catching someone elses cattle and selling them.

There are a couple of different ways of marking brands on animals that will be running on range land.  There are many different types of branding irons but the two main differences, that I currently have learned about, are hot or cold.  The brand is either burned on with brands that are dipped in liquid nitrogen and the burn is created by the extreme cold, or the brands are heated to red hot and the brand is burned in with heat.

Either way this is an uncomfortable event for the animal.  I would compare it to someone getting body piercings, tattoos, or other forms of body markings or changes.  The branding is normally done when the animals are young and only takes a minute or two to finish and they are back on their way without much discomfort afterward.  A cow's hide is much much tougher and thicker than human skin so the discomfort is not as bad and shorter lasting than it would be for us.  The brand only burns the first layer of skin and looks worse than it actually is. 

I know that many people disagree with this method of animal marking/tracking but I have not been told of or learned of a better way to date.  I know that there are different methods of using electronic tracking devices for pets here now but these can still be removed, replaced, or reprogrammed at will making them unusable in an area where theft can occur.

Either way, Pearl now has the only brand for an Ohio based farm in Montana, or at least her part of Montana and the only cow in the World with that marking!! 


Goodnight everyone and I wish everyone a great evening and and even better week!

Kenny

Happy Thanksgiving!!

First off I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  To those who are not from the USA it is a holiday to give thanks for what you have and spend time connecting with family you may only see once a year.  If you do not celebrate already I encourage you to start the tradition.  All you need is family, friends, and a lot of good food.  Then just eat, talk, relax and be thankful for all that you have and what you have accomplished!

It has been crazy busy here due to work and wrap up of some end of year projects and I haven't had the time to write.   We have been working long ours at work trying to wrap up some projects before the weather turns bad and with the short days and long nights it takes longer to accomplish tasks that require minimal time in the warmer months.

Some items that I am working on here on the farm are sending Pearl off to her new home in Montana.  Preparing for a feed bin to store the ground feed for the pigs.  Baling corn stubble for bedding and cleaning the barn to prepare for onset of cold weather and for piglets that will start arriving at the end of December. 

 In Montana you need to brand your cattle to give them a permanent, tamper resistant marking to be sure they are not stolen and can be sorted from other cattle when out on the range.  To send Pearl out she needed to have all her health papers and vaccines.  I also needed to register a brand for our farm that is applied after she has arrived and is inspected.  If done properly it will be a lasting identifier that she will allow her to live a happy life without worrying about her going missing or being stolen!

Conser Run Farms brand.

 Steven and his brother Josh drove Pearl to Montana while headed out to visit their brother, and my good friend, David for Thanksgiving.  They will be helping brand her and all his other momma cows today.  Here is a picture of her with her new pasture mates.  I cannot wait to see how she grows and matures out there.  I highly doubt she will ever complain about the weather here in Ohio as they day she left here it was in the 60's and 24 hours later when she got there it was about 10 degrees!

Pearl, charolais x angus heifer.

Sunday morning I needed to head to town to get oil change supplies for my work car and Steven's truck as well as some other stuff.  My wife and daughter headed to go grocery shopping leaving my son and I at home to do guy things!  So I asked him weather he wanted to take the Camaro (my work car) or the truck. Without hesitation he selected the truck!  So we got dressed and headed into town.  As soon as we pulled out of the driveway I turned on a local radio station and they had some pop song on and he immediately turned his hat around and started dancing in his seat!  So dang ornery!! 

Sunday night my wife fixed a wonderful meal.  She slow cooked shank cross cuts in a casserole dish with onions, carrots, celery, and some wonderful mix of seasonings!   Delicious!

Grass fed beef shank cross cut.

Monday after getting home from work it was time to send Pearl off on her trip.  My buddy David has a very hard time getting pork where he lives as the only place to get it is at the grocery store and it is not local.  So my wife and I sent him out a little pork care package with all the goodies in it like bacon (meat candy), ham, sausage, roasts, etc.  In exchange they will be sending back deer meat from their hunting expeditions this past week.  

 I wanted to part on a happy note.  Even our cats were enjoying Thanksgiving.  I found them cuddled up on the kid's bed Thursday before we left for dinner.  Gachan had his arms wrapped around Prissy enjoying the sunlight through the window.  I believe they were quite thankful for a warm house with soft beds and plenty of space to run and play, as well as the house to themselves for the next 6 hours while we were all at grandmas!!

Hope everyone is well and have a great day!

Kenny

Pearl is getting ready for a big trip and other farm happenings!

I have a good friend, David, who moved to Montana a couple of years back with his wife.  He is the oldest brother of Steven, my helper with the pigs.  He and I have discussed several times me sending a heifer out for him to start a herd with.  This year he started buying cattle to start a herd.  His brothers both decided to head out over thanksgiving to see him and take him a horse.  So I decided to send one of my two heifers this year to join his herd and for me to start an extension of my herd in a different state. 

She will be making the trip in a week.  Yesterday she got all her shots and vaccines and paperwork for traveling.  Just like when a person decides to travel to other parts of the world and must get immunizations and such so must animals when traveling from state to state or country to country.  I am both happy and sad to see her go.  I need to grow my herd size here but I also want to expand and help my buddy grow as well.  This also gives me an opportunity to try something new and spread out the risk of farming a little as we will be doing this on shares.  I will get a portion of the money she generates and I will purchase any of the heifers that she has to continue to increase my number of momma cows.  They will sell any bulls from their herd as well as any she has.  I wish her a safe journey and lots of fun on the ranges in Montana.  We will definitely have to go see her out there next year!

Pearl : Angus x Charolais.  Grand daughter of 50 and daughter of Precious.

My daughters birthday is on Monday.  After seeing my brother Martin, her uncle, line dancing at my sister's wedding, she decided she wanted to have a party this weekend for her birthday and have Martin come teach her and her friends how to line dance.  So we set up the computer and speakers in the garage and he came down to teach everyone some line dances.  I used to know them and do them all back when I was in 4-H and college but I haven't done any for many many years!  It was fun watching though!

Line dancing in the garage.

I do not know if I mentioned before but my parents are finally getting the chance to remodel the house and fix it up right for the first time in their lives.  I am happy to help when ever I can and I haven't been able to do much due to the really busy year.  However, I took a few days off of work to get some priority things fixed before the snow flies!  

They have not had a kitchen on the house since June or July so they have been cooking on the grill or the wood fire all summer outside in the covered patio.  They also have been heating the house with the wood burner that I grew up with.  That was great when we were all younger but now it is to be more for pleasure and backup than a main heating source.  When we tore the kitchen and porches off for construction we disconnected all the gas and external water lines from the house.  My parents headed to Columbus for the weekend to go to The Ohio State Buckeyes game and stayed overnight there and then went shopping for house supplies on Sunday.  So Martin and I found the cut waterline and tied into it with a new plastic line and got it run up and into the old basement on the house for future plumbing work to get the water back on to the cows.  We also reworked the piping that was messed up at the oil well and re-plumbed all the gas back into the house.

When I was about 5 years old the first oil wells were drilled on the farms.  We converted everything over to natural gas at that time.  As a kid I helped dad install all the gas and water lines in the house and learned very young how it all works.  I have a decent amount of experience dealing with the various parts and stuff so I took the opportunity to pass some of that knowledge on to my younger brother.  In the pic below he is wondering why I am taking pictures of everything.  I learned a while ago that you don't always remember where you buried things and a quick pic is an easy way of not forgetting!   We had a lot of fun and I look forward to working with him some more in the future.  Depending on how the new deep oil wells turn out in the area this may happen sooner than later!

My neighbor and I are exchanging an older feed bin of his for a bunch of the baling I did for him this year.  I am having rodent problems in the barn and I need a place to store the supplemental feed for the pigs that the birds, rats, mice, racoons, and anything else that wants to snack on it can't get into it through.  So I prepared a pad for some concrete to put it on.  The neighbor is going to be pouring concrete in his barn tomorrow so he will be pouring this at the same time.  Will be interesting with the rain moving in as the pad is right under the drip line of the barn.  I am headed out to form it up after I finish my blog today. 

I wanted to post of pictures of the blue stone steps that I was finally able to finish at work. 

Natural Bluestone steps on toprock

I cut them in around all the natural toprock we stacked to retain the hillside to make it look like we carved the steps into solid rock.

They curved in a gradual arc all the way down to the pool deck.

A view from the pool deck looking up.

The steps leading up to the top patio were much bigger pieces.  The top one was 7' x4' and took 5 guys to get into place.  They look awesome though!  Some day I want to do something like this at my house.  Will need to build a new house first!

Well, I got a lot of stuff to get done today so I better get to it.  Have a great day everyone!!

Kenny