# Bull pinching day ouch and weaning



## Royd Wood (Oct 15, 2011)

Well its that time of year and my young bulls are starting to get randy at 7 - 8 months old so we pinched 4 today and did the ear radio frequency disks. Weaning starts Sunday so the phone will be ringing by Sunday night from our neighbours just checking all is ok with the cows as the mooooooooooooooooing will be pretty bad till they lose their voices.
We also tattood the heifer calves which are joining the breeding stock and they must be tattood before we show them at the Royal winter fair in Toronto.
This year we will enter 2 heifer calves and 2 yearling heifers.
Last year bearing in mind that we are strictly grass fed we got a 7th and 8th out of 16 in the Galloway calf show. This year I think my red Galloway heifer calf is going to do better and may surprise a few of the grain fed gang ???????????????????????????????????????????????


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## Ms. Research (Oct 16, 2011)

Wishing you luck at the show!

BTW, hope this isn't a silly question, what is bull pinching?  Is that like neutering?  Sorry, city folk question.


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## redtailgal (Oct 16, 2011)

Hey, I'd like to see a pic of your red galloway..........


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Oct 17, 2011)

Sounds like a busy time around the farm!  Good luck for the upcomming fair.  Can't wait to hear how you do this year!


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## aggieterpkatie (Oct 17, 2011)

Good luck with weaning!  And definitely post pics of your show girls!!


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## Royd Wood (Oct 17, 2011)

redtailgal said:
			
		

> Hey, I'd like to see a pic of your red galloway..........


Just for you Redtail - this is Yani our red Galloway (still bleached from summer sun) going a darker red each day now







Heres all 4 that I will be showing in their feild wear and I will put on some pics nearer showtime when they are washed and had a hair cut

Emily and Jade - yearling heifers






Yani and Yoda our 7 month old calves


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## Lothiriel (Oct 17, 2011)

Ms. Research said:
			
		

> Wishing you luck at the show!
> 
> BTW, hope this isn't a silly question, what is bull pinching?  Is that like neutering?  Sorry, city folk question.


Yep, neutering/castration. 

Royd Wood, Yani and Yoda look like teddy bears cute enough to cuddle! 

We'll be weaning our calf soon -- he's just over 4 months. We'll be hearing all that incessant mooing as well.


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## animalfarm (Oct 17, 2011)

Royd, I am curious where you got the name Yani from. We had an Egyptian desert dog we named Yani. In Arabic, its the equivilent of  'uhhh or ummm'  that gets inserted in our improper sentences when speaking. Our Yani is now living it up in Germany as she wasn't allowed into Canada and we found her and her sister Ishta a home with a German family before they left Egypt. They were a cross between a wild dog and a fox. I picked them up in the desert when I was training my endurance horse. The police had just done a wild dog execution and the puppies were starving.

My Belties have longer smoother hair then yours solids. Is this something that is different between oreo cookies and plain Janes? You have teddy bears and I have yaks. Its interesting.


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## elevan (Oct 17, 2011)

They are adorable!  Which is a good thing cause I'm not so sure of what I think about having a heifer with my name  :/   

All grassfed, huh?  This is gonna sound like a really dumb question but I'm gonna ask it.  Do you go through a lot of hay in the snowy winter or do the cattle dig in the snow to get to the grass under it?  (This is my first year with cattle... I have a calf...so our first winter and I am doing purely grassfed and I know you get more snow than I do).


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## redtailgal (Oct 18, 2011)

Wow, they are much shaggier than I imagined!

Thanks for the pics, she is quite lovely.  Had she just been tat'ed?  I see the green in her ears............


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## Ms. Research (Oct 18, 2011)

What amazing animals.  They are so fluffy.  Never knew.    Now I know what to get your cows for Christmas.  That's right a comb.  

Congratulations on your beautiful herd.


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## Stubbornhillfarm (Oct 18, 2011)

They are adorable!  Thanks for sharing pics.


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## Royd Wood (Oct 19, 2011)

Redtail green on the ear - yes just tattood

Animalfarm - I have 2 belties with smoother hair and one with the shaggy look. The names Yani and Yoda were chosen off a list of names given by visitors to our open farm weekend - had to begin with the letter Y for purebred registration purposes.

MS Res - yes as Lothiriel says - bull pinching is a form of castration you can do this at any time which allows us to see how a bull develops and lets us choose to keep them in tact if they are a potential breeder - this year we pinched them all to steers as none quite made the grade for breeding.

Elevan - LOTS of hay but they still browse the brush or anything thats edible


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