Without further ado, here I am.

[DogsCowsChicken]

Hi there!! I found my way there from BYC.

My name is Kati. I live near Abilene, Texas, Where I'm a hand/manager on an Angus beef ranch where I currently care for almost 1000 head of mommas, babies and bulls. I am a dog mom to two rescues: The Widdle (4 yo, 6 lb chiweenie) and Wobble the Bobblehead (2 yo, 60 lb pitbull mix).

I own two heifers, Spot and Bubby, who live with the ranch herds. Spot is a yearling who passed her pregnancy test at the beginning of the month and will, God willing, become a mamma in the spring. Bubby isn't technically mine yet. I get pick of the crop as an annual bonus and Bubby has been on my radar since she was born. Now that we have weaned over 300 calves, she's got some competition. There's a particular baldfaced heifer I am falling in love with. If you see my video, she's the first calf in it. They are all Red Angus, which is commonly known in the beef industry as the "preferred female."

Spot has a white spot.

Bubby

The Competition

I'm a bovine foster mom, as well, to a heifer named Tiffany who was born a twin this Spring and rejected by her mom. She lives in a pen in my backyard and is unquestionably spoiled with the best feed and hay on the ranch. Since weaning, Tiffany has been joined by six "shorts," calves who are a bit too small to compete for food in the weaned herd.

Tiffany has the eartag.

I have been a chicken tender since October of last year (2023), when I took in Ethel and Lucy (young adult Leghorns) who were unwanted by their previous owner because they were getting into the garage and pooping on cars. Sadly, we lost sweet Ethel to predation in April. Dear Lucy has been a flock of one ever since.

Ethel (left) and Lucy

I am also Mother Hen to five hatchery chicks who are currently twelve weeks old and successfully integrated with Lucy about 2 weeks ago. Their breeds are are Buff Minorca, Colombian Wyandotte, Silver Lace Wyandotte, Barred Plymouth Rock, and Black Australorp. Hopefully they're all pullets!! I call them Kitty Foreman, Marion Cunningham, Edith Bunker, Peggy Bundy, and Morticia Addams.

All of my animals are pets. Pets are family. I suppose that about sums me up.

 

[farmerjan]

We have a commercial herd of mostly black angus, with a few char crosses and some red and red white faced cows mixed in. The calves in your pictures are nice. Sadly, red cattle take a real beating here at the sale barns so we do not have many. I like a couple of the red calves on those cows... nice blocky bodies on them.

I don't want to burst your bubble but I think that the buff minorca is a cockeral...has the tell tale curved tail feathers that are the top sickle feathers... Marion looks like a pullet and the others are hard to tell from face on pics...

I also will bottle raise a twin that is rejected and have bottle raised many other holstein calves, and crosses over the years. I've worked in the dairy industry as a milk tester for many years and we have the beef cow operation. We sell feeders mostly as weaned calves in the 4-600 lb range. Nearly everything that is sold as feeders is trucked to other areas that run feeders on pasture and such.
Your land is very different than ours... we are lucky to have a 10-20 acre field that is flat, anywhere... The conditions here are alot different also... we have very "rolling hills" and some very steep land that is mostly the pasture and anything flatter is crop ground.

 

[SageHill]

Welcome from So Cal. Nice looking cattle. We just replaced our current chickens - found an egg eater, got rid of the eater, two weeks of still no eggs, sent those chickens away and just got 5 new 5 mos old New Hampshire Reds.
We've got sheep and have lambs due in Oct.

 

[DogsCowsChicken]

We have a commercial herd of mostly black angus, with a few char crosses and some red and red white faced cows mixed in. The calves in your pictures are nice. Sadly, red cattle take a real beating here at the sale barns so we do not have many. I like a couple of the red calves on those cows... nice blocky bodies on them.

I don't want to burst your bubble but I think that the buff minorca is a cockeral...has the tell tale curved tail feathers that are the top sickle feathers... Marion looks like a pullet and the others are hard to tell from face on pics...

I also will bottle raise a twin that is rejected and have bottle raised many other holstein calves, and crosses over the years. I've worked in the dairy industry as a milk tester for many years and we have the beef cow operation. We sell feeders mostly as weaned calves in the 4-600 lb range. Nearly everything that is sold as feeders is trucked to other areas that run feeders on pasture and such.
Your land is very different than ours... we are lucky to have a 10-20 acre field that is flat, anywhere... The conditions here are alot different also... we have very "rolling hills" and some very steep land that is mostly the pasture and anything flatter is crop groun

You didn't burst my bubble. I've been suspicious of Kitty. Morticia as well. I can't find a pic at the right angle..

Our part of the world is seeing a wave of termites starting to eat into our grazing area. I hope we can keep feeding our herds.

Thanks for reading and responding!

 

[DogsCowsChicken]

Welcome from So Cal. Nice looking cattle. We just replaced our current chickens - found an egg eater, got rid of the eater, two weeks of still no eggs, sent those chickens away and just got 5 new 5 mos old New Hampshire Reds.
We've got sheep and have lambs due in Oct.

How terrible to have a flock replacement! I'm sorry you had to do that!

 

[SageHill]

How terrible to have a flock replacement! I'm sorry you had to do that!

Tis life - gotta go with the flow. I stopped naming the chickens after a few coyote attacks years ago. They get feed, scratch, kitchen and garden scraps, and a safe "home", we get eggs - good deal all around.

 

[animalmom]

Howdy! I'm in Erath County just a couple hours from Abilene. We have goats, chickens, ducks and dogs. Glad to have you and am looking forward to hearing more about your adventures and the ranch.

 

[farmerjan]

The young poults are at that "teenage" stage and will go from looking like one sex to another sex week by week. Hope they turn out to be mostly pullets at least....

 

[Baymule]

Hi neighbor! I’m in East Texas in Trinity county. I have 25 acres and raise Katahdin hair sheep. Love the pictures, good looking cows and fluffy chickens.

 

[Ridgetop]

Welcome!