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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

New calf pens



Lately we have had SO many calves in the barn. They were tied everywhere they shouldn't have been, from in the manger, to in stalls that should hold milk cows, to all over the north side walkway....just everywhere. Years ago we built some free standing pens outs of cattle panel somewhat like these. As far as growing calves they turned out to be fantastic. The calves we had out in them that summer grew like crazy and wound up large, productive milk cows.



However, having never done anything like this before that first year, we made them too small. Too hard to get into. Too hard to clean. We had to feed and water the calves inside them, which led to spoiled feed and dirty water. And messes from them spilling the water.


We had to tear those down to clean them and we never rebuilt afterward However, the idea was there. The place was there....although it all looked like this.




So the boss cleared it off with the skid steer. We bought some new cattle panels on sale. We bought some new t-posts, not on sale. We all went out with cable ties and baling twine and old canvas (and my wood canvas, which may be a bit of a problem) and we built these and populated them with about half of the calves we need to get outside.


Honeysuckle


We have enough panel to build at least two more and enough calves to fill them. However, the guys are going to put the post pounder on and use some old locust posts we have lying around. The t-posts are just too darned expensive and not made nearly as well as they used to be.


This boy is pointing to his custom sun shade, which he swears will stand up to the wind

Whadda ya think? Will it? Or won't it?

The calves are delighted to be out in the new pens and run and tear and eat through their new feeder and drink their nice clean water. We are hoping to be able to clean these properly as they are much bigger than our originals so we don't have to tear them down every year.


She looks contented to me...in fact they both do.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

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R.Powers said...

Those look great.
I vote yes on the boy's project.
We have to encourage them!

Just how windy does it get up there?

Jinglebob said...

Sure looks like it will work. Don't know about the wind in that area. Probably blow down here but we get gusts up to 40 to 50 mph pretty regularly.

Paintsmh said...

I wuv my little baby girl, she is so sweet. And cuddly.

Anonymous said...

A great end result to the mystery! I hope his shade works-he looks so endearing in the pictue-bet he wouldn't like that word but he does!

Deb said...

You all have been very busy! I wondered what you were planning on penning up. The new calf pens look great. I'm sure they are so happy to be outside.
That Honeysuckle is one sweet looking little calf :)

Anonymous said...

The new pens turned out real nice!

threecollie said...

FC, So far, so good on it. There is enough baling twine up there, he barely needs the canvas to keep off the sun...and it gets real windy...blows my chairs around

JB, we probably aren't as windy as the plains and prairies, but we get it right off the river. It really howls some days

Jenn, it is funny with these guys. The little Jersey bawls all day because she knows we can now hear her and she wants somebody to come pet her.

Paints, yeah, she loves you too. lol

Tipper, he is a funny guy. He spent more time tying that shade up than he did working on the pen....and so far, so good, although that is my firewood canvas. lol

Deb, thanks, I can't wait to get the other two pens done and get the rest of the calves out. They do so much better and work in the barn in the morning is so much easier

mon@rch, thanks, we are thrilled with them

joated said...

I think the boy's sunshade will hold up until the wind gets above 40-45 mph and then it'll fly like a kite!

threecollie said...

Joated, we are betting with you. We get some serious winds up here on this hill. He wants to win the bet so bad though that he climbed the tree behind the pens and anchored it in the tree too. No matter, that stick he has it hung from is never going to hold up. We have been kidding him that he has used so much string he doesn't need any canvas...the string will keep the rain off. lol

Anonymous said...

I am venturing a guess that the first thunderstorm will start to work on that baling twine and he will feel like he won. But then a second storm will come along and set him to repairing it. LOL! Looks great!

threecollie said...

Tim, thanks, you probably nailed it. lol. I am expecting it to go sailing to town before too awful long.
I am hoping it doesn't blow too far away as that is my wood canvas...not that I have any wood. It's either cold showers or scrape up some old hay near the horse barn if you want hot water. Brrrrr

Anonymous said...

guess what mom it is the only one left standing hahahahah