I is bad at Math (And the virtues of diaries)

[Awnry Abe]

I have a goodly number of exposed/bred FF heifers running around out with the beef herd that are "penciled in" for mid-March calving dates. We pull our bull(s) from March 1 through June 1 to avoid mid-winter calving.

Last night when I was chiseling ice, I noticed one of the heifers way off in the distance alone when all the others came up to check out what I was up to. It appeared see she was standing next to a very small black blob. "Uh oh". It was only about 9 degrees with a good wind. Below 0 wind chill, for sure, according to my finely calibrated face.

As I started walking her way, I started doing the math in my head. It hasn't been a great year for full-term pregnancies for us in either the cattle or goats. I fully expected to find a hairless premie laying dead. At about 50 yards, I saw an ear twitch. "Phew". I was already numb from the cold wind when I got there. I just lifted a leg to see what she had (a bull!!) He was only a few hours old and was just dried off and soaking up what was left of the sun. The first-timer heifer did a great job of cleaning him up.

I walked home with all sorts of thoughts dancing in my head.
"Why does this biting wind keep me from subtracting 9 from 1? And it is 1, right?"
"Is this calf 6 weeks premie?".
"Was I smoking crack when I thought I pulled the bulls out?"
"Will I be hauling a frozen black fur ball of ice to the compost pile tomorrow night?"
"Should I grab them both and take them all the way up to the barn to get him out of the wind?"

I got back home and checked my records. No breeding record for her. Then I opened our daily farm journal and went back 9 months and started reading. And right there in the notes for April 4th: "#1105 bred today". Bulls-eye. Buried in the notes from the surrounding days were enough bread crumbs to give me the "Oh yeah!" moment. I didn't pick a bad day to stop sniffing glue, after all. The memory of the day just snapped back in place like a Kodachrome.

I just had a pickle of a time sorting my retained heifers from the weaned steers. I was going to let the steers hang with the bulls. (Just like a Google "Hangout with the President", only more useful). I tried to sort at a pinch point gate in the back 40, but failed. Woulda/shoulda/coulda taken them all up to the sorting pens. I let #1105 hang with the boys for the night, too. When I went the next day to make things right, there they were, making beautiful music. 1 in 21 odds. I should play Roulette. I even remember the exact spot they were engaged. I also remember commenting to DD, "Bah. Global warming. It will be fine." I think I am MUCH better with math when the weather is warm, especially when addition is involved.

Farm diaries are awesome. Good record keeping is even better. I opted to let nature takes its course and decided not to take the pair to the barn. The dam did a great job of cleaning up and was attentive. Besides, every time I intervene, I end up screwing up and have an extra pet on my hands. Today, the little popsicle was bouncing around like it was May. This year, my record keeping habits are pretty spotless on the cattle. The goats? not so much, but I'm working it. I don't know if you've noticed, but March is right around the corner...

[gone-a-milkin]

I am putting you on the list of people I will recommend for the herd management title.
It comes with extra paperwork but there is a big cash bonus at the end of the year.

As an aside, those online gestation calendars are all the rage!

Glad to hear your little popsicle picked an in between day to get birthed.