So... what is it you Do all day? A day in the life of me

So what do we DO all day? In Winter?

Well, it depends largely upon the day, the weather, but mostly there are basic chores that need doing every day. How long it takes to do them, depends on the weather, too! There might be snow to move to get at the hay bales and to get through gates. The snow might be blowing making visibility poor, or if its really cold the tractors might need some begging and pleading to start.... No two days are alike!
My day usually begins with a cup of coffee and a fruit and Kefir smoothie (Kefir is a fermented milk drink with lots of probiotics).
I like to wait until sunup to start chores - easier to get around that way.
So I fill a few 4 liter milk jugs with water - one for the hens in the back yard, and about 4 depending on the day, for my needy/sick/elderly  goats I keep separate in the barn.
We suit up to go outside, the number of layers depend on the temperature and wind chill expectancy but my pink coveralls and Muck boots make up part of the clothing every day.

First stop is the chicken coop. I give them fresh water (they have a heated bowl that keeps their water from freezing) and top up their layer ration as needed, open their little pop door and throw a handful of grains outside for them. Normally they all burst out the door! Only when its really windy or snowy do they stay indoors.

The hens have a bit of straw to scratch in, they love it and keeps their toes off the snow :)

Next stop the goats and sheep. I drive the 2km accompanied by my 3 dogs - the Jack Russel called Dude, the Malinois called Spice and the Heeler/Collie cross called Reno.
Normally the sheep are outside, but the goats are still in the barn. Remus, the guard dog will run up to greet us. I feed him and use Spice to kick the couch potato goats out the barn. I find that if I let them have access to the barn 24/7 they tend to spend a lot of time lounging around, so kicking them out when the weather is decent (in my opinion, anything warmer than -10 daytime and no wind...) makes them eat more... and distribute their manure out on the land where it belongs, not in the barn where it needs hauling out by bobcat come spring.
Moving them out the barn gives me opportunity to scan for any sick/injured animals. All look fine, so I head off to the other barn where the needy goats are, towing a toboggan with my milk jugs filled with water.
I water them, give grain and hay and treat whatever needs treating. The barn cat gets fed, and we are basically done here for the morning routine. We roll out hay every 4 days for the goats, so if this was a feeding day, I would use Spice to round up the sheep and bring them into the corral. Both dog and sheep are used to the routine and more often than not, the sheep are in the corral before Spice and I are through the gate... much to her disappointment!


Then we would move in 4 big round bales of hay, cut the strings and roll out the hay with the tractor. When the gate is shut, we open the corral and the animals happily run to the fresh hay.

Rolled out hay. I took this picture in December before we had a lot of snow.

Now on to Larry's farm. Most days in winter he is out trucking for off farm income, so I go down there with the dogs to feed the cows. The cows need feed every 2 days, or every day depending.
So here I start the tractor to let it warm up and use Spice and Reno to move the cows from one pen to the next pen. I put out hay for them with the tractor, cut the strings, and open the gate. The cows come back for feed and I can check them over for any signs of illness. I check the water bowls to make sure they are open, then feed the calves in the next pen. Back in the yard I check the deep freezers to ensure they are working, we have a lot of beef/chicken/turkey frozen at any one time.

My helper Dude on good days, in the tractor

Happy calves on a nice day

Spice the archaeologist showing me her prize.... a dead calf skull and neck from the bury pit. 

A not-so-nice day driving to the farm...

Windy and snowy and cold! 

cow butts, heads buried in hay I put out

Dude on the not-so-nice days, stays in the truck

Cows sheltering at the windbreaks

By this time its normally lunch time so I head back to my house. After lunch I do things in and around the house - cleaning, laundry, or other projects like accounting and financial planning. The office stuff gets neglected during the busy summer months, so there is a lot of catching up to do, filing papers, planning the new years budget, planning grazing and when to market animals, what the breakeven price is, that sort of thing. Also reading - I might spend some time reading articles on animal health, improving facilities, new vaccines, new fencing products, etc.
Then there are website updates and correspondence to keep up with. If we needed to run into town for supplies, now is the time to do it. Closest groceries: 38km one way. Closest city: 100km one way.
An hour or so before sundown I head out to go and give the sheep and goats a bit of grain - my hay tested slightly low on energy and protein so the animals get a little bit of supplemental grain to maintain their body condition as they are all bred now and due to kid/lamb come May 1. I fill 10x 20liter pails with grain, put it in my truck and use Spice again to move the sheep and goats into the corral, so that I can pour out the grain in troughs in the pasture. Then there is a mad dash as all the animals try to fit through the gate at the same time to get at the treat :)

A snowy evening - can you spot the guardian dog in this picture? I just pulled up for evening chores when I took this picture quick before he moved

There he is! 

STREEEETCHHHHH - bear in mind, he picked that spot for himself. He can go into the barn with the sheep and the goats, but he was comfortable on the straw bale stack. 

Delays, delays.... snow blew in again to my 2nd barn where the needy critters are. 

The top wire of the mesh sticking out above a snow drift. the wire that is just below my knee, should be waist high..... Remus runs over the fences, thank goodness the sheep, goats and horses haven't ventured out yet.....! 

I feed the guard dog Remus, check on my needy animals again and treat as needed. If its a nice evening I would take the dogs for a walk.

Remus and Spice playing

A corner where 3 pastures meet... under 4 ft of snow

my well is completely covered now

The snow is deep and I have to stay on top of the hard ridges or risk breaking through to knee deep and in some places hip deep snow. We admire the sunset, listen to coyotes howling in the distance and head back home.

Remus on a windy evening walk

At home I go collect eggs from the coop and lock the hens in for the night to avoid predators turning them into a midnight lunch.

The hens waiting for their evening snack. See their fence covered in snow in the foreground? The hens only venture as far as the compacted path I made, they stay out of the deep snow. 

A peaceful evening

 

Now it is time for my supper and a chance to put my feet up!

Cattle day

A couple days back I spent the afternoon helping Larry at his branding.

Branding is a way to identify cattle, as they may lose their ear tags but a brand is basically forever. Some countries ban branding, but in Canada it is still very much part of production, with brand inspectors frequenting auction barns to double check that the cows/calves being sold, really belong to that producer.

So there are many different ways to brand, depending on how much help you have. A tip-table is suitable if you have just 2 people, or just a few calves. A calf gets chased down an alley, into the headgate that is mounted on a tip-table. The calf is then tipped onto its side where it is now at table height and easy for people to put eartags in, vaccinate, castrate if it is a bull calf, and brand.

The next way would be, if the calves are small enough, to sort them off from their moms in the corral, and then wrestle them to the ground. You need a few more helpers for this: one person grabs a back leg, the other person grabs the flank and flips the calf. The 2 wrestlers then sit on the ground - one at the hind end holding the back leg, one on the neck/shoulder holding a front leg off the ground. A third person then is needed to vaccinate, tag and brand - or if you have more people, one to brand, one to vaccinate and one to tag. This can be tiring and handlers come away a little bit bruised, with the occasional sprain or broken bone from being kicked by calves.

But we were lucky enough to have skilled ropers and lots of help, so the traditional roping the calves branding is what we had.

I helped with the roundup to get the cattle into the branding pen. We had 7 riders, and the cows are used to being moved, as we rotational graze them. Only problem was, the cows had been going North in their rotation, so that's where they expected to go. We had to turn them south and they were a bit confused by it, but ready to move. The roundup was fast paced and my horse Macy loved it!
We got the cows and calves in, and then got set up:
Propane burners set with branding irons to heat up.
Vaccinations drawn into syringes, ready to administer. Tags got numbered and tag pliers loaded.
squirt bottles filled with antiseptic for castration.
Coolers set out on the tailgate with water and drinks for the crew.

We used a couple of 'snares' to catch the calf:
The roper would go into the herd, and rope the back legs of a calf and drag it towards our staging area. One person would be ready with the snare, which is a Y shaped yoke that would fit behind the calf's ears and line up behind his jaw bone. The snare is attached to an old inner tube (for stretch) that is attached to a stake in the ground. As soon as the calf is in reach, the snare is placed over the head and the roper drags until the rope is tight and the calf immobilized. We had a big crew so after the calf is secure, it went as follows:
One person would be castrating if it was a male. One person on the branding irons, one person vaccinating, 2 people on tags - the personal tag and the government radio ID tag. We had 2 ropers going with 2 snares and things were busy for just under 2 hours to do about 80 calves.

calf being dragged, Doug (red shirt) ready with the snare

Branding irons in the foreground

Cow watching calf being dragged

A perfect day for a branding

my horse Macy watching the show after roundup

All in all, it was a fun day spent outside with friends, fellow horsemen and stockmen. The evening rounded off with a campfire and supper for us, the cows and calves released and enjoying some fresh grass.