A new chapter

Wow, our oldest cows are 14 this Spring!
Fanny and M, the start of it all, the best of the best.
These girls have served us well. I wish we had kept more of their daughters. I wish they were registered stock, I wish they were younger…
The cattle that stay with us are ones that were the best of what we had, home grown or purchased. As a matter of fact, these old girls have stayed with us while several registered cows were purchased and resold because they didn’t live up to our standards. Quality, quality, quality.
We have a couple of M daughters who are getting up in age as well, M10 will be 9, Lacy 8. They, like their mama M, have the prettiest udders you’d want to see.
And Beauty, poor old Beauty. A Black Angus bottle calf we raised and a superior producer. Unfortunately, age is not agreeing with her. I am afraid she will not be with us much longer. She will be buried on the farm. No sale barn or butcher for her (same as Fanny). Some just grow too deep in my heart. We do have her fall heifer Fiona who will be one of the few commercial heifers we keep. She’s a Beauty like her mama, but has her daddy’s white face.
Our black white-faced cow, Lucky, she will be 12. Boy she’s been a producer too! I think it’s the Simmental in her that produces LARGE calves that grow fast. She was born on our farm, daughter of a cancer eyed cow that was given to us by a friend. That cow came to us with no guarantee she would even live long enough to have her calf (Lucky) and we knew we would have to do the humane thing and put her down in the coming months. But survive she did and raised Lucky for four months before the time came. To this day Lucky has big beautiful calves and has a near perfect udder.
Of the four heifers Lucky has had we only kept one, Shiny. She has been a good cow as well. Does not throw the huge babies her mama does but a good cow.
The other commercial (nonregistered) cows we have are Fanny Mae, daughter of Fanny; a Shiny daughter from May 2018 (she is for sale); a Lacy daughter, Flower, I darn to say one of our best.
Meanwhile our registered herd has grown.
We bought Vicky, a reserve champion futurity winner as a youngster. She was seven when we bought her. We have every daughter she has produced for us since!
Ginger, purchased from my father who was a Champion Hereford at a couple county fairs. And #60. Both of which we have held back a daughter each from.
With all those registered heifers and cows, we have kept and the purchase of our newest bull, Aces Power Play 807F, this 80-acre farm is filled to capacity. Time to make some decisions and let some of our commercial stock go ☹ So decisions have been made. M, M10, Lucky and Shiny will be looking for new homes soon. Vicky too.
Willie also will be sold. He has produced many beautiful daughters for us that should cross perfectly with Power Play. Willie is young enough to go on o produce calves for some one else as well.
Know anyone looking for a starter herd? 😉 There are more calves in their future to be had.
I will miss them all. I am grateful to them all for getting us to where we are with our herd. If we want to move ahead with our registered stock we they most go. I hate it. Yet I am so excited to be starting a new chapter in our farming life.