Welcome to Moosters Meadows - home of Irish Dexter Cattle! We strive to breed a truly dual purpose Dexter, providing both excellent beef and milk. All of our Dexters are purebred and registered with the American Dexter Cattle Association (ADCA). We'll be blogging about what goes on here on our little ranch in Wyoming and life with Dexters. Feel free to visit our website as well.







Saturday, July 27, 2013

Absent

The month of July has totally disappeared.  Sorry for the lack of updates from the Moosters crew.  Things are still happening, but I've had the plague (okay, it was "just" shingles, but it was my version of the plague!).  Just a bit of a slowdown for a while......  So, back to our regularly scheduled programming:


Today was one of the best days of the summer.  Cool, a bit of a breeze, overcast.  Definitely the kind of day you want to have when you are preg testing!  The girls even cooperated and moved into the corral with little fuss.  That saves us so much time when they just walk right in!  Five hours later, 15 girls are preg checked, tail hairs were pulled where appropriate for testing purposes and four more calves weaned.  It's so nice to have our working facilities set up so that the process of working and sorting goes easily. 


Weaned four more heifers (two were done earlier in the week - they are already wearing halters and dragging lead ropes).  It's a very sad - and loud - time.


We fence wean.  In another few days, the mommas will just stop coming up to the corral and the bawling will stop.  Then the new weanlings will get their halters!

In another day or two, we'll be officially announcing the "who is for sale" this fall list.  All of the heifers are so outstanding this year that choosing our keepers has been difficult.  We're keeping a few and selling a few, plus we'll be selling a few adult cows as well.  Still a little uncertain on the hay situation this year even with all of the rain.  Prices haven't come down much from last year - unfortunately.

Calli will be showing next week at the Goshen County Fair.  Wyoming State Fair is not far behind.  We'll be taking entries for nine classes - 10 total animals, I think.  We hope for a great reception for our Dexters and look forward to next year when we move out of the "all other breeds" class and into our very own Dexter Class.  Then it's off to Nebraska, followed by Utah.  A few weeks break, then on to the N.I.L.E. in Billings, MT.  Still trying to decide if we are making the long journey immediately after Montana to the Missouri Dexter Breeders Show and Sale..............  The show kids all look great!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

It's not easy being green.........

We could use more rain - soon - but for the moment everything is still looking pretty green.   The herd is sure enjoying the green stuff in the meadow and access to the trees during the heat of the day.  We hope the moisture continues to arrive all summer long. The  hail and winds that have visited with the rain the last few times can stay away.  We're still waiting for the adjuster to come look at our roof from the blasted wind a few weeks ago.  Shingles were flying everywhere!

And to make things just a bit more challenging around here, we now have a new friend (or two).  Yes, we have a busy beaver who just loves to dam up the creek.  Last night was the third time Chris has torn out the dam.  We even saw the little rodent swimming in the water nearby and I just wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture. 


Chris got most of this dam broken up and now the water is flowing freely again.  Until we get the dam builder, we'll be doing this again and again......



We've had a few more births since we've been back from the AGM.  Rain Dance is a gorgeous little red heifer.  She was born in the rain, so naming her wasn't a problem!  That's Rominy Raya's new polled bull calf, "Curly," in the picture above.  He's awfully nice looking right now, so he doesn't get a steer tag quite yet.  He's polled and carries red, so we'll let him grow up a bit before making a decision about his future. 

Happy almost 4th of July!  We are looking forward to the barbeque and fireworks in Lusk tomorrow night.  The Friends of the Fireworks does an amazing job raising funds for this annual event.  This year Moosters helped a bit by donating Dexter burger for the fundraiser dinner and auction in April.  The least we could do because without private donations and fundraising, there are no fireworks - and that would be a shame!