Working Ranch Magazine January/February 2025

Herefords morning and some of the afternoon making enough grain for the next two weeks for the calves. Since the local dump was closed on Saturday, I had to take a load of animal by-products from the butcher shop to the dump. While I was in town, I grabbed a few filters to service the tractors and a couple of bloat blocks. Before I knew it, the day was over. I fed the calves and went in for the night. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 After feeding calves this morning, I needed to run down to check the cows in the field and meet up with Bill and Julie. We got some minerals put out for the cows in the field to help their overall health. We use a loose mineral from Walton’s feed that is specifically blended for us. A few years ago, liver samples were taken, and determined that our cows were deficient in copper and selenium. With the added copper and selenium we also added a higher amount of iodine, which helps in reduc ing pink eye and hoof rot. The last thing we added to the mineral was a loose gar lic mix from Redmond Salt, which has helped reduce fly and flea problems for us. We have noticed a huge difference

did its job, so down it came. The last part of the day was feeding calves grain and hay, per usual. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6 We woke up to a very cold morning, around 20 degrees. The calves still had to be fed and were looking for ward to it. Afterward, the cows were

in the health of our herds. After taking minerals to the cows, I changed the oil and did some mainte nance on one of our loaders. Later in the afternoon when the kids got home from school, we headed over to take down a hotwire that we put along the river during the summer, so the cows didn’t try to walk across the river. It

60 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.