It has been 10 months, but the girls are ready to join the cattle herd. Mattie has always been the leader of the pack and now she has to find a new place in the herd. She’s too young to take a place of leader for now. But give her a few years and she’ll start trying to lead the group.
The four amigos have been placed in a small pasture with a few other heifers that have just had their first calves. They are in a transiting period from the creep pen to pasture life. The other heifers have already been in the cattle herd for a while and where place in with the bottle calves to show them the ropes.
I turned the group out a few days ago and they fit right in with the rest of the herd. The bottle calves are still a little attached to me. Mattie still comes running up to the truck, looking for range cubes, nosing around, and running the truck some. But soon I will be forgotten and she will no longer come running me down for treats.
She’ll always come running when I call for them and will remain easy to handle when working, which is a good thing. She’s getting a little big to be rubbing her head on my back as I walk around. Time to start getting a little distance between us and for her to get out on her own.
Mattie at a week old.
Mattie now. She grew in to them ears. Kind of.
Jim Fisher
Feeding Baby Calves