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Life is too short to eat bad food! Sharing great recipes, farm life, stories and photography from our Northern California dairy farm.

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April 17, 2013

Where the Beef Cows Live~Sneak Peek

Spring is the time of year where we move our small herd of natural beef from the flat acreage they've been grazing upon since September, back up to the hill tops behind Stafford Lake.  

The date this year didn't coincide with school spring break so my kids missed out but I make sure not to miss this two hour event.



















Before moving the cattle, they are brought in to a corral to be vaccinated and wormed and given a visual health check.  {all beef cattle; organic, natural and conventional are vaccinated}

















Once they're finished, they walk through the shoot into another corral where they wait until the entire herd is ready to be moved up the hill together.


















We move them with four-wheelers and trucks by following close behind and to their side to make sure they all stay together and moving in the right direction through gates.


















They are now in what I call 'Cow Paradise', 800 acres of beautiful hillside where grazing will ensue until early July.  Once July arrives, they're all moved back down the hill and they usually calve in September.




Happy Trails.
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5 comments:

Mary Ann said...

For non-farmers, this is so fun to see, and to learn about how your cattle are managed... I enjoyed this post!

ann said...

here in Indiana we are getting ready to move our cows to their summer pasture and put the bulls with them in May so we have spring calves. Nice to see your pictures.

Prairie Rose said...

And when they reach that new green pasture, my favorite part is standing back and watching all the cows kicking up their heels in pure joy.
It just makes me smile.

ellie k said...

A beautiful post, the cows, green hills and just the beauty of the land. I love the cow posts.

The Coolidges said...

Love these pictures. It's so fun to see how other people run their operations.

Thanks for sharing!