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Raising Homeschool Kids on a Cattle Ranch in British Columbia.

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Autumn Ranch Chores

October 6, 2020

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The perfect autumn afternoon is walking through the cattle on the hayfields and taking photos with my boys. The brilliant colours, the crisp mornings and the beautiful sunsets are just a few of my favourite things about autumn on the ranch. What are your favourite things about autumn?

Our autumn ranch chores include hauling cattle home, weighing calves, updating CattleMax, feeding the ewes, and enjoying the beautiful weather. #ranchchores #autumnranchchores #weighingcalves #cattlemax

Over the past couple weeks, we have been hauling cattle home, weighing calves, updating our cattle management software program, starting to get our ewes ready for breeding, doing our weekly beef deliveries and getting organized for preg checking.

Our autumn ranch chores include hauling cattle home, weighing calves, updating CattleMax, feeding the ewes, and enjoying the beautiful weather. #ranchchores #autumnranchchores #weighingcalves #cattlemax
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Weighing Calves

During the last week in September and first week in October, we bring our cow/calf pairs home from their summer pastures.  We weigh each calf and then we sort which calves we are going sell and which ones will be kept over.

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The weights are very helpful in giving us data to track what each cow and here bull are producing. We then use this data to help make decisions on if any cows are not producing adequately. We can also use the weights to help us in choosing replacement heifers. We like to keep replacement heifers that are over 600 lbs. We always keep any calves that are under 500 lbs and these small calves are fed over the winter and then put on pasture as our grass fed beef.

After weighing and sorting, the calves are turned out onto our hayfields, ready for our shipping day on Oct 13th.

Updating CattleMax

We enter all of this data into our cattle management software program called CattleMax. We can then have detailed production records on all of our cows and bulls.  We also track all of the vaccines and antibiotics that we give to our animals so that we carefully follow all the necessary withdrawl timeframes.  

Preg Checking

We will be having our local veterinarian come and preg check each cow later this month to see when she is due to calve in the spring.  Each cow that is late or is not bred (“open”) is marked down and then we use our cattle records to make a decision on if she will be kept for another year. I will be sure to post some photos and videos of this later in the month.  

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Flushing the Ewes

If you haven’t heard the news, we have increased our sheep flock size so we will have lots of lamb available next fall.  Breeding season is coming up soon.  At the beginning of October, we have started to feed the ewes some grain. This is called flushing. Flushing helps to increase the ewe’s nutrient intake and body condition prior to and during breeding. We do this to help increase the rate of ovulation and in turn hopefully increase the number of lambs that the ewe will have. We will be sure to show you lots of photos of the little lambs as they arrive in the middle of March. 

Our autumn ranch chores include hauling cattle home, weighing calves, updating CattleMax, feeding the ewes, and enjoying the beautiful weather. #ranchchores #autumnranchchores #weighingcalves #cattlemax

Beef Deliveries

We are continuing to do weekly beef deliveries every Friday in Kamloops.  We have lots of ground beef and beef breakfast sausages available. We will start arranging delivers for our next set of beef mixed bags and mixed boxes during the first week of November. 

Get an Inside Look at Our Autumn Ranch Chores

So now that you have a bit of summary of our autumn ranch chores, be sure to check out our stories on Instagram to see a bit of an inside look at our daily life.

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About Me

I am a homeschooling mom to two busy boys & a baby and beef cattle rancher in British Columbia. My passion in life is family and all aspects of agriculture.  My hope is that this blog gives you some insight into our ranch life while being a homeschooling mom.  I would love to hear from you about your journey in agriculture, raising children and/or homeschooling!! Click here to read more about me.

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Ranching with Kids
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Inv Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
 -Benjamin Franklin
Sometimes we get so consumed with living life, tha Sometimes we get so consumed with living life, that we forget to enjoy the little moments. Evenings, like this one, are our reminder to treasure every moment because time goes by way too fast. The beautiful sunsets, the family cuddles watching @alaska.thelastfrontier and the time spent together doing the routine tasks, like morning chores and cooking meals. Within every moment, there is something special. It just takes finding it, by slowing down and appreciating the life we are living.
Wow! What a beautiful day! We took a few hours to Wow! What a beautiful day! We took a few hours to go skiing and then we celebrated a birthday this afternoon. The fog and the sun made for some gorgeous photos, I will post more in the days to come. How did you enjoy your Saturday?
Cheers to life’s simple pleasures, friends! Ever Cheers to life’s simple pleasures, friends! Every day is full of micro-moments of joy, like watching a beautiful sunset or the the few minutes of fun when walking down to do chores with my boys every morning, you just have to be looking for them. What’s one of life’s simple pleasures that you love?
What’s the weather like where you are? Here in K What’s the weather like where you are? Here in Knutsford, it’s always windy and today it is snowing. Whether it’s cold and snowy in your neck of the woods or if you have the white caps of the ocean waves, I hope you’re enjoying your Monday! I certainly am, as I’m cuddled up in the couch organizing cattle records and beef deliveries and watching the snow fall. I just wanted to say thanks for letting me be a part of of your day!
Hello! These are the two steers that our youngest Hello! These are the two steers that our youngest generation has chosen to work with and hopefully show next summer. They each have such a unique personality.  I am sure you will get to know them better on our daily stories. We started to halter break them this last week. Over the next two months, we will be teaching them to lead and the boys will start to work their hair coats. Which is your favourite? They are both going to need names yet too. We are a little slow at picking out names around here.
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