Me and My 4-H projects

On my farm I've moved my 4 heifers into the pasture at my dads house, but before that we spent like 3 weeks fixing fence. We still have to build a new fence around the pond but the cows have done a good job and stayed out of it for all i know. We brought up 2 more steers and two more heifers to show this summer at the fair. we still have  a little heifer that needs to grow a lot more before we can put her out into the pasture to be bred. I bought 2 more rabbits; they are lionhead rabbits. one is white with red eyes the other is black and has normal colored eyes. This is what the white one looks like.

This is what the black one looks like.

I hope everything will work out well this summer when i am showing my cows because we don't even have halters on them right now so we have out work cut out for us. this is what it looks like when you are showing your cows.

You would be the one showing the cow leading it from its halter. there are 3 different types of halters that i know of. 

Rope halters most people dont show their cows in these though.

Nylon hatlers, which are very simlar to the halters you out on horses; they both share the the same purpose- to guise the animal.

And the show halter. i use this type of halter because it is a good quality halter and it doesnt cost as much as some. this one- depending on what size you need- could run from 80-90 dollars. versus other halters like the one below that is A LOT more expensive and serve the same purpose but get the job done either way.

Thanksgiving Break

This November I had a Deer Hunters 4-H breakfast because every year our club, The Hale Happy Hustlers, has a breakfast for the public on the opening day of deer season. The picture below is of me and a few of my club member friends. I currently hold the President's position in our club. 

Over Thanksgiving break I had 3 family dinners to go to. The Colliver side, the Broyles side, and the Shields side. I had fun stuffing my face. We have the Broyles side of the family come over to my dad's house, so we had a big mess to clean up afterward.

                                            

Another thing I was doing over Thanksgiving break was working on my rubber-band powered car for Science Olympiad. The project is called wheeled vehicle and the objective is to make a little car that runs by rubber-band power and can go around a bucket while making a distance of 9 to 12 meters. Here was the result- we changed it after this, so it went a farther, and it looks different.

Haven't been a Bloggin'

          So it has been a while since I have last blogged because of summer and what not. so to keep you up to date I showed my steer at the Livingston County Fair in Chillicothe in July. I placed 2nd or 3rd in my class- I can't remember. i sold all my rabbits except one so that I can breed her with a buck if I ever find a Tort Neatherland Dwarf Buck. If not I have beginning to consider artificial insemination. I am beginning to start my own cattle operation also, BYE! LOL

ANYONE NEED SOME KITTENS.................................................?

           In the past few weeks I have been busy taking care of kits (baby rabbits), kittens, and calves. I have a calf named Superman- I've told you about him before- also I have 14 kittens! Out of my 3 mama barn cats they each had a litter. My orange cat had 5 kittens originally she had 6, the grey mama had 5 kittens but one died, and the black and orange mama had 7 kittens but 2 died- I don't know why. 
I have told you before about my baby rabbits also. I hope to get best of breed this year again or better when I show them at the County 4-H fair. 

     There has been a lot of things happen at my farm since the last time I have blogged. For starters, my baby rabbits were born. My doe had 5 kits (baby rabbits) five is a good sized litter. I would have been happier if she had 6 or seven kits but as long as she keeps them all alive I will call it good enough. I have some videos and pictures for you to look at if you want because some people may or may not have seen kits before. 
   Secondly, I have three female barn cats. I have one adolescent tom cat but he isn't old enough to breed. But, conveniently, (jokingly) all three of my barn cats got pregnant- i have had to chase feral toms out of the barn before- and the black cat had 7 kittens! Although one died. so now that cat has only 6 kittens. My orange barn cat had 6 kittens but one of hers died- it happens- and the grey cat had kittens but I can't find them so pretty much I have 15+ cats; that sucks. If you think you need some cats and you live around the Hale, MO area I would be more than welcome to give you some kittens- when they get old enough. Only if you are a nice person though.

   Here are the videos and pictures for your enjoyment!

   

My weekend and what's to come....

      So last weekend was pretty boring other than the fact that I discovered that ALL THREE of my cats are pregnant! God that will be a mess. That means that I will have 3 litters of kittens in my shed. Trust me now I don't expect all of them to live- I hope they all don't, harsh I know, but that is life. 
      This weekend I have to go and get my steers and heifers nose printed and weighed. We load them up in the livestock trailer and take them to Doc Young in Chillicothe. After that we sign in and wait for other people to get out of the way. Then, we open to gate and they open the chute door. The chute looks like this-( you don't have to watch the whole video just some of the beginning if you don't know how a chute works.)

 I like working cows and that is pretty much it! 

My Farm

To give you a long brief i will tell you how Superman is doing. He is 2 times bigger than he was a month ago. He probably weighs about 150 pounds by now. He is eating  calf starter now, although i would like it if he would eat more of it be cause milk re-placer is pretty expensive. Milk re-placer is about 40 to 50 bucks a bag, so yeah it would be helpful to my expenses if he would eat more calf starter. he is drinking water as well. I will post regular pictures of Superman from now on to show you how big he is getting.

          I also have rabbits on my farm and right now I have five rabbits. I had eight but I sold six and bought 3 does (females). The three does that i bought are called Netherland Dwarf rabbits. This is what they look somewhat like...

                             

I also have an older doe that i hope will have another litter of kits because her last litter died because it was too cold for them to be born, also because i didn't have a heat lamp on them because they came 2 days early. But thankfully she will have another litter here in another week or two. This is what she looks like.

This is what the daddy rabbit looks like.