Operation Steers-eye And Mountain Memories.

Bullseye enjoying the sweet mix of beet pulp, mineral, molasses, and flax we feed Maggie while we milk. 

It went super well. He loves the sweet mix we make for the cow and walked right in and BAMM the head gate slammed shut when Papa pulled on the rope attached to it. A couple of boards on either side so he couldn't move around too much, a piece of plywood to block his view of the humans. Then Papa tied a rope to his tail and I pulled the rope and kept his tail up, cutting off the feeling in his back legs and keeping him from kicking. Then Papa did his thing and TA DA we have a steer. And we no longer have to worry about if he 'can reach' when Maggie goes into heat! That was about a week ago now and he's doing really well. We wanted to do it before spring because of the flies and that whole 'reachability'  thing. He will be 1 year old in May.

He looks so tiny in there compared to big tall Maggie. The cat was PRETTY SURE we'd forgotten to feed her that day! We had fed her, but they have to try it. It was a warm wet snowy day and we had PUDDLES on the ice! 

I have to remember the last time Papa and I did this to a little bull. We were living on the mountain in WA. state and the calf was a Holstein bull calf we'd gotten as a 3 day old and raised on our goats. He was TALL and we placed two trucks side by side and tied him between the two of them. Then I stood with a pair of gloves and great balance on the truck bed sides.. OVER the calf. So one foot on one truck bed side and one foot on the other truck bed side and held his tail up while Papa 'did his thing' and Gaffer the calf bawled for his goat momma. Looking back we should have tied her to the front of the truck.. he would have been quiet then. Gaffers goat Momma was named Little Girl and she loved him as much as he loved her. She was always looking out for him and would let him nurse any time he wanted.. even though he was twice as big as she was. He was a lot older then this picture shows when we steered him. He's only a couple weeks, if that, old in this picture. He'd follow her anywhere. If he got scared he would hide behind her... well as good as he could anyway! Very funny!