Moving Along

Well, things in the new year are moving right along.  We have about 2/3 of our herd bred and I am waiting on this week to confirm about 4 more animals.  In late Feb. we will draw some blood from each animal and send it away to get an official pregnancy confirmation.  The program seems to be working well.  Next Sept/Oct we will calve 11 half lowline calves and 4 small framed red angus.  I cannot wait to see our calves.
Today I had to add another roosting platform for our layers and build a set of nesting boxes as our 100 new layers are starting to lay.  We got 10 eggs from them today and I am sure they will be increasing daily. 
I am hoping that we will get some cold weather before I have to load our steers for the butcher shop next Sunday.  It is pretty soft in front of the barn still.  Normally, by now, it is pretty frozen.
Tomorrow we will be working our current calves through the chute.  We will give each an ear tag and number and castrate this year's bulls.  Unfortunately we have one animal to dehorn.  This is a rarity for us.  I do not think we have had horns on the farm in at least 10 years.  I will not stand for horns in our barn or pasture.  They are nothing but trouble.  It should also be our last animal with horns.  By using the AI program, we will be sure to have 100% polled (no horns genetically) animals.