Adventures in cow buying

You might remember that last fall we culled our bull and 3 of our cows. Yesterday it was time for another trip to the sale barn at Dyersville to try and pick up some bred cows.

We’d tried to make to their February bred cow sale. But that day we only got as far as Floyd (about 20 miles from home) when the truck started acting up and we had to turn and go back home.

Because of the nasty weather forecast, we’d decided to leave around 6:30 a.m. So my alarm went off at 6, and I laid there thinking about who knows what, but some thought in there jolted me out of bed with an, “Oh crap, I forgot to set the clocks ahead last night!” But it worked out, the weather didn’t start until we were on our way home.

So we’re on the road for home, with a trailer full of cows, and the rain turns to freezing rain and sleet. We’re going 40 mph, gawking at a number of cars in the ditch. We decide to exit at Independence for gas…at this point we’re still a couple of hours from home. Another truck pulls into the gas pump next to us. A guy gets out and says, “You know you lost a tire on your trailer, don’t you?”

Uh, no.

He tells us he saw it come off, right before we exited. So now we’re off on a scavenger hunt around Independence, on a Sunday, for lug nuts – hoping the other tire on that side holds until we can get the spare on. We strike out at Walmart, but find a farm & fleet store open with what we need. Matt gets the spare on, and we head back to the highway to look for our lost tire. There it is, out in the median. Matt jumps out and grabs it, and we’re off again.

Fortunately that was the end of the adventure and we made it home with our load – five 4 & 5-year-old cows from a herd dispersal. They should start calving in 2 to 3 weeks. Here’s a few of them…

There’s two more solid black ones, as well. They’re smaller framed than the ones we have, which I like. And it seems we bought at a good time – prices were reasonable yesterday.

We have a new bull picked out from a local guy. Just waiting on weather & schedules and planets to align to have him delivered.

4 years ago:

Small Farm Business : Enterprise Budgeting