Tom Sawyer Bull Calf born to Wanda Mae

A wonderul British White cow is my Wanda Mae. She was one of my original heifers and she was nicknamed for a childhood friend who wasn't the most popular or the most beautiful girl in my neighborhood - she was more importantly the most trusted. Wanda Mae gladly took in my Midge doll for safe keeping forever and always when a very bad lady was going to throw her away. I will always remember her fondly for taking care of my Midge.

My cow, Wanda Mae, is as equally unforgettable as my childhood friend. Wanda Mae is a fertile myrtle, a feed efficient femme fatale, a carcass queen, and the most gentle British White cow I've ever encountered in any herd in the USA or the United Kingdom. Why am I talking about Wanda Mae this evening? Well she gave me a surprise Sunday morning. A bouncing bull calf was mewling and hobbling around and announcing his brave entry into his new world.

I had noticed Wanda Mae looked like she was putting milk on, but she keeps a nice udder in between calves, and she stays fat, and with her deep well sprung rib area she always is mistaken for being pregnant by visitors when she's not! But I poked her udder and squeezed the nipples about a week before, wondering just what was going on. Nonetheless, I was surprised.


Fortunately, I make a habit of recording when any bull jumps a fence, plows through a fence, or seems to magically fly over a fence. In this case, it was Tom Sawyer who was the culprit, and sure enough Wanda Mae is one of three cows jotted down as possibly cycling when he made his pasture break to the girls.

Follow this link for a very short video of this handsome Tom Sawyer sired bull calf. He measured 27.5 inches, which puts him weighing about 67 pounds at birth. The video is from this afternoon, and he is now three days old. Most three day old calves in other breeds will absolutely not let you fool with them. This little guy is above and beyond friendly. I couldn't take a single stretch of video that didn't find him walking straight to me and my camera.

In this clip at the very end his Dam, Wanda Mae, puts her nose right in my camera as well. That's gentle. Make no mistake that the British White breed is truly gentle; from the day they hit the ground they have a God-given curious and friendly nature, or not.

British White Heifer Shown at South Texas State Fair

A British White heifer is included in the first Spring South Texas State Fair in Beaumont, Texas. Previously a fall show for many years, this transition to spring seems to be going well. The fair grounds are clean and fresh and the rides and the food are all tasty and fun; in particular the food has lots of variety, I really wanted to try one of those pork chops on a stick, or a cajun egg roll, but alas I looked on in envy, and decided to wait until another day. This video is a short clip of my niece with her heifer, Mazey. Mazey is a small framed heifer, should mature to at most a Frame Score 2 and weight of about 1000 lbs at full maturity. She stands out in the show barn as much for her small frame as for her distinctive beauty and good nature. Follow this link for a short video, and look for more videos to follow on youtube!

Flip Video - A Great No-Brainer Tool for Cattle Promotion

A few months back, Morris Halliburton, of Halliburton Farms in Bells, Texas, told me about about a neat little camcorder that was easy to use. I checked it out and knew I'd really like to have one. Well I got lucky, and Santa Claus brought me one for Christmas! I've only lately started putting it to use, and it has been fun and really easy to work with.

It's smaller than a pack of cigarettes; it's so small you might even lose track of it in your purse! So I highly recommend a good case for it. I'm using a hard leather cell phone case for mine; and the clip comes in handy to keep it safely handy in one spot in your purse, your pocket, or your belt.

You can also make still photos from it, and oftentimes they are better photos than I can take with a standard still camera -- at least better posed ??????The video quality is not perfect? The really really nice HD video camera I have takes awesome quality video in comparsion -- but, that doesn't much matter if the software is too much of a pain to work with to get it from the camera to the computer and then to the web!

For a video of my handsome herd bull, JWest's Elvis, follow this link to it's location on Youtube captured from my Flip Video camera

A British White Bull Gets Himself in a Bit of Jam

Unfortunately, google blogger is having problems with photos posting, so this pic of JWest's Mazarati in quite a pickle is just an X on your screen most likely.
This picture was Sunday a week ago today, and it was, as is often the case, a weekend just as busy as a week day. Mazarati, better known by the nickname Mo, had made his way along a puzzling course in the hay barn, until he'd reached a dead end -- much like a maze meant for humans that takes many attempts to find the right course out. Unlike a person, Mo couldn't figure out that if he just took those same steps backwards he would be able to find his way back to the beginning. It could have been a disaster, fortunately, he was not injured.

Amazingly, he was quite calm about the whole ordeal; though his new owner, Carol Diodene, would agree with me that he wasn't exactly happy -- his eyes were quite a bit rolled back as tried to look up at us. The first question a cattle rancher would be sure to be asking themself right now is how did he gain access to the hay barn. Well, that would be my fault; and, yes, I am generally a stickler about those gates always being secured even if you are quite sure you'll go right back through that gate within minutes. But, the day before I obviously failed to do just that.

Another herd bull, King Cole, was headed to his new home in the Canton area on Saturday morning, and I opened the hay barn to get a hefty handful of alfalfa droppings from the floor of the barn to use to coax him on into the pens -- and I didn't go back and close the gate, it was merely pushed together, and thus a perfect trap for an unsuspecting cow or bull with access to the corral that adjoins the hay barn. And of course Mo and the two bred heifers leaving for Ocala, Florida had access.

I can't tell you how happy I was to see Mo stroll out of that hay barn with no obvious injury from his ordeal. Two 16' high stacks of 4x4x8 alfalfa bales had to be removed to give him a way out. With all but the bottom row removed, Gentle Mo didn't lunge at the open space as I feared he might -- I could see how easy it would be for him to now try to climb over that remaining 4 foot high bale, but he didn't. Perhaps it was because Carol and I were patting him on the head and telling him to just wait a bit longer, or perhaps it's because he is a British White and his calm disposition saved his life from serious injury while trapped and during his release.

Most amazing perhaps is that Mo didn't bolt out into the corral following his release. He merely strolled and inexplicably stopped to munch on one of the alfalfa bales that had been removed to give him passage out. Carol was great through the whole ordeal, and convinced that this was surely a sign that Mo was meant to join her farm in Ocala, and I think he was as well. He arrived safely at his new home the following day, along with a pot load of great females that Carol found at the British White and Lowline auction in Henderson that weekend.

Calf Birth Weight - Actual versus Tape Measure

A Truly 'laboring' Labor Day weekend!


My fall calving got started this past few days, and because one of the calves born was so very small I decided to try out a set of old bathroom scales that have a big platform and an elevated dial with big numbers for viewing weight results. This little heifer calf was a surprise finding on August 30th when the Animal Compassion Foundation was having another visit with my herd. Anne was thinking on her feet and volunteered her belt to use to measure the newborn and a pen to mark the spot. She was obviously a very little girl, and I ventured the guess that she couldn't weight more than 45 pounds.

We got back to the house and measured Anne's belt and found that she had measured 24 1/2 inches around, and it was a good snug belt measure around her heart girth, the little heifer was totally interested and cooperative. I figured the belt measure probably, because it was a thick leather belt, added some length to the measurement, and later on that evening I went out and measured her again with my tape, and I measured her at 24 inches. While 24 inches got her closer to the mark when you use the tape conversion chart in the Breeder's Guide, I still wasn't convinced that her actual weight was 51 pounds, which is what you get when you use the 4.5 pound increments to back into an off the chart 24 inch heart girth.

The following day I decided to try out my old scales on this little heifer. I found a light weight section of that stick on the floor tile type stuff in the barn, and decided that would work fine. It was nice and sturdy, yet was very manageable. I put the section of floor tile down on the ground, put the scales on my new weighing platform, and weighed her and myself twice for good measure. She was an exact 40 pound little heifer. The difference of 11 pounds is very significant, that is over a 25% error in birth weight estimation.

I decided to go through this same process with each of my newborns. Besides this little heifer, I had four other calves born August 30th through Sept. 2nd. Of those three of them were cooperative, the 27 1/2 inch bull calf born on August 30 to Hill's Dana already found it too much grand fun to scamper about for me pick him and get an actual weight.

August 31st a heifer calf was born to MsRae. She measured 26 inches, and per the tape conversion chart should have weighed 60 pounds, but in fact she weighed more! She had an actual weight of 65 pounds. I also had Mike confirm these same results himself, and it was an accurate weight of 65 pounds -- and she is pictured here.

September 1st a bull calf was born to Madonna (and I actually happened to be out at pasture hanging around in the Ranger and she calved about 40 feet away from me!). This bull calf measured 26 1/4 inches, and had an actual weight of 60 pounds. So in this instance the tape conversion to weight was quite acceptably accurate, and again I had Mike duplicate the weighing process for confirmation.

Then on the afternoon of September 2nd, Polly (pictured here to the right)decided it was time to calve. This calving went on for a bit too long for my comfort, I even called to try to reach a vet just in case I had a problem on my hands. But in between rushing to the house and calling the vet and leaving a message of impending problems, she had delivered a healthy bull calf. (So of course I rushed back to the house and left another message for the vet that all was well!) I tape measured this newborn at a whopping 27 1/2 inches, and had Mike confirm the tape measurement as well this time. We both weighed the little guy and he weighed all of 60 pounds. But, per the tape conversion he should have weighed about 67 pounds -- a greater than 10% error, which in this business is a highly material error.

So what does all this mean to the breeder who relies on tape measure conversion to estimate weight? It means you probably ought to be getting some actual weights as well until, or if, you feel comfortable visually estimating weight and understanding how the tape should perhaps be adjusted for what your eyes tell you.

As well, it could be that I don't handle the tape measure properly. With that in mind, if I haven't been pulling the tape snugly enough around the heart girth then I have a whole lot of historical birth weights that are over-estimated. However, the results from the little study shown here indicate the tape can create error both on the high and low side. I am going to continue to both use a tape measure for weight and get an actual weight with the remainder of my fall calves to get a sense of the average error rate as well as try to understand why.

Earlier I mentioned that Polly (who is also a first calf heifer) was having a more lengthy birth than I like to see. She actually was effectively yelling with her efforts, so I was even more alarmed. It's very unusual for any of my cattle to get vocal over calving. Polly's bull calf measured 27 1/2 inches, yet it only weighed 60 pounds. So, what was structurally different in Polly's bull versus Madonna's (also a first calf heifer) bull that would create an error using a tape measure? To my eye he has wider shoulders and is thicker through the heart girth, a deeper little guy -- yet at a glance looks about the same size/stature as Madonna's 26 1/4 inch bull. So obviously the confirmation of the newborn has a great impact on using a tape measure for an accurate birth weight.

MsRae's heifer is an example of the error to the light side using a tape measure. She weighed a full five pounds more than the tape measured estimate. Why? Perhaps because she has good balance all over, her dam certainly does. How does the tape measure consider a deep evenly made newborn that extends on through to the hind quarters? I don't think it can.

Regardless, I'll continue this small study of tape versus actual weight and see what the final results tell me about my own errors in tape measuring as well as errors due to the actual structure of the calf, and periodically update those results here on my blog.

Favorites From my Spring Calves

This little beauty was christened 'Dixie' by the girls Easter weekend. Her dam is JWest's Brigit and she was sired by JWest's El Presidente. Dixie was 14 days old in this photo and is obviously a healthy, thriving little heifer. Her dam is one of my favorite cows, having an excellent nature as well as being a really beautiful, well made British White cow that she passes on to all her calves.

Lucy Rae also had a quite friendly, well made heifer sired by El Presidente. In the following video clip I am sitting just a few feet away. She is 7 days old in this clip. Lucy Rae's Heifer


This bull calf is out of JWest's Emily and JWest's El Presidente, and is pictured here at 18 days old. His sire's thickness and muscling are apparent and his dam is one of my best cows. In the following video clip he is 8 days old. The girls didn't decide on a name for this beefy little guy, so any suggestions are welcome. :)
British White Bull Calf

This Spring has seen zero calving problems and last fall I had none as well, which makes a full year and a half without any vet calls to assist with calving, and the last one was a breach birth, which was a first here at the ranch. The typical British White herd has few calving problems, the birth weights being an average 75 pounds, and my moderate framed cows calve with ease, as well as my smaller 1000 pound cows. Check out the slideshow of my British White cow Wanda Mae giving birth to a young bull calf at Cow Calving Slideshow

Happy 7th Birthday Morgan!

It's been several weeks since I posted a new blog. Once one project that seems all important is done, I find myself in the midst of another -- and always I wonder in hindsight if those demands were really so terribly important that I couldn't look up for a day here and there and see what else is happening in the world of the special people in my life. Two very special girls in my life have not been given near the attention from me they should have.

Victoria and Morgan are those two very special young ladies, and I missed seeing them again this Christmas, and worst of all, I missed Morgan's 7th birthday on Saturday in The Woodlands. It was a stormy Saturday, and not one to be out on the roads travelling, the winds were strong, and the forecast was for continued severe stormy weather into the afternoon, which there was. So Morgan and Victoria, I'm really sorry I didn't make it, and the weather can be my only excuse.

Morgan is a lovely, sweet girl, who has always struck me as a quietly charming and intelligent child, even as a toddler. Her Mom, Victoria, has grown into an outstanding young woman with many talents and she is very much an excellent, nurturing mother to her lovely daughter, Morgan.

When I first began raising British White cattle I bought an excellent set of ten heifers and of course renamed every single one of them based on who in my life and past they reminded me of most. One of those heifers was nicknamed Morgan, and she very much remains a quiet and gentle cow who strikes one as being a bit removed from the others because she is perhaps more intelligent. An odd thing to say about a cow, but then you'd have to experience life with Morgan the cow to understand. She often goes off by herself and sits or stands for long periods, sort of watching the others, and she tends to be last in a rush to change pastures or check out a fresh bale of hay -- she just does it in her own good time with a lot of grace and beauty in her carriage.
For those of you who might be thinking she is likely sick because she goes off by herself so much, she's not. I thought the same long ago, but it is just her nature.

As I haven't spent any time with 7 year old Morgan, the sweet child of Victoria,in quite a while, I've no idea if the traits of Morgan the Cow reflect who Morgan the Child is now in her 7th year. But judging from the very lovely photo on this years birthday invitation, and the others posted here today, 7 Year Old Morgan is a child of grace and beauty and intelligence, and she will continue to stand out amongst others as she growns into adulthood.

And not to be left out in this tribute to Morgan's 7th Birthday is photo of her father, Russell. He has matured into an excellent husband and father and is very much an important part of the threesome that forms this special family.

This British White Cow By the Name of Beauty Looks to be Asking, Just Where Have I Been?

The past weeks have been busy with Holiday commitments and now a TxDOT deadline for a ROW acquisition looms that seems to occupy all of my time. Mike snapped this picture today of a British White cow that's been called Beauty since pretty much the day she arrived. She's one of ten of my first British White yearling heifers, and she looks like she's not just real happy with my lack of attention of late. That's her bull calf standing behind her. Beauty is the Dam of Mazarati, the bull running with my big herd right now, so she's hanging out with my Spring '06 heifers in the north pasture beside the house.

Hope that Christmas and the New Year were enjoyed by all, and Sincere Wishes to everyone for a great 2007.

GrassFed British White Beef - JWest's Mazarati - Excellent Herd Sire Potential

Consider this.....with the price of beef skyrocketing at the market these days, and the healthful quality of that beef very questionable.....isn't it time to seek out healthy natural grassfed beef straight from the producer? Buying a whole beef is maybe too much too handle, but you can find a friend to take a side of beef and you the other, about 300 or so pounds of beef you'd need to find space in the freezer for.

If you buy straight from a Grassfed producer you would pay from $1 to $1.50 a pound live weight of the steer, you'd then pay the processor about .40 cents a pound for actual carcass weight to cut and wrap it the way you want them to. Average cost per pound of beef for your family just dropped tremendously, and you're providing yourself and your children with the best of nutrition..........you won't worry so much if their diet is nothing but hamburgers.....it will be hamburgers providing optimal Fatty Acids, CLA's, Vitamin E, Vitamin A......and more.

Put fresh beef in the freezer and you'll never shop for grocery store beef again. Guaranteed. Put Grassfed beef in the freezer and you won't have to worry so much about the fat in that delicious ribeye, it will be heart healthy fat you can enjoy.

Consider the economics of buying a Grassfed steer straight from a producer. Too many people don't realize that it is still done today, and not just in rural America. Many grassfed beef producers will arrange to ship your beef to you in the city. These days, buying just a few cuts or packages from Grassfed Beef Suppliers can cost a bundle over what beef costs at the grocery store or supermarket. You can avoid all that by contacting a beef producer direct and they'll have a beef animal transported to a harvest facility nearby and then you tell the harvest facility how long you want it aged and how you want it processed. If you want 2 inch ribeyes, they will cut you two inch ribeyes. If you don't want a lot of roasts, well they'll just make those cuts into your ground beef instead. The price is the same per pound no matter what you decide. And the cost of processing is on the actual beef carcass poundage processed and packaged for you. If you are on a budget, it's worth saving to pay for the steer and the processing. It really puts money in the bank in the long run. Not to mention the better eating quality of the beef and the superior nutrition of the beef that will be in your freezer.....and not at an overpriced Walmart that injects their meat with.......wierd stuff.

Ask for British White Grassfed Beef, ask for true Grassfed Fed, no corn and no emergency byproducts to get through the winter if you're buying a steer for harvest in early Spring. There are various studies examining the length of time it takes for a steer's muscle and fat to convert back to a Heart Healthy state for optimum nutritional benefit, and it does take a few months and more for that to occur.

A steer with superior grassfed genetics will thrive on grass hay and high quality Alfalfa Hay as a supplement. Always ask what they're eating, and don't presume they haven't received antibiotics or hormone implants or long periods of grain supplement, you need to ask and if possible visit the farm or ranch that you're considering buying from direct.

Also to keep in mind......look for grassfed beef producers who focus their breeding programs on moderate sized animals -- you'll never have an optimum grassfed eating experience from a steer whose sire is over 1600 pounds and whose dam weighs more than 1200 pounds......the big guy just can't reach finish condition on grass until he's pushing 30 months old, and you won't realize the optimal healthy...and TASTY... finish of grassfed beef with a satisfactory level of that healthy grassfed fat.