Dori the adorable and Yes ma'am

Tomorrow we head in for the second of 3 fairs in a four week span. Dakota is taking a blue roan steer named "Roaneo" that I am not particularly proud of. He is not a bad steer but he really needs 30 more days and 120 pounds of finish on him. He was an April 2011 calf so we knew he would have to be pushed and we just didn't get him pushed hard enough. As I cussed this fact a bit today as I looked at Roaneo from every angle I had a little mental chat with Dad. He reminded me that sometimes you just have to go with the flow and especially where females are concerned, be it bovine or human you are best off to just swallow hard and say "yes ma'am.

Dad and I would argue about the attributes and deficiencies of just about any bovine especially show steers and mother cows. Now as I try and balance Dakotas decisions with my experience I often run up against a whole new issue. Dakota not only looks for a winner, she expects a steer to be "cute" and have some personality and/or special color traits. She likes a calf with a little "bling" to them. Now make no mistake, Roaneo is a blingy calf with his blue roan color and from the day he was born she was pretty set on making him see a show ring. In the end it is her choice and she makes some good points about doing some things just for fun and as a tribute to our ranch history. Yes ma'am.

She reminds me that sometimes these decisions work out really well and tonight's blog post about a yellow Brahma cross cow that earned her way into the cowherd is a prime example. We had an old Brahma cross cow for years that was affectionately known as "Rabbit ears". A blog post about her and her final calf before she passed from natural causes here on the ranch are here http://thedailycowman.blogspot.com/2010/02/can-you-ear-me-now.html   

Rabbit ears had her last calf in February 2010 and was named "Dori" by Dakota as a shortened name for "adorable". Here Dori (tag #0203Y) is with her mother at 16 hours of age. She was a spindly legged clone of her mother and although she was "adorable" I doubted her future as a momma cow in our herd and told Dakota my opinion. As Dori grew up  though she started to show a bit more of her Daddies Black Angus body type and when it came time to select replacement heifers she made the cut with a great deal of lobbying from Dakota.Yes ma'am.

Dori spent the spring of 2011 with her replacement herd mates being romanced by two Black Angus bulls. In October of 2011 Dori was confirmed pregnant with a spring calf by my left arm which made me smile especially given the fact that her momma Rabbit ears had passed on and her legacy would continue on here at this ranch I love so much. 

This past February I was impatiently waiting to pick up Dakota at the bus stop after school to go check calving cows before dark. I did not let on what I had already learned earlier on that clear cold day. Dori had delivered unassisted her first child. A gray bull calf #2203y. As we drove to a secluded corner of the corn field the cows were grazing Dori stood over her new calf that she had expertly stashed on the wind protected side of a sagebrush plant. Dakota shrieked with joy and as she often says many times in a calving season, "That is the cutest baby EVER!" Yes ma'am. I can't find any pics of Dori with her calf as a newborn but last week I caught her with her now 6 plus month old steer calf by her side and as you can see sometimes a little "bling" goes a long way.Remember all pics can be seen full size by clicking on them. See you all at the Columbia Basin Junior Livestock show this week!

Today's Cowman Youtube music selection is a feel good song by Matt Mason that has a timeline an outlaw like me can really relate to. He sings "Good year for the Outlaw"  Hillbilly rock and roll at its best, just listen to the guitars, turn it UP, yeah turn it WAY up!