Welcome to the farm..

I had always wanted cows and the requests of an eight year old can sometimes come true… albeit it was 20 years later with “adult money.” I had originally wanted cattle as a young 4-H member after getting to show them at a master showmanship clinic leading up to my first county fair.

Master showmanship is a round robin style championship showdown between the best showmen in each division for each species, who will subsequently compete in mini rounds with all the animals available. The clinic was to prepare us if we were to make it that far.

While I did make master showmanship with my horse in an attempt to show a cow, it also led to me getting a book on cattle illnesses (of all things), memorizing it, and reciting them to my dad every night. My mom was both my small animal 4-H leader and my horse 4-H leader - she said “no more! It’ll have to be your dad!”

Poor dad had no idea what he was getting into both then and now! Seven show steers later, I never raised heifers or started my own breeding herd. In 2019, I had the opportunity to purchase my first three heifers.

The first pair were Maine-Anjou/Angus crosses and I purchased from a neighbor whose family had helped me buy show calves back when I was in 4-H. The third heifer was in an online auction that he had sent to me - he had purchased the sibling to the heifer years before and was a big fan of the bloodline. It was an exciting hour of bidding but I was excited to walk away with the little show calf from Washington.

Amy and Bernadette were the two sisters and Penny was the third calf - so named from the hit TV series, The Big Bang Theory. Through the next year, I went through the process of taking them to a neighboring farm to get AI’s for 2021 calves. Only Amy took and we had one calf that hit the ground early in February 2021 - 28 days early.

Not sure if it was a boy or girl and afraid it wouldn’t live being born so early, I named it Kevin. Turns out, Kevin’s a girl! A little girl at that and she’s still sitting way too small for her age.

Through 2022, I did the AI work myself with my friend Anglea helping in the prep work and my Select Sires Rep Adrianne doing the AI itself and the pregnancy checks. I have learned so much in the past few years and can’t wait for 2023!