The mud, the cursed mud, has returned.....

Yes, I know it gets muddy at some point in Missouri every winter. Usually around this time or at least by February. It has been muddy for about a week now and our family has simply had enough. Our moods have turned as sour as the sickly calves stomaches. Our drugs for the calves arrived tonight and Jesse promptly treated them. He even made sure to change the needles between calves so as not to cross contaminate. The boy has surely been paying attention over the years to his vet science leader and his parents - thankfully! We finished up two chapters in his Ag Science class over the last two weeks. He knew it all and wondered why we had to cover it. I suggested it was a review. Then his brother decided to inform him that he'd have to review it next year in the public school ag class too. I'm guess he'll be an expert on beef production by the time he gets to college. Which is a good thing because he's chosen a career path......after much thought and concern he has decided he wants to be an animal embryologist. I'm doing some research as to what all he needs to do and study and he is quite excited about it. I looked at some microscopes the other night thinking it might be time to upgrade so he can do some better microscopic study. I guess I need to be saving my pennies from the library job to do that. I think it'll take roughtly 4 months of my salary to get one that's good enough. Ai yi yi. Guess I'll consider it an investment in our future embryo transfer program.

And we thought it was just the calves......

We had our first calf get sick today for this year. We knew it would be coming with the weather swing and the dreary, rainy day. We've decided to be more proactive this year. The boys managed to get a stool sample and take it to a friend of ours who works in the lab at the University. We're trying to make sure we're just battling the elements and not some devestating infection. We called the vet. We called the animal health supply guy. We'll have the right drugs tomorrow and know now what NOT to do. EVER. That we have done in the past. Whoops. So, I headed on to work knowing that all was handled on the farm and we would know soon what we're dealing with.

I had to stop off at Walgreen's to pick up some contact solution for myself and Chris. Judging from the few spots left in the parking lot and the line of cars in both drive thru lanes, I'm guessing the weather hasn't affected just our cattle. It has been foggy here for over a week. Today the fog finally broke. And then it started raining. I guess it's wreaked as much havoc on the humans as it has the bovines. I'm thankful we're all healthy right now. One calf is treatable. We've not started having AI calves yet so that's one less concern. We have about 2 or 3 weeks before we'll have to start the round the clock checks. They not actually due to start until mid February but we all know how unpredictable babies and animals can be. Since we're dealing with baby animals it'll be that much more exciting.