Little boys all grown up

During calving season last spring, we had to do a C-section on one of our cows. The surgery was successful, and Charlie the bull calf was born.

In November 2011, we loaded up our bull calves and sent them to Purdue’s Indiana Beef Evaluation Program in Bedford, IN. We had to pay to send the bulls there, but they took great care of our boys and also collected a lot of data about rate of weight gain and growth.

At the end of the program (about 5 months) they host a sale of all the bulls. They have criteria for which bulls make the sale, and unfortunately Charlie didn’t quite fit the bill. I think he didn’t grow quite fast enough, but to be honest I’m not sure of the details.

Since Charlie didn’t make the sale, we had to find our own buyer for him. We did that, without much trouble, but Charlie had to leave the test farm before his new home was going to be ready. So he got to come home to visit for a few days!

He’s all grown up, and a pretty good looking bull!

If you’re handsome and you know it clap your hands… clap your hooves… um, maybe just moo…

The ear tag we put in when he was born was taken out and replaced with a different identification tag at the test. He was their bull number 75.

Here’s his brand from the test. It has the logo of the farm and the number 12 for the year.

Hubby Doc loaded him back into our trailer a few days later.

And off he went to his new home.

I’m told that as soon as he was let out in the pasture with his new girlfriends they mobbed him… He’s going to be very popular and very busy over the next few weeks!

Goodbye Charlie, and good luck!

We do have one bull in the sale. Here’s his sale video.