My Mustangs.: Lazy hazy days of summer.

These pictures were taken when the cows were in for water and to chew their cud. It's hazy with smoke from distant wildfires.

I started my own 'type' of cattle about 20 years ago. I call them Smokeys. If they are born a solid smoke color with not a spot of white, they always grow horns. If they are born with some white they are always hornless or 'polled'. The Smokeys have proven to be very healthy and wean very big calves. One draw back is they are also very intelligent and quickly figure out how to get to greener pastures. But I think the biggest difference in the Smokeys is their more friendly dispositions than Charolais.

Here they are licking up some glycerin and molasses. The glycerin is a by product of my husbands biodiesel business. We have fueled our pick-up and our cows thanks to biodiesel.

The cow in the picture below is called Levin. She was the first and only calf born this color. All the other cattle were white and mostly Charolais. She was almost a clone of her grandmother, our herd founder the famous #11. All Levins calves are big intelligent Smokeys. Levin was born fearless of humans which is unusual for a range cows. Her bull calf standing in front of her is a Smokey/white and polled.

The famous #11 had to be put to sleep after giving birth to her last calf in 1991. #11 had a prolapsed uterus and a dislocated hip and couldn't get up. She became so bad with arthritis it was very hard for her walk that last winter. In March she had managed to give birth and that last calf was Dandylyons who became the long suffering 'wife' of a Morgan horse.

In these pictures Foxsun had just found his old cow wife, Dandylyons hiding from him trying to have a snooze in a corral. Horses eat most of the day but cows like to spend half the day chewing their cud and day dreaming about eating again. This leads to many problems in a inter-species marriage. After 17 years they have learned to compromise. He'll let her rest and he'll have a little graze off on his own. After awhile he comes back and bites her bum to get her up on her poor old feet then cuts her from the herd and heads her out to graze. She gets less rest than the other cows but she looks very good for age, so having a personal trainer must be doing her some good. I've seen Dandylyons get frantic and leave the other cows to run mooing for Foxsun, when she's lost sight of him for too long. When Wildairo first came here he seemed a little embarressed to see such going on's. It'll be good when gets a 'normal' equine to keep him company.