Van Dyke
Angus Ranch
Ranch News - April 1998
| April
4th |
| Weather has been fantastic, highs in the 60'sº F ( 17º
C) and lows around 40º F ( 5º C). Everything is starting to dry up and
almost all of the snow is gone. What a great time of year. We have started to breed the
cows again, so it has been very busy. Cows are really coming in heat so we are very happy
about that. We have also started to put embryos in, so you might say we are not lacking
for things to do. Clarence and Marian will be leaving for New Zealand and Australia on
April 28, they are going to Merricks field day on the 8th of May. We recently sold them
several flushes on our donor females. It will be good to return the visit there as alot of
Angus breeders from down under come and visit our place.
Midland Bull Test sale is this coming Friday, we are selling 4 outstanding calves on
the sale. Hopefully I will try and be a little bit more prompt with my ranch news in the
coming weeks, but with farming becoming more of a possibility I doud't that things are
going to ease up much.. |
| April
13th |
| Weather out here has not been real good, it has rained or
snowed for eight days in a row. The cows and calves are in mud 15 inches ( 38 cm)
deep and we are starting to get alot of sick calves. Hopefully the weather will straighten
out this week. The Midland bull sale went super for us. Lot 113, a VDAR Ambush 1465 out of VDAR
Elluna 3155 sold for $7,000. Lot 114, a VDAR Vision 243
out of a VDAR Lucy's Boy daughter sold for $9,250. Lot
115, A VDAR Vision 243 out of VDAR Beauty 806 sold for
$7,250. Lot 117, a VDAR New Trend 315 out of VDAR Lucy 3181 sold for $4,250. The whole sale averaged
around $3,000 for 400 head of Angus. |
| April
20th |
| Things are still very busy here, we are just through are
first 3 week of breeding so hopefully there will not be to many repeats. The weather is
getting somewhat better, highs in the 60'sº F ( 17º C), lows around 30º F (
-1º C). Hopefully this week we will start to get some of our crops in. By the
Manhattan place things are starting to dry out fairly well so that is where we will start.
We will be seeding barley and spring wheat. We are starting to move alot of semen here
in the last couple of weeks, VDAR Vision 243, VDAR New Trend 124, VDAR
Ambush 1465 SAF, VDAR Lucy's Boy and VDAR KA Legacy seem to be moving very well.
We would like to thank Ken Cook of Oxbow Ranch at Wolf Creek, MT, Leroy Logterman of
Manhattan, MT and Brian Weaver of Iowa on their purchases of embryos on our donor females. |
| April
25th |
| The weather has been fantastic out here, highs are in the
70'sº F ( 20'sº C). We have been able to get a fair amount of our crops in. We
are done planting by the Manhattan place, have some done by the home place and are
planning to go to our dry land by Gateway first part of next week. Dad (Clarence) left
for New Zealand and Australia today, he should arrive there on Monday New Zealand time.
They are about a day ahead of us so I guess to us it would be Sunday. He is going out to
Merricks field day next week. Merrick has purchased 75 embryos from some of our very best
donors.
Breeding is going super, I have had around 80 head go past their due date and so far
have only had 4 repeats. Hopefully the good luck will keep on going. We are breeding to
most of the same bulls as last year but have added a few new sires, VDAR Lucy's Boy 7137
is an exciting new Lucy's Boy son that really looks
awsome. Also we are using some PAPA Durabull. VDAR Traveler 51 is seeing alot more use
after our first set of calves this year, they look fantastic. He is a Traveler 124 our of
a Rito 054 daughter from our Lucy cow family. |
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