The Longhorn Farmwife: Raising longhorns

When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle had longhorn cattle running with the rest of their herd and I was always impressed by them. It became my goal to own some one day. On Mother's Day of 2010, my husband surprised me by buying me 2 heifers and buying himself a steer. That is when the fun began and I started my cattle company called Prairie Sky Longhorns.

Raising longhorn cattle is a unique experience for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of the fact that their horns are a tad bit inconvenient for your standard cattle handling facilities. By a year of age, their horns are too long to fit down an alleyway or squeeze in a chute, so doctoring and branding presents a challenge. We use my aunt's facilities, which luckily include a squeeze tub, so we can do the basic things we need to using that. It worked out well for artificial insemination last year, which was important since I haven't bought a bull yet.

I finally received my branding iron a few weeks ago, and the first moment my husband had free after harvest, I begged him to help me get my cattle marked with my brand. In our minds the tub was going to work. In reality, there was no way that was going to happen. As a result, the only animal that got branded was my yearling heifer that you can see pictured here,because her horns were still narrow enough to get down the alleyway. I was happy with the way it turned out, however my husband said it was difficult to get all parts of the brand to burn evenly on the hide.

Here are a few pictures of our operation. I will write more later about my experiences with this majestic breed of cattle.