Calves, Chaos & The Mother's Day Sale - Lori Racicky & Taylor Hauser

Lori and Taylor are back solo and they've got a lot going on - from weaning 60 calves single-handed in a storm to setting up 77 head for AI in ice pellets and sleet. This episode is a real peek behind the barn door at what it actually takes to run a Highland operation, and it comes with a teaser for something exciting: their Mother's Day auction on May 10th at hornsnhoovesauction.com.

They also get into the nitty gritty of weaning age, calf nutrition after early weaning, why keeping calves on mom longer pays off, and embryo work - including a research study with Vitali and some surprise results from Taylor's first embryo calf crop.

Key Takeaways

Pulling calves at four months isn't always enough - nutrition and socialisation are critical if you do. Chondro testing matters for every calf, not just the ones you're keeping. 

Private auctions protect buyer anonymity and let you announce your own purchases.

 Pasture management and drought conditions are hitting Nebraska hard - fires have burned over a million acres.

Episode Highlights

Taylor weans 60 head solo with two boys underfoot - and catches a surprise live birth at the finish line. 

Lori and Taylor break down their Mother's Day auction lineup: Chondropositive heifers, High 

Park calves, Pickle genetics, and Tornado Cutie - Jackson's miniature panda calf with a story. 

Plus embryo results, AI planning, and why private auctions are the move.

Timestamps

00:01 — Welcome & Mother's Day auction announcement 

01:08 — UC Davis & Spalding Labs podcast updates 

01:43 — Taylor's solo weaning story & surprise calving 

06:06 — Pasture management, drought & Nebraska fires 

12:21 — Auction format: why private bidding matters 

14:00 — Weaning age, calf nutrition & rumen development 

19:03 — AI, embryo work & calf crop results 

25:02 — Full auction lineup breakdown 

41:10 — Sale details: 9am Central, May 10th

Find your next herd addition at www.hornsnhoovesauction.com

Follow us on social media so you don't miss out on any advice, auction updates, or crazy farm stories!

Find us on Facebook: Horns N Hooves 

Instagram: @hornsnhoovesauctionpodcast 

TikTok: @Hornsnhoovespodcast 

Website: hornsnhoovesauction.com

Production Credit: Edited and produced by @the32collective_ / https://www.the32collective.co/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Horns and Hooves. It's just Taylor and I today, and we're just talking about our crazy schedules, and that we have our Mother's Day auction coming up on May 10th. I'm confused.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Mother's Day. Sons, daughters, Mother's Day's coming. They don't need flowers.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

They need a cow. Or I mean I should say not a cow. We have heifers or bullcaps or steer caps, whatever. We have quite a good lineup. Yeah, we got quite a few shorties on there. We have quite a lot of, yeah. Pretty much crazy. Every color too. Yeah. Last November, I feel like I had a lot of non-Condro. And this year, I think almost all of them are Condro. We're still I'm still pending UC Davis tests. I hope they come in. We just actually got off of a call with UC Davis, and we have them scheduled to come on and talk to us too here very soon. I'm excited about that. Well, we decided that we could not say that we have 204 anymore because it's a little more than that.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

I was trying to take pictures for calves that are going on the sale. I was like, I'm gonna get them, even if they're wet. You know what? I'm going to get pictures and just be grateful that they are wet because we need it. And so do a lot of people. So they'll appreciate, I feel like, a wet calf in the picture.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I know. I was gonna put some Aka on there. I still am, guys. I'm still gonna put some of our registered Highlands at the end of our sale, but that's the same thing. I'm like, okay, they look like drowned rats right now. Or wet dogs, whatever you want to call them. But I still want to add some of those on our auction. And I'm like, uh, hopefully. Speaking of auctions, there's been a few auctions lately, and I know that there's been some real questions about, and we hit on it on our last podcast, but we are having an auction with Willoughby and W2 Auction Solutions. It's going to be private. And after watching some this last week that are not private, I can really see why people like that anonymity for sure. I don't want people seeing that, seeing what I'm bidding and who's bidding and how it's bidding. And I just don't want to. Yeah, and how much you're bidding. And if I bought something that I really loved, I want to be the one to announce that. I mean, nobody can announce, oh my gosh, I just bought this one. Now, Webbs, they just had their sale, and I can't wait to see who's gonna announce um who bought those. But I'm grateful that I did not get a see who was bidding on them because I don't think it's fair. I really don't. So we are our auction is private. We keep your anonymity. Um, you be the ones that get to announce that you purchased from our auction. And there's a few other things like some of Taylor's calves you'll see are a little younger than my calves, but I will hold until her calves are weaned. So let's talk sale.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

So you have web pickle calves that are amazing. I have quite a yeah, you have what three of them on the sale? Is that three or four?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Uh four. I'm keeping, I'm retaining one from their Akka Rampian bowl. I'm retaining that one. And my husband actually agreed for once. So you have a white pickle color. Or not both she's a heifer.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

White pickle heifer.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

So I have the red. She has roan on her. She has roan underneath her, roan on her tail, roan on her rear, and I think she's gonna come.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Oh, I forgot about her. So then that is four. Yeah, yeah. Four. I forgot she is.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

I think she's gonna have more roan as she gets older. So her mom is Eleanor, my what I call shortlander, shorthorn highland mixed or cross. And yeah, she's beautiful, and she's actually the mom of two of the calves that are going on the or that will be on the auction. The other from embryos, not twins. Yep, these were from embryos, not twins, correct. Actually, one was an embryo, and the other one was bull bred because Eleanor was bred AI to Smarty. Yep, that's Rock and El Smarty. So she was AI to him. So I pick all heifer. She is so hairy. I mean, she is so awesome. And then my bull is I'm thinking he, I don't know if he's gonna come black. Back is black or done. He really looks done and he's not really changing much, but he has a ton of roan on him. He's he is cool, he is so sweet. Um, the heifer, the pickle heifer that's got the roan, she's got horns. I don't think that chief has horns, but we'll see. We've had horns pop up on the crossbreeds pop up late. So when he came by today, I was doing the other podcasts to feel and make sure or to check his horn. So I have it sent in on his paperwork to see if he's pulled her horns. And then what else do I have?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yeah, the high park, red-tipped high park.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Oh my gosh. Beautiful. That's another pickle baby. Quinn is adorable. I try to talk my husband into keeping her. She is the fluffiest high park. She's got the double coat that I have seen. She's done tip. I'm gonna cry because I really want to keep her, but my husband's like, we gotta stop keeping them all. So I am going to let her go, much to my dismay. And then we have Maggie's calf, which is white. Oh my gosh, she's adorable. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yes, and then oh, you have a high park, the black and oh, white one.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Another one. I want to keep them all. Um, who am I kidding? I want to keep them all. She's one that I have her mom and then her sister. Her sister just calved. And so her sister's calf has a calf on the sale. The black one is her sister's, but she looks so much like Petunia when Petunia was little. That's why I want to keep her because I know Petunia is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

So so then yeah, you have the black one. Yeah, who's hers higher? I think hers is smarty too. I'm pretty sure it's smarty. I think it's smarty, and then you have your little Baldy, your Yeti baby, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Oh my gosh, I have my mini Herford or Hyferd, is what I call those. That's a Yeti sired and Herbie, Herbie Husker, go huskers. Um actually called him Herbie Wayne, but oh my gosh, he's a tiny little thing. He could be a bowl or a steer option. I questioned just steering him, but I think he does have for people that are wanting a bowl that is the Hyferd, he's got great potential. Throw those white faces on there. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

And then yours. Yeah, so I don't have as many as you, and you're gonna add some more too, I think, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

I'm gonna add some Akkas on the end of it, some registered on the end of it. As soon as I get some pictures that where they're not looking like wet dogs.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So I have Lala. Lala's like your bestie. So she's a dun. This is her first baby, and she's like yours, where I can go out and you can just like love on her. She's the sweetest. She's really pretty done. She's got like almost like lightness too. Like some of those duns kind of are really dark, some have a little bit lighter coat, and her baby is a dun, a little shorty. And she's got like when she came out, I was there, and she had like this like light patches kind of on her. I don't know if they're gonna stay or not, but she's cutie. I love her. Jason was actually, he's like, you put so I don't know if y'all vander pump rules, but we got La La, and this is Stossy Girl. And so Saucy's on the sale. And Jason, couldn't believe it? He's like, I thought you were keeping her. And I was like, my goal have a chondra positive in every color, and I have a dun. So I didn't think I was justified in keeping her back to myself.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

That's kind of like Jovi, the one that's probably getting close to or maybe she's five months. She's five months old. I thought six. Um, that little tiny dun that I've been hanging, I've been holding on to. And you keep asking, are you gonna put her on the sale? And I'm like, don't ask my husband that because I haven't decided. But I did go ahead and put her on the sale. She does not look like she's five months old. She's a cutie, she's itty bitty too. And yours is an itty bitty, also.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

She is. This shows they're out of, she's out of Vinny, and this is our second calf crop. Well, we had our fall calves from Vinny were the first ones. Vinny is a very small, done, so it'd be a solid, but solid high park, is that how people are saying it? So his dad is I see, yeah, I seen that the other day. Was a tiny high park bowl, and then mom was a beautiful silver Highland with like beautiful hair. And his calves, I love them. Like, I love doing the AI and getting to like mix around, but I'm almost grateful that not everybody takes so that we get to recover with Vinny on the side too. So he threw some awesome calves for me. So yeah, we have him Saucy, and then we have Monroe. Monroe is out of socks. This is Jason's heifer. We have a funny video. I have a video of her getting bred. Vinny was this is the one that Vinny mounted and she moved and he fell over. Like he fell completely off. That was the ticket. I remember that video. She is a Brendel. She's not full highland. She has white socks too. Really pretty small Brendel girl. And I believe her heifer is Brendel. I believe that Monroe is. We'll see. Her color tests are coming back, and that'll kind of give us a little bit better idea, but I think she is. She's a shorty, she's cutie. She's like the funniest one out there in the pasture, too. Is like she gets the zoomies and she will just like haul butt down that hill to you. And it's like, if she doesn't stop, she's gonna go through the fence.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Oh gosh. Those are the cute ones. They are. I love them. You have Tornado Crusher. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Okay, so there's a story behind this. Okay, her name is the calf's name is Tornado Cutie. Oh, Tornado Cutie. Tornado Cutie. This is my six-year-old's first calf. He bought Tornado Crusher. She is actually a registered miniature belted. We bought her bread in the process of bringing her.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Okay, so there's a I did not know this when you say registered miniature. There is I didn't know this either. Don't even know I'm gonna pull it up about this registry. I knew it.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

It was right there and then it So the only reason that like I even paid attention to it is because it goes back to Ponderosa's their belted bowl, which is, I mean, Ponderosa is huge in the miniature world, right? And so that was a really cool thing. So it is miniature panda cattle. Sorry, I said that wrong. Oh, I thought it was what she is.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Oh, that's what she is.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yep. The registry is International Miniature Cattle Breeds Registry. Yeah, that's what it is. Her sire is Panderosa Panda Jack, who is out of two Panderosa's Kung Fu Panda and then Ponderosa Elsa. So there's some really good lines there, but she got this name. So our register's name is BKH Bella, but we are coming home from bringing her home, and there was a tornado warning. We live in a spot where we just don't get them. We kind of are in a bowl. We let our six-year-old watch the movie Twistered. And not thinking we were gonna have to worry about this. Well, on our way home from getting her, there was a tornado, a huge tornado. We had stopped to pick up an incubator to hatch out eggs, and it like stalled us back for probably about 30 minutes. Had we not stopped, we would have probably drove right into it. It was a mile wide, it took out a whole farm. It was horrible. When we got there, the cops had just got there. There was down power lines, and like we drove through like the aftermath of it. And poor Jackson. Dude was crying so hard. He was petrified. And later he decided to name her Tornado Crusher. And so I'm guessing in our future sales, you're gonna see more tornado babies. But that is why they are from Jackson. And so little tornado cutie, she is got her testing done. She's chondro positive. She's tiny, she's 19 inches at birth, I think 30 some pounds, and she is still so little. A vet came out today to do some health papers and she met us at the fence, and she didn't believe me when I told her she's almost five months. She's like, No way. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah. Yesterday my vet was out here and she had a student that was in her fourth year of vet school, and she's like, You're kidding me. Every time I said it, an A. She's like, No way. It's like it is. Yes, way. So we also have um another one that is High Park Bowl. He is my neighbor and good friend. It's their bowl, Austrian Angus. And they actually started doing it as a joke for her father-in-law, I believe is how the story went. And so when they had a calf, it would come out possibly small. So they had started breeding that way, and then they decided that having these little ones are super fun. So this one is RCM's fireball, is the dad, is the sire, and then she has a speckled park that mom. That's all on our he's a cutie.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Oh, and I have can't forget my little guy. This guy was a surprise. Ace threw us another one of these really cool high park bowls. He is tiny. This guy is so his mom is different. His mom is a belted galloway, and then Ace is the dad, but he has the white stripe down his back, down his tail.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

He's but it's obvious, like it's got the ridge almost the rigid pattern. Is it that one? Yeah, like it's got instead of the belt around, it's he's got the yeah, that's crazy. And you had another one that was the same way.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah. I kept back, I'm keeping back in the fall. We Ace threw another calf that was just like that. And he was out of a full highland. And the hair on Arrow. Oh gosh, I could just eat him up. He is the sweetest. I have a picture. If you check out my Facebook page on it, you can see the two. I like pushed Arrow up there and I was like, I need a picture of you two side by side. So Arrow is the older one, and then you see his like little mini me joker beside him. It's adorable.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

But we have an excellent lineup. You guys check us out. Check out our auction on hornsandhoovesauction.com to starting at 9 a.m. Central. Gotcha. That works. So sale starts at 9 a.m. Central Time. Mother's Day sale. She doesn't need flowers, guys. She needs a new baby. They have a new baby. We calf in the barn.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

You'll be the best child or the best husband. Yes. Ever. Make those dreams come true. I mean, she birthed you. Right? She carried you for 10 months. At least you could do. Yes. Is buy our cow. Yep. It's a small one. It's not a big one. It's not going to take a lot of feed. Most of these on the sale are going to be little ones anyway. So yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

We have a lot of little ones on the sale. It's awesome. It's crazy to see our visions come to life, which it's been a process, but I really feel like we have got our cattle and where we want them as far as having great genetics, the confirmation, colors, the everything that you need that you're looking for in the structure. So I feel like we finally got our our cattle to wear to the best. To the caliber. Yes, to the caliber that we are wanting them to be. We've been on a I mean, it's but it seems like a long road. We've had a lot of trial and errors. And but now I really feel like it's hard for me to let go of the calves that I have now. And my husband will say that because they're all structural. So we dreamed well.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

That's what we've wanted. And then now we gotta go and sell them to pay for the ones we have.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

That and the embryo bill and I and AI bills and all that stuff. So sounds like Taylor's kids are hollering at her. So we are gonna get off of here. Thank you so much for tuning in. And we have got thank you guys great guests coming up in the near future. You guys are not gonna want to miss them. We've got an awesome lineup coming up. We'll see you next time on Horns and Hooves. Bye guys.