June 28th already. It has been a pretty soggy last few weeks. We are one of the very few that got our first cutting hay in and that's only because we have a bale wrapper. We now have lots of baleage for next winter but very little dry hay.
The cows are on pasture but even with the wet weather they are getting ahead of the pasture. I am going to build some more fence. I have a nice hayfield that I'm going to fence in. I will still take the first cutting off it and then let the cattle in for the rest of the year. That should stretch out my pasture time.We do strip grazing and that helps a lot.
We are now at the breeding time of year. We have just put a bull in with the belties and he seems to know why he's there. We will be putting a bull in with the lowlines soon. In the past we have just used artificial insemination. We are beginning to see our market change with a steady demand for grass fed animals rather than pedigree.
We are AI'ing our two red belties to a red lowline. I think that cross will make an excellent grassfed animal and a very attractive one at that.
Our soybeans have been sort of spindly and wimpy due to all the moisture. There is an old saying that a "wet year will scare you to death and a dry year will starve you to death." All in all I'll take wet.
It is almost time to begin second cutting hay and the forecast for the end of the week through early next week looks very promising.
Jim is away in Wisconsin this week at his company's headquarters. He is shadowing various engineers to get a feel for what they do. Eileen is with the BMW in St. Louis soon to head for Indianapolis. She always has good observations. Last night she texted that Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, was having a seminar at her hotel.
Things are pretty slow with the diner crowd. Unfortunately, others have targeted the diner. Last night they were burglarized. It is hard to believe that there are those sort of people right here in proximity. I hope they get caught soon.
My friend in Florida is still unable to get back here due to health issues. I wonder if we borrowed an RV if we could get him back.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Well here it is June 12 already. It's been a long time since I last blogged on May 2. During that time we have finished planting our field crops and first cutting hay. Now I have time to sit down and write. It is never a good idea to plan on doing much other than farming in May and early June.
Planting and haying are long hours in the tractor days. This year we switched a hay field to soybeans. The field is up in the village and it was just too time consuming to hay it by the time we moved the mower and baler and hay wagons etc. both ways.
We barely finished planting before the previously outstandingly good weather deteriorated into some pretty bleak days. There were a few consecutive good days which enabled us to take off some square bale hay for our horse hay customers before Memorial Day. We loaded the last of our 2009 hay on a truck for Florida the same day we baled our first 2010. That was cutting it too close.
We were able to put up 275 wrapped round baleage bales. We call this one day hay. You can cut it in the morning, let it wilt for a while then wrap and bale it. Dry hay takes usually three consecutive sunny and dry days.
The cows have been on easy street with good pasture. We bought two bred beltie heifers this Spring and one calved. It was a huge bull calf weighing 85 pounds. We had to help the mother by pulling the calf. She's a good mother but the calf was a little dense at first. He managed to get out of the fence and we found him sleeping among the round bales. He has now caught on to the fence and is growing fast.
Both Jim and Eileen have interesting summer jobs. Jim is working as an intern for a French company Kuhn. They are the world's largest manufacturer of farm equipment that is pulled by a tractor. They make everything but the tractor. His job is about an hour away but he gets to travel various farm shows out of state. He also gets to work in the Parts Department, go out to help setup equipment on farms and otherwise do whatever might be asked.
Eileen has a very unique job. She is driving a brand new deluxe edition BMW car throughout the Midwest for two months. She is part of an eight person team that has five BMW's; two Mercedes and an Audi. They go to BMW dealers and give test drives and point out the sales features. Then they stay in a nice hotel and continue the cycle. She is just completing two weeks in the Chicago area. Then it's off to Minneapolis followed by Kansas City and beyond.
I have written before about some of our recent cattle delivery sagas. Today was quite a bit different. Last year, we delivered two Belted Galloway heifers to a farm in the Southern Tier. The farmer was setting up an operation to feature strictly heritage animals.
Earlier this Spring he called to get some additional stock. We agreed to sell him a mature dun cow with heifer calf and a bred black and white cow and Lucky the half Lowline, half beltie bull. Jim and I and my other traveling buddy took them down today. It was quite a pleasure to release the cattle into a well fenced pasture with everything cattle look for in a pasture: grass; shade and water and lots of room.
He has also added Dorper sheep and Tamroc pigs; all of which are heritage breeds. When we went last year, he was just getting into Buckeye chickens. These are also heritage and renowned for being the survivalists of the chicken world. We had lots of room in our empty trailer so two Buckeyes joined us.
When we got home, they walked off the trailer and started surveying their new home. They went into the barn and checked out our straw bales. When we did evening chores, one was out picking and the other roosting on the drawbar of a hay wagon. It will be interesting to see how they get on.
Our next project is to make more fenced pasture. I haven't had much of an opportunity to go to the diner lately so I don't have much to report there.
I have been waiting for my college roommate to return from Florida.He has had some health issues which have delayed his return. We hope he gets them behind him soon and can join us on Cross Lake.
We sold our jet ski this week. As noted above, our two main jet skiers are otherwise occupied. A man came to look it over and we agreed to let him take a test cruise on the lake. We became a bit concerned when he hadn't returned in almost an hour. We had gassed the jet up so we knew that wasn't the problem. When he returned he told us he just enjoyed our lake and got interested in watching a big bird. He was surprised when we told him that it was probably our resident eagle. He liked the unit and bought it and we liked that.
Planting and haying are long hours in the tractor days. This year we switched a hay field to soybeans. The field is up in the village and it was just too time consuming to hay it by the time we moved the mower and baler and hay wagons etc. both ways.
We barely finished planting before the previously outstandingly good weather deteriorated into some pretty bleak days. There were a few consecutive good days which enabled us to take off some square bale hay for our horse hay customers before Memorial Day. We loaded the last of our 2009 hay on a truck for Florida the same day we baled our first 2010. That was cutting it too close.
We were able to put up 275 wrapped round baleage bales. We call this one day hay. You can cut it in the morning, let it wilt for a while then wrap and bale it. Dry hay takes usually three consecutive sunny and dry days.
The cows have been on easy street with good pasture. We bought two bred beltie heifers this Spring and one calved. It was a huge bull calf weighing 85 pounds. We had to help the mother by pulling the calf. She's a good mother but the calf was a little dense at first. He managed to get out of the fence and we found him sleeping among the round bales. He has now caught on to the fence and is growing fast.
Both Jim and Eileen have interesting summer jobs. Jim is working as an intern for a French company Kuhn. They are the world's largest manufacturer of farm equipment that is pulled by a tractor. They make everything but the tractor. His job is about an hour away but he gets to travel various farm shows out of state. He also gets to work in the Parts Department, go out to help setup equipment on farms and otherwise do whatever might be asked.
Eileen has a very unique job. She is driving a brand new deluxe edition BMW car throughout the Midwest for two months. She is part of an eight person team that has five BMW's; two Mercedes and an Audi. They go to BMW dealers and give test drives and point out the sales features. Then they stay in a nice hotel and continue the cycle. She is just completing two weeks in the Chicago area. Then it's off to Minneapolis followed by Kansas City and beyond.
I have written before about some of our recent cattle delivery sagas. Today was quite a bit different. Last year, we delivered two Belted Galloway heifers to a farm in the Southern Tier. The farmer was setting up an operation to feature strictly heritage animals.
Earlier this Spring he called to get some additional stock. We agreed to sell him a mature dun cow with heifer calf and a bred black and white cow and Lucky the half Lowline, half beltie bull. Jim and I and my other traveling buddy took them down today. It was quite a pleasure to release the cattle into a well fenced pasture with everything cattle look for in a pasture: grass; shade and water and lots of room.
He has also added Dorper sheep and Tamroc pigs; all of which are heritage breeds. When we went last year, he was just getting into Buckeye chickens. These are also heritage and renowned for being the survivalists of the chicken world. We had lots of room in our empty trailer so two Buckeyes joined us.
When we got home, they walked off the trailer and started surveying their new home. They went into the barn and checked out our straw bales. When we did evening chores, one was out picking and the other roosting on the drawbar of a hay wagon. It will be interesting to see how they get on.
Our next project is to make more fenced pasture. I haven't had much of an opportunity to go to the diner lately so I don't have much to report there.
I have been waiting for my college roommate to return from Florida.He has had some health issues which have delayed his return. We hope he gets them behind him soon and can join us on Cross Lake.
We sold our jet ski this week. As noted above, our two main jet skiers are otherwise occupied. A man came to look it over and we agreed to let him take a test cruise on the lake. We became a bit concerned when he hadn't returned in almost an hour. We had gassed the jet up so we knew that wasn't the problem. When he returned he told us he just enjoyed our lake and got interested in watching a big bird. He was surprised when we told him that it was probably our resident eagle. He liked the unit and bought it and we liked that.
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