Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Rammy]

Its not surface muddy here. Its lose your boot, sink up to your ankles muddy. Even if I take the long way to the barn, its still muddy.
Weather report said tomorrow will be bad, but after that, three whole days of no rain!

 

[Bruce]

Only to your ankles? Lightweight mud.

 

[greybeard]

@greybeard ; I am confused. You said you lose 60% of the live weight=hanging weight. So 1000 lbs. less 60% is 400 lbs. Lose 60% of that is 160 lbs left. Somehow I am getting something confused. Please tell me where I am getting this wrong, because I know that you will get more than 160 lbs of meat, and you are saying that you will get 400 + meat so that is the answer from the first part of the equation.

Yeah, I did mess that up didn't I?
I worded it backwards and forgot to subtract the right percentages. You lose 40% of the live weight right off the bat, meaning 60% of the live wt is then hanging on the rail wt (600lbs). Depending on yield grade, you again LOSE about 40% of the hanging wt in cutting/packaging. If you're lucky and the cutter is good, and the animal is in better condition, that loss from hanging to packaged can be down around 35% but with my own animals, I haven't gotten that cutability factor down much below 40%.

 

[farmerjan]

Only to your ankles? Lightweight mud.

Have to agree on that @Bruce . We are up to our calves (pun intended) and even deeper in some places. I did get the 4wd up to the barn today without getting off the "road" and tearing things up too bad. Did have to put it in 4 low one place, it was real slick. It slacked off rain today, mostly just cloudy and overcast... upper 40's. But started to rain again about 4-5 p.m. and is raining pretty steady now.
Had .1 from 3 to 7 a.m. this morning. Dumped it and will see what it looks like in the morning. We have a flood watch, I did notice that the creeks were way up this evening, and if it keeps up will be way up by tomorrow. Calling for rain through Sunday, then WINDY again with 30 + mph winds and gusts. Then sun on Monday....

Thanks so much @Mini Horses.... we just loved the snow!!!!

 

[farmerjan]

@greybeard . Thank you. I thought maybe I had really gone off the deep end. Yes, we figure closer to 35-40 % meat, but it is so much easier to explain it to people about the 1/2 and then 1/2. Then I tell them they will likely get more meat than that... but this way they are pleasantly surprised. Plus the jerseys tend to dress a little lighter than a beef animal so it is closer to 30+% meat. But they cost less to feed, and will marble really good....

 

[Mike CHS]

If we get more than one day without rain we need to bring the sheep in trim hooves.

 

[greybeard]

It's wet here and it's been wet since Christmas but I guess I have a different kind of soil. It's soggy, but not muddy except in a very few places and we just don't drive anything in those low places, and the cows have their own little tracks they follow, mostly single file. Gateways are knee deep to the cows tho..they all try to squeeze thru at once all abreast.

Worst part is our entrance road...a thin film of mud on it and I bet I've got 300lbs of dried or wet mud being carried around under my truck.

But, it's been just a nasty, overcast, misty, drizzling week this week. Not enough to cause problems or really stop activity but just BLAHH weather.

 

[Mike CHS]

We have had our place for going on 5 years and have never seen this kind of saturation.

 

[Rammy]

I was thinking @Mike CHS, that if it keeps raining you will find out if your sheep float. The last time it rained like this nonstop, a freind of mine that lives down around the Opryland Hotel had her neighborhood flooded. It flooded 4ft in her area. They called it the 500 year flood. Even the hotel and the mall was flooded. Maybe this happened before you moved to Tn.
I had a forced week off from work because they were asking people to conserve water because of it. They were worried also the Wolf Creek Dam would give out. That would of put Nashville under 20 ft of water. I hope that never happens.

 

[Mike CHS]

@Rammy if I get flooded we will be needing an Arc at our elevation but roads are closed all around in the valley around us. I don't usually leave the shop stall open but I have for the last couple of weeks. The weather doesn't usually run our sheep into shelter but they have been staying in for the last week.