Farmerjan's journal - Weather

that sounds like a really good deal on the fencing assistance! I'm going to check that out too. I don't have a place yet, but I'm looking!
 
Sunday. It got COLD last night. Down to 8 degrees. It is cloudy , but a "bright" kind of cloudy, up to 30 now but doubt it will warm up alot more because of no sun. Maybe it will manage to peek out later this afternoon. This is supposed to be a day of temps heading back up with a warming trend....this week is supposed to be more in the 40's-50's and nights in the 20-30's....

Wed is groundhog day... hoping it is cloudy and he doesn't see his shadow.

It was not a big deal to bring the cow back since we had to come back to the barn anyway... just very unhappy that what we have been seeing little bits of favoritism type of manipulations, getting more pronounced. They have lost a bunch of business by the lack of animals that have been there and they continue to screw up in the back with cattle coming in that do not show up on the computer screen and other stupid stuff... I cannot believe after over a year that they still cannot get pens of cattle brought up in certain orders to be sorted and run into the ring.... I worked at the stockyard, that we have started going to more, years ago... and there was a method and an order to what pens came up and such.... what is sad is this sale used to run 1500 head through it regularly and it ran like an oiled machine. They spent a couple of months with the new owners in the back.... going through the routines, things like that... and the new owners just would not even really listen to the smoothest way to do the stuff. After 50 years of doing things a certain way, it would seem to me that you would try to follow the pattern and then maybe change a few little things at a time to see if you could make it work better for you.... It is kinda a lost cause. We may take some of the steers there as the previous owner stills come to buy some stuff there and he pays good prices for good cattle....and they do "cater to him" a little bit..... but I think our days of patronizing this yard are pretty much over.

If we can continue to sell the heifers direct, and he pays about the prices he is paying at the other sales he goes to, then we will actually make a little more with not paying a commission.... and he paid DS right there just like when we go to the sale and get a check after the sale.
We will take the cull cows and bulls to the other sale and play it by ear for the steers. If they get a good run of cattle here at the local one, and there are a good number of buyers; as will happen again when it gets a little closer to spring and people start looking for cattle, we may do as good or better here in town with the steers. That's up to DS with the groups he has gotten put together all ready.
Plus there is still the option of shipping some of them through our local cattle assn. that is doing feeder sales a couple times a year and they get smaller lots from smaller producers, are co-mingled into bigger groups and shipped to a couple of buyers... mostly in Pa..... we have not seen a big increase in price through those sales from what we were getting local and they have to have a certain regimen of vaccines.... and we do not like to do the modified live vaccines so it is a bit of a problem to meet the criteria.... but can do it and have sent a few that way before. After some sick feeders one time, DS is finally seeing that my aversion to mlv is not just one of those "oh mom, you need to get more with it"...... you do what works for your system... try some new stuff, but don't go whole hog.... we never used to vaccinate for much except blackleg in the calves and lepto occasionally... so going to a whole spectrum killed virus vaccine is a big step for us. We do not always get them the 2nd dose either... but they get some boost to their immune system and I prefer to let their own systems mount a defense to some of the different diseases through a lesser dose/challenge.....
Plus, one of my biggest things is the chance of cattle that are not used to mlv and the abortion issues in bred cows that are exposed to calves that get mlv.....
90% of my dairy farmers use the killed vaccine we use.... and one reason after researching it, I went with this one.... safety for all the cattle even though you are supposed to give a 2nd shot 4 weeks later to enhance the response.

So, that is about all today. I am going to go out to the chickens since the temps have warmed up closer to freezing so the water will stay liquid for awhile. Need to make some sort of lunch... I just drank a glass of milk for breakfast so now the stomach is growling....
Got the samples from last evenings testing to get packed sometime so ship out tomorrow. And I have got to text DS about the 550 cow herd... due to be tested again....Geneva is pretty tied up with the farm she is working on pretty much full time now so not able to help me much.... I am thinking that maybe in another month or 2, I might be able to do them by myself..... I will be very busy but as the knees get more flexible and all, I ought to be able to do them.....we'll see....
 
Selling at the right time is always the worst part of raising stock. One week sooner or later and you lose or gain in price. You are smart to change auctions.

We only use CDT on our sheep. The older rams we only vaccinate about once every 2 years. The young lambs all get a dose of CDT, and so do the ewes when they lamb. Since they are lambing in an overlapping 8 month cycle, the ewes are pretty much up in immunity at all times. We give a dose of immediate acting tetanus to ewe lambs when we dock tails along with their first dose of CDT. The ram lambs get CDT as well. We have been giving a second dose 30-45 days later. Then the ewe lambs don't get anything until they are bred at 1 year old. The ram lambs are sold at weaning time. Since we don't have problems with other diseases, we don't vaccinate for them. Most things I would rather avoid by culling suspected animals. In order to avoid locations abscesses in the meat I don't vaccinate lambs in the leg anymore either. Instead I do subQ in the loose skin on the inside of the groin. When the lambs run around they self massage the area so no lumps.

We have taken entire ram lambs and banded lambs to auction and the prices we get are the same. We are wavering between banding or just loading them and taking them straight to the auction. DH wants to band so no one gets genetics from our flock on meat prices. Since the lambs are only 3 months old max at the time, I am not sure that it matters. DS1 is on the fence about it. He only wants to band if they start to get too big and we have a delay in taking them to auction. I think that I will treat each group of lambs on their own. If it looks like we can't take them immediately we will band. Otherwise save our effort if they go straight on the trailer from the creep.
 
Funny about the ram lambs. Here the ethnic market wants intact animals... so 99% of the people I know do not band anymore. Since they buy lambs at this one sale by the pen, or whatever, they get on a truck and go to the bigger market in Pa where they are butchered. I am sure there might be a few that get kept out for breeding along the way; but really.... if we could get the same for our bull calves we would not be banding them. A friend that I used to farm sit for, used to take his goats all the way to Pa to the market because he could do better... then as the markets expanded and there was more demand for the kids, he found that he was trading dollars for the cost to go there compared to just selling them at the one market here. They were attracting more buyers and during the different ethnic holidays, they were paying as much here for the kids and lambs as he was getting so it no longer made sense to make a trip up there. They have gotten mostly out of the goats now, his wife got tired of taking care of them and he has had 1 hip replaced and has to do the other one and then his knees....I think he has talked to DS about making his hay this coming year for his beef cattle. But the ones that he sold off the farm all wanted intact males, and they had to face a certain way and they had to perform certain rituals when they came to kill them.... he only did that 2 years and it was just easier to take them right to the sale.
 
Today is again cloudy, although there are a few peeks of sun and maybe some sun later? It was down to 18, up to 28 or so. Warmer today and then into the rest of the week. Mostly cloudy though, but some rain coming in. Looks like wintry type weather will stay west of us... suits me just fine.

Nothing really new today. I need to get back into "doing" some stuff in the house. Been sorta slacking here.

Farm texted me and wants Tues/Wed to test. Close by so okay. 2x so I have to go set up Tues morning so he can run the wash system... he is close so I do that, normally I don't make a special trip but he is a bit of a fanatic about the meters "being clean".... even though I never pull them off any milk line before they run the complete wash cycles.... and then test tues eve and back Wed morning. I texted DS and Geneva both to see if either will be able to do the big 500+ cow farm this week.
Gotta finish packing the samples from Sat eve so I can drop them off sometime later.

Going to go out to the chickens in a bit. Put a few more meters I need for tomorrow in the truck; this farm uses different hoses than I used the other day..... I hadn't taken out the meters after the farm last week, I just need a couple more.
 
Actually, we haven't banded anything for the past few loads. Why do the extra work? At 3 months they are about 60-70 lbs. I would rather just load them into the trailer and drive to the auction. We don't even stay for the sale. They just send me a check the following week. Prices have been good and I am happy.

I did approach a Halal butcher shop about selling them lambs. They were interested but they wanted 20-30 lb. lambs which are too young to pull off my ewes. I am not sure if that weight is dressed out since the guy never was able to call to come out to see the lambs. Not worth selling off the farm anyway. I did sell 3 lambs off the farm to a Lebanese man for a special feast. They came out and we had to lock up the dogs, show them the lambs, then cut out the ones he wanted, and tie their legs together for them to take away. Too much work compared to just running all ram lambs into the trailer. Not worth getting the same price at the auction less commission and yardage. The auction owner has to make a living too.
 
Had a good day after all. DS called and said he was going to take one of our bulls to the sale along with a friend's cow that prolapsed... vaginal.... it didn't look all that bad to me but the vet they got out could not get it put back.... they put in a tube so that she could pee... I am not sure what all they did but I don't think it was right.... supposedly a new vet out of school for about 6-8 months.... I think our vet could have fixed it like ours without all the hoopala.... but anyway... he said he wanted to ship her and she was pretty spooky... so he brought her up to the farm and left her in his trailer there. DS went to get the bull that went over to the neighbors.... got him across the road with a bucket and came home to get the trailer and in less than an hour the sorry sob went across the fence and got in with their heifers. They had one he// of a time getting him back out of the heifers, got him in the barn then he loaded right into the trailer. BUT.... he has lost all respect for fences and DS said he had to go. He was looking a little rough.... just shaggy and not real fat.... and DS gave him water and hay and left him in our trailer overnight so that he did not tear up fences at the barn.
So he got in my cow that we had no saled and took the 3 to the stockyards an hour south where we have bought and sold some stuff. They had some bred cows from an older man that was tired of the snow and the feeding and just decided to get out. About 12-14 or so. There was a farmer there that has money to spend... when he comes to sales they bring better prices and he buys alot of cattle. I've heard that he is a millionaire and money is no object....and he bought most of the bred cows. So we watched them sell the steers and heifers and then cull cows and mine came back home. She will calve late this year, but not giving her away. She brought less than what she would have brought at the other sale. The bull did okay, he was not as fat as some there... but it was enough that getting rid of him was better than his tearing up some fences again....85/lb so he brought over 1400..... and their cow with the prolapse brought about 450 or so which was okay considering. He could have buried her.

DS said that it wasn't time for Mara (cow) to leave the farm yet..... I'm okay with that. There is a "reason" she came back home again...maybe she will take another calf this time around and raise 2????

We sat and talked about the heifers he sold, tried to get some of the numbers on the lists matched up.... got the finances figured up and where we are.... so things there were good. He had given me a check from the last sale to put towards what he owed me.... and we're closer together on money than I thought we would be. At least now I know what is what.... and he said that he needed to not let things get too far out because he forgets... he couldn't remember the cow numbers of the ones we took last month when we took 6 and went to the bred cow sale and bought the others. Wanted me to take and make copies of the checks and write the numbers of the ones that got sold so that he would know....
I am glad for the afternoon together. He is going to get the panels moved to the one big farm so as soon as the snow is gone off that driveway...hopefully after the rain this week and warmer temps for a couple of days..... we will be getting in the cows there to be brought back to the barn and preg checked and calves weaned off. He did say we should have gotten them done sooner and I did not say anything negative. We are supposed to get colder night temps in the 20's next weekend so if the ice/snow is gone, we will be able to get in and out without too much trouble....We will probably use both trailers to haul them out and it will take probably 2 trips each trailer... there are like 30 plus their calves still there....
He also said they are back to working 7-3:30 instead of 8-4:30 at work... he likes it better.

I told him I had heard from Geneva and that she can help me test... we are going to the 500+ cow herd Wed afternoon. he said he probably could have helped... but that there will be plenty of other months to do it... so that was okay with him. I will go in and do the set up of the samplers and she will come there shortly after... she will come directly from the farm up the road a mile away where she is working full time....so that will work good.

Had a nice talk with @Baymule on the phone this evening... I said to her that my phone was beeping and I needed to get off to charge it.... then it went DEAD... so we got cut off.....OOOOPS:th:hide:lol::eek::barnie:barnie. Sorry @Baymule ... when it needs to be charged it just QUITS !!!!

Started out at 18 and got up to 40 and we did get some sun this afternoon. Tomorrow supposed to be warmer...
 
DS felt like sharing....some days are like that. Sounds good.

One bull gone and sounds like a real good decision. 🤔😁 Some don't realize how agile those massive bodies can be! Not fun for the farmer. To the casual observer, cows don't appear to be jumpers. Surprise. Head up, tail up, gone. 🤣
 
Yes, we had a good phone visit. My phone was going dead too! LOL I’m glad that you and DS had a good day, got the problem bull gone and the prolapse cow. Most of all just having a good visit with your son, talking cow and getting financial things sorted out.

After talking to you, if doctor says both knees need replacement, I’ll suck it up and do both at same time. I want to stand and walk without pain. I want to ride horses again and be able to get off without crumpling up on the ground. I want my life back! With all that I’ve been doing lately, I have to take a day in my recliner to let the pain subside. I’ll get moved, probably late summer, get surgery.
 
Tuesday noontime. Loaded the extra meters and hoses then I went to PT in the pool, went by the farm on the way home and set up for later this afternoon. Stopped and filled up the truck with gas.... OUCH.... gas went up another 5 cents 2 days ago..... then just came home a little bit ago.
It was down to 18 again last night but it is up to 38 now. No sun, it is that "bright cloudy" out again. It does feel a little "warmer" today. The snow is softer and you can see it is "shrinking" so is melting some.

Stomach is growling so have to go make something for lunch. Thinking maybe a hamburger.... I have meat thawed out. Then going out to take another 2 gal bucket of water to the chickens... We are supposed to be around 30 the next couple of nights so it shouldn't freeze for a few days.

Things are quiet so far today. Got the sample bottles already for this afternoon... and boxes for tomorrows farm ready to go also. I need to call one farm close to one one tomorrow and see if he wants me to drop the meters off so he can do his owner sampler test... trying to save a trip as usual.

I am going make lunch and sit and enjoy it.
 
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