Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Well.... rain and crummy but at least it is not too cold. 51 to 57 at the warmest point. Showers then stop then another shower....off and on all day.
PT pool and I did work a little harder at it and was a little sore. Unfortunately that was the good part of the day. It went downhill from there.

I got to the barn and DS didn't get off work until after 1 so we got there about the same time. We got the cows in and sorted the calves off to one side and the cows on the side where we run them into the small pen and up the alley into the chute. Vet got there and we worked them up. First cow open, okay.... next cow 6-7 months pregnant......next 5 cows all open.... out of 29 that we checked there were only 6 pregnant and all were in the 6-7 months time frame. Obviously something happened to the bull... got injured or something and no one noticed any cows coming in heat in all the times they went out there to check them...
This is a disaster as we are looking at at least 20,000 of LOST INCOME from these cows. With the payments from buying the farm this past year, this is going to be a real hardship. So we moved the open cows that we are keeping...most of them... to a field and put 2 bulls in there with them. They will be 6 months behind..... and if they start getting bred now, will be calving starting in December. Definitely not what we wanted. DS was mad, then in tears with the vet constantly saying open, open, open....
There were a few in there that were old and it was not unexpected that they were open... but this was like getting blindsided....
So the calves were supposed to be weaned to be sold....they are in the barn lot and the cows are across the driveway with the bulls... we walked 2 bulls down the driveway from the bull lot, up into the field and then moved the cows over there....I am hoping that they will all come in heat and get bred in 30 days....
Vet said there didn't seem to be any problems with the cows. The only other good thing is they are all fat and sassy.... so body condition should dictate they get bred back on their next heat cycle...

There will be 9 cull cows and the bull going to the stockyards tomorrow. The only saving grace is that the cull cow market is higher now than it has been in years...and the cull bulls too.

If the bull had had a problem, and then some of the cows were like 2-3-4 months it wouldn't have been good... but.....it would have meant that he maybe got bruised or hurt and then recovered.... he obviously is shooting blanks and no sense to even have him evaluated... He is a young bull that we have only gotten one or maybe 2 crops of calves out of.... so there's 3500 spent and we will probably get half that back in salvage - cull - price. He also is fat as a pig too... there was so much grass up at this pasture late, and if only they had been brought back in Nov and checked and all we wouldn't be so far behind....

Well, it is done and over... we are going to try to salvage it as best as we can. Maybe try to find some more cows with calves to buy at not too high a price... I will have to go to the stockyards regularly and see if we can't pick up a few here and there even if they are not great cows, just to get some more calves to have to sell next year....

Also the crazy red cow of his, when we bought the 4 last month, calved and had a dead calf. There is no working with her to put a calf on her so she is one that is also leaving tomorrow.... and the cow that has the growths/tumors that the vet said to sell at the preg check last week... My red cow he moved to the nurse cow field so that the calf can learn to come in through the creep gate and get more to eat. He is hoping she will calm down up there a little with my being up there and working with them more... and that the calf will grow a little better. It looks like she does not have much milk... so she might be a one calf deal.

So we moved a bunch of the cattle around, GF helped and then she went home when we were done and he was feeding. She is having radiation treatments every day and DS said she is starting to feel it... tired and no energy and all.... She was a big help today though with working the gate since so many had to go "out" that were open....
Tomorrow I will meet DS at the barn when he gets off work, and we will get the cows in and the calves sorted off, and load the ones going to the sale. There are too many for our one trailer, so he is going to borrow a friends since they have not been able to find the "column" for the neck of our other longer trailer....need a trailer that is longer than our shorter 20 ft one, like the 24 ft one.. to fit 10 mature animals that are fat...... you are talking that they mostly all will average over 1000 to 1200 lbs and the bull will weigh close to 2,000 I think........12-15,000 lbs probably in the load.
Keep your fingers crossed that the prices are still real good like they have been the last 2 weeks for the cull cows.

So, I am home now, ate a hamburger again... going to go through and make some lists of where the cows got put and the 2 bulls that went in with this group....get things a little caught up.
We will not be selling the other bull that we have had trouble keeping in, for now at least. Kinda wish we hadn't sold the one last week, now... at least most all his cows were bred... but it is done. Going to have to hit a couple of bull sales this year I guess too.... we need another couple to give us some cushion in case something happens to another one.

Vet said he had a couple farms this year that had some problems with a bull not being very fertile, but nothing like this one that just quit producing anything any good.

I will have to go down to see about the car tomorrow as I just did not get there today. It will keep another day.
DS said the guy is supposed to come look at the steers tomorrow... he wanted to come this afternoon and DS said no because we were going to be working cattle.... since they never showed up or called to say they weren't coming the other day, he was not going to do anything extra to accommodate them today, when we had things to do.

Well, that's enough bad news today....

 

[Mini Horses]

Wow. That's a bad hit! You don't know fertility in a herd setting until.....and that's a big group. Not as easy as the smaller animals. Plus we "backyarders" are not generally in the farm size or dependance as you real farmers. Sorry for the bad news.

We're getting that string of fronts here now. Several days of "could" rain. Well, spring grass loves it.

Good news, tranny in truck and possible engine for other. Bad news, not free. These are things that keep us at our jobs. The unknown.

 

[farmerjan]

Just a few minutes as I am tired.

Went down about the forester and paid for it, more than I thought but it is running. Will pick it up in a day or 2 since everyone is so busy for the next day or 2... including me.
Okayed the engine for the outback and they will be getting to it in the next couple weeks.

The rain ended real early and the sun came out and it was a real NICE day.... up to 72 !!!! It was sooo nice out....


Met DS at the farm about 3... he had gotten in all but one of the cows that was being totally stupid... no, not the crazy red one either. He was doing some feeding since it was nice and they are calling for rain tomorrow and turning colder so thought he could get some caught up today and then will be able to not try to go into some of the pastures in the rain and subsequent mud.
Guy came to look at the steers and he was going to send a video of the calves to the boss and we will go from there. Supposedly the boss was coming to look but he couldn't get out to the farm today. So, we will see how it goes. DS said he was planning to take a trailer load in on Friday so we needed to know something or there might be fewer if we shipped a load.
Finally got the stupid cow in and we sorted off the calves in that side of the barn and loaded them. Took 9 cows and the bull. Cows didn't weigh as much as I thought, but they did pretty good. I wound up bringing home the one of mine that I was not sure I wanted to sell because she was a smaller one and there was not much bidding on her and I did not want to give her away. One more cow is not going to make or break me... she is in good flesh and will just go out with the bulls and if she breeds good... if not then she will put on a little more body condition since she will not have her calf on her either. They cows all brought in the 60's... except one of his brought .78/lb... she was FAT... so she brought nearly 1,000..... that was nice. Bull wasn't as heavy as I thought and brought about 1350.... so not a good return on him.... The only good thing is they are gone. So we go forward from here. He knows a guy with some cows to sell so we are going to go look at them....
When we came back to the farm, I helped him with more feeding and opened and shut gates with going into the couple of back fields... Have to go through one that has cows in it to get to the further back one and we don't want them to get mixed up so it was helpful that I could open the gates and he could drive through without trying to hurry up before someone got through into the wrong side of the gate where they didn't belong.... one field has the cows with the fall calves that are getting bred, the other has the fat dry cows that will be calving here soon.
I sure gave my legs a workout, climbing up and down the steps into the big tractor.... they were like "quivering jelly" from the unaccustomed exercise..... But that is what they need... to be worked more like that to strengthen them. It was like having a PT session... Time for me to go to bed. PT tomorrow and then testing... and it is supposed to be chilly and wet and not a very nice day.

 

[farmerjan]

Glad we got that feeding done last night because it is rainy and COLD this morning. Down to 33 @ 10 a.m. from a high of 48 at midnight. Rain and cold all day with some pockets of freezing stuff... NOT GOOD.
Chickens will be left inside the greenhouse/shelter today. They have been laying good 3-5 eggs a day. When I let them out they are all over the place so going to have to get fencing/netting to keep them out of the yard around all the flower beds. They also seem to want to be on the front porch... I got spoiled with the meat birds that never went more than 50 ft from the shelter...

Hoping that my new african violets come today or tomorrow... they were supposed to be shipped Monday, but that was a holiday so probably went out Tuesday... my Christmas/New year's/Valentine treat to myself....

Ate some scrambled eggs for breakfast, got the bottles in the tray for testing.. so the only thing that remains is to go out and do the brackets on the meters and get everything in the truck and go to PT then head for the farm and do a few errands on the way.

Sold one of my 2 cows last night along with 8 of DS and the bull that went bad. Brought my other cow back as she was a bit smaller and the bid wasn't good enough for me to ship her. She will get another chance, and put some weight on in the process without her current calf pulling on her...
DS knows a guy who has some bred cows to sell we are probably going to go look at to help replace and make up for all the ones that were not bred this time from this bull getting hurt......We will also go to the bred cow sale in 2 weeks and see what is there....I will also start going to the stockyards in Staunton, and watch what is there.
We are going to have to come up with about 25 more steers in May for a friend in VT that needs more to animals to run on his place as he is killing at least 2 a month now to supply the fresh killed farm beef that he has gotten going. They are just starting to tap their maple "sugar bush".... they are in the very northern part of VT... and they put in about 4,000 taps... plus their grass doesn't get growing good until May... The steers we have now are at the prime size for the market here right now, and we will lose money if we keep them all until May with the input of feed and the lower cost for them to be sold at a higher weight. So we will sell these as planned now, either to this guy who looked at them or at the sale in the next week or 2; and then see about buying some for him in 6 weeks or so. This friend also wants some varied sizes from 800 down to 500 so he has some ready sooner for butcher since he is having trouble keeping up with the amount of beef that he is selling.
Time for me to get out the door and get things in the truck and get going.

 

[farmerjan]

Thursday night. It has been a cold and miserable day. 32 - 34 all day and rain. Pneumonia weather.

I got the brackets changed and loaded the meters and went to PT. They have decided that I needed another 5 weeks scheduled.... guess that is good but it is tiring some days to make the trips. Although they have got them all pretty much scheduled for mornings now so I can go test most days afterwards if I need to....Re-evaluation for Medicare every 10 visits so that is either next week or the following week... then again the end of March....

Left there and stopped at the bank and put in the check from the one cow... it was so wet and miserable out that I didn't even want to make any other stops and it would have been time constrained since PT wasn't until 11:40 and I did not get out of there until nearly 1 with the scheduling and all. Was at the farm at 2:15 to set up and we were milking by about 3:15... but it was still after 7 when the wash system got done and I pulled the meters and hoses all out of the parlor and I stopped at the bosses' house to get the jump drive to make a copy of the herd info for him. Since the screen on my computer is not cooperating, I just told them that I did not bring it since the screen was blank... that I had plugged in the monitor from my desktop and could use it but that I was not going to cart all that stuff around. I will do the computer work tomorrow and see about dropping the stuff back at the farm in the next few days, as I should be up that way fairly close. Don't want to waste gas, but I just was not going to deal with this screen situation. The boss is fairly computer savvy and he suggested I just go on Ebay and see if I can find a similar model since it is an older computer and buy one to get me by for the next year or so.... or however long I continue to test. I had been thinking the same thing so it was good to hear someone else echo the same thoughts.

Got home around 9, ate a hamburger and a glass of chocolate milk, got on the computer and am going to bed in a bit. Samples carried in the house so I can pack them in the morning as soon as I get the rest of the computer stuff done.

Talked to DS and he said that they put iodine in his vein or something so they could do the MRI or whatever and that nothing bad showed up... they will be studying the results but nothing "jumped out" at them so that is good. Said the Dr appt earlier, with the dr he likes... really worked on his neck and back, and that he felt better....
Guy called back and offered him 1.66 for the calves with a 3% shrink... which is weight they will lose from the farm to the scale to his place.... like 10 miles away.... and a .06 discount for anything over 550 lbs.... LIKE WTF does he think we are.... STUPID and just fell off the turnip truck???? DS said 1.80 and no shrink since we are less than .1 mile from the scales and 10 miles or so from his place....and if he wants a .06 discount for anything over 550, then we wanted a .04 bonus for anything under 475 which is his "minimum weight"...guy said he would not go over the 1.66... DS said no thank you. I mean we got 1.50 for heifers at the other farm that is about 10 miles in the other direction and he didn't want any shrink since it was close... AND.... that is only .15 less than what this guy is offering for the steers and the steers at the stockyard were 1.80-1.92 last week. This owner said that the problems in the Russai-Ukraine situation is going to drive the prices down, for the future sales.... Possible, but the feeling is very unlikely since there is not alot of feeders around from all indications.
So , DS called the former owner of the stockyards and asked his opinion. He told DS that he does not see it hurting the prices much... maybe for a week or so... and for DS to wait for 2 weeks and then take them to the sale. There will be a few buyers there that will be looking for cattle then, and that he (former owner) will also help us all he can with getting better prices..... he has always like DS... and DS also shows some respect for this man's MANY MANY years as the owner of the stockyards and as a beef farmer.... he still goes to the stockyards and buys a fair number of cattle there... and they show him quite a bit of respect and deference there also...
So DS asked if I was okay with that and I said it worked for me... so the plans are, steers will get shipped March 11th. DS will take out the ones that he wants to save for the friend up north... there are a few with a bad eye that the friend says doesn't matter to him... as long as they have one good eye to see to eat grass on pasture... anything that is oddball... and ship as uniform a bunch as we can on the 11th. Hope to have at least 50 as we will get a discount on the commission price too.
In the meantime, we will go through all the rest of the heifers and see how many others we want to sell, and then maybe buy a few bred cows or cow/calf pairs to get some more spring calves to replace the ones that are not pregnant.... while these heifers are higher, may as well cash in on them. We will keep any that we really like, and maybe a couple that we want to continue on certain "family lines" ... but there are still some there that can go. And in the meantime he will see if he can come up with some bull calves at a few of the sales to bring back and castrate and then have what he needs to go to the place in WVa for our friend the retired vet, and for the friend up in VT.....sometimes you have to be a cattle dealer.... going to have to pay for some of the huge increases in fertilizer costs, and fuel costs... it is going to be a tough year all around.... We'll see what the cattle markets do in the next few days....

 

[farmerjan]

Hit the post button...

It is still raining and still 33-32 degrees so COLD, and NASTY.

I am going to put all the clothes in the wash since I will not be testing for 4-5 days.... and the weather is supposed to clear off although will be windy and chilly... so I can hang clothes and get them dry. Always have plenty of jeans, sweatshirts etc at this time of year to wash. Will stop at the P.O. tomorrow also, hope the plants are there. I guess I will be going to the stockyards to sit and watch and maybe buy a few odd ones if the prices are right. DS said we will need at least 50 for the WVa deal and for the friend up north... and he wants some that are bigger 6-8 weights....or a few heifers like he bought last week that were 1.25 and 1.10 that we will be able to add to what we have left of ours and make a bit on. They got vaccinated as soon as he brought them home.... the WVa deal he does not like to pay over 1.60 and likes 550-650 weights... we cannot afford to sell ours for that if we can get 1,80 and up and some of ours will barely make the 550 weight.... we do better selling them at 500 +/- ..... A 500 lb steer @ 1.80 = $900. a 575 lb steer @ 1.60 =$949. We cannot afford to feed them another 4-6 weeks and not make any more money on them.... better to buy some bull calves along at 500 lbs @ 1.30 = $650.. and castrate and feed for 45 days @ 1.50 day which is only $70 more... so we should have say $725 in each steer and hopefully we will get 900 for ours... that is making 175 per head up front....
It gets to be a matter of buying right and selling right. We would actually make over 6,000 just doing that, on 35 head. Granted, there are no guarantees, and if we lose one or 2 that will cut into our profits... but we won't have another 35 all bought in one or 2 weeks so won't have as much feed in them all either...You have to look at it at all angles....

I realize this is more than 99.9% of you would ever get involved in... but it is an example of how a farmer has to play all angles and deals in order to make any money. Any farmer that sells his calves as bulls is a fool, at this day and time; because he is leaving $.20-.35 PER POUND "on the table" that he could have made if he had castrated them and made them steers.
What is the old saying that if you watch your pennies the dollars will take care of themselves????? Another farmers' shortcomings of not castrating can turn into money for us.... you have to be careful of what you buy, and take good care of them at the farm so your death losses are small....
I mean look at my heifer... that i planned on keeping... she was worth $750 and she dropped dead a week later after we shipped that group of heifers.... just a plain LOSS.... it is part of it. But you do everything you can to minimize the losses....

It is nearly midnight. Didn't realize it was that late.... going to get my butt into bed....

 

[Mini Horses]

It was cold and drizzly here all day. Dirty trick after the nice weather last week!. A couple degree warmer than y'all but nothing to write home about. An inside day.

 

[farmerjan]

Good Morning (?), if you can find this through the PEA SOUP FOG out there!!!! Really, it is like looking through a cloud out there. Temps are 35 and it is soooo foggy. It wasn't too bad earlier but then it settled in.
No peepers here making any sounds yet....

Possible for a few more showers then warming some today. Temps sure have been on a roller coaster ride the last several days. Then more wind.
I am going in to wash my hair as I was too tired last night. 4 days of no cowsh!t and iodine smell !!!!! Got to finish the computer work for the farm and pack the samples and print the reports.

Oh and I was redoing the math in an earlier post, and it wasn't 100% right... but it was close and the point was that we can't keep and feed these steers that are worth $.20-.25 lb more at 500 lbs, (1.80-1.90); for another 6-8 weeks, to put on 75 or 100 lbs and sell at 600 lbs for 1.60.

The weather is supposed to clear off, get sunny, get windier, and warm a bit but nights will still be cold. Maybe more like a real "spring weather" pattern?? .

 

[farmerjan]

Friday eve and I am in for the night. The fog this morning did disappear and it actually turned out to be a nice day. 57 and sun. We had some breeze but not too bad. It did help to dry off some of the wet on top of the ground... not a lot but hopefully we will not be getting the next front coming through Sat night/Sun morn... it is supposed to stay south and head directly east... Looks like @Mini Horses will be in a direct line for it. There is a chance of some scattered winter weather out of it in the southwestern part of Va and along the NC border as the temps will be colder coming out of the northwest when it "collides". Won't hurt my feelings if we don't get a drop or flake from it. Sunday is going to be chillier, then moderating into next week and up into the 50's and 60's. Nights will still be down in the 20's and 30's and that is normal so just fine.

Got my violets today!!!
They were well wrapped, and all look pretty nice. Big healthy leaves for little pots of plants. No blooms of course, but I am hoping that I will be able to keep them growing good .
They were not cheap, but they were in very good condition and every pot is well marked... I am looking forward to them growing out more and the flowers yet to come.

On the rescued ones from a week or two ago... I did lose the one plant that I thought I would. It was just completely mushy down along the base and the leaves just came off. Not able to salvage any of the leaves to try to root and get new babies.
BUT, I see a new baby coming on a leaf I had stuck into some soil back a little bit ago.... so I guess I haven't lost my touch from way back when I learned from my mom. She would have loved to see them. The rest of the rescued ones are doing pretty good. The leaves are all getting better color, I am not over watering them like so many times they are... and I actually have some new flower stalks coming up in a couple of the first ones I got on sale. So that is a big plus.

I just have one problem... not enough space now.... but then that is called "plant math"; I think it is related to sheep math and goat math.....

I did go down and get the car, traded the truck and left it there so I could drive it a bit. Seems to be running real good and transmission was working smooth. Then DS called and said he was going to drop off the silage cart at the field next to me so he could bring me down to pick up the car... and I said I had traded the car for the truck but that would be great... so I got home and he had just gotten here, and we went down and he dropped me and I got the truck home too....

I did not go to town or the stockyards, but I did text my farmer and he will have milk for me tomorrow so I will make an "extended circle and drop off the reports to the one farm where I didn't take the computer, stop in town for a couple of errands, pick up my milk on the way home. Then I should be able to stay put for the next 2-3 days until Tues????
Tenatively going to the 500+ cow herd on Thursday morning. I have to call them to confirm but DS said he could do it then.

Gas went up here since yesterday, 5 cents... most places are 3.39 and some 3.45.....Diesel went up 10 cents since Russia invaded Ukraine yesterday. NOT looking very good.

I got 3 gallons of white vinegar while I was out and a couple of little things. Will be looking tomorrow for a few other things... and see about the canning lids.... I am going to pick up some seeds and such at the co-op as soon as they get them in so that I have them. I have several bags of seeds from last year and some other old seeds. Going to see about trying to get some started in a flat or 2 and then I won't waste a whole row if only a few come up. But a few will still be okay if I can transplant them.
Would you believe that we can't get the "backs" for the eartags we use????Allflex is the company that we have used the eartags for years... the co-op said that they have not been able to get any for several months and that it looks like June at the earliest....
Going to look for them in my travels here and there, try to find some even if the colors don't match.
Ordered some vaccine and stuff during the "booking" they do... saving $9 a bottle on the Triangle 10 we use so ordered 5 bottles. There is a shortage of some drugs in this country, both animal and human... cannot get a tube of Tomorrow... which is an intramammary infusion to use when you dry cows off, up in their teat... but we use it for pinkeye to squirt a little in the calves eyes if they get it. Can get "Today" which is for current lactating animals. Not quite as long lasting, but I got a box of 12 tubes to have on hand. We might use 2-3 a year.....
Can't get the darts for use in the dart gun if we have to "shoot" a cow or calf out to pasture for a pinkeye treatment... Going to have to keep looking everytime I am near a farm supply store.... It is really not looking good. I am going to stock up on LA200 and 300 while there is still some to be had.
Going to check several places around and see if I can find some of these things, whenever I am near a farm supply store.

Other than that I am just piddling along today. Although it is supposed to be partly cloudy tomorrow and then sunnier on Sunday, I am going to do some laundry and get it hung out in the next few days. Getting antsy to get a few more things sorted and boxes done. DS said he will be around tomorrow afternoon, so I will try to get him to stop on the way home and help me with the cupboard. They are going to be working on some fence again tomorrow. Then I can get some of these things put away and the kitchen cleaned up a bit.

If the economy goes downhill from this mess in the Ukraine, I am thinking it will be good that I haven't spent a fortune on the kitchen right now. Letting things ride for a few weeks right now; No more unnecessary things. Get the other car done and then maybe get it sold... that will help with the cash flow. With the price of fertilizer and all, we are going to have to get more creative....and it may be in our best interests to put in the corn for the feed value next year. We'll see.

Well, I am going to quit for the night.

 

[Baymule]

I got caught up on your journal. That is too bad about the bull and open cows. That is a loss that neither of you saw coming, a real sock in the gut. Maybe y'all can make it up with the bred cow sale.

It sounds like there is a shortage in your area of animal meds. I hope that is not country wide. And of course, if they are in stock, the price has jumped up. I hope you can find what you need.