Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Alaskan]

@Baymule , 10-12 is getting pretty old for a breeding bull... Many people use them for 2-4 breeding seasons; so that makes them in the 3-6 yr range; and then sell and get a smaller/younger bull.

My grandfather said he always bought a super young bull, and only kept him about 2 years, since they were easier in the fences.

He said the older bulls wanted to run through fence to go find and breed other cows.

My grandfather had horrid fence, refused to replace it, so specifically bred for cattle that respected pathetic fence.

 

[farmerjan]

@Alaskan there is alot of truth to what you said. The older bulls get pretty "hard headed" sometimes... remember the one we just sold a couple months ago because the s.o.b. would not stay put..... he was pushing 10 I would say... Had one a couple years ago that just decided he wanted out... so he could eat a little green grass along the road then lay there and count cars.... no joke, he would get out every day, then we would get a call that he was laying alongside the road on the shoulder right there at the pasture... we would go open the gate, call him and he would wander his way back in... and do it all over again the next day... biggest worry was him getting hit by a vehicle at night...

Yes, when they want to go somewhere, there is not much stopping them unless you have hot enough electric to put them on their knees...literally. And they get more independently minded as they get older.... Another reason to miss the red bull... he didn't bother fences, didn't go where he wasn't supposed to be...

Came in a bit ago for some lunch. I had packed samples and dropped them off earlier, had to go to the bank and P.O. to get mail, while I was out.
Texted a couple of farmers about testing. Made a couple of other phone calls but nothing positive out of any of them.... Texted back the farmer that wants me to come back after 2 years to test again... will have to sit and talk to him on phone to discuss options.

Time to make up the bottle and go up to feed calf and see how she is doing and see about feeding in the lot so the calves can come in the creep gate again.
I put the sprouted seeds out on the table earlier so they have had a good day of sun and warmth. The recording thermometer hit 74 this afternoon.... there are some clouds out there now... might get a few spotty showers ....
I put the battery charger on the lawn mower so I can get out on it in the next couple of days.... waiting on the electric mess fencing.. it is on back order...

Well since lunch is way past over, better get out and do something even if it is wrong!!!!

 

[farmerjan]

Done for the night and ate some of a pkg of rice/beans/mixed stuff... it was a 3/$1.00 deal and I got some of the stroganoff pasta noodles and tried one of these. It's okay... would be better served with chicken or something. I'm not real hungry either...
Went up and fed calf. I don't think she is stealing as much so I am going to start feeding her 2x a day. She ate good but I want to see her a little rounder. Did find another heifer that had calved today and texted DS who and about where in the field she was with the new one, and he came up a bit ago and got it tagged when he fed some hay. He also said he got 5 other new ones tagged at 2 different fields... They are really coming along... so far so good.

Tomorrow I have a PT appt... I think it will be an evaluation as I don't think the dr office authorized any more.... it is rescheduled from 2 weeks ago when I came down with the bad cold.....it is nice to not have to go but I was still getting some benefit from it... guess I will just have to get out and about more....

So, time to quit for the night. Going to put the plants out in the morning again, go feed the calf earlier so she can get a morning and afternoon bottle. Think I will cut her to 3/4 bottle at a time which will be more total, so she doesn't scour. Then see what I can maybe do outside for awhile....

 

[Mini Horses]

PT ... Good it helps. Bad just another thing to schedule around. Get pointers on what to do before you leave! Of course, after over a yr, you know.

My news had a blurb that chickens couldn't be at any swaps, statewide. That was last night, head state vet had made that decision. But, I didn't get impression it was all events, only chickens attending. . Will need to get clarification. Of course, if infected boots are there, same as birds. . Already hundreds of thousands were destroyed. Sad and huge loss in so many ways to industry and markets.

Glad the calf is working the bottle for you. It's just a situation that's more labor/time intensive with a single. As opposed to a dairy where they're all pulled and fed, set up for and all. My bottle goat comes running at the sight of me.

 

[farmerjan]

Haven't seen anything here in local news about the chickens but am pretty sure the swap will be cancelled/closed to chickens. This avian flu is bad out in the mid west; 3 states are highly infected. Being passed by wild waterfowl on the flyways and they don't succumb to it.
Only down to 57 and already near 70. Partly cloudy but warmer. Heading up to feed the calf. PT at 2:30 this afternoon.

 

[Baymule]

My son has dreams of having a herd of cattle, but not the way he works. Maybe someday when he retires...... LOL He wants F1 Tiger Stripe cows. Those are produced usually by a Hereford bull over Brahma cows, sometimes the other way around. They live up to 20 years old, bring a calf every year, and are excellent mommas. Put a black Angus bull on them and calves bring top dollar because as we all know, black hair tastes better. I've had a few Tiger Stripes, get rid of the high head crazies and keep the calm ones and they are real nice cows.

Do you have any bull calves out of Red that you could keep or do you never keep a bull calf ? 10 years old doesn't sound old, but I guess it is.

Ringo is 9, maybe 10 now and I'm starting to wonder if he will be able to keep up. He has 4 ewes with him now, but I saw him breed one yesterday morning, so I guess he still has "it".

 

[Mini Horses]

Years back a friend had 2 aged goats, both early teens. He let them run together as pets after selling his herd. After all, he reasoned, they're "over the hill" and can be companions. Things went along and one morning there were THREE goats. .

 

[farmerjan]

We seldom keep a bull calf... it takes 18 months to get them to breeding size and in the meantime... where do you keep one young "starting to feel his cheerios" bull? Too young for the bull lot...they can beat him up and hurt him..... can't keep him with the heifers we are raising for replacements... don't have the steers all year... can't keep him with the ones we are going to be killing as often we are killing a heifer... don't want one of them bred....

We also don't keep crossbred bulls. There is too much variation in the calves....We have raised a few over the years and it just isn't worth the aggravation....Red was not one of the ones we used often after we culled out some of the red poll cows for age.... but he was a "cleanup bull" and we had talked about shipping him several times since we did not use him much....
DS saw Red breed a cow just about 3 weeks ago...

Had PT this afternoon and decided to go 2 more weeks, and see with the better weather and my being more active how I am doing... not ruling out more PT... but hoping that I can do more exercising and get it more flexible. He was very pleased with the knees though... have 100% straight on the left... and only about 3 degrees bend still in the right... definitely better than a month ago... and the angle/bend is 114 degrees on the left and 113 degrees on the right... they shoot for 105 degrees... so he is very pleased... and he says he gets that I am still frustrated... the swelling in the left ankle is still aggravating... but that is probably going to always be there... He had me do some agility stuff and said that it was really doing good from their standpoint...and considering that the mechanical joint in the ankle cannot "feel" the differences that your own does through muscles and nerves so that I am not totally comfortable
with the balance sometimes. Most people would never see the difference in how I walk or do things, but I can feel it... He said that I will continue to get more and better... and that I just have such a high expectation that it is hard for me to accept that the mechanical joint does not act exactly as the "real" joint....And yep, getting off the weight that I am trying to lose will help....
The only way I can describe it is that the left one feels a little sore like any muscles feel when you do more exercise than normal...the right one really aches... like I " did too much" type of stuff...and it is the muscles/ligs/tendons that run along the right side (outside) of the right knee.... the hamstring up the middle of the back of the knee, is not as tight as it was and he said that is good.

Locked up the chickens. Put the meters and hoses in the car for tomorrow and brought in the house the boxes of bottles so I can put them in the tray for tomorrow. The 200 cow herd I had texted got back to me this morning... he wants Thursday afternoon... so I will do him then...I will get their bottles in the trays also. I have to contact the owner sampler herd now since I know where I will be... I will try to convince him to let me drop them on Thursday eve after I get done... then I will have to make one trip back up to get the stuff... and might be able to co-ordinate that with another herd that needs testing and I will be within a few miles on the way through...and they do not need meters so I can do it before or after.... We'll see. I will call him first thing in the morning...

PITA .... but I don't want to quit right now with the economy and inflation... 8.5% is the newest number... holy cow.... it is not good. Don't want to cut off my nose to spite my face... so will continue to collect a little more pay along the way. I have more and more herds going to every 45 days rather than every month... so not like I am being overwhelmed with work...

 

[Bruce]

This avian flu is bad out in the mid west; 3 states are highly infected. Being passed by wild waterfowl on the flyways and they don't succumb to it.

They found two eagles with it here. Makes me nervous! I wonder if finches/sparrows get it, they go into the barn with the chickens all the time. We used to have ducks and geese use our pond behind the barn during migration. They don't seem to come, or stay long if they do, since I got the alpacas.

 

[Baymule]

@Bruce I hope the avian flu passes your girls by. You might put them on lockdown behind hardware cloth, to keep the small birds out.

Jan, it’s all about the therapy. Getting outside and doing more will sure help with getting more flexible. Losing weight is hard. Basically it’s a small portion of meat, vegetables, little to no carbs and water. It’s hard to stick to. Why do carbs have to be so darn good? I’ve tried all the imitation stuff, but bread is bread. Wanna be is not bread. Sugar is sugar and wanna be is some nasty stuff with an aftertaste of things indescribable. Blech. I lost 18 pounds on the Covid diet, followed by the grief diet, I don’t recommend it. I’ve gained 3 pounds back, hover between 133 and 135. I refuse to go over 135 and will drop carbs to do so.