Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Ridgetop]

Hopefully the weather will hold till you get the hay baled. Too bad we can't get some huge fans and blow those clouds west to Texas and California. LOL

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday. Nice 63 this morning, nearly 90 and much more humid now at 1:30. Calling for the rain/showers/storms to come in from the Ohio area later this afternoon.

Yesterday was a long day but productive. Got the cows in the barn for the vet. 8 preg checks and the one lame heifer.
Sadly, the lame heifer looks like she injured her stifle. She has a nice heifer calf on her.... vet says she ought to get around okay enough to raise this calf... but no promises. Sometimes an injury like that will heal... she is young... could have gotten shoved just wrong by another cow, could have been from the bull mounting her and just caught her with her leg in the wrong angle and slipped... who knows. So she is going to the nurse cow pasture, where they all calved, and is familiar with it, and has plenty of places to get out of the sun and there is more than enough grazing with all the ones that have been moved out.
The 3 heifers that had been checked preg: One he said must have aborted but she doesn't feel right inside... sell her. One looks like she aborted, she did get a small udder; maybe a dead premie calf we didn't find...I saw her in heat but she is open... vet says she is cycling... that decision is up to DS. Third one is FAT... she is about 60+ days so had to have aborted and bred back. She is also kind of squirrelly acting. I told DS she should be beef.
The 2 cows we didn't get in the last check that were out back with their bigger calves... because they suck other cows... are both bred 6 + months. The one has an attitude and is definitely getting sold as a bred cow. The other probably should go too... but I am on the fence. They aren't going anywhere until their calves get sold and that is in the next month when he is planning to ship a load of steer calves. Both these calves are steers.
A heifer of mine that was at the nurse cow pasture and is a total IDIOT... 6 months bred... getting sold as a bred heifer... Tried to go through the head chute and bucked around in there like a crazy bucking bull... she is the grand daughter of one of my jersey nurse cows... go figure....
The older cow from up there that has had a slight limp from when we first bought her, quiet as a mouse and good momma, is bred and close to calving.. she will go back to the nurse cow pasture.
And one other that I couldn't remember if she had been checked... so ran her through... just weaned a BIG heifer calf off her... she is bred like maybe 5 months. She was a bought heifer... pretty nice to work with, she will stay.

Everything that is going to the sale is mine except the heifer he said didn't feel right inside....and possibly the one that is open but cycling... but we have grass so he might as well take her back to the bull at this point. Cannot believe the one bred heifer of mine, is so insane in the barn.... and the one cow that sucks has a high headed attitude too...
Seems like alot of my animals... but then I had kept 12 and calved them out 2 years ago when DS didn't have but 3 heifers... so I have some to pick through... and I am not going to keep "stupids" and idiots....

Then I got on the tractor and raked hay until DS came to get me and take me back to my car to go to work. He finished the 2nd field that I had started at the place we make custom for the guy.
Then tested cows, then went to pasture to do the cow. I actually saw the 3 calves on the nurse cow out in the field... so they are smart enough to go on her all at the same time.... YAY.... now I only have to worry about graining her so she keep up her milk production for another couple of months as they get to eating more grass and some grain too.

Then DS asked if I could take him back to the barn to his truck as he needed to come get the tractor to go hook up to the smaller round baler that we use to custom bale for this man as he does not have a way to handle the real big bales, so we make his with the round baler that net wraps and they are only 4x5... so he goes to try to start the tractor and it only will crank... and crank... and crank.... No fuel getting to the injectors... fuel pump has quit. He had one from about a year ago when it acted up... thought it was going bad,,,then it just started working fine so he thought maybe there was some dirt or something... so he went to the barn, got it and came back and had to put it on the tractor ... it was parked across from my house where he was going to put the hay in rows along the edge of the field. The loader was in the way and he had to work around it... couldn't move it out of the way up in the air because the tractor wouldn't start. Finally got it replaced and then had a devil of a time getting the lines to the injectors bled ... and I had gone over to see if he needed help or anything... finally got them bled and it finally started... so he took it to the barn and left it to where he could get it hooked up today to go bale when he got off work. I brought him back up here to his truck, and he stopped at the house, and took the spark plug out and cranked the engine to blow the accumulated gas out and said to let it dry out and he would get the plug back in and get it started tomorrow (today); and he finally went home. It was after 11 when I got in the house.
Went to bed and was in the barn at 5:30 this morning to test their 2nd test.

So, tested, did the computer work, got the meters. Went to the other field, and we were tossing around me trying to get it tedded but didn't know if he would have time to get it baled this afternoon and there is the forecast of rain by 5-6 p.m. I could have raked it and it would be ready to bale tomorrow, but if it rains, it will have to be tedded out. So he decided to just leave it today. The rain is supposed to pass over tonight with less than 20% chance of stray shower tomorrow. If we don't get much/any this evening, I will just rake tomorrow. If we get much, it will get tedded tomorrow, and then raked and baled on Thursday.
Going in to pack samples now. Hung the load of clothes on the line before, and with the strong breeze, they will be dry this afternoon. Sun tea making out on the deck table...
Squash blanching and freezing on the schedule for later this afternoon.

 

[Mini Horses]

Busy!! Jump from one thing to another. It's our life.

 

[farmerjan]

Hearing some thunder now, but looks like the most of this "severe storm warning" is going to stay north and some south of us. I think we will get some precip but nothing like the warnings.

Packed the samples, and dropped them off. Brought the clothes in when the breeze was getting pretty stiff and one pair of jeans wound up on the ground. They were very dry so good. Then went out and checked for more squash... YEP.... brought in 13 more . They are producing in overdrive... and they have just begun. That's okay... I have NONE in the freezer left over... will put a lot of bags in since I really do like it.
DS texted... he has had trouble with the baler all afternoon... after not getting off work like he planned at 1:30... it was 3 before he got off. Plus he was tired from the short night last night; working on the tractor then getting up to be at work at 5 to go get the "oiler" truck thing that they use to put down this gravel stuff on the roads.... oil it then put down a gravel then they roll it in... anyway... he goes in before everyone because he has to get the truck filled and it has to heat up...

He did finally get all Fred's baled so at least that is done. He had all sorts of trouble with the net wrap and it not wanting to start it and then breaking it... it probably needs to be checked out and maybe re-timed.... Too much to go wrong and he cannot work on it.
Good thing we did not rake the other 2 smaller fields or anything. It was 8 when he asked if I could take him back to the field. He was thinking of taking the tractor and discbine to another place, the one headlight would not come on and he just said, the he// with it, he was too tired. WISE decision in my opinion...

On top of that got a call to go over to doug's farm, earlier during the day, there was a steer out at the end of the driveway. Turns out it was Roscoe, the bull calf my nurse cow raised last time... he was kept as a bull, but he has no respect for fences and went through 2 boards on the fence on the bull lot. I had to go get him in... he was up behind the house so I got him in a gate there into what we call the "alley"...with a bucket of feed.... it is a long lane way that we can take cows from the barn up to a pasture but not through the other pasture there... we were talking about what to do with him and I said he could just go on the hill with the cows with the big calves for a month until we bring them in and sell the calves... so he took the 4 wheeler up the lane,,, and got to the end and the sorry S.O.B. had taken down some of the boards at the end of the lane. I think he needs to be sold... I am not very thrilled with his attitude. GF babied him while he was on the cow, and he got treated like he was special, and then after he got weaned, and now he has no respect for fences or anything. YOU DON'T MAKE PETS out of bulls.....I am not against them being calm and all... BUT they have to have respect and he has NONE....
So, DS said screw it, I am done for the night. He went home and that is good... he needs to get some serious sleep.

It has started to rain just a little bit... like a 3 second shower of big drops... and now nothing. The radar shows it breaking up and passing... some serious rain went north and across and the counties over near DC were under a flash flood watch because they had already gotten 2 inches or more in less than an hour... with more expected. Radar was showing serious oranges and reds all over that area. And there was some that went down across the lower part of Va... but I think we will get little or nothing. Good for the hay still down.

Tomorrow is another day to start over. If it doesn't do much for rain, I will rake the hay at the 2 fields, and he can bale it with the big baler; not the 4x5 but the 5x5 that uses twine to tie around the bales.

I'm tired too; got about 4 1/2 hours last night.. so a shower and bed is looking mighty inviting.

 

[farmerjan]

Wed morning. Cow done, and back home. Have to go up and rake around noon or so. It is a little cloudy out, and that is the forecast. But it is warm, a little humid. Supposedly this humidity is going to clear out some.
Looks like we got a few more sprinkles last evening but nothing worth worrying about. The radar shows some activity south of here. The front that came through is somewhat stalled and will hang around the southern counties along NC... but except for a few clouds, nothing this far north. So, all that push and we are not going to see anything before Fri or Sat at the earliest. I will get it raked, turned up so the green can be up off the ground and get dried.

Talked to the new farm that I am taking on. They don't milk very early... 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. I will be going next week. I will do an evening for the first time, go early, get things set up and get a feel for their milking system and all. I normally would not do a morning for a farm that far away, but starting at 7:30 in the morning it would not be impossible to leave here at 4:30 or 5 to go there and set up. She says they are only 3 +/- miles off the interstate so not way out in the boondocks to find either. We'll see how it goes. Once I know what I am dealing with it might not be so bad.

Got to get things done.

 

[murphysranch]

I've learned so much from you, FJ. Turns out there is a field two lots away from me that does grass hay. I watched him cut it. Then he raked and tedded it! I taught hubs about that process. Then yesterday I saw him baling (baleing?) it into rectangles. Some of the larger fields here make smaller round bales and cover with with a mesh. Nothing like in they do in Idaho, where the rounds are humongous!

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks @murphysranch ... I just feel that since so many people are more "removed" from the farms nowadays, it helps if I can get across to people just some of what goes into farming... yes, on a bigger scale than 99% of the people on here would ever go to.... but just because we are "bigger" it still is "farming" like the homesteaders used to do. And sometimes it helps people to understand that even though we might make alot of hay... it just plain COSTS to do it... there is a limit to how much you can spread the costs out over a larger number.... to make the costs a little lower per head or per bale... but once you have some equipment, there is only so much you can do to spread out the costs. And with the fuel having gone through the roof this year... it is just plain EXPENSIVE to do things like make hay.
Speaking of that, I went today and raked the hay that was still down that we decided to leave lay yesterday. As it turns out, we only got those 30 or so drops... the storms they were talking about just went mostly above us and the rest of the front broke up. There is some of the weather down along the NC border where the front has stalled out. We are getting some clouds coming and going...
Because there is less than a 20% outside chance of a stray shower, all I did today was rake the hay. By turning the "underside" up to the sun and air, the green should finish drying out - "curing" - as they call it. Thus saving a trip across the fields with the tedder and saving a little bit of fuel=money; and saving my time.... It should be ready to bale tomorrow.
OH, yes "baling" is the proper spelling.

DS got off work and headed with the tractor and discbine to one of the 2 last places we make hay. About 20 acres or so.... There is only a 20% chance of showers again Friday, Saturday, Sunday... Then he will go to the place we rent and have pasture... there is a 9 acre field there that is not fenced and we make that for hay, and he is going to cut the "bottom land" part of the 3rd field we rotate the cows to since they have so much grass now. We have gotten some very timely rains and have more and better pasture than in some years. Plus we have fewer head this year, and the heavier grazing in the past has actually helped the pastures in the long run. So, we will cut some of this for hay, and then the rest has to be bush hogged. Part of the lease agreement.

I have to go get DS to bring him back to his truck as he has a dr appt....

 

[farmerjan]

I mentioned that we didn't get any of the rain they were forecasting... but one county down in the southwest part , Buchanan county, was hit with torrential rain and flooding. There doesn't look like there were any fatalities, some people missing but hopefully they are without any cell service or unable to get out due to some mudslides and washed out roads etc. Just goes to show that mother nature can get a whim and dump on some areas and not on others. This area got hit with flooding last year from a hurricane I believe.

 

[Mike CHS]

We didn't have any rain forecast for last night but it started thundering around 10:00 and we got just under an inch.

 

[farmerjan]

It is sooooo hit and miss... @Mike CHS ... looks like you will get poured on and a few drops, forecast of 30-50% and nothing... but then it will be 10-20% chance of stray pop up and you get a real full fledged rain. Glad you got some though as you had been dry....