Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

@Mini Horses if it was a new account, how come I could not say no to the one that I took on last month either???? .....

Yeah, I think that this one that was mine for years and years will test one or 2 months in a row, to get a read on the cows and get a handle on their cell count, then go to testing every few months... and that will be fine. I have to set up meters there so a pain... but they will take them and help set up and all... and it is nice that I won't have to spend hours in the barn getting his records straightened out every month for all the things they forget to write down. Sometimes having to go back and do it on paper actually makes them pay more attention to detail I think.
He texted me back and wants to do Monday... so that tells me his cell count is bothering him. Plus, if it gets up to a certain level they lose the premium that the milk companies pay, and that can be several hundred dollars every month.... and can even get docked if it gets too high... It is just good management to keep a handle on things...
So tomorrow I will have to call the office, get the gen mgr that I have very little use for, and get it cleared with her as they will have to get a herd code number again...

Went to test this afternoon, stopped at the barn to feed the 3 calves first , they actually came to the barn from the alley when I called and then after looking at me like I was going to attack them, went to eating at the bunk. Time to move them up to the nurse cow pasture and get them situated there and then out on the grass and supplement with some hay in the barn....

Testing went fine, they are only selling 15.. so will be staying around 70-80 as they have a bunch out dry that will be calving in Sept. They said that they will not test in Sept but will test in Oct... so I will put them on the calendar to call then. Works for me.

We got some clouds and some pop up showers this afternoon. got a little shower there at the farm and then when I got back here and went to do the nurse cow, saw that there had been some rain here. I got home and there was .15 in the rain gauge... didn't think we were going to get any.. and the chances increase the next 10 days to about 50-60%... I feel bad that we have had an exceptional amount of rain this year when so many have been hurting so much.
Quitting for the night....

 

[farmerjan]

Getting things ready to go to the farm this afternoon. Need to put the trays of bottles in the car and stop and get a sq bale of hay for the calves when I stop and do the 3 calves at the barn. Also need to put the packed samples from last night in the car and drop off.

61 this morning, up to 74 now. Been cloudy all day, a little brighter now, but looks like more wet weather coming in this afternoon. Sure wish I could send some of this to the areas that are needing it.

Time to go....

 

[farmerjan]

Sunday... WET morning... I mean soaking wet. The planters on the deck are full of water so had to tip them. No, I haven't gotten the holes drilled in the bottoms... thought it better to wait until the fall when they are empty... but might try to do it in a day or 2 since we are getting so much rain.
Speaking of which, watch out @Mini Horses it is headed your way. There is alot of water in these clouds... unless they leave it on the travel across the state. I would bet we have gotten 1-2 inches this morning... started around 6:30 or 7 ... Some thunder with it but just plain steady rain.
It will be a "do housework" kind of day.

Had a last minute invite from DS to go to WVa fair... called Friday and said they were going and that originally GF wanted just him & daughter to go and they were going to the Walker Hayes concert... but then a friend of hers said she and her husband were thinking of going, so all of a sudden it was fine if he wanted to ask me to go. Understand that we used to go to WV state fair nearly every year... always had a bunch of people to go... spent the day, and everyone did their own thing and could go off and see things by themselves or together in a group or whatever. Had a good time. Since she has been dictating his life, it has to be agreeable with her before he even asks me to go do what was always just unspoken...
I almost said no, but figured I would like to go... so I went. GF and daughter and friend's wife wanted to ride rides... we didn't leave here until 2, got there in the gate at 4:30.... she had no interest in doing anything of looking at fair exhibits or anything...
Well, the husband, they have cattle and have known him a long time, and DS and I walked around and looked at some exhibits... but it was the last day of the fair so many were already packing up to leave as they could go at 5.... but at least got to see a few different animals and the equipment displays etc. Ate some stuff... boy fair food has gotten EXPENSIVE... as has food everywhere.... but that is part of going to the fair... for the one day you indulge in some food.... went to the concert... It was okay but too loud for me... rather listen to records ... well, cd's, or the radio, whatever....

Got home and there is a walk behind trimmer that I ordered... that wasn't scheduled to get here until Tuesday... WOW, Home Depot was FAST. I had been tossing around getting one... and one night last week I was online scheduling payments for different CC's and accounts like I do about twice a month... leave the money in my account until the due date... collect the measley little interest and still get the payments made on time... and there was a pop up to look at the daily specials... I have looked at them before but not made a concerted effort to check them daily since there wasn't anything I was pushing to buy... and here pops up outdoor yard equipment... scroll through and here is the walk behind trimmer that @Mike CHS had mentioned that Teresa had gotten and liked. I had priced it online and it was in the $300 range.... Legends brand I think. They had a different one in the store, and it was around 350 or so. I wasn't totally decided and the one at Lowe's was more and a different brand. So, I hadn't done anything about it...

Well, this one day special was $219... and since it was $75 to $150 less than the ones I had priced and looked at , I decided to get it. So, put on my just paid cc... and that was Wed or Thursday night... like 11 p.m. Estimated delivery date 8-23.... and here it is 2 DAYS after ordering it. WOW. It was sitting on the lawn next to the driveway as I drove in at 1:30 this morning.
Since they were calling for rain, I just drug the box into the carport. SOOO, glad that I did with the amount of rain we have gotten. Might go out later and see what all it is going to entail to get it out and put together.... The rain is supposed to let up as this bunch of showers passes by this afternoon for a couple hours then another front moving in around supper time and more tonight.

All the rain and I had to go around and tip over the planters that I hadn't gotten the holes drilled into the bottoms yet... I had thought to wait until they were empty this fall/winter... but might just have to do it if I want to keep the plants from drowning... I did not go over to the rain gauge yet. Figure I will do that later when it stops.

So that is the sum total of the last 2 days pretty much. DS did get the 3 calves moved to the nurse cow pasture into the barn and I went and got a bale of hay yesterday and took up there... fed them grain and put some hay in there. Also put the nurse cow in and she ate her grain and left them pretty much alone, then she went back out without any big "todo"... the calves came in the creep gate into the pen next to her and so the 3 new ones got introduced through the gate that separates the pens. They will get a chance to eat and all, for a couple days , and then I will let them in with the calves on the other side when they are in to eat... and they can follow the calves out through the creep gate and learn by following... I think they will asociate the barn with getting fed now since they were getting fed inside at the barn at doug's and now at the nurse cow field. One seemed to have a cough yesterday and I may go on and give it a shot while it is in too... don't need pneumonia or any other respiratory problems.

Well, the morning is gone... time to get something constructive done.

 

[farmerjan]

The rain gauge had 3.1 inches in it at 1 p.m..... HOLY MOLEY.... way more than I expected. That is about normal for the whole month.... We have had over 7 inches for the month so far.... after about 6 or so last month.... .. We had a year like that back in 1989 when I had my real bad car wreck.... it never stopped raining it seemed...
It will be Oct or later before our corn will dry down enough to be ready to chop. I told DS that and he said I was crazy... I said you just wait and see. Which will be good as he is getting the area ready for the concrete to pour fairly soon. He has to get enough of the concrete blocks to form the 3 sides and then I think he is going to form the front with 2x's so they can be taken off and then fill with a little stone so that he will be able to drive right in on it. The concrete pad will be 6" thick on top of the stone that he has gotten down.

I went and got the one heifer and a steer into the barn lot so that she could go to get butchered tomorrow. DS was going to take her this afternoon, but he was called into work with all the rain.... down trees and 2 roads washed out sections. They worked until after 4 and she was supposed to be there 2-3 p.m.. It looks like I will have to take her tomorrow morning at around 6:30-7:00 because he has to work. I HATE pulling the aluminum trailer and that is what is hooked up to the truck... I wasn't going to try to get her loaded this afternoon by myself... he is going to come by for a few minutes from work, and help get her loaded in the morning...as usual I am the "fall back on person"....

Got a new calf at the nurse cow pasture... a heifer calf on a heifer that is the daughter of the "lame cow" up there that just calved a week or 2 ago. It is a nice calf, she seems to be mothering it just fine...
And another place the owner called DS and said that there were 2 new calves up there... well, this is a pasture he moved some cows with their heifer calves to... because the owner was having a conniption fit because the grass was getting "too high"... so DS and GF decided to move these there and the calves could be taken off the end of July... I had a list of who was there... but no one told me they were older calves that would have to be weaned.... and now the cows have started to calve with the older calves still in there... This is another example of me not knowing what they are doing and them just doing it and then here we go. He called me to ask what was what... and I had to go back through papers to see where these were older heifer calves on these cows that he did not pull off... they are matches to the set of steers we just sold as far as age goes. So they will have to be caught up and ALL the older calves taken out of there... and the bull that DS insisted had to go there, who it turns out, was not needed there, needs to come out; so these cows do not get bred back until their new calves are at least 45 days old... I'd like to see the bull go in with them in early-mid Nov... for early fall calves. I asked him the other day where the cows were with the bigger heifer calves and he kept telling me they were out in the back at doug's farm... but I kept telling him I didn't think so.... well, they weren't out back....now gotta "fix the problem" and get the calves off them and home/weaned.....Another case of not paying attention to things that should be getting done and my being only half included and informed as to what is going on anymore....

Then he got a call that the fence was down at another place, that the creek had taken part of it out... it turns out it was fine.... BUT... the neighbors bull is in with our heifers.... that we put there so that they were not bothered by a bull. But the guy who just rented this place next door, last year moved his 20+ cows in there with 2 bulls... and they must have all his cows bred and went visiting our heifers that were probably coming in heat. He tried to blame it on US having heifers next to a fenceline with a bull.... BUT the bull WAS NOT IN THERE when we put our heifers in AND they didn't go over to him... he got rather smart mouthed and DS said that we have had this place for over 20 years and that it was not our place to keep his bull out, and over in with his own cows....It is going to be a continual problem... but they finally agreed that they would string electric on their side to keep the bull home.... there are only 10 heifers there but they were not going to get bred yet... so will have to make a determination to either Lute all 10 or decide if any are big enough and only do the smaller ones... DS said he is going to run just steers there next year.... This is getting to be a royal pain...

I di not get a chance to get to the trimmer in the box. I did get the samples packed and boxes ready to get shipped out tomorrow from the Fri eve test.... got up to my nurse cow and did the calves up there this afternoon when it wasn't raining.
Maybe if it is not raining I will get the trimmer out of the box tomorrow after I take the animal to the processor...
Going to bed early so I can get up ....

 

[Baymule]

Smart mouth idiot with the bull needs an attitude adjustment.

 

[farmerjan]

Smart mouth idiot with the bull needs an attitude adjustment.

Yeah, no joke....

Just got home from testing the farm that wanted to do milk samples only. Things went well and the biggest thing is waiting for the whole wash system to run through the meters so they are "clean" .... got to catch up with Ed a bit... He has been hurting terrible and they kept saying it was his knees... talking knee replacements. But then he went to a different doctor and actually was seen by a Physicians assistant this morning... and after looking at the x-rays, and several different manipulations and the knees NOT hurting like they "should have" , the PA said I think it might be more in your back or hips... let's do some images (x-rays) of the hips. WELL, turns out the hips are so bad that the PA said no wonder you are in such pain... and it is putting stress on the knees but they still have some "cushioning" .... so that is why he (PA) did not think it was the knees. So, he has an appt next week they are going to try cortisone as a short term stop gap measure... if it relieves the pain even a little, then he might be able to get past a couple of months and they can get their corn chopped and then he can get the hips replaced... I think they can only do one at a time... but Ed said it is really good for someone to look past the "knees" and when this PA did some manipulation with the hip movement, he nearly came unglued... so another reason to believe it is the hips. He said they are going to HAVE to be replaced.... no questions... just a matter of how soon they can get to them....and if the cortisone will help short term. It is not a solution in my mind for just "some pain"... and like with my knees, I even tried that as a short term stop gap before the replacements... didn't work for me but some do get alot of relief...and I have heard that hips and shoulders often respond better to cortisone....

So then pulled the meters down and came home... it was after 9 when I got over here on this side of the mountain. Ed said he would like to get back to some sort of testing and even record keeping again... it has been 4 years since I was there.... We'll see how his cell count does with this test and how he makes out at the doctors...

Going in to take a shower as it got warmer and "stickier", more humid this afternoon. Fronts supposed to be passing east and maybe 2-3 days of dry. DS called and said he might be trying to mow a little hay... as we are going to get behind again... and there is this short window,,,,,Guess I will find out tomorrow if he did. It will have to be tedded to get it dry if we are supposed to get a slight possibility of showers on Wed night or Thursday.... then 40-60% chance of showers and storms for the next 5 days after that...

Neighbor where we used to keep just 2-4 head on a couple acres decided to raise some steers of his own. Now he has decided they need to go and offered them to DS... he went and looked at them and said they weigh in the 850-950+ range... said they are pretty nice. I think they came to agreement on $2,000 for the 2 of them... which is not a big bargain but a fair price for both of us ... DS said they will make good beef and he will sell 2 high headed ones we have now and keep these for a Feb kill date he has... That would be a good trade off as these 2 of ours will bring in the $7-800 range and are a little smaller and will not make as nice beef as these other 2 will... and they will get the benefit of corn silage this winter and he said they are much calmer... so will gain better. We are actually looking at taking a small load this coming saturday.... the 2 high headed ones, 4 nut case heifers that are in the other barn lot that DS said we are NOT KEEPING for replacements... and he is going to go get the heifers off the cows in a day or so and we can go through them and if there are any that we don't like they can go also... He has a friend with 12 or 13 cows on a place they rent, that he is going to sell... some with calves or heavy bred... the bull there has run with them all the time so not in any kind of "calving group" ... a couple have bigger calves and could even be bred back... he is going to go look at them... see what they want for them right out of the pasture... might be able to sell some of these heifers, in exchange for cows all ready with calves or close up... and "save 2 years" by getting calves right now... ready to sell in the spring... won't know til he goes and looks. The cows are supposed to be "younger" ... not old one and dones.... couple of these heifers are mine... maybe I will trade them in on a couple of the cows and be ahead that way.... Guess we will see once he goes and looks at them. Cows are going to get higher next year... I think that if they are reasonable, it might be worth investing in them....I'm always looking to make a few dollars....
I think DS is going to start looking to pick up some of these cheaper bull calves to castrate and put together another group or 2... he makes more money that way... he does not pay as much attention to detail on the cows whereas I would rather do the cows... and if I push it a little, I think we can split things a little and get along a little better... plus a friend of his does more steers and stuff and he likes working with him and they have been helping each other out a little.... makes him a little more pleasant to be around too... so I might be able to work into the cows a little more instead of getting out of it... and keep him a little happier when he is feeding steers in the barn that he can turn over a little more often than one calf a year off the cows.... and then have more calves to sell off the cows for the next couple of years... Just a thought I have been having.
He has to get this concrete pad done so it will be ready for corn silage harvesting... but if he has some feeders in the barn that he can turn over in a couple months, that will make him a little happier... We will have some to sell late this fall I think... The big farm payment is done for the year... not sure what else there is to pay here soon... but the concrete is the next costly thing I think... and with the "blocks" that they are using for the sides... I think he is talking about 10 grand now.... it has gone up alot.

Anyone see where the stock market dropped another 600 pts today....??? Concerns by the "fed" over inflation I heard...

Time to get that shower, I am all sticky... nothing scheduled tomorrow I don't think unless there is tedding to do. He might want to go get the calves tomorrow afternoon if he cut anything today...

 

[Mini Horses]

Cows, calves, weaned steers....all have their place. It's a $ tumble game. Waiting a year for a calf, then grow to decent sale age can be a long wait! The mini horse herd was like that....spring foals and wait. One of the reasons we added meat goats years back. It provided another "season" for income.

My dairy goats are like cows, in that you wait for kids, milk. Grow keepers to kid out and train to milk. But 1/2 the gestation and growth time of cattle. The meat ones, less time as there is a demand for the ones not full maturity to sell for market use, as opposed to breeding use. There is also less of the "prima Donna" aspect to meat herds. easier group weaning, etc. Less indivual hands on per animal.

I see the point of your DS in buying/selling the young bull stock....he'd rather work those. You like the dairy aspect of new calves. It can work well, if you can both get back to the pre GF attitude and info sharing. All in all, in livestock there's the herd and there's the side hussle! Being ready to work a deal. Making a few extra bucks is good.

 

[Baymule]

Good point @Mini Horses on the time from birth to market. One of the reasons I decided on sheep. Main reasons were their size and my age. LOL Moving into registered sheep, ups the price for breeding stock and gives me another selling point.

Jan I hope you and DS can get back to working more closely together.

 

[Ridgetop]

Smart mouth idiot with the bull needs an attitude adjustment.

I know someone that has plenty of "Texas Wup a$$"! I bet she would share!

 

[Ridgetop]

Hopefully with your son doing the steers and you doing the cow/calf operations you will be able to get along better. Controlling the separations and breeding for the cows will be easier for your records.