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farmerjan
Herd Master
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What a difference a day makes. It was sunny from the get go this morning. Temps got up to 55... and no breeze. The ground was drying out up at the calves fast too. All the ice gone from the Sat storm...
Everyone looks and acts fine. I did leave the coats on even though I let them all out in the lot to get in the sunshine... they are a PITA to try to get the coats back on when all they want to do is try to suck your clothes after drinking the bottles... and you can't begin to put them on first or they butt you so hard wanting their bottles...I did not put the 2 back in the hay side, for the night, and think maybe I should have since the coming rain is supposed to start as possible snow/freezing rain....at sometime after 4 a.m.... Oh well, hoping they have enough sense to stay inside... they do go in and out the open doorway on their own... so I can hope.
I also took down the electric fence along one side of the driveway/across the field there. Have been wanting to get to it and just haven't ... DS and I had a difference of opinion yesterday and I just decided I am tired of his attitude, so I "made myself" do it today... now I do not have to listen to him about opening and shutting the "gate" to drive into the area where the cows are, and the calves in the barn. The cows can go out and do some grazing on the grass that is there, brown and all, but still some good picking for a day or 2. And I no longer need to worry about going in and out the "gate" of the 2 electric strands... now will have to make sure the gate at the road gets shut though since they will have access to possibly getting out the driveway into the road.
One more thing off the "things to do" list.
Talked to a farmer(he called me) and set them up to test Wed eve/ Thurs morning... have to talk to the other one that was saying Thursday... I will have to have all the meters loaded in the car on Wed... and have to change the brackets on most, ahead of time, for Thurs farm... but will use 12 at the wed/thurs farm... then I will have to come home, feed calves, and turn around and head right to the other farm.... wanted to do him tues/wed but it didn't work for him.... I will get all the bottles in trays for both farms and try to have everything as ready as possible. It will be a LOOOONG day on Thursday.... I will feed the calves some extra as I will not get home til late and will not go up there that late in the dark... Will have to go feed earlier on Friday... there will be grain and hay in the bunk for the calves...they will not die of starvation...but it will be a tough day for me.
It always seems to be "feast or famine" with testing anymore... another reason to seriously think about giving this up sooner rather than later...with all the days available in a month... why do they all want the same week/days???? Will not be contacting anyone else about testing until Friday... for next week. Have a dinner on Tuesday eve for the local cattleman's assoc.... and a dinner the following Tuesday for the dhia county assoc that I test a few farms in, north of here. I don't normally go but since our county assoc no longer has a yearly dinner meeting, I might go to this one...
Got a bonus from testing for the holidays... never happened before.... nice extra $425 or so (after taxes of course) that I was not expecting... I keep expecting them to send us a letter and tell us that they are merging with the assoc in PA....that might be the trigger to quit testing....
Sound the TRUMPETS.... got a call to go get the Explorer... seems there was some sort of a fuse that was blown, that caused the screen inside to go blank....so the computer could not communicate... REALLY..... they said that they never did have any blown fuse show up on the computer scanner here at the local mechanics.... but it showed up in the diagnostic test at the Ford place... $150 for that diagnostic test.... and replaced a $3.50 fuse.... but they also did the recall inspection on the bushings or whatever it was that I got the notice on. Got it back.... so now it goes to a shop to see about getting it sold.... then if I can ever get a civil response from DS about the pu truck here, I will get it licensed and insured and use it on occasion.... so I have to pay for the new battery they put in it and the other ac work they did before the replacing the battery that caused the screen to not work... but it should all work now... and they promised to get on the little 4x4 ranger that has been there for quite awhile....
Progress is being made in fits and starts....
Phone calls to be made tomorrow about the greenhouse/shelter.. and the flimsy frame that has come completely apart/broken off with the last wind... I am so done with it... not going to try to use anything to fix it until they give me some idea of what to do.... I paid for that extended warranty... very disappointed since I like the cover part and the frame is just like having bendable aluminum...
DS just called, wanted to talk about possibly getting a preg check... got more cows to move home this week... Fri or Sat.... he's getting tired of having to take hay to all these places... well, duh.....I will see if I can get in the ones at the nurse cow field also... got one there with the small calf that could go with a bull right now....might breed back before the bulls are supposed to come out in mid-March... so calves will be born before Dec 15th.. since I got the 2 "bullies" /pushy cows and calves out, it ought to be easier to get these others in... If this one doesn't go with the bull now she will get cycled back in with the next ones to get bred in June. One cow is not going to make or break things.
There will be a couple of preg checks... get this bunch done and moved around... then get the next bunch moved home and get them done... then the big group with calves of all sizes will come home...and there are a bunch that should be bred... they will be all over the calendar though...
He wants to sell a group of calves in Feb... the biggest ones... prices are starting to come back up and he needs to get some moved out of there... as we bring home these others. Some of these calves needed to be weaned off "yesterday".... he says he needs to get things grouped back and put together the way they need to be....There will be a few cows to go and some of the calves will be mine... he says he thinks we should sell most everything this spring except the 35 he is taking to WV.... and putting cows out at pastures like we should and maybe leave the fields at doug's farm empty for a good part of this year... I said I agreed... when he asked if I had any thoughts I said I agreed with selling while things are good this spring and letting the fields lie fallow for a bit...
He also said he has been feeding hay everywhere in anticipation of this rain/wet coming since it is supposed to be quite a bit and possible flooding etc... to not have to go in on some of these fields for a day or 2....,and he was going home to get some sleep since he is going in at 4 a.m.;
I took the ham off the bone and put on another batch of split peas to cook down. Got some for a meal or 2.
Watched the 3rd part of the movie...it was good. Had some interesting things (I think they call them trailers?) to say about the actual fued and that this was to try to keep it as close to the truth as possible... It was pretty good...
Quitting for the night.
Everyone looks and acts fine. I did leave the coats on even though I let them all out in the lot to get in the sunshine... they are a PITA to try to get the coats back on when all they want to do is try to suck your clothes after drinking the bottles... and you can't begin to put them on first or they butt you so hard wanting their bottles...I did not put the 2 back in the hay side, for the night, and think maybe I should have since the coming rain is supposed to start as possible snow/freezing rain....at sometime after 4 a.m.... Oh well, hoping they have enough sense to stay inside... they do go in and out the open doorway on their own... so I can hope.
I also took down the electric fence along one side of the driveway/across the field there. Have been wanting to get to it and just haven't ... DS and I had a difference of opinion yesterday and I just decided I am tired of his attitude, so I "made myself" do it today... now I do not have to listen to him about opening and shutting the "gate" to drive into the area where the cows are, and the calves in the barn. The cows can go out and do some grazing on the grass that is there, brown and all, but still some good picking for a day or 2. And I no longer need to worry about going in and out the "gate" of the 2 electric strands... now will have to make sure the gate at the road gets shut though since they will have access to possibly getting out the driveway into the road.
One more thing off the "things to do" list.
Talked to a farmer(he called me) and set them up to test Wed eve/ Thurs morning... have to talk to the other one that was saying Thursday... I will have to have all the meters loaded in the car on Wed... and have to change the brackets on most, ahead of time, for Thurs farm... but will use 12 at the wed/thurs farm... then I will have to come home, feed calves, and turn around and head right to the other farm.... wanted to do him tues/wed but it didn't work for him.... I will get all the bottles in trays for both farms and try to have everything as ready as possible. It will be a LOOOONG day on Thursday.... I will feed the calves some extra as I will not get home til late and will not go up there that late in the dark... Will have to go feed earlier on Friday... there will be grain and hay in the bunk for the calves...they will not die of starvation...but it will be a tough day for me.
It always seems to be "feast or famine" with testing anymore... another reason to seriously think about giving this up sooner rather than later...with all the days available in a month... why do they all want the same week/days???? Will not be contacting anyone else about testing until Friday... for next week. Have a dinner on Tuesday eve for the local cattleman's assoc.... and a dinner the following Tuesday for the dhia county assoc that I test a few farms in, north of here. I don't normally go but since our county assoc no longer has a yearly dinner meeting, I might go to this one...
Got a bonus from testing for the holidays... never happened before.... nice extra $425 or so (after taxes of course) that I was not expecting... I keep expecting them to send us a letter and tell us that they are merging with the assoc in PA....that might be the trigger to quit testing....
Sound the TRUMPETS.... got a call to go get the Explorer... seems there was some sort of a fuse that was blown, that caused the screen inside to go blank....so the computer could not communicate... REALLY..... they said that they never did have any blown fuse show up on the computer scanner here at the local mechanics.... but it showed up in the diagnostic test at the Ford place... $150 for that diagnostic test.... and replaced a $3.50 fuse.... but they also did the recall inspection on the bushings or whatever it was that I got the notice on. Got it back.... so now it goes to a shop to see about getting it sold.... then if I can ever get a civil response from DS about the pu truck here, I will get it licensed and insured and use it on occasion.... so I have to pay for the new battery they put in it and the other ac work they did before the replacing the battery that caused the screen to not work... but it should all work now... and they promised to get on the little 4x4 ranger that has been there for quite awhile....
Progress is being made in fits and starts....
Phone calls to be made tomorrow about the greenhouse/shelter.. and the flimsy frame that has come completely apart/broken off with the last wind... I am so done with it... not going to try to use anything to fix it until they give me some idea of what to do.... I paid for that extended warranty... very disappointed since I like the cover part and the frame is just like having bendable aluminum...
DS just called, wanted to talk about possibly getting a preg check... got more cows to move home this week... Fri or Sat.... he's getting tired of having to take hay to all these places... well, duh.....I will see if I can get in the ones at the nurse cow field also... got one there with the small calf that could go with a bull right now....might breed back before the bulls are supposed to come out in mid-March... so calves will be born before Dec 15th.. since I got the 2 "bullies" /pushy cows and calves out, it ought to be easier to get these others in... If this one doesn't go with the bull now she will get cycled back in with the next ones to get bred in June. One cow is not going to make or break things.
There will be a couple of preg checks... get this bunch done and moved around... then get the next bunch moved home and get them done... then the big group with calves of all sizes will come home...and there are a bunch that should be bred... they will be all over the calendar though...
He wants to sell a group of calves in Feb... the biggest ones... prices are starting to come back up and he needs to get some moved out of there... as we bring home these others. Some of these calves needed to be weaned off "yesterday".... he says he needs to get things grouped back and put together the way they need to be....There will be a few cows to go and some of the calves will be mine... he says he thinks we should sell most everything this spring except the 35 he is taking to WV.... and putting cows out at pastures like we should and maybe leave the fields at doug's farm empty for a good part of this year... I said I agreed... when he asked if I had any thoughts I said I agreed with selling while things are good this spring and letting the fields lie fallow for a bit...
He also said he has been feeding hay everywhere in anticipation of this rain/wet coming since it is supposed to be quite a bit and possible flooding etc... to not have to go in on some of these fields for a day or 2....,and he was going home to get some sleep since he is going in at 4 a.m.;
I took the ham off the bone and put on another batch of split peas to cook down. Got some for a meal or 2.
Watched the 3rd part of the movie...it was good. Had some interesting things (I think they call them trailers?) to say about the actual fued and that this was to try to keep it as close to the truth as possible... It was pretty good...
Quitting for the night.
.....from FJ
