Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

If anyone is interested in anything concerning the whole farming/ranching situation, like the NAC thread I mentioned... please watch this
www.lonesomelands.com Texas Rancher interview on the Glen Beck program...

 

[Baymule]

As the old saying goes, when you have LIVEstock, you get DEADstock. In the case of the lady in Lithuania, sometimes you get them all at once. Sometimes you feel like you need some Divine intervention to make it stop.

 

[Ridgetop]

DS found a cow laying dead near a roll of hay... young cow, 2nd or 3rd calf... and had nearly 3 month calf .

Any idea why it died?

On the cattle forum, one of our members is from Lithuania ... she went to school to be a vet... married, with a little one probably 3-4 years old now. They have beef cattle, and she has had one nightmare of a start to her calving season... pulled a set of twins that were dead, cow laid on a calf and it died... just had a cow that was looking close, older experienced cow, brought her in the barn into a pen, checked 30 minutes later and the water bag was showing. Went out a bit later and the cow was DEAD... and calf died in her... she said it looks like an aorta burst or something... nothing like a uterine rupture or anything... their cows routinely have 90-125 lb calves... she weighs them and has a calving thread every year on what they have, gestation # days, all that... this calf she said was about 99 lbs...totally unexpected situation for her...

MG! What a horror of a start to calving. Big money loss besides.

 

[farmerjan]

Monday morning, 31 to start, sun is already coming over the hill... the days are getting longer... and it will be above average warmer for the rest of the week. NICE.... but there is still nearly 2 months of "winter" left so can't expect this to last....

Heading out to do calves, and forgot to go to the bank when I was out over the weekend so have to do that first thing. Then home to pack samples to send out and work outside I hope.

I really like the longer days already.... Not getting much done in the house when it is this enticing to be outside. Have a load of stuff on the truck for the burn pile to take out and unload... might get to do that this weekend, calling for 30-50% chance of showers.

 

[farmerjan]

Hit 70 in the sun today... really nice out.

Got alot of "little stuff done"... ran to bank, fed calves, packed samples, and then dropped them off. Stopped to see about getting the new headlight bulb in the car (no low beam).... they can do it as cheap at the co-op as I can buy the bulb for... like the windshield wipers... they cost less from them and they put them on for me... BUT, they were backed up so I said I would come back tomorrow or something... not life or death, just have hi-beam on driver's side... so needs to get done...
There was a sq bale of hay along the road, someone lost off their truck or trailer so I stopped and got it... NICE hay, probably 3rd cutting orchard grass... took it up to calves when I went up and fed bottles this afternoon before going to the meeting.
Went home, got the stuff unloaded off truck into the garden burn pile.
Brought laundry in off the line... Went back up to feed bottles and only fed 4. The 2 bigger calves are officially on 1 bottle a day now...they only got 1 a day for the last 4 days with work, but the 2 sets of twins need some extra milk for a few more weeks at least; and the 2 bigger ones will get totally weaned off in about 2 weeks.
The newly orphaned calf is going right in the feeder for the grain with the rest so that is really good. Not going to try to put it on a bottle since it is right at the same age as the 2 off my nurse cow... they will do fine on grain and good hay.
No idea what happened to the cow.

Came back and got changed to go to the meeting... got bottles in the trays for tomorrow so will put them in car in the morning.

Went to the meeting and first off... I apologize to all Texans.... it is not the Texas Longhorn tick... it is the Asian Longhorn Tick.... I think Longhorn and I immediately think Texas...

This Theileria disease is getting very prevalent... and probably has infected about 75% of the cattle now...in a corridor of about 11 eastern states and was mostly all along the I-81 corridor.... at first.... started in NJ... can affect most all red blooded animals, cattle, sheep, horses, deer... and some goats but not as much... the vet said to think of covid in cattle, as far as when it hit, there were alot of deaths and such... as it has become more "common", the affects are not necessarily as severe and they carry it for life... it is a protozoan disease and there is no cure... they can do all the "normal things" but when they first get it, often they have severe sickness... like when people got the covid and had never been exposed to it before... it does not pass from cow to calf through the placenta.... but they will often get it from getting bit from a intermediate host... the nymph goes through several molts, and 3 hosts to adult hood.....disease attacks BOTH the red and WHITE blood cells.... and the DA@# female tick does NOT have to be in the company of a male..to be fertile..... where all other kinds of ticks do have to have a male/female mating for the eggs to be fertile... it can be controlled to some extent by preventing the scenarios where the ticks can get on the cows... insecticides/backrubs/fly "eartags"/ 2x a year treatment with ivermectin and/or other types of fly/tick control...
Plus, these ticks travel in "armies".... seriously, they will get on the animals in bunches of hundreds or thousands... would remind you of a swarm of bees that settled on the cattle...I saw pictures of some on a fellow farmers' steer... they found it like that... it was GROSS to the nth degree... sickening looking....and the only thing you can do is try to prevent them from settling on the animals..
DS said they have had some deer that have been killed, covered with these ticks.... the VDOT workers do not handle any dead animals now without sanitary type gloves....and they will feed off the dead animals for several days...blood sucking ba$@#&ds

One more thing to deal with... and stress/trauma can cause an "outbreak" in an animal and results in weakness, and symptoms like anaplasmosis.... But anaplas is bacterial and can be treated with oxytetracycline (LA 200/300) and cured. Supposedly this cannot be cured... but there was some "off the record" comments about how it seems to help with the recovery of the animal from the sickness and then they can go on and have a fully productive life.
Just one more thing to learn to deal with...sounds like the CL that some people talk about in goats... as far as it just being there in their systems... and some have outbreaks.... and they always test positive for it, yet they can go on and do everything as a non-infected goat does...

This is not in the meat or in the milk so the animals are perfectly fine to consume...

Came home... and am also dealing with a request to go help at the 2500 cow herd with the carousel parlor... The one guy called me last night and I went and talked to Lindsay today and she said she could get off on the Tues 20th, since the herd likes to do Tuesdays... and then come to find out this evening, farm cannot do the 20th this month... trying to coordinate 5 people to go do it is a nightmare... so the other guy (tester) is going to see if they can do 21st which is Lindsay's normal day off (every other wed)... and I will have to go talk to her tomorrow and tell her not to take off the 20th now... DS cannot go help since he is pulling so much time at VDOT (work) with the boss still off...
Luckily this farm only wants to do every other month... Never been there... will be interesting... LONG day... 8 hr milking m/l.... pays about $20/hr ... I think he said $150 + mileage....... I will see how it goes... might be the only time I go help... but I do want to see what the parlor is like...

Tomorrow I test, and have to go feed some hay at 2 pastures... in the morning.... Wed aft, we get in and sort steers, and then load around 4:30 Thursday morning and haul them to graded sale... go back for sale at 6 p.m. Thurs night... then leave at 7:30 Friday morning to pull the trailers for that mock convention thing for several hours Friday...
Then I think he is going to set up panels and bring home the cows/calves from the one place and maybe vet check next Mon or Tues... and wed 14th is the monthly bred cow sale, plus their regular cull cow sale... and we have several cull cows to go, plus a bull with a bad hind leg... probably stifled.... and DS just never seems to get the "time" to take him... should have been gone, along with the checked open cows, 3 weeks ago when they were preg checked .... Not my call anymore... and I am not going to obsess about it... cows are eating silage and hay so are not losing any weight by any means...stupid to keep feeding them though....

Cows up in the back look better he says..... guess we are going to have to start using the pour on more... not for worms so much, but more for the prevention of the ALT getting on them so they don't get run down so much... this tick can suck alot of blood and cause anemia on top of giving them that Theileria.... and all our salt/mineral feeders are going to have to have the backrubber things with the insecticides mixed in to help prevent these ticks from getting on them as much as we can. Just to prevent them from getting infested with these ticks... Been doing some serious studies on them for about 7-8 years now....

So, I am quitting for the night...

SPCA has a monthly "spay neuter" clinic that will cost $55 each... have to sign up.. it is on the 27th, and have to sign up next week.... going to get the 2 done so no kittens...

Have caught 3 mice in the trap, the last 10 days... on the counter in the kitchen... saw cats with a rat and a mouse outside last week... and found rabbit fur... wonder if they somehow got one....

 

[SageHill]

Yikes on that tick! God what next, I’m afraid to even wonder. Thx for the info.

 

[Baymule]

That Asian Longhorn Tick sounds awful. I wonder if , if you find an animal infested with those things, even if dead, spray it to kill that batch of ticks? Can you spray fields for it?

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday morning, going to head out to feed some round bales this morning and then go do calves... they will get extra later today since I am going to be testing and won't get home until long after dark, so will only get one milk feeding today. If the twins weren't still "smaller sized" I would go to one feeding for all of them, but the twins can use the extra for a few more weeks. Hard to believe that there are dairies that wean calves off milk by 6-7 weeks.... Just glad this group is older now and eating grain and hay good... and the weather is so nice during the day. I took the calf coats off several days ago and think that they will stay off unless we get into a real cold spell. They are eating good and that is generating body heat for them now.

Down to 25 last night, frost on cars this morning. Sun coming up over the hill and is supposed to be in the 50's with a bit of a breeze but not cold. 60's the end of the week and into the weekend, and we are supposed to see some rain.... then temps dropping back to more normal with 40's....

On the ALT situation. Yes you can spray and kill the ticks on any dead animals.. spray and kill the ticks on the live animals also, with several of the insecticides that are approved for use on animals... However, there is nothing that can kill the ticks in the fields without basically poisoning the ground. It is like any other tick, you can spray some but there is no way you will begin to kill them all... yes it helps to cut back the numbers... but because they seem to travel in "armies" and due to the reproductive abilities, they say it is hard to get a good handle on the numbers out in the field...
How the he// did they get so numerous so fast??? Found the first one in NJ about 15 years ago... on an Icelandic sheep....did not say if that sheep had been imported.... but they don't exist in Iceland so somehow they got brought in... on who knows what, and found this sheep... Probably found it when the sheep was sheared...
Another da#@ed foreign invader....

Saw a mouse go scurrying this morning...

 

[farmerjan]

Toby Keith has passed away from his battle with stomach cancer...

 

[Baymule]

Toby Keith has passed away from his battle with stomach cancer...

Oh no. So much talent, gone.