Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Milk had ice crystals from the 21 degree temps outside this morning... I just set it in some warm water to get it up to lukewarm when it is that cold and then the warm milk replacer will get it up to an okay temp...... I use hot tap water for the milk replacer, but it is not as hot as I would like (prefer scalding hot) so yeah, it is warm but not real warm. I have been bringing the milk in, in the 2 gal bucket... enough for one feeding... to warm to room temp in the house... and the house is set to about 66 at night so not real warm. By morning, I can just mix it with the very warm milk replacer. Want to keep it to a 1/2 and 1/2 mix to not upset their stomachs with drastic changes... and the 2 sets of twins are only getting once a day milk now that they are eating so well and are over 8 weeks but still a little small... will keep them on to 11-12 weeks... at least any I do not sell... Probably wait for the dairy feeder sale next month now... better weather, more buyers at that sale... calves will be looking good and all that... then if I have any baby calves, will probably sell them too if the prices stay up there...

Going to bed so I can feed the bottle calves at the house and get to eye dr appt at 8 a.m.

 

[farmerjan]

Been a decent but long day... Got calves fed at the house, got to eye dr at 10 of 8... Sadly, my eye dr is retiring this summer... said there were several things that just made it the smart thing to do... Been going to him for many years... his wife has some health concerns, one of his employees just retired, she has been with him for years... but comes back to help him on occasion... she was there today, she has been there for a long time. Plus his office manager wants to retire, so all these things combined for him to make the decision... Going to be tough to change eye drs at this stage of the game... Oh well... I asked if he was going to bring someone in to take over the business as a partner or something and he said no, he was just going to close it down as there is a lot of competition with Eye One that has come into the area... told me that the couple of drs there not too far from him were good ones, that is where he was going to go for his continuing eye care... he wears glasses also... my dentist just brought in a young dentist, sorta partner but due to his lawyer and accountant's advice, actually sold the dentist business to this young man but he is still there for a few years but at reduced hours so he can spend more time with his son's family in Co. and grand kids... but he is still there so can "get used to" the new one gradually... all the girls at the dentist office/hygenists like the young one pretty good too...

Like the eye dr too because he didn't have one of those big huge "airy" modern offices... quiet little brick building, small exam rooms, very low key type place... Oh well...
Eye exam went fine except for the dilation that lasted until at least 1 or 2 this afternoon... prescription was basically the same, he said eyes still look good and everything is good with them... I can go pick up my records close to when they are ready to close down... no sense to get them yet in case I have an "emergency" of any sort soon...

Went to TSC and picked up a couple things for the electric fence I have to put back up at the nurse cow pasture..soon.... needed new "ends" to go in the wood posts for the wire... came across some new type of "brackets" to fit down over T-posts to be able to put a bird house on or a fence charger or something... they weren't expensive and I got a set of 2.... for out at the garden this coming year... just did some "shopping" around... since I was having alot of trouble seeing with the dilated pupils outside...
Went in Walmart and got some more seeds of some pretty flower called gazania I think... hadn't seen them anywhere else... going to start seeds here in a couple weeks since our last frost day is May 10th... no sense in rushing yet... could start cold weather crops like broccoli and a few other things, soon... grabbed a couple other things on my list, and then came home..
Took the truck and got some round bales to feed at the nurse cow pasture and next door where I fed round bales and then got the silage wagon and took it down to the barn and then brought it back up the other day...
Then came back, got the bottles for the 4 at the barn, went up, fed them, fed a little more good hay, and thought I was going to be able to get in a couple of calves that need weaning off... but they didn't co-operate... going to work on them the next few days. He's got some other odd calves to get from another pasture and might match the couple up here at the nurse cow pasture.

DS called to see what/if we were going to sell anything this week too, since prices are so good. He tossed around what to sell, I think he should sell the rest of the steers, but told him that steers or heifers would work for me... the auctioneer friend is selling his feeder steers this coming friday...DS said he thinks he should maybe sell some more... I said fine by me... whatever he wants to sell... I think he was going to talk to a couple other people and maybe sign up for this Livestock Risk Protection on whatever he keeps... he is torn between selling and having animals to run out in WV this year... I make a suggestion then he tries to tell me that I am not making the right "comparison" in the weights now and weight gain over the summer... keeps saying I am not listening to his comparisons... so I just said whatever he wants to sell is fine with me... There are a couple of heifers I do not want to sell of mine... 2 are out of cows that have steers this year and they will be their last calves due to age... so want to hold their yearling daughters... Then he said about taking the holsteins, on Saturday ????... and I said I was going to probably wait for when we have some of the "oddball" calves to take them all to the stockyard we take them to..not make a special trip with the big trailer for 6 baby calf size animals... and who knows if there will be any new babies by then... The feeder holstein sale is in 3 weeks, so most of the holsteins here will go then, if not before...I will keep the heifer twins, and maybe the jersey biull calf since they just don't bring much... but make good beef... and he has a friend that usually has him look for some jersey steers every spring... I need to watch the sales and see if there are any and what they are bringing...

I did one load of laundry, since I am nearly out of socks... didn't get them out til late this afternoon... should have done them yesterday... but the chance of rain is "iffy" tomorrow.. so they might be dry early in the day...or mostly dry enough to bring in.

There were no openings for the cats to get fixed... going to check with the SPCA in the town north of here... see what they say.... and call the local vet and see what he charges... so at least I have a few options... and will get them signed up if nothing better presents its'self in the next couple days... They will go Mar 26th to get done, if nothing else.
Farm did not want to test this Mon/Tues (this evening) so, set them up for next Mon/Tues.... the farm I had hoped to do this Wed has their vet check... so they cannot do it, and the other farm could not do Wed/Thurs this week... So, they both are set for next week.. Mon/Tues for the 2x herd, and Wed afternoon for the other one... Still got to figure out how to get the 500 cow herd done... DS is too "tied up" with wanting to ship more cattle.... and Lindsay cannot do it Wed either since the lady she is going to take to the hospital for some tests, said that they are going to have to sedate her and Lindsay doesn't know what time she would get done...so can't commit to being able to help me..... and I knew that was a possibility...but this is not helping me.... boy I miss Geneva since she got married and moved to PA.....

So, I am going to test another herd on Wed afternoon... there is a good chance the milker there is going to be leaving.... he has another job lined up in PA where he is from, working with some registered cows and some showing... so then he can show his jerseys also... not going to happen here at this farm as they will not accomodate things like that.... even though he was told that he would be able to do some things like that... but they never have any "help" to give him a shift or 2 off of milking, to do things like that... seen it time and again here at this farm... hard to get even the one day every other week off...

Talked to Jim, he said they told him at the hospital that if all goes well, that he could be out around 1 p.m.... so that will work fine with my schedule... but they will call me after he is out and in recovery and let me know how things went and all that... so that gives me a general time frame to work around...to pick him up and bring him back to DS house.

Herd dispersal sale tomorrow (Tues) eve at 6 p.m. I plan to go even if DS doesn't.... haven't heard from him one way or another... I think he has a dr appt tomorrow... haven't heard anything about it...

Got to get the meters and long hoses in the car and a tray of bottles ready for Wednesday...That is the day the dairy down the road from here, is sending their cows to the dairy cattle sale, an hour north of here at the stockyard's monthly dairy cattle sale; and selling out. I think they have already sold at least 150, were milking 300 or so...so this is what is left... I did not test them but a couple times... just for scc on the cows..... several years ago. One less dairy farm.... they will run beef cows which they have had some anyway... and they have an excavating business.... so not the biggest deal I guess... They have only been in the milking business for 20-maybe 25 years....back when milk prices were doing good... and thought that milking was a "good way" to make money... and utilize their help better... but I think it just got to be more than they wanted and the daughter had a baby and is not in the barn anymore...and said they cannot find help... I don't think they are very easy to work for... and that they really aren't "dairy farmers".....but it is quite an investment in the buildings and milking parlor and all they built, to quit after only 20+ years....

Oh well, it is cooling off some, but not supposed to get as cold tonight. I am tired and going to go to bed here shortly...

 

[Ridgetop]

Herd dispersal sale tomorrow (Tues) eve at 6 p.m. I plan to go even if DS doesn't.... haven't heard from him one way or another...

Dairy herd or ? Maybe you can pick up something to use for a nurse cow or something reasonable - can't even hope for "cheap".

Might as well sell what he can at high prices. I thought he was considering sending the heifers to WV and selling all steers. Sounds like he can't make up his mind, you are probably well out of it since he seems to try to blame you for everything. Maybe you can send your heifers to WV instead of selling them. Then they can come back and be bred. You can sell as bred heifers or calve them out. I like that you are keeping the twin heifer calves, although there is some disagreement among the cattle people whether twins are hereditary. Was reading on Cattle Today about a couple cows that have had triplets that survived! Saw where you said you didn't mind having twin calves where one guy said he would send the cow to the saleyard. I think it would be good if they survived since you don't mind bottle feeding and it is double for the money! LOL

 

[farmerjan]

Beef cattle sale Tues night. Big dairy cattle sale Wed but I will be testing... not interested in holsteins for nurse cows anyway... and there are over 150 consigned to this sale from a farm nearby that is quitting milking. I am just looking and will find a replacement nurse cow when I least expect it...

My heifers can only go to WV if he decides to take heifers out there... it is his "deal" on renting the place... and I honestly am not keen on driving out there.... too many hills to get out there and it is a steep narrow driveway in and out of the place... He was talking sending the heifers out there, and selling the steers, then changed his thinking and was going to send a group of steers out there.... then we sold them this past Friday, they were the smaller steers.... have a group of about 15-18 left that weigh in the 6-7 wts I guess... I think they ought to be sold...
Twins tend to be hereditary in some families of cows... and at one time there were 2 bull studs that were promoting a few bulls that seemed to throw a greater percentage of twins...
Most beef farmers do not like twins, cows often will claim one and reject the other... most beef cows do not make enough milk for OPTIMAL weight gain/growth for a set of twins. yet often we have found that though a set of twins will each be smaller than the average calf off a cow... total weight is more and will realize more money in the total pounds sold.
Most dairy farmers do not like twins either... calving problems, bad presentations, retained placenta's, small at birth and sometimes hard to get going... like my set of heifers, that he tubed several times...

 

[Ridgetop]

You are doing great with the calves right now and looks like you will make money. Have someone take a picture of DS's face when you wave your check under his nose and say "I told you so!" LOL

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday afternoon... It got down to 46 last night. Partly cloudy out early, and got even darker cloudy as the morning progressed.

Fed calves here, and around 10 started to sprinkle so I ran out and got the socks off the line and a couple of t-shirts. Got in just as it was getting a little wet... it has rained a few times since then so perfect timing. The breeze blew alot last night and the socks and all are 95% dry I would say. Worked out good for not getting them hung until late yesterday.

It got up to 53, but the temps are dropping and it is down to 49 now..

It rained a bit before; They called from the hospital and Jim was going to be able to be released around 1:15 so that worked out good too. Went down and picked him up, and seems that the upper GI tests shows that he is not digesting his food and the lower part was not as cleaned out as it should be... so they are going to have to do something else next month....
Coming home he said the "loud noise" of the rear end could be a pinion or might be a rear wheel bearing... he said he can check out the wheel bearing but the pinion is a MAJOR job.... I told him the key was in it at the house if he wanted to take it down and check out the wheel bearing....

Got the meters and hoses in the car for testing tomorrow... got to get a tray of bottles ready....

Going to feed the baby calves before I go. I filled the bucket feeder inside the calf hutch with grain and the other part with some of the nice 3rd cutting hay yesterday. Put more clean shavings in the hutch for them this morning since they are staying in out of the rain mostly.

Found some hot dogs with cheese in them, in the freezer, from several years ago when I had a bunch of beef worked up... tasted pretty good for lunch today.

DS called, said the owner of the stockyard where we sold those "graded" steer calves a couple weeks ago, called and wanted to know if we had anymore to sell, he'd like to look at them... WOWso DS was going to go up and meet him when he got a break .... little later he called from the barn and Caleb was there looking over the steers again, they were sorting some more and seems like Caleb said "he" would graze the heifers out in WV and sell the steers... so now that is the general consensus..... make up your mind... he wanted to know what else there was at the nurse cow pasture to sell/move to the barn... and that there were a few down at the other pasture that have not gotten moved yet either... said he was trying to get his numbers figured out... he is obsessing so, over all this... just sell what there is to possibly sell, and then take whatever numbers he has out to WV to graze.... and was asking me how far along the cows down at the middle road pasture were, and I said, they never got checked when you moved them down there .... "for a month or 2".... back nearly 4 months ago... that all the cows with the bigger calves still on them, should be calving most any time soon... that it didn't matter how "big" the calves were, it mattered how OLD they were and how far along the cows were, so they could get a BREAK..... which they won't get....and there is still a bull in that group... he was getting the summer off with the cows down there that were already confirmed pregnant when he put them in there in June... bull was supposed to come out when he brought that group back to calve...... same for the ones he brought home last week... they're so mixed up now from all this stupid stuff of sticking this and that one out because there was grass out there and there needed to be more animals out there..., all this BS mixed up stuff....
Calves would be better off pulled, and fed and get the cows situated back to the groups they should be.... there are a few with small calves, like the one cow of mine he has separate, that has a mediocre calf, because it did not get a good start .... this is what happens when they do not get that good 60 day dry off period at least.
My cow will be held over and not put back with a bull until June, if she is not already bred back since the bull in that group never got pulled out... then he gets mad when he doesn't have them calving in a certain time period....

Misty. foggy out there. going to be a very dreary night.

DS just called again, and was telling me what Caleb said, what they guy from the other stockyard said and that he might take that group to the next graded sale up there in 2 weeks... and then hemmed and hawed about things again... that he just is not sure what he wants to do... I am just SO OVER this back and forth BS....
Not going to take any this friday since he thinks he is going to take them to the graded sale up there again in a couple weeks.... and there aren't enough heifers to take to WV.... he needs 30, there are only 24 or something...and on and on with this I don't know what I should do......
Never said if he was going tonight and I just didn't bother to ask AGAIN.... I will leave here by 5 if I don't hear anything from him and not ask again...It's only 1/2 an hour away....

 

[Ridgetop]

Really difficult to deal with someone like that. He won't listen to your good advice, then dithers about what to do himself! So what if there are only 24 heifers instead of 30 to take to WV. Take the 24 and be done. If he wants to toss a couple of smaller calves in to make up the 30 fine but take the 24 at least. Maybe you will find a couple heifers at the sale to make up the numbers.

Having the cows all being bred at the wrong time, and not moving the calves in time is something I can relate to. I held off breeding last summer because DH said we would move in November. Then we bred for May because he said we would be gone in February. Here we are heading into March and my ewes will be lambing in the trailer!
I feel your exasperation!

 

[farmerjan]

Never heard from him so went to the sale. Then he called when I was there, asked if I went and I said yes, then said he was just ready to call me, and got a call to take care of Colt, since the gf suddenly couldn't take him and the sister had something to do with her daughter at the school or something, so he was baby sitting Colt.
WHATEVER....
It was not a dispersal of one farm, but there were a bunch from one farm and then some others. Many were very HIGH HEADED... friend told me that while they were penning and weighing and sorting a couple tried to go over the tall gates and such...
Many of the cows were SM which means smooth mouth... which means NO TEETH.... and BM or broken mouth, few teeth... Overall they were in good flesh, some herefords that were a little thin, but not real bad.. I bid on a few of the BM and SM ones that were 7-8 months bred so that they would be spring calving, but didn't see any I felt I could make some good money on... Most brought over 1500...and they listed their weight, so it was well over $1.00/ lb which is average cull price.....There were some with calves early in the sale brought in the $2,000 to 2500 per pair... which would be okay but with the unrest in the country, I would not take that much of a risk... I am too conservative... There were also some that were only 2-5 months bred, which would make them calving in June to August, and we need to get away from the summer/fall calving ones... IF I had a decent amount of money, and felt better about some things, (because some of them brought right at $1,000) I might have bought some of them, but it was not burning a hole in my pocket and they overall were just average cows... so came on home without spending a penny. Probably should have gone one more bid on 2 or 3 of the small groups of 2-4 cows... but I honestly wasn't really "feeling it"... so didn't. Want to put up the fence right now and these good calf prices will really go a long way to doing that.

It rained a little again... radar looks like it will pass on through overnight and then supposed to get windier, and then another good rain tomorrow ... then cooling off a bit...

Talked to Deena, her folks have a dairy I test, and she was there until she got married to someone they do not approve of and there is alot of bad feelings there... mennonites, so that dynamic...he is not mennonite... but I asked if she was working, or would be interested in maybe helping out with testing the 500 cow herd... it is only once a month... but she said yes, she would be interested... so got a list of her available afternoons, for her first time there... and will see if I can coordinate it with the farm next week... cannot rely on DS and Lindsay's work schedule either... she is milking part-time on a farm as a relief person, and helping her new husband with his route for the dairy supply company... I have never met him but he has created some real unrest in the family and it is hard for me to see it... I have never met the guy, but doesn't seem to be very well motivated for work and such... has a family that has drug and alcohol problems and also no work ethic... heard this elsewhere so not going by the father's "biased" view either... but she chose him, got married against parents wishes... and that is that. I want to stay neutral in this.... at least she understands milking and cow manure and all that...she was a hard worker at home on the dairy, and a very very good "cow person"... she will catch on easily I think... Might talk to her about the milk testing job in the county that the couple of ones retired... closer to her up there... might work out for her to do that part-time...

So, I am going to get the sample bottles in the rack for tomorrow. And go to bed....

 

[Mini Horses]

Auction -- yep, not "feeling it" is a gut feeling that's best ya listen to. Nice to network though and "maybe" you found a helper All in all, a good evening and a helpful diversion from everything else. I find an auction day almost "cleansing" when I don't buy -- by choice.

 

[farmerjan]

Warm 53 this morning. temps dropped a little during the day, yesterday, then came back up. We got some showers and there was about .2 in the rain gauge. I dumped them because we are supposed to get some real hard rain this afternoon... and it is getting very windy out there.

Calves all fed and got the one steer into the barn lot that is not very friendly and hard to get near the catch pen. He is in with the 4 calves still on once a day milk... not letting him get out again if I can help it. He will get fed "good" in there with these babies, but he is one that needs to be moved and not going to take the chance of not getting him in when I need him. There is one other there that I can never seem to catch up near the pen and he has not gone back in there in months... hoping to catch him up near there with his momma and get them penned too, the cow needs to go to the other calving field, does not need to be there with the first calf heifers.... the other 3 weaning size ones, aren't a big deal to get near there or in....want to get it done by this weekend so they can go to doug's and get put in with the rest of the weaned ones....

Bottles ready to put in car to go test. Had another phone call this morning, for the regular monthly test of the farm that I do on their weekend to milk... sorta forgot that it is going to be March already... so now am scheduled for Sat morning, Mon aft/Tues morning, Wed aft, and tentatively will do the 500 cow herd on Thursday aft. I will call them around noon when they are sorta caught up on morning chores and such. It should work out okay since DS is now not going to sell any more until the 14th? If he changes his mind again, it will be tough if I am already scheduled for testing.

Also got vet rescheduled for Monday, Mar 11th at around noontime... for whatever preg checks that we need to have done... think I am caught up on things, just need to get the 500 cow herd confirmed for Thursday next week.

I am going in to wash the bottles out and get things together for testing...chiropractor appt tomorrow, I can't wait, shoulder aches alot again...