Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Tested this aft.... took bottles with me with milk replacer "concentrate" so all I had to do is add hot water and stopped to feed them on the way home.
It was raining when I left the farm... got a shower... light rain shower during feeding calves but about done when I came out of driveway... and radar doesn't show any more closeby.... ...... hoping we get some more tonight but it doesn't look good for more here...

I am going to bed in a few so I can get up by 4:30 to go back to test again.

Allergies are getting to my eyes.... we need a good nice rain to get the pollen out of the air.,....and to give the thirsty ground a drink.

Possible rain over the weekend... I won't even get upset if it rains HERE on saturday.... it ought to be coming from west to east... so maybe we will get some of it.....but if it means getting wet there, I will live with it... we NEED some rain here... I did water the stuff I had planted so far, earlier today because they are getting dry. I will have to water in the greenhouse... I may move them outside, and if we get a cold snap I can move them back in...

Got a bunch of buckets washed and air dried ... got some more to do , probably be Thursday before I get to them with testing and then the vet check tomorrow... and DS will probably want to get some of them moved out to pastures, according to their status...

Couldn't get chiropractor appt until Friday, so I am hoping and PRAYING
that he can get the nerve pathway to the leg pain "readjusted" for me then. I will not be able to get in another massage before the chiropractor appt... so will get that scheduled for next week. Shoulder is a tiny bit more flexible without quite the pain... Got to get the 500 cow herd scheduled... DS said Mon or Wed will work best for him... so will talk to them tomorrow about which will work. DS will get off work at 3 (usual time is 3:30 to get done).... so we can go.

Burning ban is off ... no longer have to wait for after 4 p.m..... so hoping if we get some rain this weekend, I can get it done... not waiting for his help anymore... just will have to make sure to hose down the ground and if I am lucky it will rain also before hand. Of course, right now burning is not good with the dryness.... so that is why I intend to make sure the hose is run out there and I soak the ground around the garden area...

Going to hit the shower and bed.

 

[Mike CHS]

I hope your Chiropractor can give you some relief. I went through that for years 30 years ago and wound up with surgery so hopefully you can do without.

 

[farmerjan]

Up at 4:30 a.m. went to test, done with that, meters back in car. Took the bottles again, added hot water and went to feed calves... Home, ate some eggs, and going in to pack the samples.
DS texted and said he got the cows into the small lot below the barn last evening, so hopefully will not take much to get them in the barn with some grain.... he said he will be there after 12... vet is 1:30.... we will sort the calves off them to make the process of the cows going through the chute for the preg check...
Partly sun out there, low 70's right now.
We got enough rain/showers to settle the dust last night so nothing worthwhile.. We really do need some rain/moisture here....

Not sure exactly what the rain might/might not be for the weekend... yep... got a raincoat and an umbrella.... hopefully it will wait for late afternoon/evening.... Anyone else in Va or surrounding area want to come join us for a "meet and greet and have a confab????"

 

[Mini Horses]

Right now my area has moved rain from Sat/sun to sun/Mon. Glen Allen showing Sat/sun/Mon. But Sat 3ish thru night. Soooo we might have dry morn and y'all might get rains sun/Mon at your area . That would all work so very well!

 

[farmerjan]

Going to hobble up to feed the calves... I ACHE everywhere... been a loooooong day but better than we thought. Will be back in a bit to take a shower and tell you all about the preg check....Beautiful day out...warm and light breeze...

 

[farmerjan]

Got the bottle calves fed last night... got home and practically crawled into the house. There wasn't a place that didn't hurt. Long day too since it started at 4:30 when I got up to go back for the second test at the farm.

It is sunny out and very pleasant. 57 to start, already up to mid 70's before 9 a.m.
Got to get up to feed the baby calves.

Last night I fed grain to everyone... calling them to the feed troughs... Need to be able to get in the couple that will get moved out of there in a week or so. There were also the set of hol heifer twins, and the orphan black heifer that came in the creep gate, as well as a heifer on a cow we moved up there of mine that had been getting fed separate at doug's barn that had been thin; and the 2 couple months old bull calves on the 2 other beef cows.. and 2 NEW CALVES from this past month or so that came in to check things out.... One on the longhorn and I am not sure of who the other one is on... Monkey see, monkey do... follow the leader type of thing... LOVE IT..... gets them used to trying the grain, keeps them calmer with me working around them some too.

I had a couple bouts of real bad charlie horse type cramps in the leg with the "pinched nerve" pain... I was really having a bad night of it. Woke me up a couple of times and that is not like me... And some allergy reaction but a couple of allergy pills took care of that...had to take some OTC pain stuff a couple times..
OH WELL..... the joys of "being in my prime".... sorry @Ridgetop that is the biggest bunch of BS... likie saying how wonderful it is to reach your "GOLDEN YEARS".....
Hoping that the chiropractor can get that nerve some relief with another adjustment on Friday.

Luckily, I woke up a bit ago and have just the pain down the leg and below the knee this morning... already took some allergy medicine.... always get allergy reaction in the spring but this year is worse because we have had NO RAIN to settle the pollen out of the air. I am HOPING that we get this rain coming Sat into Sun.... the ground is very very dry.... way too dry for spring here. Wish @Baymule could send one of the rains this way... would give them a much needed break and give us a nice all day/all night soaking... maybe this weekend.

Okay... so the preg check... Seems the "damaged bull" had some good swimmers in there... probably from the other side where the one testicle was not as affected with the heat from the intestinal loop that had dropped into the scrotum. NOT GREAT ..... BUT.... had 7 out of 22 open and 15 were pregnant... and obviously he had been working right along... because DS loaded him right out of the field to bring to the barn about 2 weeks ago to do the breeding soundness exam... Several of the cows were 2 months.... 4 were 4-5 months (when he first got put in there) and the rest were in the 35-55 day range...
Probably also helped that the weather had been pretty cool/cold some days back 2-3 months ago... so kept the temp in the testes cooler for the healthy sperm to stay alive and undamaged...

SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER than we were prepared for. Couple of the open ones were OLD... and will get sold... 2 were my younger cows... one is a jerk, fence jumper and all that... she will get sold, the other was a problem breeder the last time so she will get sold also.... The "jerk" has a calf on her and will stay to feed it for a few months until we wean off a bunch of calves and then get shipped... the other we are not sure if she has a calf... There is one calf that we have no idea who it goes on.... 2 cows not matched up... and neither acted like it was of any concern... yet both have enough udder for them have a calf of that age... The calf lost it's eartag so no identification on it. It did not act like it "wanted either cow"... totally just laid back and so we turned them out there at the barn with several of the open cows in the lot... and will watch to see if this calf pairs up with anyone. There were 22 cows and only 20 calves came in with them... one we knew had lost her calf... found it dead up there that DS thinks the coyotes got it... so should have been 21 calves... so someone else lost a calf and the missing tag calf belongs to one of the 2 cows. We got them all matched up and sorted... DS took 10 that were preg with their matched up calves to one pasture... took 4 and 2 calves, 2 were from this group and 2 from another group that had already pulled their calves that were all around 5 months to the pasture down near gf house... the other cows there also are in 4+ month bred and he has agreed that the calves will all get "pulled" around July 4th time, to wean off the calves so the cows can calve down there after a 2 month rest....but will utilize the grass for a bit. The open ones are still at doug's with their calves... we were pretty tired out yesterday evening... and one of the further breds that he was going to move down to the farm near her house, jumped over a gate and got out with the ones I had just turned out into the small field at the barn... so let her calf out with her and she will get caught up again and moved with her calf.... So we will put some of the opens with their calves at one pasture for the summer, and in the fall will pull the calves and ship the cows... a couple have some pretty nice calves so those calves will all come back to the barn to get put together with all the other weaned calves . A couple of the opens we will put back out to pasture with their calves to get bred back...

Overall, it turned out to be a much better day thatn we thought... and being prepared for the possibility of 22 open cows made it even better... Granted, some of these cows will calve into late Nov and Dec... but better than just getting bred now and not calving until March...
Have one with an infected corn and has been limping... she was supposed to be bred to calve now and is open... and another that was supposed to be calving now that is open and they will get sold asap... to not keep feeding them.... neither have calves on them.... not part of the group that had been with the damaged bull.... had 8 that had had calves weaned off and supposed to be bred... that we rechecked... 5 were 7+ months.... these other 3 were open...so they will go.
Guess it is good we are going to breed more heifers that we had planned... both some going to be bred in a month or 2... and another group of 10 or so to be bred in the fall.... Sure cannot afford to buy breds or cow calf pairs at 2-3.000 a piece right now. But will keep watching and even getting some older one and dones will help with the cash flow... if we can buy them fairly reasonable ..... even poor looking cows can be wormed and possibly "made better" to get a calf off them.
We are down in cows, especially with selling off another 5-6....

We have one more group to preg check... the ones next to/behind my house at that pasture. That vet check is set up for Monday May 13th when the vet is down this way to do a dairy farm's regular monthly herd check... That will give us time to get them moved to the barn on Sat or Sunday before...

DS is just going to take time off work for that also... He has been back 1 week, got 2 more to go so that he can get back his "status" to qualify for the disability program and I guess that is the route he is going to go... He has decided to not filed a grieveance because if they review it and make a decision, that his grieveance is not "valid", he can be fired... so he says he is going to just "lay low"... do what they allow him to do... still not cleared to "drive" anything... even moving the backhoe on the lot which is ridiculous... I mean he drives to work every day.... and bide his time to get back to where he will qualify again for the disability requirements...then he can get short term disability for 2 months.... 80% pay... then after that can qualify for long term which is 18 months or 2 years I think... 60% pay.... and stay on the insurance which they take out of his disability percentage.... I think that is the route he is going to go.... they can't fire him for being on disability... they do not have to hold his job after the 2 months... but he//, he said who cares, they "took away" his job so he is just a crew member... he doesn't care anymore... and found out that a couple of the guys from the residency did apply for his job and one said something to him and he said the $5,000 extra pay is not worth the headaches, so good for him if he wanted it...
Because this disability is related to the headaches and all with the hard hat from the roll over of the roller awhile back.... it will not disqualify him from getting another job at the end of the long term... not like SS disability with the restrictions... so he can continue to go about doing what he is doing... farming and all that... and he will might see about working some for one of the many contractors he knows... he is having a hard time with the mind set of not being a career VDOT employee... but I think in some ways he is getting to like not having to be responsible for all the BS and all the headaches that goes along with the job... The big thing will be insurance at the end of the disability time... he won't be old enough for medicare... but he can make a determination on that down the road too....

So, things seem to be going better...

Past time to go do the bottle babies....then I have several things I need to go do today anyway... Going to put a jar out to make sun tea when I get back from feeding the bottles...

 

[murphysranch]

Ah....sun tea. Requires sun, which is in very short supply here.

 

[Baymule]

I would be real happy to send you some rain. My place is fine, soggy but ok. The Trinity River goes through Lake Livingston and winds down to Trinity Bay. I’ve fished and shrimped in Trinity Bay. But it’s flooding everywhere down river.

San Jancinto River goes through Lake Conroe, goes down to Lake Houston, then to Gulf of Mexico. All flooding downriver.

We have another storm coming tomorrow. Maybe it won’t be a gut buster like the last 2.

 

[farmerjan]

Just when you think things are going better... DS decided to move a few more cows this afternoon... never called or told me... one cow he said jumped over the gate in the barn 3 times so she is getting sold instead of getting another chance.
BUT.... he texted me a list of who he thinks he moved... didn't write it down... and only 1 pair that was on the list of opens got moved with the correct calf...130 and her calf 130...... one cow he has is not even on the list but I think it is a different cow and calf... he said 1811 and I think it could be 1118 ...and her calf 1118.....
BUT....... he moved the calf of the gate jumping cow with a totally different cow...and not the calf that belongs to that cow.... and then said he moved another cow but didn't have the number... ...but said he moved 4 cows and 4 calves.... so I don't know what the F.... he did..... instead of calling me and asking who was what....

I went and did a few things I needed to do today... Sharp Shopper for bread and some other things... went by the bank and took out some cash for Saturday. Went to my favorite nursery... not senior discount day (Tuesday) but with the weather getting so warm, was afraid that they might be getting down in plant selection and they have sold ALOT..... Got a few tomato plants that I like... might be able to find others at the swap, but wanted to make sure I had the German Johnson ones, and a couple yellow pear that I like for snacking...Also the Big Zac that are BIG tomatoes... They were out of Roma paste ones... They grow starts in packages of 4... 3.95 this year... usually have over 75 varieties...
Also got some Purple Passion asparagus crowns... hadn't seen the purple ones anywhere... pkgs of 10 for 10.99.... pre packaged but picked through them and found 2 pkgs that were fairly "heavy" so fairly sure they had not dried up.... some had little bits of starting spears.... I got them planted in another tub this evening and will soak them tomorrow... There are several little spears coming up in the other tub I had planted the crowns in... so at least they will grow and get bigger crowns and stronger for when I do get them in the ground where I want them to go....
Looked at the different iris plants... HOLY MOLEY... they are getting $25 for a pot with one or 2 good sized rhizomes per pot.... I have some real pretty ones that are a bluish/lavender and white that are blooming now... And the peonies are starting to bloom there... they are $64.99 a good sized pot... (2 or 3 gallon size I guess) BUT WOW..... My peonies here are all getting buds...

Stopped at Dunkin and they had 1 - 5gal and 2 - 2 gal buckets... got them filled with water to "melt" the glaze and icings/frosting left in them...

Got the bottle calves fed and I think they are finally eating some feed in the bunk feeder... checked the rest of the cows. Came home. Leg is still giving me fits...

Tomorrow will do calves and then head for Chiropractor appt at 12:30.... will stop at the couple of Goodwill stores on the way home and get things ready for leaving early Sat to go to the Poultry Swap at Joel Gilman's.... Hoping maybe we will get rain here at the house and that it won't hit over that way until later afternoon. Will take raincoat and umbrella too....
I'm quitting for the night...

 

[farmerjan]

Ah....sun tea. Requires sun, which is in very short supply here.

All I ever make is sun tea... got it in the house and added sugar... going to add the lemonade as soon as it thaws enough... Sun tea, water, milk, choc milk, sometimes lemonade, is about all I keep in fridge for drinking... seldom have a couple bottles of soda......