Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Cool down lasted for about an hour. It is back to 92.... hung other load of clothes.
Going to fill some water for the the calves in the barn and taking some feed to the holstein twins. Might feed some of the sweet feed to the calves that come in the creep gate too. Don't feel like going down to doug's to get feed out of the bin. It is just too hot. The twins will get sweet feed this eve and water and they have hay in the barn. I will take 2, 5 gal buckets of water so I can carry them in the barn; and get 2, 15 gallon barrels dumped into the couple of tubs for the smaller calves. But this way the holstein bulls don't have to fight to get water. I won't have to fight the cows, to back up close and open gates and all, I can carry some water to the tubs in the buckets. Too hot to fight with the cows to get the truck in close.

Going to take something for the shoulder, get a cold drink, and give it about an hour, fill the barrels and all on the truck and should be good to go up there....

Then I think a shower and wash my hair and just quit for the night... it is just hot.....

 

[Mini Horses]

Everywhere...makes it slow and hard to function.

Just DUMPED about 75 gal of bath water hot water & refilled with cold....then let goats into that field, where they had evening feed waiting. Will leave them there tomorrow. They had fresh water in other field all day, forage & shade. This field has plenty of grass/shade/etc. I'm back to work again tomorrow. Will only need to top water in morn before I go. Nice, short demand on time. . Mornings can be hard.

 

[farmerjan]

Well, good news is that we actually got .1 inch of rain out of that fast moving rain this afternoon... and the cool down for about 2 hours. Looking really good for some serious rain on Wed mid-day, 60%... and then 30-50% chance for the next several days after that WITH temps down in the low to mid 80's....
I will take it... PLEASE.....

Don't know if I can manage with the heat, but would like to get the mulch finished in most of the garden if possible. Then the rain will settle it down so it is not "fluffy" and won't blow....and get a few more things put in, fill in some spots... I don't know how much I will manage tomorrow but am going to set the alarm to see if I can't get out there by 7 or even earlier..... maybe do some tomorrow evening too... we'll see.
I did not put the soaker hoses on it tonight...

Got a list of things I want to do, and some errands I want to run... Will do some of that tomorrow in the heat of the day since it will be TOOOOO HOT to do anything outside.

Bad news, lost one of the twin bull calves. He was just not "doing good" and I think it was just a combination of heat, not eating and drinking like they should... he was the smaller and weaker of the 2 .... I had thought he looked better yesterday, after getting them in and locking them on that side and watering them in the barn where they did not have to compete...... do not want to have one calf by its self here, so for now it will stay at the barn, separated, but at least will have the company of the other calves coming in the barn on the other side, during the heat of the day....the hol heifers are too big and aggressive, and the 2 weaned beef heifers are too big and aggressive too... so they can't go in with him...
I need to contact that farm as they were supposed to have a bunch more calves born...see if I can get another one or 2 to keep with him.... I don't know... need to see about getting DS to move the 2 beef heifers there, down to doug's with the rest of the heifers since they have been weaned for a bit... they are getting big enough that getting in and out of the creep gate is getting to be a bit of a squeeze too...and they need supplemental feed, with there not being much nutrition in the dried up pastures.

So, done for the night... it is still 80 at 11 pm...

 

[SageHill]

Sorry abou he bull calf.

 

[Baymule]

Sorry you lost the bull calf. Hope you can get another companion for the one by himself.

 

[Mini Horses]

Any chance one of the 2 getting tight for creep could be a buddy?

 

[farmerjan]

Any chance one of the 2 getting tight for creep could be a buddy?

No, those 2 are both bullies...very aggressive which is why the one that was orphaned and the other that I sold it's mother, the old cow, and early weaned the calf, have done so well on their own.... have watched them with the calves and that is one of the reasons I finally separated the bull calves out away from the bigger ones. I may just try to get this one doing better by himself in the barn, then bring him on to my house anyway.... never know what might show up in the meantime. Just play it by ear... but the one I lost was just never a "good doer".... it happens.

 

[farmerjan]

Woke up at 4:30 or so... shoulder was not liking however I was sleeping on it I guess... finally fell back off to sleep and got up at 8... SO... no garden this morning...was already in 80's and now is 90 at 9:30. Going to get going out of here and go do some errands since I haven't been anywhere to test in the last week, to do things on the way to or from farms....
Forecast is saying 30-40% chance of some t-storms now this afternoon... some severe downpours and all that. Believe it when I see it... BUT... that usually means some clouds and breeze/wind... so might be able to work out in it later if there is no sun beating down, and there is a good breeze.
Need to get my rear in gear....

 

[farmerjan]

Had a fairly productive day, moved slowly all day due to the heat. It hit 100 on the thermometer, and the car thermometer registered 100 also. It is muggy too.

Got the checks from the stockyard... cows did good... bull did real good... 2 small calves did very good. Calves weighed 250 and 320 , brought around $700 each.... cull cows all brought $1.15 lb average... DS's old cow was heaviest and brought over $1400.... mine were smaller and lighter, but still averaged over $1,000 each. Bull weighed over 1800 lbs... brought over $ 1.50/ lb... so over $2800. I think we paid $2500 or maybe $3000 for him back 6-8 years ago???
Glad to have them off the feed/grass/pasture "bill".... 5 years ago we would have been lucky to have gotten half that for them... more like $.40-50/ lb for the cows....

I have been "culling " alot of cows that are mine... like maybe 1/3 to 1/2 the cows I have had, the last few years... so next year there will be alot fewer feeder calves of mine to have to sell... maybe that is good. I did some paperwork to get things more updated, and there are several heifers of mine, up there at the nurse cow pasture getting bred though... didn't think I had that many up there... so getting rid of older, not as good or productive animals is probably the best thing....get the money while the money is good... it won't be that long that we will be back in the "low end" of the cattle cycle and will probably keep some we might not otherwise keep.
Having fewer has been a godsend though for the stressed conditions of the pastures...

We keep getting dark clouds, and hear rumbles of thunder, but the dark clouds are staying to the north of us... Radar is showing very isolated, spotty, pop up from nowhere showers... Much more widespread chances tomorrow... so just hope we get some one day or another... Looking forward to this big 10-20 degree cool down they say we will see... and it is supposed to last through the end of July????
CRAZY weather.

I did bring the clothes in off the line... probably jinxed us to NOT get any rain this evening... you know how that goes.
I am going to go out in the garden for a bit if the clouds stay out there... it is hot but at least a bit of a breeze... work on the hay mulching.... if I can deal with the temps and humidity.

 

[SageHill]

Great news from the stockyards! WTG