Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Mini Horses]

If ones at swap were his "culls" -- wow! They were pretty ones. . But cull to a show bird could be an unknown issue for us with an egg flock. Slight color even....

Coops & pens built at home would be nice for you to enjoy your birds.

 

[fuzzi]

Today was a good day considering that we got some rain early in the day... misty sprinkley stuff mid day, then some real rain with some lightning lighting up the sky by the time I came home... Rather nice that it basically stopped while I was taking down the meters and putting them in the car...
This farm has had over 4 inches in the past week... got several of the "heavier parts" of the clouds, since the rain that hit us on Saturday. They have been drier than we were this year, and this rain has been welcome... not much in the way of down pours, but some steady stuff with time in between to soak in. Still that is about 4 x what we had...and is getting muddy out there....
4 inches is alot in 4-5 days... would be good for some drier weather to let it get soaked in down through some layers of soil... especially with the storm possibly coming if "Helene" turns into the hurricane as they are saying. Heard on the news that Gov DeSantis has already issued emergency warnings or whatever it is , for something like 60+ counties...

They would like a little break in the rain though... they are getting ready to head to Madison, Wisconsin for the World Dairy Expo.... taking 3 Brown Swiss animals... they have some REALLY good ones.... for the show on the 28th.... this is one of the biggest dairy shows, if not the biggest, in the US... very prestigious....

So went to Sharp Shopper... got the bread I wanted... Tues and Sat is bread day... those fancier more expensive loaves of Pepperidge Farm that are like 3.79 or 4.19 or something in the grocery store... are 1.79 because of them getting close to going out of date...plus other stuff that is discounted... sometimes I get some bagels or english muffins... So I got several loaves and will put some in the freezer and give DS a loaf . Got some stuff for him, and some stuff for me... Came home, got it in the house and then put sample bottles in the car and left to go to the farm. Stopped at the bank as I went by and put back some of the money I took out for Saturday, since I didn't buy any chickens... but will be getting some in Nov from one of the breeders that had a bunch for sale... he shows and the ones at the Swap were nice... but were his "culls"; so I asked if he would have a good trio of them.... Buff Leghorns.... or 2 pair... in Nov and he said he would bring me some. So, I will be getting chickens at the poultry show in Nov..
Also, he is going to the HUGE poultry show in Columbus Ohio... and is going to keep his eye out for some of the "Vorwerk" chickens and some NH's for me too. He is a poultry judge, and was a good friend of the dairy farmer that had all the breeds of poultry that I got my original NH's from...50 years ago.... who became a very special friend in my life.... and died unexpectedly of a heart attack about 15 years ago...
I think that next year I am going to make plans to at least go to Columbus and see the show...They have 3-4,000 show birds there..... Want to go there at least once in my life.
There is another big show that I went to a couple times, in Janurary at the Eastern States Expo ground in Springfield Mass...Usually 1500-2500 birds.

So, I will be ready for some more chickens, and if he finds anything in Columbus, I may get them the early part of Nov, instead of the 3rd weekend.... I feel good about it and am in the process of getting a large poultry run put together and set up and then will work on the other couple of coops and things that have been sitting on the trailer for several years at DS's barn..... so I can run several different breeds. I miss the chickens and want to get back into them... and am planning on things getting done this year, one way or another...
Deb keeps telling me she will be glad to come over and we can start taking down the ceilings upstairs in the bedrooms.... I may just get her to help me with this stuff first. I think that she wants something to do with herself when she is out at the farm that she is not having to do "alone" all the time....

Testing went good and came home in some pretty hard rain by the time I got here... Heard it a little while ago, but it has let up right now. Forecast shows some more serious stuff in the very early hours of the morning.
Vet pregnancy check tomorrow afternoon... all pregnant please....

Got a text and my 225+ cow herd that tests every other/every 3 months, wants to test...I told them Mon or Thurs next week... they said Monday... so I set them up for that... I have to change the brackets on meters for the Thurs herd... not sure if I am going to do them just Thursday or Thurs eve/Fri morning...their call.....
Then DS will be taking some stuff to the sale, Friday...... depending on the weather maybe... some steers, the crazy heifers, and any open cows...

I've got to drop off the meters for the farm down the road that is "borrowing them" to check milk weights on their cows... to use over the weekend... then will have to get them back and change brackets BACK again for the farm for Monday... and I have to leave here by 11 the latest to get there to set up... it's a double 12 so need 24 meters and hoses for them....

Tuesday is chiropractor... Wed is the CT scan for the shoulder... DS has a dr appt but is going to get the neighbor to take him in case he cannot drive home... I offered to change my CT scan, but he said that Rodney doesn't work on Wed, he works part time.... and he has gone with him before so likes to take a ride... So, okay.....

Need to get a shower and go to bed... Hopefully it won't be pouring rain in the morning, I can bring in the samples and get them packed and drop them at the vineyard around noon, before the vet comes.. I can help do stuff in the barn then just run them the 2+ miles up there for when they open at noon... Vet is at 1....m/l... never know when there is an emergency....

The Big E in Springfield, I've been there...oh, wait...about 45 years ago? I feel old.

 

[farmerjan]

Buff leghorns are so pretty. I hope you get a nice set.

Have known the guy for 40 years that i have lived here... he will do me right...They won't be cheap... he was getting $30? a piece for the ones at the swap... and @Mini Horses and @canesisters can tell you how pretty his "culls" were.... Surprising, Buff color pattern is a hard color pattern to breed due to not getting the brassiness; and getting the buff color even overall. Then you add in the type...
I had SC light brown leghorns for many years, years ago and liked them... but that is another hard color to breed.... There isn't alot of call for white eggs here, but I want to breed what I want now... and eggs all taste the same in my kitchen anyway...
Plus I really want the New Hampshires again... great brown eggs... I really want to start to enjoy my poultry before I get too old to do so.... and there are some others I would like... getting the perimeter fence up is going to be part of this... and getting some "housing" that will keep out the varmints... and I am going whole heartedly into the trapping all these PITA possums and coons that do so much damage. Using the electric netting to be able to utilize them in the garden for cleanup and adding manure to the soil... and then rotating them out of it...

 

[farmerjan]

Columbus is only a four hour drive from me. I’ve always heard about that show, but never really had a good reason to go to it. It sure would be something to see. I will have to think about going next year too.

Well, put it on your calendar.... I am shooting for it... Would be great to be able to meet up... plus anyone else that likes chickens on here... Ohio National Poultry show... Nov 9-10 2024... It is huge... you can look it up on the web..... Largest in the country now... Used to be way back when, There was a huge show in Boston Mass and another at Madison Sq Garden in NY.....
If you like chickens, or want to see a "ZILLION" different breeds and colors.... Columbus Ohio is the place to go....
I will plan on being there from Friday, which is set up... through the weekend... LONG weekend.... But it might be a one time trip for me... and I will drive, and stay over for a couple days and just enjoy it like I used to back when I showed at a dozen or more shows in the 70's-90's.....
I will try to make sure I make an announcement on here a month or 2 ahead of time....

Really would be a great place for any and all of us, to meet up. There will be alot of aisles that will be roped off on Saturday and Sunday while they judge the birds.... but only for as long as the judge is judging a class....and you will see birds that you have never seen and some rarer color patterns too....

 

[Baymule]

It’s good that you are getting prepared to have the different breeds of chickens that you want. Darn right, get them and enjoy them.

 

[rachels.haven]

Man, that would be so fun. I loved the poultry shows at the county fairs when I was a kid and the little men need exposure to stuff like that although I think The Spouse thinks that if I set foot in the Midwest I'm not coming home. We might have to go anyway someday. I think that much variety and that many nice poultry would blow my older two sons' minds.

 

[farmerjan]

@rachels.haven ... there is a poultry show in Frederick MD every fall and would get a chance to see quite a few different colors and types... I think it is the first weekend in Nov... been quite a few years since I have been. I'm sure you could find something on the internet....
Hoping next year to hit some of the shows.

 

[farmerjan]

Okay, off the chickens for a bit.... It has been cloudy and misty drizzly this morning, then just clouds this afternoon but then after about 8-9 it started to rain... this evening.... There was some thunder and all that...
BUT last night is rained and I dumped the rain gauge around 11 this morning.....and we had 1.1 inches... . That was pretty good. There are a few places where it ran a little on some steep spots... but not much. The ground is wet and muddy though... Unfortunately it is going to get real muddy... because it is raining pretty good now... in fact there were some tornado warnings for a county in WV just over the line awhile ago.
The forecast for the hurricane coming up is getting a little "worse" .... 2-4 inches of rain up from the 1-3.... and windier than previously predicted. It will depend on what it is like when it hits Fl and all that... Sure would have been nice to have had one of these rains back in June......

Had a GREAT pregnancy check.... All 8 heifers from the nurse cow pasture are bred... one unfortunately is much further along, than she should have been, so got bred by the bull when she was about 12 or so, months old... she was on one of the open cows that went back to pasture with her mother to get rebred.... and she must have come in heat and the bull caught her... She will be not quite 2 when she calves, but I don't like to calve them until they are 27-30 months... We don't "push" our heifers to grow fast, so are not as big as some other people's heifers at 12-15 months... and getting bred young like that, it stunts their growth some. She is a quiet dispositioned heifer, and she got moved back to the nurse cow pasture so can be watched better...she will get a little grain along to try to keep her in good shape and not get too fat towards calving time... The other 7 got moved out to pasture where they will have some grass for another 2-3 months I hope...
Plus there are still about 7 head of cows with 2-3 month old calves, and about another 10 or so heifers at the nurse cow pasture, so it will be a whole lot easier to not have to sort out those 7 that were already checked, when I get the next group in to go to get checked.
The little cow there, that I said I was not impressed with her calf and DS said it wasn't a bad calf... is open, and she will get sold.
The other group of cows, that had been open from the bull that had the scrotal hernia, and got put back with a bull in late May... were all bred but 2..... sadly, one is one of mine and she is a bit of a pet so I was sad... but she will not get another chance... and another is one that has been a problem in the past... so they will both get sold. All the rest are in the 3 1/2-5 month range... which is exactly where they should have been... EXCEPT 1 old cow.. she is 12... and she is only 30 days so barely pregnant... and DS looked at her mouth and she has what we call a "broken mouth"... nubs for teeth and some missing. She is going to get sold also... It is risky for her to carry again through the winter.... only to have a dead calf or abort or something.... if she was right up in the 3-4 month range, she would have gotten one more year.... BUT.... she was also one that was open once, and is 2-3 months behind the rest... it is just a better decision to sell her when the prices are high... and she is in very good flesh so should do good.
So that means we will have a good group calving in the spring.. for starters..... and this is just the beginning of the preg checks...

We moved the bull that was with the one group, out to the bull lot with the rest of the bulls that are getting a vacation for another 2 months.... moved the 6 month bred heifer back to the nurse cow pasture, moved the 7 bred heifers, to a pasture that we pulled cattle out of a couple weeks ago... and the other 16 went back to the place we had to get them out of Saturday... there are also 3 more that will go there, but 5 still had steer calves on them, and we are leaving them together since we are planning to sell them this Friday... Then 3 of them can go back out to that pasture also, and the other 2 opens with calves will go on the truck with the calves. The little open cow with the bull calf that we just banded, will probably go with this group... the calf is plenty big and old enough to get weaned and there are a bunch at the barn... Sad that he did not get worked (banded) a couple weeks ago so he could get sold Friday.... but there will be more...

I helped open and shut gates when we took them back to pastures, and then opened and shut a couple gates at the barn so he could feed a few rolls to the ones we are keeping there, and to the group calving on the hill... one new calf this afternoon.... I think that makes 7 or 8 or something in the past 2 weeks... and there are about 35 or 40 up there to calve....

It is thundering out there and we keep getting a few hard showers/rain... then it lets up...

Got to go to the farm to take the meters in the morning, and then go back and test in the afternoon... and I guess I am going back Friday morning... I can do either for them... DS has a dr appt in the morning 1/2 hour away, and then will come back and load the ones going to the sale I guess... we are a little worried about what effect the hurricane rains might have...

Well, time to go to bed... DS wants to come and use the computer in the morning... for some stuff for the lawyer...
Rain coming down pretty hard again... everything will be saturated....we needed it but sure would have appreciated it a bit more in the middle of the growing season...

 

[farmerjan]

WOW It is pouring out there....

 

[canesisters]

WOW It is pouring out there....

I heard several times Tues night/ Wed AM from the smoking group that it was storming bad outside. The Wed AM crew said it was raining so hard as they came in from the north that it was hard to see to drive! Was only sprinkling on my way home Wed AM. I haven't checked the weather but am hoping for no rain Thurs so I can get a few little things done.