Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Make sure the feed sacks do NOT have the "plastic moisture barrier" between the couple of layers of paper. They will not break down in the garden and are a ROYAL PITA to try to pick up afterwards. The one feed store I prefer to get my feed at, when I don't get it in bulk, has straight paper bags and they are even printed with soy ink. I love those bags.
Anything in the way of spoiled/moldy/animal "pooped on" hay will work good for mulch. And there is NEVER too much mulch... especially not in the heat you have in Texas... Holds the moisture in dry/drought conditions... cools the soil for the plants, adds material for the worms to break down into castings for soil improvement, and stops the weeds. And yeah, the alfalfa will add some nitrogen but it is never available here since everyone will keep it and feed it out to cows to pick through if they have any that is spoiled.

Company here later yesterday due to traffic and all. Visited for a bit, going to meet for breakfast in a bit, then they will leave around noon to head east to get there before the "workday traffic " gets out after 4...

 

[murphysranch]

Here is today's drought monitor map. Click into your region; then your state; then your county.
I know you already know but its interesting.

Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor

droughtmonitor.unl.edu

 

[Weldman]

Ticks, just get some guinea fowl and let them have fun. We have tick season here too, but not with these guys.

 

[Ridgetop]

Anything in the way of spoiled/moldy/animal "pooped on" hay will work good for mulch. And there is NEVER too much mulch... especially not in the heat you have in Texas... Holds the moisture in dry/drought conditions... cools the soil for the plants, adds material for the worms to break down into castings for soil improvement, and stops the weeds. And yeah, the alfalfa will add some nitrogen but it is never available here since everyone will keep it and feed it out to cows to pick through if they have any that is spoiled

I do love mulch.

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

Here is today's drought monitor map.

Woot! D0 (Abnormally Dry). Much better than the rest of the state which has most of the red for the whole country.

 

[farmerjan]

Here is today's drought monitor map. Click into your region; then your state; then your county.
I know you already know but its interesting.

Current Map | U.S. Drought Monitor

droughtmonitor.unl.edu

Thanks, @murphysranch ........I pull it up every week... It is updated on Thursday's.... It is set to come up for VA for me on the computer... and our local TV station also has the area they cover, posted on the weather part of their website.

 

[farmerjan]

@rachels.haven mentioned on the coffee thread that she hoped someone would have some good things going on so she does not "catch" any more bad stuff at her place and learn from others dealing with their bad stuff...
So I posted that we had company from Conn.... great visit with them.... 4 generations of the "girls".... my mom's friend from 4-H and my friend too) , her daughter, her daughter and now the latest 18 month old daughter.... It was neat... and as always really enjoyed the visit..
So they left about noon after we went to the farm and looked at some of the calves, then went to get some lunch at Wendy's since it was close... and DS wanted to take a load of steers to the stockyard. He had gone to another pasture this morning and got in some more calves that needed to be weaned off... and brought them back to the barn, and wound up taking a total 22 steers to town. He finally was listening, plus talking to some other guys (because we all know that these other guys know more than I do about the cattle markets..... ) anyway, with it getting so dry... yes even with that 8/10ths inch of rain, it is still way too dry... and that was welcomed with a few ... he said since prices are still pretty good that we probably ought to sell some now. If it continues to stay dry, people are going to be selling stuff off and when it starts to flood the markets, the prices will drop.... Even though that is exactly what I have been saying for the last couple of weeks...

So, he went and got the bigger calves from that other pasture because they were about the same size as the ones we brought home2 weeks ago... He sorted them out, kept a few of the smaller steers there, for now, and took the 22 to town. One was red but he was a nice steer and we don't have anything that would match, 2 were smaller but matched, and the other 19 they split in 2 groups... 12 and 7...
They did VERY VERY GOOD.... we averaged over $1550 per head total, the smaller 2 brought about 1050 each and the bigger ones over 16-1700 a head... $3.20 to 3.40 per pound... for steers that averaged around 475 lbs..... the smaller ones were 375, the biggest ones were about 515 I think...
It was a very good day....
With the dry conditions, we are going to pull the last of the big ones off the open cows that are getting bred back now... the pasture there is going to get too short... so it is time to bring them back to the barn. Then he can take another load of 15 or so heifers to WV with the load he took out there several weeks ago... they have had rain and have alot more grass... and possibly take one more load of steers to the sale in a couple weeks. They are not going to have a sale next week, and our preferred auctioneer is not going to be there the following week. We get better prices when he is selling, so we don't want to take them for a couple of weeks.
Also going to get in the one bull that is limping a little, he is in very good flesh, and we never keep any of his calves... his bloodlines just don't "click" with our animals... so lots of "little reasons" to ship him... He will go for slaughter anyway... and we have had him for 7 years , so he is 9 yrs old... bought him as a nearly 2 yr old in 2017.... time for him to go while he is in good body condition and they are bringing so much too. He could have gone today if DS had gotten him in but he was across the "crep" area that we have to walk him through 2 sets of gates and such and there wasn't enough time today.

That was our day.... a very good one overall.

Plus, I got in more potato planting, and put in a small "hill" area of some heirloom "orange watermelons" and another small "hill" of a yellow watermelon variety. Still got alot of mulching to do, but I want to get the rest of the planting done so if we do get another possible "pop up storms" , the more that is in and gets watered in place, the better. Back is telling me that I did alot this evening, but "oh well".... get over it.
I also got the tomatoes tied up on the other side of the cattle panel... so they ought to start growing "up" instead of sprawling out....got to pinch out some suckers but can do that another day once they are going up instead of spreading. There are some cherry tomatoes already on the couple of plants I got... and I see a few very nice healthy looking volunteer tomatoes coming up out along the edge of the garden that I might just transplant to the panels too...
It is starting to come along now... and I am so much more happy with the "rototilled" section for getting it planted...

So, that was our day.... I am going in to get a nice hot shower.... and go to bed; "soak the "achy" out.

Want to get up and maybe get in the garden again in the morning for a bit... Get more planted, then see about the section that needs weeding between a couple of the potato rows that I got in earlier... and there is a weed that has very sharp little "spines" that hurt when you try to pull them up... so need some gloves to get them out.... and they are around some of the dill plants that are looking really good.... Might even see about going to the pasture and getting another load of that mulch bale in the ranger... while it is not too hot to fork it on... got a whole bunch of newspapers that I had kept, that I can lay down inbetween the potatoes and then add hay over top of them .... they will keep the rows alot more moist that way...

 

[murphysranch]

My hubs demanded to drink decaf coffee when he came back to me in '20. I told him it wasn't good - chemical extraction and all. He insisted.

Three months ago he told me that he read on his phone that decaf isn't healthy, so he's switching to regular coffee.

 

[farmerjan]

God save us from the males that cannot listen to someone.... namely wife/mother/sister/ FEMALE ; that tells them something, about a subject that they really do know something about........ but then they will listen to an UNRELATED MALE or a totally unrelated, unbiased, generic source......

 

[SageHill]

My hubs demanded to drink decaf coffee when he came back to me in '20. I told him it wasn't good - chemical extraction and all. He insisted.

Three months ago he told me that he read on his phone that decaf isn't healthy, so he's switching to regular coffee.

It’s a guy thing.