Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Sunday morning... NOT up very early... I was tired after all day out in the sun, walking etc... and the little thing of up at 4 a.m..... I don't do that very often anymore... After over 50 years of up and out long before dawn, in the barn to milk, then to testing, as well as late nights of waitressing inbetween, I "sorta" like not having to get going so early...
36 overnight... Sun is out, not as much breeze at this time. Supposed to cloud up late and possible showers overnight into tomorrow morning.. Don't think it is going to be much but supposed to be widespread area for about 12+ hours...
We need rain, it is dry. There are several brush/wildfires south of here... 20-300 acres in several different spots.

Yeah, my ex is his own worst enemy.. always has been... But he also does not do anything to help himself either..
I have gotten rather lazy this past winter, and my stamina and strength has suffered for it... so I am working on some exercising now to try to lose some of this "flab" and get some energy and stamina built back up. It takes twice as long to get back to what you gave up... GRRRR

I am going to go out and work on the 2nd "chicken run" since the wind has died down alot... Try to get it as finished as I can... DS was going to replace the rotten board on the one roof panel that the termites/rot had messed up... actually from the first set I had opened up... I just used all good ones to finish the first one that the 4 roosters are in at night... I also am going to get that other one out today since it looks to be a decent day, and at least get it started to put put together so I can see what I am working with. Didn't come home with any birds yesterday... so maybe get "prepared" ahead of time???? That's not standard procedure for some of us

It's up to 55 so good time to get out there and get started...

 

[murphysranch]

My Mother moved into assisted living two weeks ago. Her mind has taken a huge hit just from that move, from independent living to AL. Sad. She's 94.5 yr old. Her boyfriend will be 93 this June, and he moved with her. ONLY NOW is Mother getting less stubborn...

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday evening... has been rather chilly out to do much the last couple days.

40 this morning, and mostly sun for awhile and then some clouds off and on... Supposed to get some rain but it fizzled out AGAIN...

Sunday I unloaded the 12 / 50 lb bags from the explorer into the back of the ranger... took them to the barn at snyder's then proceeded to unload all them over the gate into the barn, then went in and filled the cans to the rim and piled the rest on top of the hay bales in there... The pain/numbness in the right leg and the hand makes this more difficult than it used to be when they were working more normal. Also put out a 50 lb block of TM (red) salt for them. Brought the cow(s) in... stupid came in after the jersey... I fed the calf a bottle and he went on her but she has very little milk since she is "hit and miss" on the days she deigns to come in the barn. So she is drying up. but need to keep her willing to come in so she can be caught when he is going to come up with the trailer. Fed calves and all the normal. Told DS that the bred heifers were starting to bag up so he needed to watch the ones that were at the "peterbilt field"... Did not work on the chicken run due to the biting wind...

Monday was about 20 sprinkles and cloudy early, then partly sunny later... and WINDY again... chilly to be out. I had a chiropractor appt then went to JoAnn's fabrics as they are closing all the stores and things are marked down more than 2 weeks ago when I went the first time. Got more fabric that I probably don't need... some more "notions" like some zippers for repair work... Sad to lose that store. Even though it was often a little expensive comparatively, if you needed something, that was the place to find it.
He called before I had left to come home, and 2 of the heifers at snyder's nurse cow pasture had calved and he was all worried about the one... said she had not licked the calf, but was eating the afterbirth/sack and the calf was trying to figure out nursing but the heifer kept backing up and was "confused"... I said I would check on them when I got home later. The other was way off by herself and seemed to be doing fine with it...
I did go up when I got home quite a bit later... calf looked okay, mouth was warm, heifer was talking to it and all... I did not see it nurse but it was acting okay. Then came back to the house, made a bottle and went and fed the calf and watched her some more. Never saw the calf nurse or even acting like it was hungry.

So, this morning, I went up there and the calf had gotten through the 2 strands of electric out in the ward around the house and was just laying there... I unplugged the fence, it scooted back through the fence and she was talking to it. There is another heifer close to calving that kept "butting in" and the calf was trying to go on the mother, she would keep backing up, the other heifer was getting in the way... but finally I saw the calf go on her, she would back up a few steps but she was licking it... and then she was watching me and the calf got on her and was actually getting a decent meal... By the time I left it had been nursing a bit so it will be fine... The other one that calved had brought her calf up near the one "confused one" and she and her calf looked okay... I never did see it nurse but it acted good... sometimes it is best to leave well enough alone.

I left there and went to test the 200 cow herd; stopped and dropped off reports I had printed off at a farm, went to the farm, and then stopped at the farm I get milk from and dropped his reports of his couple of cows and left a bucket to get milk on Thursday... I will be right up the road at another farm testing and will get my milk on the way home. Brought home about 2 gal of milk he had just milked to supplement my bottle calf; he is feeding 4 bottle calves but not using all his milk so this is surplus he is dumping.... not handled "clean" so it will be okay for the calf but not what I want to bring in the house.

Home finally, locked in chickens, samples in the house to pack...made a sandwich for some supper.... then spent some time on the phone with @Baymule ... It is waaaay past time to go to bed. I will pack the samples in the morning, go set up meters for tomorrow late afternoon.... the farm has gone from 3x a day milking back to 2x a day again... he is back up to about 45-50 cows now... and would like to take a ride up to the dairy cow sale to see the animals of the guy who is retiring from the 500 cow dairy, and selling his 15 milking cows and his heifers also... he is going to try to put more time into his beef cattle and his sheep and such now that he is officially "retired"..... It is at 1, then I can leave there and come down to test this herd at 5...... then come home and do it all over again at 5 a.m.....
Supposed to be cold tomorrow... maybe 50. Down to low 30's tonight and then upper 20's tomorrow night... BRRRR

 

[Baymule]

Baby calves are so darn cute. No more cattle next to me, but plenty along my road. They are calving and sometimes I stop just to watch them.

 

[farmerjan]

Friday evening... Have tested several farms, Tuesday the 200 cow herd... Wed eve/Thurs morning to the one that sold 100 cows, then had 30 went to 3x day milking, just went back to 2x day milking... up to 60 cows now.. Left there, dropped off meters at the jersey farm that decided they wanted to test 2x... so did them Thurs eve/Fri morning.... It goes okay, and they had loaded all the meters in the car after the wash cycles, and I was done with the computer stuff...
Went by the pasture on the way home because there was a "heifer" looking very close Thurs night when I did the calf and all... She had the calf overnight/this morning... this one is a heifer calf... nice lively calf. She is actually a 2nd time cow... her calf last year got bloat,,, vet worked on him, and he kept bloating and then one morning he was dead... so she got dried up and let her breed back... She was a good momma for the short time she had the previous calf... 3 months or so.... she was small, so not so bad that she wound up with a long dry period and starting over now. There is another one that is laying around... she is close too...
DS said that a couple of the ones he took to the other pasture that snowy day he was moving them, are making udders, so they ought to drop some calves too... It is warmer and nice so perfect time for them to calve now...
The one that was doing all the backing up when the calf was trying to nurse is doing fine now... she's "got it" now... so that is good.

DS said we are not selling anything tomorrow... so that's okay I guess... The guy, who bought the 8 a week ago.... did call to see if we had anymore heifers to sell... DS said there were about 5-6 more out there... we actually had turned 3 or 4 back that morning because he didn't want them crowded on the trailer... so the guy said he wants them... that he won't go buy any at the stockyard... $1800/ each... We got about $1815 at the stockyard... but paid out a commission .... the guy said that was fine... he does want to weigh them for his own knowledge... he wants to put them with a bull in June for spring calves next year... They are a little small/young for me to be breeding them... but everyone is different... We have about 12-14 that are a bit bigger that will be going with the bull in June/July for spring calves next year.... I like them a little bigger/older... 27-30 months for their first calf..... but most want them to calve by 24 months.
DS says we will be taking some in a couple weeks... after the guy comes and gets what he wants... there are a few small ones, my longhorn x steer, the bigger holstein at the nurse cow pasture... another 2 or 3 odd ball ones...
We are going to band the black calf at the barn I was talking about pulling off his mother early.... he might match some that will be coming off the fall calving cows, in another month or 2 when we preg check.... so will make him a steer, and he might match some others.....Going to band that holstein bull calf and I think I will have him go on and band the 2 that Betsy (the jersey) has been feeding. I saw them both on her yesterday when checking for calves... so will let her keep them for now... she will get preg checked at the same time the heifers get checked... so no reason to pull them yet, since they are still nursing a little....DS also said he will move "stupid" to the barn if I get her in... so I think I will have him take the bigger holstein that will get banded, put him at the barn and have him handy there to take to the sale with the other odd ones..... that will get everyone out of the nurse cow pasture until preg check time... He can go with the twin holstein heifers that are there at the barn too...
With the price of the heifers at the dairy sale the other day, I am not going to keep them.... I am not overly attached to them, and they will go a long way to finding another jersey or 2 to raise calves... prices on the dairy cows that the friend sold were okay but jerseys are not overly popular with the mennonites... but his holsteins and brown swiss did pretty good... and the heifers were stupid high.... Yearling heifers in the 700 lb range were bringing 1700-2000.... NOT BRED..... smaller ones were nearly as high... So these 2 will go.... I had thought to keep them, breed them for replacements to sell but not worth the amount of feed it will take to keep them another year... I will look for some jerseys, and yes, I know they don't bring as much, but unless they turned out to be total WITCHES.... they would stay until they were culled for meat... and it does not take as much to feed them either... I don't want to pay $15-1800 for jersey heifers... and certainly not $25- 3200 that I saw some springing ready to calve holsteins bring Wed.... Plus selling these heifers now is smarter than keeping them and having something happen to them... Next dairy sale is April 23rd I think... They are getting some silage, and feed, and I will worm them. They are in with the crippled steer so not much competition either... The holstein "soon to be steer" will fit in with them.,..he is a little smaller but no one is crowded there...

Headed in to take a shower... got to get up to test ANOTHER farm tomorrow morning... it is the farmer's weekend to milk...not due to the first of April.... but there are 5 weekends in March and this is better than waiting until like April 12th or so on his next weekend... may as well get it out of the way... BUT.... 3 mornings in a row... something I hardly ever do nowadays....

Weather was nicer today... it was miserably windy cold the first part of the week... yesterday was a little better. Today was partly sun and some clouds... they said a chance of a shower but it was not much of a chance that didn't happen.... Temps warmed up to the mid-70's with just a light breeze. I wound up working on the poultry pen and have the whole base together... but there are 2 pieces of the "trusses" that have to hold up the roof panels, missing... so have to see if I can get 2 made to finish this one... Opened the box with the "chicken coop" one, "box 1", and it looks like it is mostly the whole coop part... but not seeing the roof sections... I did not take it all apart yet. That is the next thing to do... Next couple of days are supposed to be warmer and mild so might be able to get together what all is there... plus there is the other poultry run to work with... there are no roof panels for it I don't think... but that shouldn't be too hard to make some frames to put some tin on them for roof panels ... copy the other ones maybe. I am not so sure about the 2 missing "trusses" as I am NOT a carpenter... trying to think who I know that could follow the one as a pattern and make me 2 more exactly like the 2 that I do have...
We have a slight chance of rain coming in the next couple days... but they are saying that we will be lucky to get a "trace" to less than 1/4 inch... Staying warm... in the 70's and maybe hit 80.... But it was 33 Thursday morning... CRAZY...