Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[farmerjan]

I agree that you made the smart decision. I hadn't thought about them not giving you comp or coll with the hail damage.... plus you probably got out of future engine problems so agree... you made a very smart move. Fixing the hail damage would not make it run any better....And now you have time to look. Sounds like the deer there are as bad as they are here.... I hit (or get hit by) at least one a year.... but my vehicles are old enough to not make comp and coll worth it anymore. I would just go find another one to buy. And I am not traveling daily for a job anymore like you do. When I was testing alot more farms, I did have comp and coll on my vehicle for that same reason.... deer mostly.

Really interesting on the color/sex coincidence.

That's great on the hardwood floor....

 

[misfitmorgan]

I agree that you made the smart decision. I hadn't thought about them not giving you comp or coll with the hail damage.... plus you probably got out of future engine problems so agree... you made a very smart move. Fixing the hail damage would not make it run any better....And now you have time to look. Sounds like the deer there are as bad as they are here.... I hit (or get hit by) at least one a year.... but my vehicles are old enough to not make comp and coll worth it anymore. I would just go find another one to buy. And I am not traveling daily for a job anymore like you do. When I was testing alot more farms, I did have comp and coll on my vehicle for that same reason.... deer mostly.

Really interesting on the color/sex coincidence.

That's great on the hardwood floor....

Thank you, I would like to think it was the smart move. Deer particularly the last few miles by my house are horrible! We live by 1,000+ acres of federal land on our southeast side and the southwest side/across the road from our house there is a "club" with about 75 houses. It's really a gated community but anyhow there is no hunting allowed on the almost 400 acre property and a whole ton of people there feed deer BY HAND over there and feed them all winter. So you can imagine how many deer there are between the federal land and the club. To both the north east and northwest there is 120 and 80 acres of corn planted so really helpful.... Basically deer haven.

Dunno if I mentioned it but we also have a black bear near our house. He was spotted on our property a few months before we moved in and now has been spotted twice this summer within a mile from my house. We have a couple acres of wild raspberries which is I assume why the bear was visiting.

Spent yesterday morning detailing my car and cleaning it all out....yes for them to take it away Don't want anyone seeing my filth, to be honest it was way past needing to be detailed after the whole pandemic thing. The car looks really nice anyhow now.

Ginny has been sucking down bottles like no tomorrow which is great as she gets 3 a day now until she puts on some good weight, poor girl makes me so sad to look at her so thin. Chug(the white & red calf) is doing really great and growing well and quick. He is actually ready to wean but we cant wean him alone and the other 2 are not ready but getting close for the white & black calf. Ginny is going to be on a bottle for at least another month I think unless she really starts to pack on weight and get that feed intake up. She is eating hay and grain very well for her age.

The steers we are probly going to have butchered the end of december but depends on how good they look for weight. They have grown a lot of the past month or so and put on good weight. I dont really want to over winter them but might end up having to wait until spring, they are only 14 months old atm which means they will be 17 months old the end of november. Pretty early for dairy steers. If we wait they wont be butchered until march or april but putting weight on in winter here is very difficult, they lose a lot of fat.

 

[farmerjan]

If the steers are gaining well, then Dec ought to be okay. I understand that the cold is hard on them maintaining their weight/fat. I would ramp up their grain now, and plan to do them in Dec. They may not have the fat you want, but hopefully in 4 months increased grain - corn - should help to pack on some fat. Don't know how much you are feeding, and corn prices had gone up, although they have come off here a bit... but I would pour the grain to them if you want to push for Dec... and in the long run get them off the long term grain/hay bill....

 

[Baymule]

Thank you, I would like to think it was the smart move. Deer particularly the last few miles by my house are horrible! We live by 1,000+ acres of federal land on our southeast side and the southwest side/across the road from our house there is a "club" with about 75 houses. It's really a gated community but anyhow there is no hunting allowed on the almost 400 acre property and a whole ton of people there feed deer BY HAND over there and feed them all winter. So you can imagine how many deer there are between the federal land and the club. To both the north east and northwest there is 120 and 80 acres of corn planted so really helpful.... Basically deer haven.

Dunno if I mentioned it but we also have a black bear near our house. He was spotted on our property a few months before we moved in and now has been spotted twice this summer within a mile from my house. We have a couple acres of wild raspberries which is I assume why the bear was visiting.

Spent yesterday morning detailing my car and cleaning it all out....yes for them to take it away Don't want anyone seeing my filth, to be honest it was way past needing to be detailed after the whole pandemic thing. The car looks really nice anyhow now.

Ginny has been sucking down bottles like no tomorrow which is great as she gets 3 a day now until she puts on some good weight, poor girl makes me so sad to look at her so thin. Chug(the white & red calf) is doing really great and growing well and quick. He is actually ready to wean but we cant wean him alone and the other 2 are not ready but getting close for the white & black calf. Ginny is going to be on a bottle for at least another month I think unless she really starts to pack on weight and get that feed intake up. She is eating hay and grain very well for her age.

The steers we are probly going to have butchered the end of december but depends on how good they look for weight. They have grown a lot of the past month or so and put on good weight. I dont really want to over winter them but might end up having to wait until spring, they are only 14 months old atm which means they will be 17 months old the end of november. Pretty early for dairy steers. If we wait they wont be butchered until march or april but putting weight on in winter here is very difficult, they lose a lot of fat.

A deer subdivision! Good grass, browse and hand fed! Do either of you hunt? I think I’d get my license and harvest some of that well fed meat.

 

[misfitmorgan]

If the steers are gaining well, then Dec ought to be okay. I understand that the cold is hard on them maintaining their weight/fat. I would ramp up their grain now, and plan to do them in Dec. They may not have the fat you want, but hopefully in 4 months increased grain - corn - should help to pack on some fat. Don't know how much you are feeding, and corn prices had gone up, although they have come off here a bit... but I would pour the grain to them if you want to push for Dec... and in the long run get them off the long term grain/hay bill....

That is sort of the plant, we are working them towards more and more corn. We bought 3 tons of corn before prices went up and have it stored at the feed mill so price should not be a problem. If we worked them up to it would there be a problem with having them on a sort of creep feed/ 24hrs grain access diet? I know they do that with younger calves/steers but I am not sure how adults would handle it.

A deer subdivision! Good grass, browse and hand fed! Do either of you hunt? I think I’d get my license and harvest some of that well fed meat.

Yes we both get licenses to hunt deer, problem is when deer season rolls around we have hunting clubs all around us so if we even see a deer on our place it is a miracle. In 3 yrs we have seen 1 deer during hunting season and couldnt even get a shot on that one. We have deer trails all thru our place but just nothing shows up during season so far. We even tried putting out our legal amount of bait and nodda. Just to much food around during hunting season for them to care.

 

[Mini Horses]

We have a lot of corn, soybean, peanuts and cotton here....WELL fed deer! Then, winter wheat....yeah. These herds are fat and happy. With good feed, quite prolific. Not unusual to see 10-15 out for dinner in the fields by me.

 

[farmerjan]

If you start to work them up to 24/7 now they ought to do okay. Try putting out more feed about 2-3 hours after you feed them their normal feed... and if they don't go crazy over it, then they will acclimate to it. If they are full on hay, they should then get to where they are going over and browsing on it, not gulping it. But then all animals are different. But think about dairy animals... they eat some silage, get a drink, chew their cud, go eat some more....it is in front of them 24/7 pretty much. Too bad you didn't have silage, then you could top dress with more corn and increase their intake that way.... I am not totally sold on silage, but it has really helped us with getting calves weaned and on feed... it is another of the "tools" you use for feeding... and it is cheap feed in comparison to just hay and grain.
I would just try to start upping with feeding 1/3 more a feeding, for a few days then up it again... there will come a point where they should eat their fill, then walk away and leave some for later....

 

[misfitmorgan]

We have a lot of corn, soybean, peanuts and cotton here....WELL fed deer! Then, winter wheat....yeah. These herds are fat and happy. With good feed, quite prolific. Not unusual to see 10-15 out for dinner in the fields by me.

Oh yes our fields are full of corn, beans, sugar beets, oats, wheat, carrots, potatoes, alfalfa, etc plenty of food all over the place. You can drive around here and see over 50 deer in a single field some evenings. It has gotten bad enough they keep brining in the army and dnr to sniper/hunt the deer. They will come out and take 2,000+ deer in a single day and they do it 2-4 times a year. Even still we are being over run, as the cost of hunting licenses goes up and less and less people have land or the want to hunt deer. The wolves and cougars are starting to recover and come back though which are their natural predators so hopefully things will improve in the next 20yrs.

 

[misfitmorgan]

If you start to work them up to 24/7 now they ought to do okay. Try putting out more feed about 2-3 hours after you feed them their normal feed... and if they don't go crazy over it, then they will acclimate to it. If they are full on hay, they should then get to where they are going over and browsing on it, not gulping it. But then all animals are different. But think about dairy animals... they eat some silage, get a drink, chew their cud, go eat some more....it is in front of them 24/7 pretty much. Too bad you didn't have silage, then you could top dress with more corn and increase their intake that way.... I am not totally sold on silage, but it has really helped us with getting calves weaned and on feed... it is another of the "tools" you use for feeding... and it is cheap feed in comparison to just hay and grain.
I would just try to start upping with feeding 1/3 more a feeding, for a few days then up it again... there will come a point where they should eat their fill, then walk away and leave some for later....

Ok I will give that a try. DH and I have have been talking about haylage and silage the past couple months. We will at some point be looking into a bale wrapper and a chopper, if the row crops scheduled for next year go well. I do know there are benefits to those and if we want to do more commerical sheep operation we will be switching to a TMR which needs haylage or silage to be logical.

 

[Mini Horses]

It has gotten bad enough they keep brining in the army and dnr to sniper/hunt the deer. They will come out and take 2,000+ deer in a single day and they do it 2-4 times a year. Even still we are being over run, as the cost of hunting licenses goes up

So what do they do with them???

There are groups who hunt and donate the carcass for those in need. But the amounts you have there would need half an army just to gut and hang to chill!! Maybe some of the big zoos could benefit...and be thrilled to have those carcass. Disposal is a whole nuther issue.

We still have some hunters and small hunt clubs here. Thinning out each year as homesites grow. Still a good amount of woods around but, unfortunately replants are mainly pine. International paper has thousands of acres and some is not replanted but claimed for farming...or...