rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

I emailed our water test place and got a copy of our basic results. My guess is they mailed them to our old house and we get to wait for it to be forwarded. We're fine as far as the basics go despite...someone....rinsing the preservative out of one of the water testing vials that was meant to check for bacteria. No bacteria when system functions. I'd like that radioactive compound test back next considering how high the radon in the basement was but I'm going to have to figure out how to contact the other lab.

Endophyte free fescue is more expensive, requires diligent working up of the ground and does not reseed well... it also will cross with "regular fescue" so if this is a stand more than 2 years old... it has the endophyte fescue in it now... The only reason a horse person would plant it was if they had pregnant mares... it can cause abortion in horses and cattle.... BUT... they have to basically be forced to eat it because there is nothing else since it does not taste good until it is frosted and the starches turn to sugars... they will eat it when young and very tender, then just not eat it for months... then it makes great winter grazing and the toxicity is lowered... and it is not toxic when made into hay... still, it is great for steers and non-reproductive animals... after a frost , for fall/winter grazing... have not read up on the effect on sheep or goats.

Wow, fescue is a pain. She sent us a pic of the seed mix bag and I ran around and looked up if it was fescue free. Regardless, since she just over seeded, sounds like I'm spraying because I don't want to kill off my stuff later in the name of getting rid of fescue that's taking over.

Fescue makes goats eat less and if bad enough they can starve with a whole pasture in front of them. It is negative forage/hay. Adding it to the ration is like subtracting in math.

 

[farmerjan]

I reread my post and wanted to clarify... If they planted endophyte free fescue it was because of having pregnant animals....and to mitigate hoof problems in the horses from eating fescue.... the endophyte fescue (like Kentucky 31) is what can cause abortions. It also can cause fescue toxicity which can be seen as laminitis in cattle and other hoofed animals... in other words...known as founder in horses... it causes heat in things like hooves, causes other problems from that... and they never really get over a bad case of it. One thing that gives it away... if cattle spend alot of time standing in a pond or water hole when it is not overly hot out...while in a fescue dominant field... and they do not have enough other grasses to eat... their hooves are "hot" and it makes them hurt...
We do not like fescue either... however, it is every where so have to learn to deal with it... you will never get rid of it... completely... it will come back so the only thing you can do it try to keep it from getting too dominant in pastures...
It covers ground well, germination is good... and it lasts and lasts... It is in most lawn grass mixes because it is going to get cut constantly,,,, stays green, drought tolerant....

 

[rachels.haven]

Oh. So that's why founder was the leading horse ailment in TN where fescue is dominant. It all makes sense now.

Goats mostly just lose condition on it and you have to feed twice as much or more and they wind up skinny with hay bellies in my experience. I hope they don't handle it like horses and cattle...but I bet they do to some degree if fed exclusively on it.

I may kill our pasture and reseed it but some fescue will still come back like last time...sounds like there is a cycle with pastures. No free stock lunches.

Another update:
I've decided I still like round bales. I started in round bales. Here's Aiden (10) on the bale, Mark to the right, and Shaun (3) in the background on the bale and a bunch of fairly soft first cutting orchard. Tomorrow we go to get some posts to put them up on. Today we had them delivered and rolled them into the barn. So much cleaner than squares! And so rollable.
When the mud in front of the doe shelter dries they're getting a round bale in their (probably over priced but still hopefully very functional) round bale feeder I'm testing out from Premier 1. I'd love to get the bucks on one too but I'm not ordering a second at that price point until I know they work well.

The barn is becoming my hay fortress. Winter is coming!

 

[rachels.haven]

I did this today as fast as I could while being trodden upon by future dry yearlings.
Why is this my hobby again?

 

[Baymule]

It’s your hobby because you are not normal. You belong to a bunch of oddballs, black sheep of the family, weirdo neighbor and just downright crazy. You are in good company!

 

[rachels.haven]

Baking soda in a compartment of the mineral feeder and the orchard bale appears to have turned the milk back to normal just like that. I haven't added the sweetlix meatmaker mineral. I guess we'll use that up when it's time.
I think I'll add some more orchard bales to the barn before winter to hold in reserve.

 

[Baymule]

I’m glad you figured it out.

 

[farmerjan]

If the round bales are going to stay in the barn where you rolled them in the picture, and it is as dry as it looks on the floor, no need to put them up on anything. The only ones we put "up" on poles or tires or something are the ones outside. The hay barn we put up last year we store them flat side down so they will stack better and it is basically only a roof to keep water off them, no sides, and they don't get put up on anything and there is very little loss on the bottom ones. Your barn is so much more protected. You might lose a "flake or 2" worth of hay from sitting on that dry floor.

 

[rachels.haven]

I'm opting to hang onto rumpy yearling Aramis rather than sell him to the indian people for below auction meat price for home processing because

A)his rump is changing angle. Still don't love it, but it is, which is in line with what his breeder talks about her bucks having an "ugly stage" that lasts a year or two. Not sure I will use him because I don't support animals that have "ugly stages", but I'm willing to wait and see if he's worth using next fall.

B)Don and Judy Hoy appear to be winding down their breeding program and have sold most of their nicer does to neighboring herds and are down to 6 to breed this year. Aramis is Rockin'CB and Lucky*Star's and I may not be able to get another nice buck from those lineages and I may want to give him a good, long evaluation before throwing him out.

In the future may be a little stuck in the nice buck aquiring department unless I manage to get an AI pregnancy to go beyond day 38 (fate of last attempt, boo). Then I can basically bring in what I want with minimal potentially scary human interaction. I may practice on some Pete doe kids from this year during natural heats if they exceed the 100 lbs point this breeding season. So lots of nerdy potential fun coming up. Maybe we'll get something interesting this year.

 

[Ridgetop]

Good idea to hang onto those genetics since the Hoys were absolutely big on milk production. Sad to hear they are cutting back on the way to retiring. I guess sooner or later it comes to all of us.