Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

It was raining all morning with the forecast calling for more all day so we decided to do a get-er-done day. We dropped Sassy off to be groomed then took the Ram pickup in and got some warranty work done. By the time that was done, our favorite oriental restaurant was open (at 10:00) so we stopped and had lunch. We called the CO-OP to see how busy they were so we could get an oil change and the tires rotated. They got us right in and by the time they got done, it was time to pick up Sassy.

 

[Baymule]

Sounds like a productive morning! And you got RAIN!

 

[farmerjan]

Talking about the beef supply, and the state of the cattle numbers... one of the guys on the CT forum, just posted about hauling a few cull cows in for his neighbor and there were over 100 bred cows, 2 dispersals and a few others... they sold by the head, but figuring the weights that were listed and alot of just being able to "eyeball" and knowing about what they were weighing; they were bringing an average of $1.10-1.19 lb and all were going to the kill buyers... said a group of 24 solid mouth cows, (like 5-8 yrs old) bred for Feb/Mar calves.. so 3-4 months bred at most... brought 1600/head and went to a kill buyer...

This sort of thing is what is going to even further decrease the number of beef cattle in the country and make calves even higher next year... and beef more expensive and less available down the road...

He buys old "one and done" breds in the winter early spring, and calves them out, runs them for the season, weans the calves off before Sept 1 and ships the cows and sells on the rail... hanging weight. He said the one guy where he sells to said that they are bringing $2.15 a lb hanging on the rail this week....Then has the calves to sell as weaned in usually Oct/Nov.....

 

[Mike CHS]

Teresa and I had talked about getting our numbers down several times but I'm pretty convinced that we need to keep them up if for no other reason than to feed ourselves.

 

[Mike CHS]

It has been raining on and off since early this morning and looking at the radar, it will be with us until this afternoon. Teresa is in town getting her hair done in prep for the son's wedding in a week or so but we will bring the sheep in this afternoon to worm a few of them.

I'm going to go in and prep tomatoes for freezing but I'm doing it the low effort way. Just washing and cutting out the stem then freezing them whole. Teresa has had to be on a low acid intake for awhile so this way I can just freeze what I can use for cooking short term. The skin comes right off after freezing so they are easy to prep for cooking.

 

[Mike CHS]

We brought the big bunch of sheep in and had 4 that needed worming. This was also another look at verification of those that will be going to the sale in a couple of weeks.

 

[Mike CHS]

Our weight scale died this morning or sometime in the last few weeks that it had not been used. I ordered a new one from the same place we got the old one since it had been used a lot and not in ideal conditions so it was worth the price. Surprisingly, the replacement had only increased in price by $30 in eight years.

 

[SageHill]

Which one did you get?

 

[Mike CHS]

It comes from A and A Scales. They put their own label on it so I don't know who is the maker.

 

[Baymule]

Only $30? That’s a deal! Everything else has doubled or tripled.