It is Tuesday night. We have had 2 1/2 days of SUN !!!!
Windy as all get out for a day or so, but it did dry out the top of the ground where the water had run off. I actually did get to drive to the "nurse cow barn" with the 2 wd truck and not get stuck or spinning.
Stayed away from the couple of wetter spots. Got up to 60 today, light breeze.
Tomorrow is is supposed to be mostly sunny, but then clouds and showers/rain coming in on Thursday and temps are going to be falling.
It is already down to 35, it was 27 this morning but warmed quickly. Then the fun begins.
Showers, rain, clouds through the weekend.
Starts to get interesting on Sunday, with some possible SNOW / wintry mix coming in and temps down to the low 20's ???????
OKAY I keep telling myself that it is still winter.....
My son and I were on the phone discussing our hay situation this evening. He was feeding as soon as he got off work at 4:45 and it was 9:45. The ground has dried up some so getting in the fields is better.
He told me he has fed about 40 rolls this evening,
, taking some of the old hay out on the hay wagon and putting it around in the one field so the cows can pick through it. One place we have they are eating nearly 3 rolls a day. Said he has never seen the cows go through hay like this.
Trying to get a little ahead, but he hadn't heard the forecast had changed. It was supposed to be nice all week. So this will mean he has to go out to the one place that is really hard to get into when it is wet, and get more put out there tomorrow, even though they won't need it before Fri or Sat because he won't be able to get in there if it gets "greasy" again.
He has had several people calling for hay. He has sold some. But after talking about what we have left... he is thinking that he really can't sell much more that isn't already committed. We figure we have about 485-525 rolls left. If we feed an average 10 rolls a day, and they have been eating it like crazy here the last month, that is only another 45-50 days of hay.
That is only into the middle of April. I am concerned. Some of this hay is 3 years old rolls. We have been feeding that to the dry cows, and to the cows that were open and will not be going back with the bulls until June for breeding. They just need to put on some condition. They are not nursing a calf, not carrying a calf, and not trying to get bred so can utilize the lesser quality hay. But the ones with calves, and the weaned calves, need the better hay. The dry cows that will be calving here soon do not need the best hay but will need better hay as soon as they start to calve. They have been on some stockpiled pasture and have put on weight and look better. The ones with the fall calves need to eat and get all they want and it needs to be decent hay as they are not only nursing, but the bulls are in those 2 places and they are supposed to be breeding back now.
We had lost 2 places last year and will lose another this year. Hay fields, plus one pasture. I am glad that we won't be traveling so far and hope we can do better making more square bales, but this is going to put a crimp in our hay supplies we think. We have cut our numbers some, but not that much. We usually tried to carry over 3-400 rolls but this year will be down to next to nothing.
There is one hay field that we have been approached about to make the hay on that is close... hope we can get that worked out.
Problem is, if it is like last year, with all the rain, it will be a real problem to get it made.
Or worse case scenario...what if we get first cutting made then the faucets get turned off and we don't get ANY rain and no 2nd cutting????
No sense in borrowing trouble. But it is something we are a bit concerned about.
