Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[GLENMAR]

I have 3 more to sell. 1 girl and 2 boys. Not in a hurry. I have a lot going on.

 

[SageHill]

Mentioned the circus with loading 2 of the 5 calves that were used to coming in the creep gate, in @SageHill 's journal when she talked about separating lambs... Plan A then Plan B.... and around and around... told about the loading of these 2 calves today...
I will embellish more tomorrow... I got a few things loaded in the explorer... going in to make some sandwiches to take with me... can't just grab a hamburger or hot dog or BBQ anymore..... will have more time tomorrow night and will also have some telling about our semi-annual trip to Gilmanor ... This will be the 4th , 6th? time that @Mini Horses and I have met up there... so nice to just catch up, and look at all the things we "can live WITHOUT"..... .... and just enjoy each other's company in PERSON......

We sold 16 steer calves...today..... originally had 10 picked out... then when sorting decided to take a few more... DA#@ed glad we did... Sold the charolais cross steer, off my #19 char x cow... weighed 440, and he brought a ridiculous $6.05 / lb... over $2600..... top selling of all of ours... BUT... here again... he was under 500 lbs... the bigger red steer that weighed 610 brought $4.35.... my char x actually brought more than the one that weighed 170 lbs more... granted the "smokey/grey" calves are bringing more money now.... than the red ones ever will... BUT the 2 "stupid" red ones that I mentioned in Sage's journal... that got out and had to get put back in weighed 438 lbs each... and they brought 5.20/lb... so not too shabby for reds in an area that discriminates against red and rewards the "black cattle are better".... The group of 10 black steers they put all together, of ours, which they were not as closely matched in size, but but together they brought 5.30 for 521 lb average...
2 other smaller ones that weighed about 430 each brought 5.50/lb...
DS went with them to town and I went in a bit later as I wanted to get things pretty much ready for tomorrow... when we watched these go through, we talked about pulling more of the calves and selling them a little small...
Overall, they averaged over $2600/head, across the different sizes... Totally NUTS....
A few years ago we would have been very very glad to average $1,000 a head.....so not quite 3X as much for these, this trip..... We are going to make as much as we can.... sell what all we can.... because it may last another 6 months or 2 years... but it is going to crash... maybe not back to $1.50 , but I think that it will drop back to the $2.50 range for these especially wanted 4-550 wt calves...
It cost $75/hd to sell them... it has gone up again... This is partly dependent on the selling price of the animals... and they had about 1100 + head there... that's a pretty nice paycheck for the stockyard too....




I have got to get my sandwiches made and go to bed... will fill in more tomorrow...

That's great! And should keep the stockyards in biz. We've got two places but up in LA county. Always concerned we'll lose them as housing and businesses build up around them. Though I'd like the $ in my pocket, I need them so they deserve $ as well.
Have fun at Gilmanor!

 

[Ridgetop]

We've got two places but up in LA county.

Where do you sell in LA County?

 

[murphysranch]

Thinking about your fun in Gilmanor. Is Canesisters going too?

 

[Ridgetop]

What did you buy?

 

[SageHill]

Where do you sell in LA County?

Same as you did - Ontario Livestock.

 

[GLENMAR]

Gilmanor poultry swap? I used to live across the street from there.

 

[farmerjan]

Gilmanor poultry swap? I used to live across the street from there.

Yes, Gilmanor poultry swap has developed into Gilmanor swap meet... when I first started going, it was just in his yard, to the left of the feed barn and his farm buildings...30 vendors at most... We used to take poultry to sell....
Now it is a HUMONGOUS flea market, poultry, goat, sheep, miniature horses and donkeys, sometimes there were baby calves, but they are worth too much at the stockyards now.... dogs... you name it... There are several "black hat" mennonites and different "sects" of "Plain folks" that come and they bring huge numbers of stuff... way more than this was originally designed to be and do... which was a poultry based swap center for breeders and in the spring there were the typical "starter plants" for gardeners, and poultry based equipment and such...lots of baby chicks and hatching eggs...
In the fall are many more started/young chickens... plus all the other stuff... and several have fall foliage decoration stuff, produce like apples and such...
I did not think it was as crowded this year, and there were several empty places... They mark each section off with chalk and are numbered...

I did not see the guy that had the nice blueberry bushes I got the last 2 years... so I did not buy any. The people that had all the real nice irises, and day lilys were there. but with the terrible drought conditions we have had, I did not even buy one iris rhizome ... just cannot commit to all that watering this year.
I did find one vendor that had the water barrels that @fuzzi put in at her house...she said the price was good.... but with all the traffic there, I did not go back to get any. I am thinking that I want to go with 55 gal barrels rather than the 35 gallon black ones that she has, although I think those look "nicer"...

I need to get the gutters redone on this house...cleaned out and set up to be able to use the rain barrels. I have been toying with that for about a year... need to do it while these cattle prices are high and I can fit it in the budget. They need cleaning, and gutter guards of some sort since there is the maple tree in the front and the walnut on one side and some of the stuff off the holly tree too...

The weather was really good for this, if a little chilly... Not bad except for the breeze blowing... I think @Mini Horses was colder than she wanted to be... but it was better than the one time it was so hot we liked to have heat stroke. There was no rain so that was good...
@fuzzi being retired and all the dog walking of Caleb has got her just scootin' right along... she also has lost some weight and looks great... said that being retired and not sitting at the desk has been the best thing ever... I walked a little slower... but was not as exhausted/tired out, as last fall... when I did not know what I had, and was inadvertantly making it worse with what I was eating that just aggravated the situation.
@Mini Horses just goes right along... she is the "fittest", healthiest person I know at her age.. (few years older than me)

It is hard to walk in a group, last fall we split and then met for lunch... if one of us stops, and another walks along.. next thing we are "separated" and lost.... But we did all right...

It was nice to be able to visit after with some of our "brought with us" food...

To reiterate on the cattle prices, I had brought a check stub from last June, sold a steer off #19 char x cow of mine... and the check stub from the other day from #19's steer calf this year... Last year he weighed 535 or so...$4.40 lb or so..... brought about $2100... this year the steer weighed 440, brought a WHOPPING $6.05... over $2650 so 100 lbs less weight brought $500 more... It is just nuts... and we are going to look over the calves again... Tuesday is the preg check for this group... there are only 3 steer calves in there and the rest are heifers... about 20+... there is also one steer that will be beef... he has a deformed nose/palate...and although he seems to do fine with nursing, although he seemed to "lose some" in the beginning of sucking...but he is 6 months or so and fat and sassy looking... The deformed mouth will kill him at the stockyard so he will be a beef in 2 years... He can eat pretty good... and we can accommodate him with the silage and stuff in the future in a bunk so he can "push" it into his mouth easier than eating off the grass....

So, @fuzzi got the pictures posted... of it... we had a good time overall... Good to get together and visit and all that... Hope that @canesisters can come in the fall...
PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR TO BE OFF... 3rd Sat in Sept... 19th....

Anyone else that wants to come and meet up... you can think on it... even if you come with someone else/group... we can designate a time and place and meet up for lunch, all that... everyone goes their separate ways before and after... or we can go around as a group... get lost/separated

It was a CHILLY 35 overnight... 61 out now... I am going out to maybe work on "fixing the panels" I put together, so that they are right and I can get the "truss pieces" up...
Got to fill chicken waterers and feeders too...

We were going to maybe move some cattle out to pasture... but DS got a call that his friend is back in the hospital, and he is not doing good... and another friend had some shoulder surgery... and is back in the hospital for some other pains in his side... xrays showed some "spots" on his liver, so is in and going to run some tests... so the afternoon is going to be taken up by this stuff. He went and got another load of hay this morning... different person... is going to feed out some of it to see how the cows like it. Guy has some more, and if it is good, he will get another load next Sunday. We are trying to not have to feed any out of the hay barn... keep that for reserve for this coming year as we do think hay is going to be short... There are about 200 rolls in the barn... for us that would be 2...maybe 3 weeks at most...in the coldest part of winter..

Realize that we feed an average 5-6 rolls a day... when we have the weaned calves in the barn, we are feeding 10 rolls some days... but 50 rolls a week is not exaggerating.... probably feed 1000-1200 rolls a year... we make between 800-1200... and with holding these cows off the short pastures so the grass has a chance to get a good start... we are feeding 4-5 day still... Cows with the new spring calves, will be going out to grass this week... but it is short in places still....they will be working for their grass.

Going to go out and get going... Sun is out... it is 61... breeze as usual.
The forecast has rain for Wed/Thursday... let's hope we get some decent amount out of it...

 

[GLENMAR]

I wanted to go to Gilmanor. I live about 40 min from there now. I had to work, so I had a tight timeframe.

 

[fuzzi]

I did find one vendor that had the water barrels that @fuzzi put in at her house...she said the price was good.... but with all the traffic there, I did not go back to get any. I am thinking that I want to go with 55 gal barrels rather than the 35 gallon black ones that she has, although I think those look "nicer"...

I need to get the gutters redone on this house...cleaned out and set up to be able to use the rain barrels. I have been toying with that for about a year... need to do it while these cattle prices are high and I can fit it in the budget. They need cleaning, and gutter guards of some sort since there is the maple tree in the front and the walnut on one side and some of the stuff off the holly tree too...

The weather was really good for this, if a little chilly... Not bad except for the breeze blowing... I think @Mini Horses was colder than she wanted to be... but it was better than the one time it was so hot we liked to have heat stroke. There was no rain so that was good...
@fuzzi being retired and all the dog walking of Caleb has got her just scootin' right along... she also has lost some weight and looks great... said that being retired and not sitting at the desk has been the best thing ever... I walked a little slower... but was not as exhausted/tired out, as last fall... when I did not know what I had, and was inadvertantly making it worse with what I was eating that just aggravated the situation.
@Mini Horses just goes right along... she is the "fittest", healthiest person I know at her age.. (few years older than me)

It is hard to walk in a group, last fall we split and then met for lunch... if one of us stops, and another walks along.. next thing we are "separated" and lost.... But we did all right...

It was nice to be able to visit after with some of our "brought with us" food...

To reiterate on the cattle prices, I had brought a check stub from last June, sold a steer off #19 char x cow of mine... and the check stub from the other day from #19's steer calf this year... Last year he weighed 535 or so...$4.40 lb or so..... brought about $2100... this year the steer weighed 440, brought a WHOPPING $6.05... over $2650 so 100 lbs less weight brought $500 more... It is just nuts... and we are going to look over the calves again... Tuesday is the preg check for this group... there are only 3 steer calves in there and the rest are heifers... about 20+... there is also one steer that will be beef... he has a deformed nose/palate...and although he seems to do fine with nursing, although he seemed to "lose some" in the beginning of sucking...but he is 6 months or so and fat and sassy looking... The deformed mouth will kill him at the stockyard so he will be a beef in 2 years... He can eat pretty good... and we can accommodate him with the silage and stuff in the future in a bunk so he can "push" it into his mouth easier than eating off the grass....

So, @fuzzi got the pictures posted... of it... we had a good time overall... Good to get together and visit and all that... Hope that @canesisters can come in the fall...
PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR TO BE OFF... 3rd Sat in Sept... 19th....

Anyone else that wants to come and meet up... you can think on it... even if you come with someone else/group... we can designate a time and place and meet up for lunch, all that... everyone goes their separate ways before and after... or we can go around as a group... get lost/separated

It was a CHILLY 35 overnight... 61 out now... I am going out to maybe work on "fixing the panels" I put together, so that they are right and I can get the "truss pieces" up...
Got to fill chicken waterers and feeders too...

We were going to maybe move some cattle out to pasture... but DS got a call that his friend is back in the hospital, and he is not doing good... and another friend had some shoulder surgery... and is back in the hospital for some other pains in his side... xrays showed some "spots" on his liver, so is in and going to run some tests... so the afternoon is going to be taken up by this stuff. He went and got another load of hay this morning... different person... is going to feed out some of it to see how the cows like it. Guy has some more, and if it is good, he will get another load next Sunday. We are trying to not have to feed any out of the hay barn... keep that for reserve for this coming year as we do think hay is going to be short... There are about 200 rolls in the barn... for us that would be 2...maybe 3 weeks at most...in the coldest part of winter..

Realize that we feed an average 5-6 rolls a day... when we have the weaned calves in the barn, we are feeding 10 rolls some days... but 50 rolls a week is not exaggerating.... probably feed 1000-1200 rolls a year... we make between 800-1200... and with holding these cows off the short pastures so the grass has a chance to get a good start... we are feeding 4-5 day still... Cows with the new spring calves, will be going out to grass this week... but it is short in places still....they will be working for their grass.

Going to go out and get going... Sun is out... it is 61... breeze as usual.
The forecast has rain for Wed/Thursday... let's hope we get some decent amount out of it...

My rainbarrels are 55 gallon, each.

I went to the ECVC shop to buy mine, to save on shipping. I also got them on sale for $79 each. I just had to get the overflow connectors, I had the blocks on hand.