Farmerjan's journal - Weather

DS and I went to barn, loaded calves and went to town. The heifers were split 1 and 2.... weighed a little over 1000 on the 2 so a bit over 500...the one was like 475? I don't have the paper in front of me. A group of 3 steers weighed like 375... 3 big ones weighed a bit over 5... others were in the 4's.....
Heifers get sold regardless.... DS hopes to be there when the steers are sold but is debating whether to go to the bull sale.....We will see.
Weather was 60 at 5 this morning.... cloudy and a little breeze. Feels like rain... but radar is showing much of it staying north of us 20-30 miles... we might get some of it today, better chance for it later in the evening...
Going in to get the dishes done and some household stuff, vacuuming maybe....
Might take the forester down and see if they have time to do the oil change and stuff... it will be getting inspected for license plates. Plus the ranger needs to be done. I am going to do all the yearly inspections in April so I can remember them... the renewals on the plates will be different... and we can do them for 3 years so they will be all over the place... the explorer is in April but I cannot remember how many years I did if for when I got it... oh well, it will get done. Have to look at it when I go out.

Ate some eggs this morning... and OJ.... I actually hope we get some of the rain, the ground is dry and dusty on top.
 
Long day yesterday and lots to tell but it will have to wait. Going to barn as we are going to move around a few animals.... the bull lot is not yet fully fenced because there are no oak fence boards anywhere... so it is half done with what he had stashed here... he's got orders in with 2 sawmills and hoping to get some the end of next week.... BECAUSE we bought 2 bulls at the bull sale last night that we went to, after they sold the steers at the stockyards we hauled in... and they were put in the alley lot at the barn to give them a chance to get out of the trailer...
Going to put them in the small pasture where he had the steers but have to move the cows with new calves out of the field next to it so they don't tear the fence down trying to go over in with them. Too much juggling around but he has been trying to get this bull lot fence up for several months.... they redid the waterer and all when we did the concrete pad for the silage bunk last year... and then took down the mashed and stretched out fence over the winter when all the bulls were out to pastures... we have since doubled up the bulls at the places with the ones we brought home from the pastures early this winter... NOT IDEAL... but it has worked well enough to try to get the posts in and work on refencing the "bull lot"... only to not have any fencing boards available from any saw mills around here. He was putting in some of the posts and letting the bulls have both fields and they were using the posts for "I'm the big macho bull watch me push on this inanimate object"..... broke 1 post off, and got several all out of alignment with the fence so they had to come out of there so the posts could get pounded in and left alone for the fence.....
Can't use the poplar fencing boards, they will break them... It's going to be 2 boards up...from the bottom.... then guard rail... then another board above... the guard rail is at the height that the bulls like to lean their shoulders against the fences and rub along them... it stretched out the woven wire and after 20+ years of this pasture having been used for bulls.. it was all stretched out and they had broken nearly 1/2 the posts off... We have too many bulls and need for them to have a place to be contained where they can't get out of. This is only for the dividing fence with the next pasture over... the other sides are along the driveway/bank/woods and the ends are along a drive in lane and the other end is along the fenced out creek (crep land designated by the NCRS) so nothing along those fences to tempt them to want out....they don't bother the fences where there is nothing on the other side ......
One guy here that does alot of board fencing said he has posts up at 3 places and they cannot find good oak fence boards either... the treated poplar is available, but just not good enough for a fence that is going to get alot of pressure on it...

Rain last evening/night and some this morning. Sun is coming out and wind is getting up. Heading to the barn.....
 
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Ya know I saw where a couple dairy farms in CA were flooded and had to move cattle, ASAP as it was continuing to rise. So a couple days and like 1k head. That was horrendous and a huge effort for several trailers at a time, lot of help, etc, moved to 3 farms.

Then, I'm thinking -- OMG they have to milk on top of all that!!! Talk about heroic! They did not lose any to drowning but, monumental efforts for sure. One I'm sure you can appreciate on a couple levels.
 
@Ridgetop ; the wood posts are in... he got most of them driven back in Nov/Dec when ground was soft and he had a little help to do it.... he bought a tractor trailer of wood posts, couple years ago, back before they got quite this crazy expensive... metal/steel is prohibitively expensive if you could even find them... this guardrail he got is hard to get... he was on a list for awhile... and he works for VDOT.... and has had it for well over 5 years just waiting for somewhere to use it....originally thought about taking the 10 acre hayfield and his "green barn", (color of steel siding) and turning it into a working barn/cattle lots and working facility.... then the cell tower came along... then the widow was getting tired of the her grown kids BS and decided to sell doug's place and then DS went through all the BS to get it bought... so the working facilities there are now ours(his)... hence putting in the concrete for the silage bunker... repaired waterer and the new fence plans for the "bull lot" ( it is a couple acres in size)... and now, they have the poles all set for the hay storage barn that he bought the steel for 2+ years ago...

So that is where it is at... and the NRCS will only pay x dollars for these interior division fences so he is trying to keep it close to what they are paying.... he can replace aging fence or put in totally different fencing... so he has to get to work on it since he started it in July and it has 2 yrs to get it completed.... but you gotta have the boards.....and it will help pay for the waterer that was fixed/reset, as well as a couple of new ones he is going to install... Next is the well has to be drilled at the farm... he had 2 years to do it and that time is fast coming up... he can draw off the well on "Linda's" half of the original farm... but knows that he is going to have to put in a well so that is in the possible planning stage for this next year.... I think that some of that can be covered also....
and he is going to take advantage of all this assistance money because they will just give it to someone else or it might not get used.... too many around here are getting older and some selling out.... more subdivisions going in and who knows where these people are getting their money to do it now with the cost of building...
 
DS has a severe cold again... I could hear it in him last evening.... and he is run down from all the stress with EX-GF.... not sleeping and all that... and has been so sick today that I went up and closed off the small lot right around the barn, from the heifers he had coming in, and let the bulls out of the alleyway and into the lot for some hay and water.... Not ideal but they will be fine for the day/night and then hopefully if he gets some sleep today/tonight... he will feel a little better as there is a bunch of feeding that needs doing tomorrow... everyone is about out of hay.....plus I am hoping that Caleb might be going to come and they are going to "grade those heifers" and get them sorted for the group to go to WVA and the ones to spay and then what we are going to ship to the sale with any other "odd balls".... the part dairy looking ones, a couple of steers....anything he is not going to hold and graze/feed and sell in the fall... But DS needs to be feeling better to do the sorting/grading... that can wait til the first of the week but we need to get some feeding done. Plus we were going to move the 7 cows with small calves.... run through the barn and tag the calves and put them with the others that are calving now... and get them out of behind the barn in those 2 lots so we have some places to put the ones getting spayed and the ones to go to WVa, and out of the mud in the smaller lots in front of the barn.

The 2 bulls calmly walked down the alley and into the lot and right into the barn... no fuss, no upset, really just as unconcerned as anything... Already liking the temperaments. Both are minus birthweight bulls so will work on heifers but their info is not bad and will do okay for cows too.... moderate size on the one but the other ought to put a little more growth on the calves out of cows. We'll see. They were not as high as DS was thinking they would be selling for... spent less than $6500 on both.... we have one bull we are going to ship as he has not gotten as many cows bred as he should be and we have had some open cows the last 2 times from him... not even going to semen test him... just ship him. He ought to bring $1500-2000 for cull price so will go a long way to getting the investment in these 2 down. I would say these 2 weigh in the 11-1200 lb range... one was born 9/2021 and the other 10/2021... so both around 18 months now... we will use at least one this year and might use one on the small group of heifers.... we figure that a young bull should not be put on more than the number of heifers that he is months old... so an 18 month bull should only be used on about 15-20 head...There will be about 10-15 at the nurse cow pasture to breed when we get done with what we are going to breed this year... 10 or so heifers, the longhorn and a couple of other odd ones....that'll work. Then maybe use the other as a clean up bull out to pasture... put the main bull out with the cows in mid-May... and then put a 2nd bull in 6-8 weeks later to make sure we don't get into the problem we had that one year when the bull suddenly went bad..
Counting the Gelbvieh we got ( got 2 then sold 1)... we have gotten 3 bulls in the last 2 months... and bought 2 others last year... but we shipped 1 a month ago ( the one that got hurt that I liked so much) and another last year that we couldn't get in for so long... buried our old big Red Poll bull... and have 2 other bulls that are getting some age on them... the easy calving one #10 that is over 10 and then the one we call Black Powder that was a mature bull when we bought him in 2015-16 (?).... don't have my list in front of me... and have another that his calves just don't stand out although he seems to get the cows bred... he seems a little slow to get started...
We also have Roscoe.... the one that my nurse cow raised, that is a little pushy although not mean... but I don't trust him.... DS said a friend of a friend, has 7 cows and was interested in renting a bull so think we will send him there and see how he grows out over the summer...get him "out of the way" so to speak... he will be 2 in June.... at least he will come to a bucket and so won't be a problem to catch up... maybe we will like him better after the summer or if not, ship him....

Steers sold pretty good yesterday... they were smaller, 495 lbs for the 7; 375 and 415 lbs for the other 2 groups of 3, and 5..... and hit 2.55-2.59.... one single was 400 lbs and brought 2.50,,,... we ran one single steer from 1.30 to 1.87... was going to bring him home, but DS got him to where he said he could live with it... the 2 heifers together did okay, 1.51; a little lower than what we were thinking but not too bad..... but the single one they stole at 1.20...nothing wrong with her at all, she was just high strung and nutty...she was actually a nicer built heifer than the 2 together... just 70 lbs lighter, but she would have come back home and gotten sold with the next bunch... we were gone by then to go to the bull sale... he was not happy with that and I don't blame him... that is why we do not usually ever leave when we have stuff to sell... I offered to stay but he said they ought to do okay... so she is gone and we will go from here....

So, that is where we are at...

It rained last evening and this morning... total of .4 in the rain gauge... then clouds, then the sun came out this afternoon... temps into the mid 60's but there was quite a bit of wind... it was a warmer wind than the last time... low 50's tonight and NICE mid 60's and all sun they forecast for tomorrow...
 
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Wind is blowing like a banshee out there... high wind warning on the weather report...

DS got up and came out and fed some rolls of hay this afternoon late... I saw him go across the road and get a roll to feed to the cows next door... called and asked if he needed any help... he said Chad was with him to open gates... he had come to the farm to work a little... was there when DS got there and did gates and such so DS got the pens of heifers fed at the barn so that was good.
He said he hopes Caleb will be able to come and help sort/grade the heifers so he can get them moved around... maybe he will get a decent night's sleep... I told him he ought to take something and he said he has tried a couple of different things and I said then you need a good "drink" to get your body to relax and maybe you could get some sleep... I really like making a "drink" some of the night's that I ache so much... just enough to get my body to relax and I sleep like a baby.... and for me, one's enough... might go days without touching it but then some nights I am ready for some relax help....
 
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Long day but really REALLY nice out... DS called and he sounded better and said Caleb was going to be able to come this morning (was planning on after 4 originally) and his wife and 2 boys came... they had been checking cattle at his father's because a heifer had gotten out into the neighbors field... and said since they were halfway to us they would just come on. Got there and they had sent his wife to Wendy's to get some lunch and so I helped in the barn for a bit... opening gates when they were being sorted into which ever pen he wanted them in... Took awhile... but they got them sorted the way they want them pretty much. There are 30 to go to WVa pasture... 14 for VT and 20-22 maybe for sale at the yard. Took 2 back to the nurse cow pasture... they are bred from being out to pasture and probably due around May/June? We left 2 others there when I caught them all up that looked preg as well as a couple he wanted to retain. Then she came back and ate... I even got a burger since she had gotten 4 of the $5 meals and their 3 yr old only eats partial... I wasn't planning on eating... then DS and Caleb went back into the barn and wanted to look them over again to make sure they had what they had right... and Nikki and I just stood around with the kids (3 and 7 months) and talked. Come to find out she was not a big fan of the GF and she only met her once... she's pretty nice and seems to be a good match for him... the 7 month old has already learned to scrunch around and sit himself up by himself... cute kid...

They finally left and DS and Chad were going to work on the hay barn... putting up the "headers" on the top of the telephone poles... they worked most of the afternoon and did get it done. I went and got Chad some lunch and we all stood around and talked... J (sister) called DS to give him an update on GF .... She got bucked off a horse and has several fractured and a couple BROKEN ribs... one a complete break... it happened Friday and on the way home from the bull sale he had to go to the hospital as they were going to transport her from the local one to there because they were talking some surgery to put a plate on the one rib so it did not puncture the lung... big mess... but she had not arrived at the hospital and after an hour there he finally said we would go home since they did not know how soon she would arrive.
It's a mess and DS was really worried... but she did not want anyone to come to see her on SAT... she said she just needed to rest... .......come to find out it has come out that she is seeing the ex boyfriend....again.... and that is why she wanted DS to move out.... and it turns out ex came to see her on Sat and that is why she didn't want anyone there...
When DS got off the phone with J he was pretty fit to be tied... and madder than he//... but I think this has put the kabosh to it all... THANK you GOD that he did not give her a ring and all that...
DS had already been told about her seeing the ex, earlier in the week, and mentioned it on the phone in a conversation with the friend she was riding with when DS talked to her... so this discussion with J was not a total shock... he mentioned to Nikki, Caleb's wife, that she needed to find him someone DECENT that was animal oriented ... so I think he is coming to face it... but having J confirm it put the final screws to it... it is really pretty bad and he has gone off on a tangent about what a so and so the ex is for this and on and on and I finally said that he is no worse than she is and he blew up at me... and I said well she isn't any better... and then I left because his temper was starting to get the best of him.... it's not like someone has held a gun to her head....
She is a selfish self centered two bit whore... and this is a pattern... and I think he reached his limit... all I can say is that I am glad it came out so he can stop blaming himself for it...

So he called a little bit ago and said he took the 2 heifers to the nurse cow field (pregnant ones) and turned them out... Said he needs a couple more for WV and for VT so might go by the stockyards tomorrow after his therapy appt... he said if I wanted to go I could meet him to go... but I am testing at my 2nd biggest herd (250) and have to be there by 12 or so to set up for 1:30 milking.... so can't go. Got the meters and the hoses and the trays of bottles all in the car ready to go...

I should have worked on the wire/posts but my hammer is broken... snapped the handle right at the head trying to take a nail out... so will have to get another one... it was a cheap yard sale hammer I got several years ago so not the end of the world.... I will get a new handle for it but will stop at Harbor Freight or somewhere and pick up another inexpensive one with a fiberglass handle... saw some the other day when I was doing those errands last week... then get back after the posts and wire mess....

DS is taking the kids to see the dinosaur exhibit on Sat... it was already planned... I think J is going with him but I said I could go if she can't.... but he is talking I ought to take the ones to the stockyard sale on Sat... so I might be going there by myself.... we'll see when we get closer to Sat....

Going to cool off more tonight they say... I brought all the plants in... tomorrow is supposed to be nice again... so if I put them out I will have to bring them back in after testing... because nights are supposed to go from the low 40's down into the low 30's by mid week but days are supposed to be nice.

Oh, surprise too, my garden got plowed today... I stopped to see the neighbor as I saw him when I went by... and he said he could come do it this afternoon... I said anytime whenever he wanted to would suit... so it is plowed and he will come and run the rototiller over it in a few days... he uses a 2 bottom plow to get it turned up... soil looks real good... lot of overgrown grass in it but it will get chopped up good with the rototiller... ..
Need to see about getting some onion plants... I am going to get some other potatoes but there are alot here that are sprouting so am going to plant alot of them.... It will be 6 weeks before even thinking about putting out anything like tomatoes here... but potatoes and onions and broccoli and some cold weather stuff can go in...
Now to deal with the deer... Electric fence I hope will knock them on their a$$... got the electric netting...

I need to go to bed....
 
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