Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Mr. @CntryBoy777 is right -- that is fantastic! And glad your dad is doing better as well. And that you got some rain! Maybe your load will get a bit lighter. I hope so -- you so much deserve a break from all of the hassles you have lived through lately!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks for the congrats. I am pretty proud of him for it. Especially with all the stresses the last 3 weeks.

My brother said the food at the rehab is better than the diner's food ( the diner that used to be next door to my grandparents place in Ct and was really good food) and he likes the nurses/therapist or whatever her title is. They were assessing my father today. Guess they will start on things on Monday. That's good.

We had .7 inch rain in the gauge this morning. Don't know how much of it was Wed., and how much was Thurs. but that is a good amount because there were no real problems from it here. Just a good soaking rain. It all really soaked in here too by the looks of the ground. May not get what they were thinking either. Didn't get any here today and we were a 70% chance..... Take it as it comes. But see, that is where it is hard for us with hay. Back a couple of weeks we got rain 3 days in a row with only a 10% chance. Today no rain with 70% chance. How in the world do you make "educated " GUESSES, to cut hay????? Yep, you guess....

@Senile_Texas_Aggie ; you asked what/how we store the hay. The rolls are stored outside. It does create some loss of hay, about the top 6 " of hay on each roll will be wet and pretty much non-edible. If we had the money, we would have a HUGE hay barn that the rolls could be stored inside. But don't.... have stored it outside for as long as we have been making hay. Another reason to make bigger rolls... so fewer rolls, so less "waste". The square bales are stored inside, mostly on the wagons, or stacked on the gooseneck flatbed trailer and delivered right after baling. We have 5 wagons I think that store about 100 bales each; all depending on where they are going to be stored as to how high he will stack them in order to get them in the sheds or doorway into the bigger barn. Can get as many as 150 on the big wagon but they are stacked well above the sides. We also have a barn that we can store them in. Unload them into a hay mow. That is sorta a last resort, as it means handling the hay more. But on good years we put the extra in there and then in years when we might not get as much, it gives us some to fall back on. Last year we used up nearly all the reserve in the barn, but he did sell to a few people that are not regular customers. One is the complainer that will not get anymore this year. Another neighbor who BUSH HOGS their own hayfield, won't rent/lease/allow hay made on shares; and then BOUGHT sq bales last year and quibbled over the price. I said ABSOLUTELY NOT this year. We won't be making that much extra by the looks of it since several fields have alot of weeds. Sprayed for the weeds, but it knocks the 2nd cutting back alot. We will take care of our regulars and maybe put a little back in the barn for emergencies. NOT SELLING to JERKS anymore.

 

[farmerjan]

The meat birds I got a week or so before I had the 45 killed are doing pretty good now. PITA to have to haul water to them up at my son's property, but they are going out in the woods and eating alot of leaves off the brush and stuff, scratching up the ground some for worms and bugs. There are 29 which is about half of what I originally got. Not as good as I wanted, but many of those were not as thrifty as the last batch. They will go to the poultry swap in mid Sept., and hopefully will all get sold. I will probably get another batch, somewhere in early or middle of Sept., if there are any left when the house goes out; but don't know if I will get any after that with the surgery to be scheduled in January. A sept batch can be put in the freezer in Dec before surgery. Too much work for someone else to worry about. Now that there is a place to get them done, I don't worry so much about raising them up. I plan to give some to the guy who I am getting all the nice tomatoes from, and would be getting more stuff if I had the time to do it up. Plus I am trying to not have so much food to move if I find a place.

I am such a pack rat that it is going to be a major undertaking to try to move all my stuff now. I am trying to start packing things now, like books and such. Wanted to do some "yard sale " stuff at the once a month "flea market" here local.... but haven't gotten there yet. At least I am trying to pack some books in boxes that are "for sale" stuff, as opposed to keep stuff. Have alot of stuff to go through and need to do some serious DISCARDING.
Would like to find a 2nd hand shop to consign some clothes to. Stuff I will probably never wear again, especially since I am not working places where "decent clothes" are necessary. My cousin used to run one up north and she got some pretty neat stuff. Of course that was a very affluent area of upper Stamford CT and Westchester NY area. But if I could get some of it together for the Sept sale here that would be good. Maybe try shooting for that. Books and some clothes at least. I think the spots are $10.00 so that won't break me. Too much trouble to try to do it here, signs and all that stuff, plus be here and haul it in and out for a weekend.... Rather to take it there as there is a huge number of people that walk through there. Commit one day there if I already have it ready to go, and then maybe donate a bunch to Goodwill after that. I like to shop goodwill so that would be a good way to give back.

 

[Baymule]

Making hay is too hard of work to put up with idiots. I don't blame you one bit. We wanted square bales because sometimes our hay guy can't get a bale delivered to us when we run out. So we bought 40 square bales from another neighbor, out of the field for $3 a bale-a real bargain. Only thing is, they were too green. I busted one open to give to the sheep, to find it hot and moldy. So we have a trailer full of heated up moldy hay. Oh well. We just had forestry mulching done, so will use the hay as mulch baffles to keep the sand from eroding-if we ever get any rain! I'm not mad about it, but I bet there are some mighty PO'd people out there.

 

[farmerjan]

Shame that the hay was too green to have been baled. Yes, some people will be pretty p.o.ed. I would be. And there is the chance of fire so just watch yours. There may be some that is good, but if I remember, you said they were heavy.... so I think he really did bale it all too green. We are SOOOOO careful of that and will toss aside any that we load on the trailer that feel heavy. It does make good mulch. Also, you can actually use the hay as planting beds for some things once it is done heating. Or use it as sides of some "raised beds" and then it will rot down into nicer soil for the next year.....or lay the "leaves" of hay (sections) down as mulch... on top of a newspaper/cardboard/feed sack base. Holds down the paper, keeps the ground moist, and slowly rots to feed the soil. The worms will come up through any paper/cardboard base and in 6 months here, you don't even know you had cardboard or feed sacks on the bottom. Plus they really help to smother the weeds, covering the soil more completely than just the hay mulch. Sometimes here spoiled hay can be bought for less than bales of straw and such for mulch. Some don't want the weed/hay seeds but they pull easy in the looser soil with the hay there.

 

[Baymule]

It's still in the stock trailer, we parked it out in the open, not next to anything. If it combusts, all it will burn is the stock trailer and it is insured. It would be a PITA, but at least that is all that would be destroyed. We are going to use it as mulch. We'll probably tackle that chore this coming week so we can get the trailer clear for use.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @farmerjan,

Thank you for explaining how you stored your hay. Recently I saw a YouTube video by Our Wyoming Life that talked about the different ways to store hay. He stores his outside because it is so dry there that there isn't much loss from moisture:

We just had forestry mulching done

Pictures, Miss @Baymule, pictures!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Baymule]

Pictures, Miss @Baymule, pictures!

Senile Texas Aggie

It starts here on my Making a Pasture thread. I'll be posting more pictures. He just finished up yesterday and we are exhausted/tired/wore out/lazy/not-doin'-nuthin' LOL

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/making-a-pasture.36612/page-20

Thinking I need to start a new thread, just for the forestry mulching.

 

[Mini Horses]

Hay -- horses eat a lot, goats eat more, cows? WOW 40-50# a day??? (depends on breed/size, etc) It's a LOT.

Speaking of cows -- obviously FarmerJan knows the dairy ones
CL had a big Guernsey cow, bull Guernsey calf on side and bred back to Jersey bull for Oct calf -- "nurse cow - will take ANY calf -- Hand or machine milk...gives approx. 8 gallon p/dy!! " EIGHT GAL!!!! Holy Cow. BUT at 1200 sounded like a decent deal. Prob would take a little less. Pkg deal. You would HAVE to buy more young to nurse her, or share and milk her.

I just can't get over the amount of milk. Love my gallon a day goats. At least I can dry one or two off. A cow...way too much. But I so want a cow. (Used to raise up feeders, Angus or Hereford mostly -- family freezer meat/sales).

Is this a "normal" amount for that breed? (NO, I'm not buying one, just curious & amazed)

 

[farmerjan]

First off, that video on Our wyoming life is pretty right on about the hay. We mostly stack in long rows, ends tight together. Do a few pyramids that are 3-2-1 and we cover. There are tarps specifically for hay stacks and they have loops along the bottom so you can slide a long pole in and it helps to keep the tarp from catching the wind and flying up. We also have added cinder block or old tires for weights to keep the tarps down. Good video though. The ones I've seen of his, are pretty much what things are .

@Mini Horses : 8 gal a day from a guernsey is quite a bit, But if she has the size, not unheard of. That's 65-70 lbs a day. And that is at peak production, not what she will make all through her lactation. Problem is, that is a little high priced for the market right now. Not saying that I don't think that a good nurse cow isn't worth it.... she is a 3 in 1 package. At cull prices she is worth $#.50 lb so maybe 1200 lbs, so $600. Guernsey bull calves aren't worth didily squat unfortunately. Like a jersey bull calf. Of course he probably weighs in the neighborhood of 500 + lbs. BUT they aren't worth anything like what a beef calf is worth and many people do not like guernseys for beef because they have yellow fat as opposed to the white fat that you see on most all meat in the store. It is like jersey beef though, has a little sweeter flavor and usually it marbles well. But he is sadly worth about $.50 lb at the market. So say he is worth $300 to be generous. That makes her unborn calf worth $300 and there is no way it is worth that. Again, todays market. Not saying that she might not be worth that to someone and obviously that is what the craigslist poster is hoping. I would even be interested in a cow like that but for about $800-1,000. Again, because of the market. And no mention of age?
If she is due in Oct then she is ready to go dry. So 2 months of no milking until she calves again.

A beef cow will eat approx 35-50 lbs hay a day with access to some pasture (picking). And it goes up considerably as the temps drop. A dairy cow can eat close to 80 lbs when fresh and producing well. And she will need grain or the hay would have to be VERY VERY GOOD alfalfa for the protein. They really can't eat enough hay to produce copious amounts of milk and keep their weight up and all in early stages of lactation.

I have enough cows but guernseys are my favorite. Good thing she isn't close or I would go look at her even though I don't need her. A good nurse cow is worth something extra though. And most of my guernseys have been willing to take calves with little fuss.