Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Baymule]

A bear! Not good. There have been no bears in East Texas since the 1940's except one now and then, probable passing through on their way to somewhere else. But last month, there were game camera pictures of two different bears in my county and surrounding counties. The wildlife folks are trying to get bears established in Texas again. They are happy, nobody else is. The bears are protected, huge fines for shooting one.

 

[fuzzi]

A bear! Not good. There have been no bears in East Texas since the 1940's except one now and then, probable passing through on their way to somewhere else. But last month, there were game camera pictures of two different bears in my county and surrounding counties. The wildlife folks are trying to get bears established in Texas again. They are happy, nobody else is. The bears are protected, huge fines for shooting one.

A bit more difficult to apply SSS to bears as opposed to roaming dogs...

 

[farmerjan]

Been busy with the cow/calf adoption situation.... water leaks and my checking cattle and waterers at other pastures... Tested the 550 cow herd Tues morning... packed samples and did normal chores... had an appt with the car ins people for yearly "check up" on coverages... went to a cow sale in town Tues eve after leaving the ins people. Long day... we left my house at 3:15 A.M. tues morning... Today, I didn't get up quite so early... had to take meters to the farm to set up... came home and brought laundry in since it was looking like possible "weather"... yeah, got 20 sprinkles.... Went to the farm to test at 3... home and have to do some paperwork... then back in the morning by 5... test Thurs aft, so will set up there on way home from this farm in the morning... and back to that herd Fri morning at 5:15....

I also stopped at the pasture with the 4 old cows and calves, and the 1 odd steer... and called them and got them in the pen, so called DS and he came and got them in the trailer... Plans are to take the 4 old cows and one other bull to the sale on Friday... culls....

May be able to get a bit of a break on Sat... got another farm scheduled for Sun aft... and DS has dr appt on Monday....
Time to get a shower early and get some sleep tonight...

 

[fuzzi]

Forecast for the next couple days is a cold front moving through, with rain. I hope we BOTH get some of it.

 

[Ridgetop]

Need to cut some numbers if we do not get some serious rain here very soon to bring back some of the fall grass... there is still another 60 days that fall grass can grow here... unless we get an early frost. You never know in the fall...

Guess we will take some of the old cow money and put towards another 20-50 rolls of hay too...

We need rain here too. Finally got several hours of slow rain yesterday morning. DS1 took his friend's van to the tire shop and got talking with a farmer there. That fellow said he had over 1000 round bales of hay he "couldn't give away" and had decided not to do a second cutting this year. So many cows have been sold that hay is really cheap this year. According to that fellow down to $15-20 a bale! Too bad you are not closer.

 

[farmerjan]

Thursday... it sprinkled a little after we got the cows/calves moved to the farm.. I came home and did some paperwork for the farm... then got a shower and went to bed... Coughing alot and did not sleep good... BUT... I heard the soft rain on the roof... and it was a very light rain this morning when I left at 4:45 to go back to the farm... Milking went pretty good.... and it rained a little early.
Got done, did the computer work on their computer, and got the meters out of the barn. Came by the farm I am testing this evening... stopped and set the meters up for this evening... I usually set up at this farm ahead of time, so saved a "special trip" out to do it.

Got home and checked the rain gauge......... we got .4 inch over the course of the night. Beautiful slow light rain that soaked right in.... and we are supposed to get more over the next few days....
The sun tried to come out and is still trying to show through. Supposed to cloud up later and more showers etc... later today... Let's hope they are right.

Ate a sandwich. I was hungry. Going in to pack the samples. Then I am going to make a bottle and go to the pasture. The bottom board was off the pen in one corner, yesterday, and both calves were "gone.."... found them out in the field... both with the cow... so I had taken a bottle, and convinced the calf to take the bottle out in the field... I left her with 319 and her calf. It wasn't cold, so the rain won't hurt her.... and if this helps her to be a "calf" and stays with the others, she might try to steal off some of the other cows... The cow made NO move to want to come to the barn, so feeding extra grain may not work out too well... but if I can supplement the calf like I did with the holstein last year on the jersey, it might do okay. I will just have to keep a close eye on them... Hopefully the calves will start to learn to come in for grain ... there are a couple that are coming in the creep gate, and the one on the longhorn comes in, so that will help too, to supplement all them. The terrible dry/drought has left them with no grass to eat. The hay is okay, but not as good as grazing, so they are not making as much milk as they might on good fall grass pasture. Can't do anything about that, except to start feeding them a little in the feed troughs and keep the protein/supplemental tubs in front of them. Going to get more tubs tomorrow... The have a little left in one tub...

Need to get the samples done and go to the pasture...