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...

 

[Baymule]

We need rain here too. There has been spotty showers but not here at my place.

 

[farmerjan]

Saturday afternoon. It was 65 this morning and RAINING.... it started overnight and was still raining this morning. Light, soft rain.
Went to a pancake breakfast at the school that the sisters 2 kids go to. Sad for them that it was raining... there were several vendors set up outside with T-shirts and baked goods and such... Fund raiser for the school. Pancakes were good, Bought a light weight sweatshirt with a Highland cow on it... then finally came on home... Then the rain got a little more steady and serious for awhile... really nice to hear/see it... sad that all the fall festivals and such were getting wet but I sure cannot regret it much with this much needed rain. It has stopped now... and radar shows it clearing off for a bit. I will go out and check the rain gauge in a little bit. Then go up to the pasture and take a half bottle for the calf and see how she is doing and if she will take it... not going to waste the expensive milk replacer if she is not going to take it. She took 2 swallows out of the one yesterday and then just refused to drink it...
More rain in the forecast for several days, off and on...

Yesterday DS took the 4 cows, 1 little heifer , the odd ball steer up at that pasture and the big bull.
Prices on stuff were off .... way off... and one big buyer wasn't there... DS wound up buying 10 head total, of steers and bulls, in the 450-500 lb range... (they ought to match some of our stuff ) for anywhere from .40 to .80 LESS per pound than we got for ours a couple weeks ago.... The cull cows were off, and the one cull cow buyer was getting a bargain.... normally they have been from $1/ lb on the real low side, to over $1.60 lb for very good ones... We got $.80 and .90/ lb... but we let them go. Being old cows, we just didn't want to put the feed into them..... He did buy back the steer for less than $2/lb which was ridiculous.... and our big bull came back home at less than $1.70/lb. DS was really mad and so was I because there was some obvious favoritism going on there... You can tell some of the manipulating... this is not my first rodeo... and I saw it... Alot of those cull cows were being run through so that they could get a "sales ticket" on them... and the ones that they did not announce the name of the seller all brought in the $1 to 1.30 range... and the ones they announced the seller, one of the people that worked there had some in there, also brought decent money... they didn't announce our name on one and she brought 1.02... little 800 lb cow... the other 3 they announced the farm name as seller and they dropped back into the 70's to start... DS ran one all the way to .89 and then let her go... but they were 1.00/lb + kind of cows compared to the rest that were there.
I have told DS that I don't like selling cull cows there... and we usually take them to the one sale north of here... but he figured since they had been doing pretty decent, that it wasn't worth the trip north (1 hr north of us)...
From now on they will go north... We have become alot less happy with this sale barn since it was sold... the guy who bought it uses it more of a "receiving sale" for them to get their load lots put together... and they do not like dealing with the "littler guy"... we have seen it several times... and I have said something several times to DS.... Unless you have a perfectly matched "load" of calves... 10 or more, they really don't want to be bothered with the smaller farmer... and they hate selling the small groups of 2-3-4 or even the singles. This market is becoming a real "clique" bunch...
There are several different buyers at the sale north of here... and there is more "competition" for the cattle... so better prices usually.
Cattle prices took a bit of a hit this week, futures markets were back up Monday and have since lost all that, plus a couple dollars... but that is the nature of the fall sales. 2weeks ago the futures market dropped the limit.. regained it over 3 days and was up the limit this past Monday... it is not so much what cattle there are available, or anything like that anymore... it is the speculators in the markets that have it so volatile... They figured to take some profits, and then the prices drop on future delivery of cattle... and they get back in...

DS plans to sell most steers, to the guy who bought our steers last year, direct... and the ones he bought last night are going to be part of what he hopes will blend in... Another friend of DS's, that also worked for VDOT and retired...and like so many, runs some cattle on the side, said he was there a week ago, and the prices yesterday were off at least .50/lb... he also bought a trailer load of calves for himself...

This sale used to be "THE PLACE" to bring your good black, and bwf calves to sell... and even that is getting a bit tarnished... with the owners/buyers trying to "buy low", which I get, but it is not drawing in the smaller farmers that have 10-20 total to sell and they might be good ones... heard someone say that they were going to go to the Harrisonburg sale with their cattle in a couple weeks... they did not like the way things had changed and that they seemed to be against the little guy.

SO, disappointing day in alot of ways... except that he managed to take advantage of the lower prices/fewer buyers and get some for himself...

Normally we don't sell anything in Sept/Oct either, due to the glut of cattle and calves coming off the pastures... just wanted to get these old cows gone since they were out of grass... and no need to keep the big bull and feed him... but not going to let him go for several hundred less than they were bringing. There is nothing in the cattle numbers that shows a drop off this year of this much in one week... sometimes there is a fluke and it seems this week was one.... we can wait.

I have to test Sunday aft... then Dr appt for DS Monday and I have a followup appt on Tuesday... the back ache is no better, I feel just worn out and like crap... I still think it is related to that tick bite/bullseye... and there are other things making me think it even more. It's been over 60 days since the bone density and any blood work... maybe something will click this time... she had said that maybe the antibiotics had masked any results of Lyme disease... and was considering testing for some others... so maybe going to push that this time... It is too much of a coincidence that I started feeling this way, with the "cold symptoms", headache and severe back ache, worn out and all that right after I had that extreme "bullseye", I am NOT wanting to have Lyme or anything else... but after seeing how it affected my mother, and DS having several relapses with it several years, I think that I , sadly, am on the right track...

Going to make the bottle and go to the pasture... It has stopped raining... for a bit. Good break... I need to do the turkeys and chickens too .