Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Yes to all those things @fuzzi ....

We had a little more sprinkles and clouds. Then it stopped and we had some sun by afternoon. Then this eve it clouded up again, and got some misty sprinkles again. But in the rain gauge we had a good 1.35 inches... not quite 1.4 inches... It has been a godsend for sure... It won't solve the drought conditions.... but because things are not growing, it will soak in and help the ground moisture situation a whole deal. And if it is not hot out there like it was, it will soak in before it can be sucked out of the ground. It has been chilly, but at least we got some moisture. DS did get the other field drilled with the wheat, so it will settle in and grow.

Finally got the samples all packed and took them to the UPS store and then came back and went directly to the farm to test. The parlor is just like the other herringbone parlors, so I was used to it. The one big problem is that the cows do not milk a whole lot... they are on pasture, get fed a total mixed ration.... like silage with a balanced grain added, but they still do not milk that great. Partially they are all getting into long days in milk, many did not get bred, so their milk is falling off and they are not ready to be dried off... Plus he has so many customers, that he cannot afford to dry off too many right now... even though some are needing to go out of there... Because they are not milking alot, they go through fast and it was a little bit of a push to keep up with them... we got in a bit of a rhythm, but then the owner came in to help and he just gets in the way with 3 people in there... but anyway... we got done, and will go back in the morning... It will be a tad bit slower as the cows will milk a little better,,,, they start at 3 or so in the afternoon, and then 5:15 or so in the morning... so a longer time period. The cows look fine, they are just not being pushed to their potential because of the "grass/pasture fed" aspect... not my animals... They are not getting bred back like they should though... and that is because of the marginal feed/milk/body nutrition... breeding is the first thing that gets "slowed down or shut off" when demands are made on the body...

While I was testing, DS came and replaced the heating element in the water heater, and said there is no plug in, so will have to decide where he is going to tap into which box to add a plug box down there... then can have the plug in for the heater. I will have to turn on and off a couple breakers when he is down there, so he can find out which junction box is tied into the light down there, so that he can use that electric to add the plug in box. I do not like to work with electricity, so what ever he says is fine with me. He said he is not going to hang it, but will set it on a cinder/concrete block down there so it is not on the dirt floor... this way if it gets knocked over.... how I don't know... but it will turn off... nothing should be down there anyway... At least I shouldn't have to deal with it getting too cold and pipes freezing again.. just got to make sure the job gets finished.

So, I ate a tuna fish sandwich for supper... going in to try a nice HOT shower... go to bed so I can get up and go to the farm in the morning... test and do the computer stuff... then come on home, pack samples, go check the heifer that is getting closer to calving, and do some stuff here... I need to try to catch the 2 holstein heifers near the barn to get them in. I can keep them in the pen overnight with hay and water so not a problem if I get them in, and he does not get them moved right away. DS will be busy with the sister's 2 kids for Halloween tomorrow evening...

Well, I better go get a shower and get clothes out for the morning, and go to bed.

 

[farmerjan]

Saturday late afternoon. 36 overnight... sunny and light breeze today... hit 67 in the sun... a whole lot warmer than yesterday.
Yesterday morning, got up and went to the farm... testing went okay... it was chilly but not much wind early. That picked up during the day and was a stiff wind in the late afternoon. Downright miserably chill factor with the wind blowing.
Got the samples packed and went up to the pasture... Still no calf for that last heifer... but I said she would be the end of the month, Oct just ended and she is uddering up... so ought to be in a couple days.

I managed to get the 2 holstein heifers in the lot/barn... and locked them in the pen so DS could move them to the barn for the preg check on Tuesday. That was a relief to get them in... You just got to catch them at the right place, right time... I opened the gate that I used to bring Betsy in, on the side away from the creep gate... and walked one around the corner of the barn where she was wanting to go in with the calves for the feed... then the other one came up to the protein tubs... and managed to walk her around and in the gate also... AND... no one else was trying to go around there... so it worked out good. DS has the panels set up at the other pasture so we can get the 18 in to bring to the barn to be checked also... plans to do it either Sunday aft or Monday... vet is Tuesday.
I took the samples to UPS and took the plastic bags into Walmart to be recycled... they have bins there for the plastic bags... I had collected a whole bunch for awhile and decided they needed to go... picked up a couple things, and came on home.
I had run a load of clothes through the washer but did not hang them as I was afraid they would wind up in the next county... Wind was blowing and some gusts...
Got a nice HOT shower the last 2 nights... soooo nice to not have to take quickie one to have warm water...

Texted DS and told him they were in, had water and some hay and would be good to move. He said he would do them Sat morning probably... that was fine..

So today, Sat.. he said he was going to move them, then clean the trailer out since the guy was supposed to be coming for the rams... the ones with the good horns... he might need me to help get them in the trailer...

He texted me and said he ought to be there about 11 or so... I met him at his house, I stayed in the car until he got the sheep called and into the 2 pens he has...one in the front section where he had all the rams, and one in the back section where he had the ram and the ewes together... Don't want to change their routines as they are still a semi feral breed... unless you have a bottle lamb that grows up ... which sometimes that is good as they lead the way when you need them to .....overall, they do learn to come in to eat, but they are skittish and so you never want to change their routine... and never have a strange person there when you want to get them caught up etc...
So, we loaded the one that had been breeding the ewes; then moved the trailer over to the other section back to that pen, and he had to catch the 3 rams separately by the horns, close to their heads, and get them to the gate and then I opened the trailer door a little and he got them in the back. The one that had been with the ewes was closed in the front section of the trailer...this time of year they are "squaring off" and backing up 50 ft in the field and "ramming".... DO NOT want them to break off the horns... and once separated, he seldom puts them back together unless they already have a broken off horn... and NOT this time of year... The 3 old mature rams were in with several young rams... and they live as "bachelor groups".
So, he got rid of the 3 or 4 with broken horns 2 weeks ago, then these 4.

So he said the guy was going to call him when they were on their way in this direction... they were coming to get some water buffalo east of here... then were going to stop and get the rams...

DS said let's go to "tom's" bull sale, 15 min from here... and get lunch, and see what was there... so we did. We have not bought any of his angus, but the other breeder that he "partner's with" for the sale and such, has Limousin and "Lim-flex" and sells 4-5-6 bulls at the sale... Lim-flex is a fancy way to say they are lim-angus crosses... Our last Limi bull came from there several years ago...
The bull prices were higher than we thought... a few were in the 4500-6,000 range but most were 8,000 and above...several brought over 10,000...
There was one limi bull that we both really liked... muscled up real good in the hindquarters... but when he went over 7,000 we decided that was enough. He went to a fellow farmer here close. I told DS that he ought to talk to the guy, and if he decides to "trade him in" in a couple years, to let us know and we might want to buy him. Never know what will happen in a few years... so keep the avenue's open... We don't really "need" another bull right now... DS wants to maybe find another one so that when we decide to sell the other one next year that is getting some serious age on him also, we will not get caught short... we still need to go look at the bulls that will be at the QH sale... It was supposed to be this coming Friday, 7th... but now is going to be on the 22nd... OF COURSE.... that is the day of our Va Poultry Breeders show... and the bull sale is at 12 noon... so no way I can do both. If it was at 6 at night like it usually has been, I could come from the poultry show and come to the bull sale on the way home....

Oh well, that's the way it goes... he will be on his own there... I said I could, not go to the poultry show.....

Well you know nothing ever goes as planned. The guy calls DS... they had a truck give them problem so were only coming this way with one trailer... and he could maybe come back to get the rams late this evening... but they didn't know about getting the water buffalo loaded.... had never been to this place and had no idea of the facilities... and he could stop and pay DS first and DS said to let him know how he was making out later... that we could keep them in the trailer with water and hay so that he would not have to try to unload and then them not go in the pen tomorrow... The guy called him and said he would come in the morning and DS said that was fine... they were quiet and laying down in there with no problems.

So, after the first call about the truck trailer problems, we left the bull sale and came back... DS said he was going to put the 3 rams into the 2nd section, and load the one other breeding ram and the 5 ewes, and take them to the pasture where he had had one of the broken horned rams with 4 other ewe's being bred... he was a real nice ram, massive circumference on the horn that wasn't broken off... had had a beautiful head before he broke it off... It sure doesn't hurt them for breeding. but they are not worth much for the hunts these guys do... This way he had 2 different breeding groups... they should have been bred already, but put the younger breeding ram out there with them all as a "cleanup" just in case.
I helped him load them, and came on home... He took them over there... there is a ton of grass there at that pasture... he has kept sheep there for years, belongs to the sister and bil of the owners of the house I am in now... so anyway... do them good to be off this ground here for a few months. They will have to come back late Jan to lamb at his house...
So the only sheep at his house now are the younger rams... I think there are 2 that are 2-3, and maybe 3 ram lambs from this year??? he still has a mule here at his house and the other one is at that pasture that he moved the ewes to...

I finally got the clothes hung out on the line... and fed the chickens and turkeys and filled the waterers. Put a bag of leaves in the turkey's...
Took some time doing that... and measured their runs... so I can see what it will cost to put some of this marine vinyl on it for making them more "winter weather " useable......

I will do another load of jeans this evening... get them out tomorrow... May as well take advantage of the sun and breeze for clothes drying...

I am going to go in and find something to eat... the lunch was okay, chili was NOT spicy so pretty good... they had "hot dogs" but they were some sort of bratwurst I guess...... real fat, twice the size of regular hot dogs and very spicy... maybe not to those of southwest/Texas upbringing... but they were spicy... and way too "hot" for me... Has some chips, and few desserts.. always a good plain jane meal... usually really liked it but not the sausage/dogs this time. Oh well...
There were alot of people there... but now I am ready for some supper...

The time changes tonight... DS will hate it but I will be glad... it will be more incentive to get up and get going in the mornings again... One thing, now that he is not working at vdot... he does not have to put in the horrible long hours he used to... might even get to liking it a little more...

So that was my day... weather was nicer, not near as cold, sun out... looking for another few days like that... there is a 20% chance of a scattered shower Sun night/Mon morning... but I am not expecting much...

 

[farmerjan]

Cattle prices have see/sawed some... back up a bit after the severe drop... I think they will level out some here... the "paper jockeys" have taken their profits from the futures and things will settle down some. I think they will still be a little lower than they were... but probably not as much as was thought. There are several groups that have really taken Trump to task for the way he talked about the beef farmers/ranchers... and all the hyped up crap about buying 4x the beef from Argentina... when it is a very small percentage of the beef market overall... look out if we start getting too much from Brazil... they have a much greater number of cattle in inventory there...
China has agreed to buy some soybeans... so those prices went up... so then that means that the cost of feed will stay up, which will make the cost of beef stay up also... You will see a little softening of some beef prices ... manipulating the market so he can "keep his promise" of bringing beef costs down... don't look for much though...
Interesting article about the lamb market... that I think @fuzzi referenced...

 

[farmerjan]

No, I think it was @drstratton that posted it...

 

[drstratton]

No, I think it was @drstratton that posted it...

It wasn't me, but I did read and comment on it. I think it was @SageHill?

 

[SageHill]

I'm the one that posted on the lamb

 

[farmerjan]

Oh.... "senioritis" CRS.... Thank You @SageHill ..... for posting it... and for "refreshing" my memory

 

[Finnie]

@farmerjan are you planning on going to the Ohio National Poultry show next weekend? Earlier in the year you had said you might, but you haven’t mentioned it recently.

 

[Baymule]

Working my sheep through the chute can get goofy sometimes. Overall they are mostly calm and just like big pets. I can get it that working your son's sheep can get goofy in a heartbeat. Recently a friend came over and he went to take a look at the visiting sheep. Mine decided to come in off the field and we were standing close to the gap. Some came through with not a care in the world, others bunched up, nervously. They saw their friends going through and happy on the other side and got more nervous, wanting to be with their friends. They leaped through the gap like they were flying. It was comical. Upon landing, thy bounded again, twisting like a rodeo bucking horse. Silly sheep.

 

[farmerjan]

Got to get outside and get some things done... so just a quick post...

@Finnie ;
YES, I am planning to go to the Ohio National this coming weekend... Tentative plans are to leave here EARLY Friday morning... DS's GPS says 5 1/2 hrs... I figure if I leave by 6 or before, that I will get there by NOON...
Friday is set up day so lots of time to walk around and LOOK... ought to be lots of for sale stuff stuff to pick through .... Never know.. Saturday is the main show... Sunday morning is for picking Champions and such..
Leave to come home...

I will post more about it...

Partly cloudy out, forecast showing some scattered showers this morning, and then sun off and on... going to hang another load of clothes.. more sun tomorrow...

Be back here later...