This is the most terrifying word in a farmer/rancher’s vocabulary. Floods, storms with tornados, hail or lightning, blizzards, extreme cold, early frost or late frost; all these weather extremes happen routinely. They last from minutes to days, and then you deal with the aftermath.
But a drought, that is something else entirely. A drought starts slow. You watch the sky. You think it has to rain soon. You listen to the weatherman. Good chance of rain tomorrow, but it doesn’t happen. You look at the sky. You pray for rain. You check the radar. The grass crackles and crunches as you walk across it. You look at the sky. It gets drier and drier. The ponds get lower. The creeks run sluggishly. It rains, a little, it soaks into the hungry ground and disappears. Dust hangs in the air.
You watch the sky.
A true drought-not a dry spell – lasts for months and even years. This is a drought.
In 2023 the hay field made 28 bales. A two-digit number. Total.
In 2022 the hayfield made 212 bales.
Hang on to your hats. It’s going to be a rough year.
I know it’s hard to believe on a day when the thermometer reads 100 degrees and you could fry an egg on the hood of the tractor, but winter is coming.
So, what do we do to prepare? We bale hay, of course. From June to August, we get ready for winter.
Mowing
Mitch taught Jayce how to mow this year and JD Hart filled in when Mitch and Jayce couldn’t get to the hayfield. Mowing takes longer than any other job in the hayfield because it’s just 9 foot each time around.All down and ready for the next step.
Raking
Jayce raked and I subbed in when necessary. It’s not a bad job in an air-conditioned tractor. The rake picks up a row of hay 27 foot wide (1 round for 3 of the mower) and throws it into a windrow about 3 foot wide for the baler.
Baling
Baling is the most complicated job, even with all the bells and whistles on balers now. The baler is set to wrap a 5-foot-wide and 5-foot-tall bale weighing about 1200 lbs. In a perfect world, you could make your windrows 5 feet wide and just drive in a straight line, but our world and our hayfields aren’t perfect. So, Mitch has to go back and forth to keep the bale the same size from one side to the other.
There are disadvantages and advantages to everything. The main disadvantage of a net-wrapped bale is the time it takes to remove and dispose of the netting. The benefits are the bale “keeps” better and longer (there is a lot less waste due to water damage on the outside of the bale-a significant savings) And the speed of baling – the baler only spins the bale 2.5 turns with net wrap versus app. 40 turns with string-tied bales.
Enjoy the heat. Winter will be here before you know it.
Sometimes cows just make me scratch my head in confusion! Here is the story of one such time.
Cow #635 is a nice black motley-face 6-year-old cow. She had a pretty little heifer calf that looked just like her on Feb. 17th. Everything seemed to be fine.
Cow #5546 is a good black 7-year-old cow that has never been a problem. She had a nice black bull calf on Feb. 17th also. We tagged him shortly after he was born. They both walked off together when we were done.
This is #8804. She is a 4-year-old cow whose 14-year-old mom is still in the herd producing good calves. A long line of good mommas. #8804 had black heifer calf on 2/16/22.
2/21/22 – Making my rounds while Mitch fed hay, I noticed cow #8804 running around bawling like she had lost her calf. I looked for and found her heifer calf in the hay with everyone else. She didn’t seem upset at all. I chalked it up to 8804 getting confused about where she had left her calf and headed back to the house after looking through everything.
2/22/22 – Cow #8804 still seems upset. I pushed her to her calf. She seemed satisfied, even though the calf didn’t seem to care at all. Odd, very odd.
Hmmm, it isn’t unusual for cows to let other calves nurse, but this caught my eye because I remembered her motley-face heifer. I wasn’t worried about it. Little did I know what the next day would look like!
2/23/22 – I found heifer calf #635 trying to nurse from every cow she came to and bawling like she was lost. It happens, so I pushed her to her mama. She ignored the calf, even going so far as to push her away. Not normal at all. Mitch and I put the cow and calf together in the pen at the house. They both went to separate corners and bawled their heads off! What was going on???? We made the decision to pull the calf and put her on a nurse cow. We let #635 back out with the other cows to see what would happen. If she isn’t going to raise a calf she is headed to town!
Poor baby! Her mama doesn’t want her, so she gets stuck in a pen with a bunch of other calves and a cow that comes in twice a day to feed her but doesn’t love her.
#635 headed straight back to calf #5546. Hmmm, wonder what cow #5546 thinks about this?
She doesn’t seem upset at all. Because she has swiped cow #8804’s calf! What a mixed-up mess!
End of the story – #5546 is raising calf #8804, #635 is raising calf #5546, cow #8804 doesn’t have a calf and calf #635 is in the orphanage on a nurse cow! My head is still spinning!
I would love to know who started this. Was it #635? Did she decide she wanted a solid black calf (guess she hasn’t looked in a mirror)? Did #5546 think that #8804’s calf smelled better than her calf? I will never know what prompted the switch, but I know the losers are cow #8804 and calf # 635.
Spring is really here. The place is empty, well, almost empty. The only cattle left are the bulls, the nurse cows and a few odds and ends. We spent the day moving the pairs to their summer pastures. Five guys with stock trailers made 5 trips each to get everything moved into 3 different pastures. In between loads Mitch, the boys and I continued sorting cows and calves or bringing in the next set to load. The biggest concern is always making sure we have the right cows with the right calves going to the right place! It was a long day.
Cows and calves have to be hauled separately, so the calves don’t get stepped on.We haul the cows first because they can’t crawl out of the pen as easily as calves. It is extremely loud as cows bawl for their babies and the calves cry for mom.
It never fails to amaze me that the mamas and babies can pick each other out in a pen full of bawling cows and calves, but somehow, they do. We leave them in the pen for about an hour, so everyone can settle down before kicking them into the pasture.
Enjoying the green grass!
The place will be empty until fall when we start bringing everything back home again. The cycle continues – spring, summer, fall and winter. The cows are all happy to be out on grass and we are happy not to feed hay every day!
Calves don’t know how to drive. You have to literally push them sometimes.
Spring is finally here. The cows and calves have to go through the chute to be “worked” before turn-out.
Pushing calves into the barn.Bringing the cows up the alley and into the tub.
First the cows and calves have to be separated into different pens. Then we start on the cows.
Each cow goes through the tub and alley system into the chute. She is vaccinated with a pre-breeding dose of ViraShield 6 VL5HB to prevent Vibrio, 5 strains of Lepto, L. HarjoBovis, BVD, PI3, and BRSV. She is also dewormed with Long Range, vaccinated for pinkeye, and given a dose of MultiMin.
Then it’s on to the calves.
Lane watches the big boys push calves up to the calf table. He can’t wait until he is big enough to help them.
Calves received their vaccinations. They get 20/20 Vision 7 which covers pinkeye and 7 strains of Clostridium (blackleg), and they get Pyramid 5 plus Presponse which covers IBR, BVD, PI3, BRSV and 2 strains of pasteurella . Calves are also dewormed with Long Range. We band the bull calves and vaccinate for tetanus. All calves are ear notched and the notch is tested to identify Persistently Infected BVD calves (PI).
The boys took a break from pushing calves and worked the chute.Jayce and Drake learned to band the bull calves and Tayten gives vaccinations.Brandi stopped by and Justine put her to work notching the calves.Relaxing on the fence. Notice the phone in Jayce’s hand. Can’t get away from the phones!Worked and headed back out. In a week or two, depending on the weather, we will haul them out to their summer pastures.
Spring is right around the corner! Time for sunshine, warm days, green grass, gardening, and cookouts! But before I get too carried away here is a look back at winter 2021-22.
Unrolling hay on a snowy day.Enjoying the summer’s work on a cold day.Black cows on a white landscape.IceWinter waterfall.Eagle against a winter sky.
We took Lane, our 5-year-old grandson with us to tag calves recently. He loves going with us and we love seeing things through his eyes. When we came up on a cow with a new calf his comment was, “Look, that cow has meat”. He was talking about the afterbirth, but it made perfect sense seen through his eyes.
I explained what the afterbirth was, and he said, “Okay, if a cow has meat, then she has a new calf”. Yep, he’s got it.
He thought it was extremely gross that this cow was eating her afterbirth. I have to agree. Probably about 75% of the cows eat some or all of the afterbirth. The most likely reason for that is to protect her calf from predators by reducing the smell of blood. Another possibility is that the cow craves the nutrition and protein she gets from the placenta.
The eagles are hoping the cows walk away from it.
Eagles are a fairly common sight all year round, but in the winter during calving season they line the trees along the creek overlooking the cows. The “meat” is evidently a delicacy. I have counted as many as twenty-one eagles waiting and watching.
Everyone needs to relax once in a while. A vacation for us is going to visit the grandchildren in FL or NC. January seemed like a good month to visit the FL boys.
We try to find a “slow” time to go, but that is hard to come by. Right now the cows are still on stockpiled grass, the steer calves have been sold, the heifer calves have been turned out and we have two weeks before calving starts. That is as good as it will get. Let’s go!
My brother, Thad will feed the bred heifers each day and keep hay out to them. Justine will be by to check on things and feed the dog. My parents will swing by daily, also. We know we are leaving things in capable hands. We’re ready to get on that plane and head south to see the boys!
We got to watch Carter play flag football!
Henry’s baseball season hasn’t started yet, but we watched him hit golf balls and play driveway basketball!
The ocean birds were busy.
Carter practicing with his bow as the sun set. We had to keep coming up with harder challenges for him. He is a great shot!
Fishing! Notice the coats. It’s one of the coldest January’s on record. It’s supposed to warm up after we leave, of course!
It was so good to visit! They grow up so fast!
A beautiful sunset and time to head back to Missouri.
The cows are all home, preg checked, vaccinated, and turned out to wait. I took a run through them tonight on the 4 wheeler. I couldn’t pass up a 5o degree day in January. Here are some pictures of the cows and the wildlife I saw.
I never go out this time of year without seeing at least a dozen deer.
Cows spread across the hillsides.
Well rounded mama cows! These girls are very happy, but I’m getting impatient. Another month and calves will start dropping!
Look closely! This bobcat ran in front of me when I went through some timber. He stopped just off the road thinking he was well hidden.
The sun is setting. Time to head back to the house!
The end of the year is a good time to look at where you’ve been and where you are going next. 2020 is a year that I’m glad to bid good-bye and I have my fingers and toes crossed that 2021 will be better!!! No matter what goes on “out in the world” some things don’t change. We roll through the seasons, watching from the window as the snow flies, the grass grows and the leaves change. This the view from our deck.
January – The world is cold and colored in shades of brown and gray. A blue sky is the best we can hope for. If you look closely you will see the tractor is getting hay from the hay pile.February means snow and new calves to keep us busy.March drops hints that spring is coming. A warm day here and there, a touch of green in the pastures, and an abundance of calves .Green returns to the color scheme off the deck as April days lengthen and warm. The cows and calves have all been moved to summer pastures so we can enjoy the sunshine!May means all shades of green. The trees are covered with leaves and the grass gets taller every day.June means heat and humidity. The hay continues to grow. Do you see the four turkeys?July! Making hay while the sun shines! Winter seems so far away even though that’s what we are preparing for as we roll through the hay.Time rolls on. August arrives and the calves born in February start coming home. The hay field grows back up to be ready for the cows this winter.A beautiful foggy September morning.Brilliant October color we enjoy and store away for those bleak, gray days coming. Native warm season grasses turn bright shades of yellow with touches of pink, purple and blue.An early dusting of snow in November. Good thing we spent the summer baling hay!I can see at least one deer out in the field on this frosty December morning.
Wishing you all the best for 2021! Happy New Year!
