This has been a strange and challenging year. We went from trying to keep calves from freezing to trying to keep them from drowning when it warmed up. The ground was still frozen so the runoff couldn't go down into the ground and we had flooding. There were places in the county where roads were washed out, our old barn flooded, and we had water over the road in places I had never seen it over in all the years I've lived here.
The spring was cold...and windy, which is not too unusual, but it was cold well into spring--to the point where I was afraid to plant anything for fear it would just freeze--and windier than normal. We had a hailstorm on May 2. That's also a bit unusual. There were also reports of frost in the county on June 23.
And then it dried up....
And again, we've had less rain than I can ever remember. We are currently in what the weather people are calling a "flash drought" that caught everyone by surprise after the extremely wet year we had last year. Thank goodness we had some submoisture or we'd have no crop at all. Some of the crops planted later didn't even come up. The pastures are brown and water holes are drying up. Thunderstorms create more fear of lightning strikes and fire than anticipation of actual rain...especially after the horrible fires to the south of us. I have spent more than one night scanning the horizon for fire when a thunderstorm rolled through bringing about 20 drops of rain and too much lightning. The USDA finally opened the CRP for emergency haying--a few weeks too late for it to have much quality--and there was a fire caused by a swather almost every day for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, M only started a small one, saw it immediately and put it out right away. He was on pins and needles every day that he sat on a swather.
That's where the gratitude comes in. There have been no major fires too close to us. My heart aches for those who have lost their ranches--their hay, pastures, fences and animals. Fire really scares me, I can't imagine how I would cope in their situation....and I hope I never have to find out.
We are in harvest mode now, and while it has not been going too smoothly so far, the crops are not as disappointing as one would think they would be with the lack of rain. There are nights I lie awake worried about financial obligations if we don't have a crop, but faith kicks in, and I know we'll be ok. I know it could be so much worse. I'm so lucky that M still has a good attitude and sees it as a learning situation for our boys. They are learning that times can be tough and how to deal with adversity. R has had to learn about range management since our pastures and stock water situations are not ideal. J has learned that he's going to have to do a lot more mechanic work than he wants to get through harvest with the equipment we have. Everyone sucks it up and does what they can with what they have.
We had 3 tenths of an inch of rain the other night, and everyone was so happy. Amazing what a few drops of rain and some cooler temps can do for everyone's spirits. Again...gratitude for what we have. I may still pray for fewer challenges, however.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Calving Challenges
It's that time of year again....calving....a time we love and hate. M always says he's so excited to have that first (live) calf on the ground, but after the 300th one we're kind of over it! We had been gone to Daytona, and while we were gone R got the replacement heifers moved to the neighbor's and cut the first-calf heifers out of the herd and moved them into the corral so they could be watched closely.
We had some pretty decent weather when we first got back from Florida and on March 5th the temp was close to 50 degrees. Our first calf was born on March 6th when it was snowing, blowing and miserable. So nasty out, in fact, that I didn't attempt to go to work.
Every heifer and her calf go through the barn to make sure they are feeding and bonding properly. Unfortunately, with the weather so awful we didn't feel comfortable kicking them back outside. They put up a couple more pens in the old barn, but it filled up rapidly. I knew that the new barn sitting on top of the hill, unusable, would drive R crazy, and I was right. With the old barn full, M finally agreed that they were going to have to put up some temporary pens in the new barn to move pairs to so they hauled panels up there and moved pairs from the old barn to the new as needed. There are currently 14 pairs up there. There were downsides to using the new barn. First, there are no lights installed yet. Second, there's no water. There is a new well, but the pump isn't hooked up, and M wasn't going to work on it when the temps were in the single digits. So, they had to haul water by the bucketfuls. M figured he hauled 250 gallons a day. That's a lot of buckets.
We had to be extremely vigilant since a calf born in the temperatures we were experiencing was not going to survive any length of time without some intervention. R usually stays up until about 1:00 am and then checks at 3 and 5 and M is over there by 6. Anytime I happen to get up during the night I check the cow cams and alert R if I see anything. I think we're fortunate that we have only lost two to the weather.
It's always disheartening to lose a calf, but I've been pondering if it's worse to lose one when the price is high and a calf is worth almost $1200 at weaning or when it's low and they are worth under $700 because you need more of them to make the same money. Either way, it make M extremely crabby to lose one.
We had a January thaw and a February thaw with a lot of runoff and slop. Most of the snow was gone and things were drying up and last weekend we got at least 6 inches of snow. Today it was almost 50 degrees. While that felt wonderful, we're back to runoff and slop again which brings a different set of problems. We want to haul those pairs out of the new barn to a temporary pasture, but now it's almost too muddy to get the trailer up there. We may have to go early in the morning when the ground is still frozen.
It's always something in the cow business.......but we're never bored......just tired!
We had some pretty decent weather when we first got back from Florida and on March 5th the temp was close to 50 degrees. Our first calf was born on March 6th when it was snowing, blowing and miserable. So nasty out, in fact, that I didn't attempt to go to work.
Every heifer and her calf go through the barn to make sure they are feeding and bonding properly. Unfortunately, with the weather so awful we didn't feel comfortable kicking them back outside. They put up a couple more pens in the old barn, but it filled up rapidly. I knew that the new barn sitting on top of the hill, unusable, would drive R crazy, and I was right. With the old barn full, M finally agreed that they were going to have to put up some temporary pens in the new barn to move pairs to so they hauled panels up there and moved pairs from the old barn to the new as needed. There are currently 14 pairs up there. There were downsides to using the new barn. First, there are no lights installed yet. Second, there's no water. There is a new well, but the pump isn't hooked up, and M wasn't going to work on it when the temps were in the single digits. So, they had to haul water by the bucketfuls. M figured he hauled 250 gallons a day. That's a lot of buckets.
We had to be extremely vigilant since a calf born in the temperatures we were experiencing was not going to survive any length of time without some intervention. R usually stays up until about 1:00 am and then checks at 3 and 5 and M is over there by 6. Anytime I happen to get up during the night I check the cow cams and alert R if I see anything. I think we're fortunate that we have only lost two to the weather.
It's always disheartening to lose a calf, but I've been pondering if it's worse to lose one when the price is high and a calf is worth almost $1200 at weaning or when it's low and they are worth under $700 because you need more of them to make the same money. Either way, it make M extremely crabby to lose one.
We had a January thaw and a February thaw with a lot of runoff and slop. Most of the snow was gone and things were drying up and last weekend we got at least 6 inches of snow. Today it was almost 50 degrees. While that felt wonderful, we're back to runoff and slop again which brings a different set of problems. We want to haul those pairs out of the new barn to a temporary pasture, but now it's almost too muddy to get the trailer up there. We may have to go early in the morning when the ground is still frozen.
It's always something in the cow business.......but we're never bored......just tired!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)