Grazing!

  There was nothing specifically exciting yesterday but this blogger site was broken so yesterday had to wait until there was cooperation today.  After milking yesterday morning the cows went out into the yard again.  I washed another section of pipeline so thats 24 stalls done and 46 to go.  Bruce worked on the fence and the heifers from the building here are now officially grazers.  This group is familiar with how to feed themselves since they did it last summer also.  The animals at the other place are doing well, with the exception of one heifer who seems to have found a way out of the pasture.  She was out twice yesterday and Bruce still hasn't figured out what she is doing.   Milking and feeding calves are both going extremely well these days.   It is nice to be past all the freshening chaos.  On the equipment side we are, piece by piece, getting things going.  The starter is back after being fixed and the tractor is again running.  Bruce's mom picked up the radiator for the skid steer and took it to the shop so they can put it back in.  We are told the skid steer should be done very soon.  Bruce is looking forward to having it back.  On our skid steer the boom and bucket are operated with foot controls and the direction and drive are operated with the hand controls.  With Ed's skid steer everything is on the same hand controls.  So far no damages have been done but Bruce has to be super careful when driving up and dumping feed into the mixer with it. Bruce started his morning with elevator trouble. He still gets haylage out of the silo for the steers but the motor on the elevator that delivers it to the mixer wasn't working.  The electrician was here during milking and fixed a capacitor.  Simple enough.  Bruce put the heifer back in the pasture at the other place once today.  He is wondering now if the outlet the fencer is plugged into is loose which would randomly make the fencer turn off.  A new outlet is a simple fix...then we will see.  Today the cows went out on pasture!  They have all been on grass before but the new heifers have not been in this pasture before.  They do fine if we just keep them with the experienced cows for someone to follow.  Getting them home and in the barn was as expected.  Being the first time out it added some time to the evening.  Eventually this will also improve.  We compare everything to the first summer and already it is easier!  They will continue to get TMR in the barn but eventually most of the haylage in it will be removed and replaced with the grass they are supposed to eat.  Many of them came into the barn and looked like they couldn't eat another bite.  Many were more interested in laying down that standing and eating.  They got a bunch of exercise they aren't used to today.  Tonight they are out eating again in a new break.  It is perfect weather for them, cool & slightly rainy.  They will not get overheated out there and already tonight they were so much cleaner it made us smile.  We get to enjoy the first payoff of having the cows out by turning off all the fans for the night.  Let the season begin!