Observations

It has been a few days since I have written anything and there is a reason for that.  There is nothing going on.  Other than milking twice a day, feeding cows twice a day, steers and calves daily and moving animals around to new pasture, we haven't been doing much.  Bruce was in for his third therapy appointment today and she believes he has a bit more damage from the bull incident than earlier believed.  That being said, he has been behaving himself in efforts to heal and also to get ready to start making hay again.  He has also been feeling good and wants to keep it that way. It has been challenging trying to explain to non farming medical people exactly why farmers are worn out.  Today the discussion involved milking and bending vs squatting.  Squatting is physically preferred but puts us in a more vulnerable position should a cow move around much.  Bruce also pointed out that there are 5 steps in milking cows that would involve squatting (pre dip, wiping, milker on, milker off, post dip).  5 squats x 60 cows x twice daily milking.  Generally we try to do a mix of both.  We can both easily touch our toes so there is something to be said for our daily exercise program!

We got another inch of rain early this morning.  We were lucky enough to get the earlier rains in time to do good things for the corn and later cut hay.  The first cut hay is very short but thick so Bruce is hoping there is more feed out there than it looks like from a distance.  Soon we will recut all the alfalfa seeding and the hay that was cut first. There is still enough time in the growing season that we may have opportunity for a 4th crop if the weather cooperates.  This is the time of year that farmers start checking their corn often and Bruce reports that the ears have kernels and looks much like sweet corn would when it's ready to eat.  The corn needs some time to ripen yet but at least we have ears so we can be happy we are that far.  About 25 miles from here the ground tends to be more sandy and people in that area have already chopped their corn in order to salvage something for feed.  The corn was stunted by the lack of rain and didn't have ears so it took twice as many acres to fill what they normally would. Chopped corn is the entire plant but the ears make about half of the tonage and also raises the feed value.

Bruce has been feeding the steers and heifers corn in feeders in the pasture.  We have used these feeders for years but the steers have added a new dimension to doing this.  First of all, steers are intellectually challenged.  Second, they have nothing better to do than create problems.  Every day Bruce has to tip atleast one feeder back upright because the steers have found tipping them over is fun.  The heifers never did this.  Bruce feeds 5 gallon pails of corn sprinkled the length of the feeders and generally the animals back up to let him go by and then they walk up and resume eating.  These steers go forward, crashing over the feeder to the other side when he needs to get by.  Every day Bruce comes home with a "those damned steers" story.  The cows are now back on the first piece that the steers started following them on.  The grass is really nice and the cows will enjoy not having the old growth in the mix.