The class III price for March was posted today. The price for March 2009 was $10.44, in 2010 it was $12.78 so contracting milk at $16.71 seemed like a good idea. With the posted price of $19.40 we have lost opportunity to the tune of over $2000. for the month. Hmmmm. On the bright side, we get the higher price for what we don't have contracted and will survive with what we do. Historically the March price in 1996 was $12.70 with the 15 year high of $18.00 in 2008 and low of $9.11 in 2003. So it goes.....
I moved 2 heifer calves out into the clean hutches and pressure washed a few more. Another heifer calf arrived around noon so tonight we had another new heifer to milk. New heifers don't shorten the day but they are part of the process of making more milk so in the long run it's all OK. Tonight I have 5 hutches lined up and 4 heifer calves in them.
Bruce had a pretty simple day planned. He would check the goats and then move some steers up and fill 2 feed boxes. He found a goat that had kidded, one alive and one deformed and dead. He moved the family to the other building and couldn't find the other kids. After looking he found them sleeping inside the heat box he made. It's not on anymore but they must like it in there. Every day the cow feed alleys get cleaned and the uneaten feed is generally taken to the back alley to be eaten by the younger steers there. Since we took all those animals out a few days ago the feed has just been dumped in the gutter. With the price of corn and protein, that's expensive feed wasted so the plan was simple. Put the gate in and divide the pen so the heifers can have their calves on one end and we would get up a few steers to eat in the other end. Bruce got the gate and pushed it into place. The two long pens are divided by a plank wall that was nailed to the support posts. When he pushed the gate into place, the planks which were marginally fastened (due to rusty nails and bored and destructive heifers) all fell off. While Bruce doesn't work on electric motors or vehicles, he has no problem jacking up buildings and remodeling. The post that the planks were on had also rotted on the bottom and was short. He got the jack and a post and jacked up the end of the beam that the post held up. He then had to cut a new support post, let the beam down, reattach both the planks and the supports that hold the gate. This pretty much took up his whole afternoon. Thankfully Ed was able to fill the feed boxes, one of which will be delivered to the heifers in the morning Tonight just got too darned late. I am getting good at milking by myself : )
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| from the south, all jacked up |
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| from the north, measuring for the post |
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from the south, post in place and divider reattached
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| from then north, everything in place as originally planned |
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