A Tractor Visit

Wow, the statistics say this is post 101!  Hard to believe we are that far into the year already.  We had a new arrival when we got to the barn this morning.  One of the heifers in the pen finally figured out what she was in there for and delivered a cute little bull calf.   That makes 4 heifers done with 3 left to go.  I have already been able to milk a couple of the new heifers myself so they are settling in nicely.

We went to town to visit our latest "patient" in the hospital.  The output shaft on the speed transmission that drives the power take off and the main hydraulic pump has broken. Diagnosis: metal fatigue.  This tractor has 10,060 hours on it so it isn't exactly new.  On a car that would be comparable to 500,000 to 600,000 miles!  All I can see is $$$.  A large financial hit like this so early in spring can make for a pretty precarious financial situation given the fact that this is our most expensive time of year.  We do have the majority of our seed purchased already but there will be a fertilizer bill along with corn planting.  One day at a time.....

metal fatigue on a shaft that is only 1.5 inches wide.

The patient... seems to be missing something?

Bruce is down to 1 special needs cow and of course the new heifer to milk.  We have decided to let the c-section heifer dry up.  She doesn't need any more stress in the short term so her long term prospect is to heal and eat well and fill out.  Eventually she will be culled. Our cultures came back today with 1 new staph aureus.  Given the fact that it's one of the new heifers the diagnosis is particularly frustrating.  The new theory is if you treat them early and aggressively they can, in theory, be cured.  Doing this treatment will put her in the special needs group for possibly weeks. Other than the aggravation of that we really have nothing to lose.

We were pleasantly surprised to get a check for $405 today for #55.  Given her strange history we were wondering what they would do with her.  We get paid on yield so she was obviously thin but of decent quality.  The cull market prices seem to be really good right now.  With feed costs extremely high there is a greater value in culling marginal animals these days.  There is no point in milking cows just for the exercise : )