We had decided that the cows would be in the barn today already earlier in the week when we heard the weather forecast. Yesterday was an after thought so feeding and bedding cows got added later. Knowing we were keeping them in, we bedded them as we milked and Bruce fed them extra right away. We have 3 fans in the end of the barn that are 4 ft., 2 fans mounted on the ceiling that are 2 ft. and one fan that is 3ft and sits on the floor. All the air for ventilation is drawn from the north, south and west in our situation, with some flooring removed in the haymow to access air from the west. We have double 4 ft. flourescent lights in front of the cows that are spaced about 6 ft apart which mimic daylight. In this weather, not having to use any energy walking around to eat or drink, along with the shade of the barn, is the best senario for cows. According to the bulk tank total today, they were prefectly ok with staying inside yesterday. We will see how they handle the rest of the week. As in any situation, not all of the cows read the manual. We have one that has decided the way to use the drinking cup is to put her top jaw in the cup and her bottom jaw over the edge on the bottom. She has run gallons of water into the feed alley doing this. Other cows lay with their tails in the gutter and then proceed to use them as paint brushes, splattering themselves and everything around them. For the most part they just eat and drink and rest.
We were thrilled to see the fresh cow cleaned over night and is eating well this morning. Bruce gave her calcium under the skin last night and gave her another bottle this morning. She also got ketosis medicine just to be safe. If she doesn't need it her body will excrete it through the urine so there is no harm at all in keeping ahead of any potential stresser in this weather. Her calf is doing well. After a few calf issues I am more than a little concerned about this one with the heat. We know the last calf didn't get its roto coronavirus vaccine for many hours after it was born since it came during the night in the pasture. This virus does kill a perfectly healthy calf in less than 24 hours, which is also the case with a pneumonia we have had this year. We also know she ate when she was in the pasture but we don't know who fed her. Yesterday's calf got her antivirus right away, before she ate. She got her colostrum feeding, a newly pressure washed hutch and chopped corn stalk bedding. According to the manual she should do fine. Calves don't read the manual either.
With this hot weather I spent the day catching up on bookwork. At the end of the year I print out a bunch of reports and make a book that is 1/2 inch thick when I get done. I hadn't done the one for 2009 or 2010 yet so that was my project for yesterday. It is always interesting to see the final numbers, and 2009 was again revisited in print. The thing that I found the most interesting, frustrating, challenging was our milk sales from last year. I had forgotten that we also had milk contracted for last year and this is how it played out. We had contracts in 9 out of 12 months. All of the months had the same amount of milk contracted as we have this year. Our lowest contract was at $14.77 and our highest was at $15.89. Of the 9 months we only had loss of opportunity in 2 months, oddly enough with contracts that were in the upper end amounts. We ended up with an overall contract gain of just under $7,500! This month alone we have milk contracted at $16.42 and it looks like we will very likely have an opportunity loss of $3,000! The volitility in prices in the last decade makes this business a challenge.
It ended up being 94 degrees with 82% humidity today. Bruce had to feed calves and steers in the barn and add a hose to get water to the group at the other place. After he got done he decided it was another perfect day to go berry picking. He was able to pick a bunch last year and it is very unusual to have good crops 2 years in a row. The cows seemed to handle the heat ok today. There were a few that were breathing a little hard but none that were panting. Cows pant like dogs in extreme heat stress. Tonight they are outside again with a heat index that was still at 97 degrees at 10 p.m. They won't have the sun pounding on them so that will help.
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