Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Mike the Pro
After an unusual bunch of weather this year, today was darned close to perfect. Warm, windy and sunny with humidities that were comfortable. Joe came this morning and milked and then mowed the lawn and trimmed around the buildings. The lawn is really brown but now its even so we look a bit better from the road : ) Bruce spent the day hauling manure from the barn and steer yard. The steers got a couple corn fodder stacks to lounge on that the cows found entertaining when they were in the yard. We had someone stop in today and buy one of the male goat kids from January. Mike got to impress everyone by going around the corner and bringing the goats up, stopping instantly when asked to lie down and basically showed off his herding talents. Those guys were in awe since they had never seen a dog herd like that before. Bruce was darned proud! Some people have kids in recitals....we have a border collie who really is one of the best dogs ever and as many times as we have seen him work, he still makes us smile : )
Monday, August 8, 2011
A Farmer Win
The July class III milk price has been announced. The 2009 price was $9.97. It was $13.62 in 2010. We contracted for $16.43 and the price is actually $21.39. Our translation of this is an opportunity loss of $3727. Now we are talking serious money : ( From what I can see that could be a record price for any month in the last 15 years with a price of $21.38 for July 2007. The lowest price was $9.33 in 2002 and the highest was July 2007. Oh well, we knew this was coming, and even with that I contracted the rest of our milk for Aug, Sept, and Oct. The potential for a financial crash in the country makes me nervous. I am less afraid of not hitting the high on the contract, and terrified of the low prices we have seen as possible in the last few years. There is tremendous peace of mind knowing what we will be getting for our milk in those months. Now if we only knew what direction to go with the next year.
The stag steer went on the truck this morning along with 3 cull cows that were no longer paying for their feed. Each cow had a different reason for leaving. One freshened with mastitis and has never produced well. One we couldn't get pregnant. One is a staph aureus cow with little milk and a high somatic cell count. The steer sorted and loaded without any issues and it was funny to see Bruce just point his stick and the steer would go to the far end of the pen. It reminded us of the lasers in the Star Wars movies since the steers reaction was as though there were magic powers in that stick. We are glad he is gone and I will use my magical powers to stuff him and his cow friends into the checkbook later this week. Bruce went to the therapist today that has been helping him with his previous shoulder injury, also animal related. She found problems around the back of his knees and legs, perhaps from the steer pushing on him while he stood on the bunk edge. In any case, he has no serious damages and we are thankful : )
We did have an interesting dilemma this morning. In the process of letting cows out and keeping the ones that were leaving in, Bruce accidentally let a cow out that was supposed to stay in to be bred. Joe watched the road and Bruce and I and Mike went out to try and sort the cow out and get her back. After a few rounds of the pasture we ended up getting her home, along with 4 extras that we sorted back when we got the one we wanted in the barn. Mike worked really hard and during the process took a dip in the water tank to cool off. When we got the extras back he took another dip, sitting in there longer than I have ever seen him. What was funny is there was a cow that came up to get a drink, and she shook her head and flopped her ears in disapproval, and he continued to sit in her tank. I am not sure if he decided to get out on his own or she poked him with her nose. He and this particular cow have a love/hate relationship and it wouldn't surprise me if Mike sat in the tank longer just to annoy her. Gotta love animals : )
The stag steer went on the truck this morning along with 3 cull cows that were no longer paying for their feed. Each cow had a different reason for leaving. One freshened with mastitis and has never produced well. One we couldn't get pregnant. One is a staph aureus cow with little milk and a high somatic cell count. The steer sorted and loaded without any issues and it was funny to see Bruce just point his stick and the steer would go to the far end of the pen. It reminded us of the lasers in the Star Wars movies since the steers reaction was as though there were magic powers in that stick. We are glad he is gone and I will use my magical powers to stuff him and his cow friends into the checkbook later this week. Bruce went to the therapist today that has been helping him with his previous shoulder injury, also animal related. She found problems around the back of his knees and legs, perhaps from the steer pushing on him while he stood on the bunk edge. In any case, he has no serious damages and we are thankful : )
We did have an interesting dilemma this morning. In the process of letting cows out and keeping the ones that were leaving in, Bruce accidentally let a cow out that was supposed to stay in to be bred. Joe watched the road and Bruce and I and Mike went out to try and sort the cow out and get her back. After a few rounds of the pasture we ended up getting her home, along with 4 extras that we sorted back when we got the one we wanted in the barn. Mike worked really hard and during the process took a dip in the water tank to cool off. When we got the extras back he took another dip, sitting in there longer than I have ever seen him. What was funny is there was a cow that came up to get a drink, and she shook her head and flopped her ears in disapproval, and he continued to sit in her tank. I am not sure if he decided to get out on his own or she poked him with her nose. He and this particular cow have a love/hate relationship and it wouldn't surprise me if Mike sat in the tank longer just to annoy her. Gotta love animals : )
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Sunday
We had a quiet day today. It started with RAIN while Bruce was getting the cows home. Bruce got wet, the cows were sloppy to be around and we were thrilled. We ended up with only 2/10 inch but we could use some rain so it was better than nothing. Our yard is getting pretty brown. We aren't ones to worry about what the yard looks like but it is a constant reminder of how dry the crops are also. The seeding and alfalfa are short with the lack of moisture so our 3rd crop will not be what we had hoped. We have chances of rain in the forecast a few times this week. Hopefully we will get lucky a few more times. The steer that caused yesterdays chaos has been behaving as before. Bruce carries his stick with him whenever he in is the yard now just to be safe. We will still put him on the truck tomorrow. Those kinds of incidents don't promote second chances. Bruce cleaned pens today to make loading cattle tomorrow more user friendly. It was a warm day but the humidity dropped this afternoon to a more reasonable level and we finally had a nice breeze. I was able to open up the house windows for the first time in a week. As much as I like the benefits of air conditioning, I miss hearing the birds and the breeze and today the cattle complaining because Bruce chose to clean their pens before he fed them. : ) Since there is nothing more to note for today I will add a few random pictures from the routine.
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| It just happened that all the animals were in the ends of their pastures so Bruce had a full supply of reels. These are our fences. Bruce can set up a fence in 5 min. |
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| These are the pigtail posts we use. They get pushed into the ground with your foot and the poly wire fence gets wrapped into the "pigtail" on top. |
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| we are finding the fly tape much more impressive than the flies do |
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Another First
Joe was here yesterday morning and milked. He always eats breakfast here and then he and Bruce continued out to do the routine barn chores like feeding the calves and steers and scraping all the feed alleys by the cows. This gets done every day and when its hot, twice a day. As a general rule Bruce's dad still cleans the alleys but Joe gave him opportunity for a day off. When they were through with that Bruce decided to take advantage of the help and clean up around the silo bags. We have a love/hate relationship with these bags. They are relatively convenient to fill, but that includes buying the bag and bagger rental. They are much faster to feed out of since you use the skid steer instead of an unloader. No unloader maintenance required. There can be problems with spoiled feed, especially when rodents chew a hole in the bag, or once years ago, a raccoon walked around on top and poked holes. The biggest challenge with the bags is dealing with the plastic. As you remove feed you cut away plastic. Over winter with all the snow the plastic was burried, then plowed around and mixed in piles of snow and spoiled feed. When everything thawed there was a huge mess to clean up. We have a dumpster so Bruce took the skid steer and started by digging plastic loose with the pallet forks. Then he bucketed the refuse around, and Joe picked out any plastic that showed up. They only worked less than 2 hours but they managed to get the area pretty much cleaned up. The spoiled feed is now in a pile and ready to go into the manure pile for spreading in fall. There has been no new sighting of the beef cow that is assumed to still be roaming our corn field. With this particular area planted alternating tilled and no till, it's a solid block of 23.5 acres, and the chances of randomly finding this cow are pretty slim. We do know that she was picked up at a farm only a couple miles from here and she happened to get off the trailer and proceed to push her way through a small opening between the trailer and the barn. It is good to know she is not mean and aggressive, but she still doesn't need to live in our corn.
Bruce had an interesting start to his day. The steers live in the same yard that the cows go through between the barn and pasture. To make this work we have a corral of gates along the barn wall and whenever the cows are traveling the steers are herded by Mike into this corralled area, and once the cows are on pasture they are let out to continue resting, eating and drinking in the yard. I was warned when this group was put out there that we had a stag steer in the group and I needed to be aware. A stag steer is one that has been castrated, in this case with a band, and one of the testicles wasn't in the band correctly. When this happens the testicle stays up in the body cavity. This keeps it too warm for fertility so they aren't able to create a pregnancy but they do have hormones like a bull and can be a problem. Sometime during the night, the steers who have nothing better to do but find trouble, managed to get the gate that closes their pen away from the barn wall. When Bruce and Mike were putting the steers in their pen one of them got behind the gate. When Bruce was trying to put that one in the pen the stag steer kept pushing him back out so Bruce kicked him in the nose. The stag steer decided he did not approve and he put his head down and chased Bruce into the corner by the barn and the bunk. It was lucky Bruce could climb up high enough that all the steer/bull could push at was his legs. Somewhere in this process Bruce touched the hot (electric) wire around the bunk and the steer got a shock also. This caused him to back off for an instant so Bruce had a chance to get over the gate into the barn. He then got his "attitude adjuster/pick handle" and went back out to continue putting the steers in their pen. The steer put his head down to come after him again Bruce hit him very, very, very, very hard up side the head. He said it would have been a home run in any ballpark. The steer now has respect and an appointment with "THE truck" on Monday morning. This is the first time in Bruce's life that an animal has threatened him, with the exception of newborn calves who sometimes do the same thing. A former neighbor had a similar incident happen and he was killed. I am no longer allowed to let the steers out for now (usually I do it) and Bruce will carry his stick just in case. Until today he never gave us cause for concern, but there are no second chances. The good news is the steer has a head ache and Bruce is perfectly fine. Monday can't come soon enough. Tonight Bruce just said "hello" to the steer and he turned and walked into their pen. It seems they have come to an understanding as to exactly who is boss.
The rest of the day has been a non event. Now that Bruce has "nothing to do" he has the option to pick and choose what he accomplishes between the feeding, milking & misc. barn necessities. Actually today he didn't really get to chose since the manure pit was full to the door again. He hauled 7 loads and piled them on the back of the other place where they will be easy to reload and spread after the corn is harvested.
Bruce had an interesting start to his day. The steers live in the same yard that the cows go through between the barn and pasture. To make this work we have a corral of gates along the barn wall and whenever the cows are traveling the steers are herded by Mike into this corralled area, and once the cows are on pasture they are let out to continue resting, eating and drinking in the yard. I was warned when this group was put out there that we had a stag steer in the group and I needed to be aware. A stag steer is one that has been castrated, in this case with a band, and one of the testicles wasn't in the band correctly. When this happens the testicle stays up in the body cavity. This keeps it too warm for fertility so they aren't able to create a pregnancy but they do have hormones like a bull and can be a problem. Sometime during the night, the steers who have nothing better to do but find trouble, managed to get the gate that closes their pen away from the barn wall. When Bruce and Mike were putting the steers in their pen one of them got behind the gate. When Bruce was trying to put that one in the pen the stag steer kept pushing him back out so Bruce kicked him in the nose. The stag steer decided he did not approve and he put his head down and chased Bruce into the corner by the barn and the bunk. It was lucky Bruce could climb up high enough that all the steer/bull could push at was his legs. Somewhere in this process Bruce touched the hot (electric) wire around the bunk and the steer got a shock also. This caused him to back off for an instant so Bruce had a chance to get over the gate into the barn. He then got his "attitude adjuster/pick handle" and went back out to continue putting the steers in their pen. The steer put his head down to come after him again Bruce hit him very, very, very, very hard up side the head. He said it would have been a home run in any ballpark. The steer now has respect and an appointment with "THE truck" on Monday morning. This is the first time in Bruce's life that an animal has threatened him, with the exception of newborn calves who sometimes do the same thing. A former neighbor had a similar incident happen and he was killed. I am no longer allowed to let the steers out for now (usually I do it) and Bruce will carry his stick just in case. Until today he never gave us cause for concern, but there are no second chances. The good news is the steer has a head ache and Bruce is perfectly fine. Monday can't come soon enough. Tonight Bruce just said "hello" to the steer and he turned and walked into their pen. It seems they have come to an understanding as to exactly who is boss.
The rest of the day has been a non event. Now that Bruce has "nothing to do" he has the option to pick and choose what he accomplishes between the feeding, milking & misc. barn necessities. Actually today he didn't really get to chose since the manure pit was full to the door again. He hauled 7 loads and piled them on the back of the other place where they will be easy to reload and spread after the corn is harvested.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Run Away Cow
Not much excitement around here today. Joe came and helped milk and then did some more picking up for us. Bruce had to move the heifers at the other place across the driveway so Joe and Mike helped with that. Bruce put up another fly strip and ordered a couple more. We are pretty impressed with how they are working. The only other excitement in the neighborhood is the run away cow. Ed saw it last night and we now know it's a beef cow and she is living in our corn field, the one I posted a picture of a few days ago with the varied strips visible. Bruce is a bit concerned given the fact that a single cow is capable of knocking down plenty of corn, and as expensive as it is we would prefer this not happen any more than absolutely necessary. Today he called the trucker that lost the cow in the first place. We are not sure who it belongs to at this point, the original farmer who shipped it, the trucker himself or someone's insurance company. In any case we think it is odd that no one has contacted us or even been out looking for it. Hopefully we will get some information tomorrow.
A Tad Better
Joe came both yesterday morning and this morning. I had an early appointment in town yesterday so he and Bruce milked, and today Bruce had an early appointment so Joe and I milked. Joe has been busy helping with other things besides milking which is really nice. The calves get bedded, the barn gets extra alley scraping and little by little he is helping us get some things caught up. It has been interesting trying to get things done, earlier with all the rain and recently with the heat and humidity.
Bruce has installed fly tape in the back of the barn with plans to put some in the dairy barn also. So far we have been impressed, probably much more than the flies. We are both excited that using the tape may help eliminate the fly spray we use.
Again today Mike made us smile. It was still warm but the humidity was a bit lower and we had a breeze so the cows went to pasture this morning. Bruce had given the cows a smaller area of pasture and by mid afternoon they were warm and complaining. We went over and Bruce disconnected the tank hose and sprayed them all down and then we moved the fence so the cows had more grass. While we were doing this Mike seemed to disappear. When we were on the far end doing the fence he suddenly showed up, and again disappeared as we came back home. As it turns out, his latest cool spot to relax and wait is in the culvert under the driveway into the pasture. Unlike any other dog we have had, he is a creature of comforts. His first choice of places to hang out these days is in the house in the air conditioning. Once Bruce suggested he come out with him and Mike laid down with his chin on the floor. There is no doubt what his preference was. If he is outside he has spots under the porches he likes. In the barn he lays behind the bulk tank on the concrete. In winter he lays in this same spot because the compresser blows warm air out there. He will never lay down on a wet spot if he can find a dry one and he will lay on something soft if he can. He will swim through anything while he is working but will walk around from dry spot to dry spot otherwise. Today after we were done in the pasture he was warm. We suggested he take a dip in his tank and he stepped in and right back out.....it was not cold enough to suit him today.
We have an adventure going on in the neighborhood. A couple days ago the neighbors had some animals to sell and in the process of loading them another animal (someone elses) escaped off the trailer. Today Bruce's mom saw an animal along the road and called Bruce but by the time he got over there it was gone. We suspect it is spending its time in our corn fields so who knows when the owner will get their animal caught and sold.
Bruce has installed fly tape in the back of the barn with plans to put some in the dairy barn also. So far we have been impressed, probably much more than the flies. We are both excited that using the tape may help eliminate the fly spray we use.
Again today Mike made us smile. It was still warm but the humidity was a bit lower and we had a breeze so the cows went to pasture this morning. Bruce had given the cows a smaller area of pasture and by mid afternoon they were warm and complaining. We went over and Bruce disconnected the tank hose and sprayed them all down and then we moved the fence so the cows had more grass. While we were doing this Mike seemed to disappear. When we were on the far end doing the fence he suddenly showed up, and again disappeared as we came back home. As it turns out, his latest cool spot to relax and wait is in the culvert under the driveway into the pasture. Unlike any other dog we have had, he is a creature of comforts. His first choice of places to hang out these days is in the house in the air conditioning. Once Bruce suggested he come out with him and Mike laid down with his chin on the floor. There is no doubt what his preference was. If he is outside he has spots under the porches he likes. In the barn he lays behind the bulk tank on the concrete. In winter he lays in this same spot because the compresser blows warm air out there. He will never lay down on a wet spot if he can find a dry one and he will lay on something soft if he can. He will swim through anything while he is working but will walk around from dry spot to dry spot otherwise. Today after we were done in the pasture he was warm. We suggested he take a dip in his tank and he stepped in and right back out.....it was not cold enough to suit him today.
We have an adventure going on in the neighborhood. A couple days ago the neighbors had some animals to sell and in the process of loading them another animal (someone elses) escaped off the trailer. Today Bruce's mom saw an animal along the road and called Bruce but by the time he got over there it was gone. We suspect it is spending its time in our corn fields so who knows when the owner will get their animal caught and sold.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Wow, Am I Behind!
I need to back up a bit with my postings since I am a bit behind. I guess I will report in categories : )
As mentioned before, we tested milk Friday night. We have since had a chance to actually review the results of the evening. The heat has taken its toll, not on everyone but for a few. The cow that stands out the most gave 115# the previous month and only 64# this time. She was also the cow in the barn that most noticeably did not handle the heat very well. We will see what the rest of the reports say later this week.
The cows were out during the day on Saturday. The original plan was to let them out for awhile but it didn't get too uncomfortable until later in the day. When that happens they tend to congregate in one place and create a mud hole. Prepping them for milking took much longer than normal because they were all dirty. We were also pleased on Saturday that there were 3 cows in heat. Hopefully their breeding's will result in pregnancies, regardless of the heat. When we were done milking we noticed that there was a cow that would probably have her calf over night. She was a cause for concern for a number of reasons. Besides the obvious heat issues she was an older cow. She has staph aureus which challenges her immune system. It took us a long time to get her pregnant and she was very heavy. She was showing signs of milk fever which is a calcium imbalance. We don't see milk fevers very often any more. Years ago, before feed testing and nutrition balancing it was fairly common. Initial symptoms are cold ears and lethargy. In more extreme cases you have a 1500# cow staggering around as though she is drunk. The next level is they can't get up. Perhaps the most dangerous situation is the cow who is staggering on her feet since she can easily hurt herself and catching her so you can treat her can be dangerous for us. The treatment in the more extreme situations is a vet call and an IV treatment. This cow was a bit unsteady on her feet so we ran a bottle of calcium under her skin and put her in the pasture right across from the barn by herself. I woke up about 1:45 and made a trip out to check on her. She had already had a nice heifer calf that had crawled under the fence and laid down. She was definitely not happy with the calf's choice since she couldn't get to it. I came back to the barn and then went back and gave the calf its roto corona virus vaccine. I made the cow walk around for me and she was doing great so I headed back to bed : ) Sunday the cows stayed in the barn during the day. Our fresh cow needed an additional dose of calcium under her skin in the morning but had cleaned over night so she was doing well. The day was again hot and humid. Today the weather was a repeat of yesterday. The only thing saving us from pure misery was it stayed cloudy. Joe was here and helped milk and then pressure washed 9 empty hutches and washed all the feed pails. Bruce dealt with a cow that had a very sore foot. As it turned out she had a bunch of sand and grit worked in through a sole crack. No wonder she was limping! He cleaned it up, treated it, and put a block on the good side to take the pressure off the sore side of her foot. In the process she managed to fall down in the trim chute once Bruce took off the belly bands that are used to help her balance. She managed to get back on her feet (this is a fairly enclosed space) and walked back to her stall. Other recent cow events to note are a couple of teat injuries, although minor ones. It is a mystery how cows can step on teats when they are outside in what is considered the perfect environment. We treated one cow for pneumonia last week. With the heat it is surprising we haven't had more. Our most recent milk culture came back fine. Nice!
The calves are doing fine. I only have 3 in hutches currently which is a nice change from having so many in early spring. The last calf is now past the point of the new calf concerns, and the one born over the weekend should be on track to do just fine. They don't read the manual, but I am hopeful.
We could use rain. The humidity along with our clay soils are really keeping the corn growing. The soil holds moisture (earlier a problem, now a blessing) and the humidity in the air also minimizes the plant requirements. We are now seeing signs of leaf hoppers in our new alfalfa seeding. Signs of trouble are yellow v shapes on the leaf tips caused by a toxin that they inject when the suck out the plant juice. We may need to spray for them which is something we have never had to do before. So far the pasture is still in good condition but keeping the cows in means they aren't harvesting like they should. It also means our haylage in the bag is disappearing faster than we would like. When the cows are out Bruce adds 250lbs. in the mix. When they stay in the haylage needs to be increased to 1000lbs.
Vicky was here today. Lower milk production and lower butterfat tests, along with higher somatic cell counts are common with the heat. We are not alone in our frustrations. Prices for soybean meal is expected to go up due to heat in Texas destroying the cotton seed crop. Cotton seed is another protein source to feed cows and having less of it available will create a higher demand for soybean. She suggests we consider contracting some of our soybean needs to control our protein costs. We discussed fly control, timing of worming everyone on pasture and also what amounts of corn to feed to those on pasture to keep it in their diet and help them grow. She was glad to hear we have bred quite a few animals and has high hopes for pregnancies, although the heat may complicate that.
Yesterday was again a special day in Wisconsin with the 2nd half of our property taxes due. Another $3500 out the door. Enough said.
Recent breakdowns have been minor. We had a tire on the tractor with what turned out to be a valve stem problem so that was relatively cheap to fix. The tractor fuel tank was leaking but that ended up being a loose fuel return hose. A water float came lose and had to be replaced in the pasture.
The goats are out routinely. They have decided they don't have to respect the fence where they were in. The dog loves this....the farmer is less than pleased. Today Bruce built some temporary fence around areas of the farm where we can't mow. The goats can eat and do clean up duty.
Mike continues to work hard followed by napping : ) We did manage to get a video of him cooling down after working. We have a shallow water tank that he uses when he is hot. He is the only one who decides when he is warm enough to use it and how long he will soak. He hates the camera but was warm enough that he was sidetracked and didn't notice. We have never had a border collie use a tank to cool down before although it's very common for this breed to like one. In the pasture he will crawl into the cattle water tanks to cool off if he decides he is too hot. Those tanks are much smaller so he makes us smile and when he gets done we just dump the tanks and let them refill. Tonight it is 83 degrees with a dewpoint of 83. 99% humidity. Winds 3mph. The dog was more than willing to take a dip in his tank tonight when we got done : )
As mentioned before, we tested milk Friday night. We have since had a chance to actually review the results of the evening. The heat has taken its toll, not on everyone but for a few. The cow that stands out the most gave 115# the previous month and only 64# this time. She was also the cow in the barn that most noticeably did not handle the heat very well. We will see what the rest of the reports say later this week.
The cows were out during the day on Saturday. The original plan was to let them out for awhile but it didn't get too uncomfortable until later in the day. When that happens they tend to congregate in one place and create a mud hole. Prepping them for milking took much longer than normal because they were all dirty. We were also pleased on Saturday that there were 3 cows in heat. Hopefully their breeding's will result in pregnancies, regardless of the heat. When we were done milking we noticed that there was a cow that would probably have her calf over night. She was a cause for concern for a number of reasons. Besides the obvious heat issues she was an older cow. She has staph aureus which challenges her immune system. It took us a long time to get her pregnant and she was very heavy. She was showing signs of milk fever which is a calcium imbalance. We don't see milk fevers very often any more. Years ago, before feed testing and nutrition balancing it was fairly common. Initial symptoms are cold ears and lethargy. In more extreme cases you have a 1500# cow staggering around as though she is drunk. The next level is they can't get up. Perhaps the most dangerous situation is the cow who is staggering on her feet since she can easily hurt herself and catching her so you can treat her can be dangerous for us. The treatment in the more extreme situations is a vet call and an IV treatment. This cow was a bit unsteady on her feet so we ran a bottle of calcium under her skin and put her in the pasture right across from the barn by herself. I woke up about 1:45 and made a trip out to check on her. She had already had a nice heifer calf that had crawled under the fence and laid down. She was definitely not happy with the calf's choice since she couldn't get to it. I came back to the barn and then went back and gave the calf its roto corona virus vaccine. I made the cow walk around for me and she was doing great so I headed back to bed : ) Sunday the cows stayed in the barn during the day. Our fresh cow needed an additional dose of calcium under her skin in the morning but had cleaned over night so she was doing well. The day was again hot and humid. Today the weather was a repeat of yesterday. The only thing saving us from pure misery was it stayed cloudy. Joe was here and helped milk and then pressure washed 9 empty hutches and washed all the feed pails. Bruce dealt with a cow that had a very sore foot. As it turned out she had a bunch of sand and grit worked in through a sole crack. No wonder she was limping! He cleaned it up, treated it, and put a block on the good side to take the pressure off the sore side of her foot. In the process she managed to fall down in the trim chute once Bruce took off the belly bands that are used to help her balance. She managed to get back on her feet (this is a fairly enclosed space) and walked back to her stall. Other recent cow events to note are a couple of teat injuries, although minor ones. It is a mystery how cows can step on teats when they are outside in what is considered the perfect environment. We treated one cow for pneumonia last week. With the heat it is surprising we haven't had more. Our most recent milk culture came back fine. Nice!
The calves are doing fine. I only have 3 in hutches currently which is a nice change from having so many in early spring. The last calf is now past the point of the new calf concerns, and the one born over the weekend should be on track to do just fine. They don't read the manual, but I am hopeful.
We could use rain. The humidity along with our clay soils are really keeping the corn growing. The soil holds moisture (earlier a problem, now a blessing) and the humidity in the air also minimizes the plant requirements. We are now seeing signs of leaf hoppers in our new alfalfa seeding. Signs of trouble are yellow v shapes on the leaf tips caused by a toxin that they inject when the suck out the plant juice. We may need to spray for them which is something we have never had to do before. So far the pasture is still in good condition but keeping the cows in means they aren't harvesting like they should. It also means our haylage in the bag is disappearing faster than we would like. When the cows are out Bruce adds 250lbs. in the mix. When they stay in the haylage needs to be increased to 1000lbs.
Vicky was here today. Lower milk production and lower butterfat tests, along with higher somatic cell counts are common with the heat. We are not alone in our frustrations. Prices for soybean meal is expected to go up due to heat in Texas destroying the cotton seed crop. Cotton seed is another protein source to feed cows and having less of it available will create a higher demand for soybean. She suggests we consider contracting some of our soybean needs to control our protein costs. We discussed fly control, timing of worming everyone on pasture and also what amounts of corn to feed to those on pasture to keep it in their diet and help them grow. She was glad to hear we have bred quite a few animals and has high hopes for pregnancies, although the heat may complicate that.
Yesterday was again a special day in Wisconsin with the 2nd half of our property taxes due. Another $3500 out the door. Enough said.
Recent breakdowns have been minor. We had a tire on the tractor with what turned out to be a valve stem problem so that was relatively cheap to fix. The tractor fuel tank was leaking but that ended up being a loose fuel return hose. A water float came lose and had to be replaced in the pasture.
The goats are out routinely. They have decided they don't have to respect the fence where they were in. The dog loves this....the farmer is less than pleased. Today Bruce built some temporary fence around areas of the farm where we can't mow. The goats can eat and do clean up duty.
Mike continues to work hard followed by napping : ) We did manage to get a video of him cooling down after working. We have a shallow water tank that he uses when he is hot. He is the only one who decides when he is warm enough to use it and how long he will soak. He hates the camera but was warm enough that he was sidetracked and didn't notice. We have never had a border collie use a tank to cool down before although it's very common for this breed to like one. In the pasture he will crawl into the cattle water tanks to cool off if he decides he is too hot. Those tanks are much smaller so he makes us smile and when he gets done we just dump the tanks and let them refill. Tonight it is 83 degrees with a dewpoint of 83. 99% humidity. Winds 3mph. The dog was more than willing to take a dip in his tank tonight when we got done : )
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