Cattle costs, fence, and garden

Dan came to an agreement with Rich and he will buy Dan's cattle. Rich also wants to buy my cattle. He will pay .97 cent a pound for our heifers. I am on the fence about selling. 97 cent / lb is a fair price, but I probably could get more at the livestock auction. Probably... and then there are costs.

• the auction charges a 3% commission
• transportation cost (expensive shipping the cattle to Missoula)
  
• $1 a head goes to the Beef Council to advertise "Beef, What's for dinner?"
• .50 cent a head goes for the Brand Inspector
• veterinary inspection fee
• insurance charged by livestock auction
  

I am leaning to selling to Rich. The 3% commission and transportation costs take a big bite out of one's profit. I could get more per pound at the auction but come out behind after subtracting costs.

What to do?

As the plan is to transport Dan's (and maybe my) cattle over to Rich's place this Saturday, I need to get them into the corral Friday night. Today I strung another wire above the chain link fence for the section of the corral that the two Holsteins jumped over to escape a few weeks back. Now the fence height is 5 ft high. I'd say "Now try jumping that!" but the cattle may take me up on it.

Actually I'm not too worried as my cattle spent the spring in the corral and never jumped the fence. When Rich was here I asked about Holsteins and he said they are known for escaping through fences. Holsteins have such a hang-dog dumb look to them you wouldn't think they would be smart enough to make a jailbreak.

I have started to get a few ripe tomatoes from my garden. Finally!! There are lots of tomatoes on the plants but they are green. The story of my garden here in Montana: green tomatoes. I have also been eating my corn the past week. Tonight I steamed a beet from my garden. Zucchinis... more than I need or want. I cut up four or five large ones and gave them to the cattle. Only a couple head came over tonight and there was a limit to how much zucchini they were willing to eat. I also fed them some apples. One of Dan's steers kept following me along the corral fence as I worked on it. "More! More! I want more apples!"

Last evening I saw a large bumblebee on one of my sunflower heads. It looked like it was going to spend the night there as it didn't move.

This morning I had a half dozen to ten Hungarian partridges napping in my yard behind the house. It was an area where I had cut the grass so I could easily see them. I stepped quietly so as not to disturb them. They were sitting all puffed out. Guess that is to keep warm?

Jan gave me a set of wind chimes she and Bob no longer wanted and which I had admired earlier. The chimes are cut-out shapes of cattle. They are metal and unpainted so they have a brown rusted look. I like cattle images and items. I hung it outside entryway door.