With deeper roots the alfalfa is hanging in there, though even some alfalfa is starting to dry up. I haven't let the cattle into the hayfield yet, though it will be soon - and that is sooner than normal.
Below: this area of the hayfield I let the cattle eat the end of May. Usually it grows back by now. As you can see only the alfalfa has come back.
The rest of the hayfield.
Tuesday night Donna and another neighbor, Brian, helped me move the cattle from my south pasture to a neighbor's field. Last year the neighbor had my cattle eat his field down to prevent a fire. This year his field is already drying up and each day has a noticeable difference in drying and brown grass. It will be a race between the cattle and the heat as to who gets the most grass.
Tuesday I spent from 2 pm to 8:30 pm (minus an hour for lunch) fixing the neighbor's fence. I patched it last year but since then a dead tree fell across the fence and several dead tree trunks used as fence posts are now mostly held up by the wires. Plus the usual missing staples. What was odd was the number of missing clips holding the wires to the metal t-posts.
The neighbor had a number of unused t-posts so I dug them up and put them where the three bad posts where. The remaining dozen t-posts I placed in the middle of unusually long spaces between existing posts. The ground is so dry I had to use a shovel to dig the t-posts out of the ground to move them.
After I moved a stock tank for water over to this field, I moved the cattle. This was well after 9 pm. With Donna's and Brain's help the move went smoothly. The only hitches were a couple of calves confused about following the herd through the gate out of the south pasture, and then Dan's newest very large cow who decided to make a break from the herd while halfway between the gates. We let her go as no one else was following her. Once the herd was through the gate into the neighbor's pasture Dan's cow looked - and felt - pretty foolish way over by herself near my pasture fence. I walked over and she took off in a trot with her head held high on full alert over to the neighbor's gate where she went through and re-joined the herd.
I brought salt over this morning and hooked up the automatic waterer as the cattle go though lots of water on these hot days. With such hot temperatures the cattle mostly lay in the shade of the trees all afternoon and eat in the morning and then in the evening.
Tuesday night after moving the cattle I had to get groceries and gas. I got back home at midnight. Then I went for a 14 mile bicycle ride to make my mileage for the month of June. While the miles were technically ridden after midnight in July I use 6 am as a cutoff between days as I usually stay up past midnight. I was done with my ride at 1:12 am. Nice that the moon was almost full on a clear night.
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| Panda and her son |
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| Oreo's getting a bath from her mother |
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| Oreo sticking her tongue out |
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| The steer - with no horns now |
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| Most everyone taking a siesta in the shade to avoid the heat of midday |
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| The steer - with no horns now |
During the move Donna and saw pocket gopher dirt mounds in my hayfield and then near the neighbor's hydrant. I trapped and killed both pocket gophers in a matter of hours Wednesday afternoon. I have two more areas to trap.
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