Cattle on grass

Thursday I let the cattle out on grass.  In the morning I had given them the last of the barley, oat and pea hay.  I still have some large bales left of grass hay, but while I usually wait until June 1 to let the cattle out on the grass, the cattle want the grass and I am tired of feeding them twice a day.  I still have Toby the bull and Mama and her calf in the corral.  I don't want Toby to start making babies until June 1 so the new calves won't be born until March 10 or so at the earliest next year.  Toby and Mama were upset they couldn't go join the rest of the cattle and vocally showed their displeasure.

Also, because I don't want the heifers bred until after the cows have been bred, I am keeping the heifers an extra three weeks in the NE pasture while the cattle (and later Toby) are in the rest of the pastures.

Also on the to-do list was to spray some Ivermectin on the cattle to help them against insects, worms and biting flies.  To do this I ran them through the loading corral ramp where the cattle couldn't get away as I sprayed them.

The first two photos are of the heifers in the loading corral waiting to be sprayed.

After I let the heifers out to the NE pasture I let the cattle into the main corral.  I let them eat the rest of the grass in the loading corral.   Here they are resting in the afternoon.

All the calves were zonked out.  None of the calves woke up when I walked through the corral.  Later when the cattle were let out into the pasture the calves had so much energy.  In their excitement at the room to run they swarmed around the cows like a flock of birds flowing out and then through the herd.  When the calves flowed through the cows, the cows would then start running for a bit.

Panda in the south pasture.

Cattle in the south pasture.

After I let the cattle out of the corral I discovered they broke an old board in the loading corral.  A 9 ft 4 inch board.  I eventually found a replacement board from my stack of boards.

Here is an eight second video of the cattle running to the south pasture gate:  https://youtu.be/dV9ndT7SUKQ

Here is a 1 minute 16 second video of the cattle in the south pasture: https://youtu.be/bAwRLwUwCQg

Cow and her calf cattle accessory

Patti added a cute accessory to the recent cow and her calf photo I had posted.

Two lame cows move

I moved the two cows with a history of bad legs (and their calves) from their little area by the road in the NE pasture, over to the fruit tree and garden area.  This way I can stop feeding them hay each day.

Cow #40's leg seems to have recovered from her recent setback.  Cow #20 still has a major limp from her recent setback.

The two cows have all this room and they eat side by side.  These two females don't fight.  The same certainly cannot be said of my other cows.

The other cows still in the corral - who are still on hay - sometimes can see these two cows, and are jealous.  Lots of mooing (complaining) going on this afternoon by the cows in the corral.

Stump 2 in 2018

I got rid of another tree stump in the middle pasture.  I ended up digging the stump out of the ground chopping the roots as I dug deeper.

I started to shovel the dirt back into the hole but quickly got tired of that.  With the path to the pastures blocked by the cattle's temporary corral, I ended up driving through Calvin's field to reach my pastures.  Filling in the hole was much easier using the tractor's bucket.

Wooden feeder rebuild

With all the stress and strain the cattle put on the large wooden feeder this Winter a rebuild was on the to-do this for this Summer.  As usual the cattle altered my schedule.  Last week they busted up the feeder.  I think they realized that some of the grain from the hay had fallen between the cracks in the floor.  They broke one end of the feeder to get in and then upended all of the floor boards.

The corner legs were two by four boards.  With all the abuse, and nailing and re-nailing, the legs were shot.  I replaced them with six by six boards I had rescued from the neighboring company's burn pile.  Three of the boards were the correct length to be a leg and I only had to cut a few inches off the fourth board.   Since the corner legs are six inches I was able to cut a little into the legs for the end floor boards rather than having to nail a board to the side to act as a shelf to hold the floor board.  And notching the end floor board into the legs makes the feeder even more stable and solid.

The side boards on one end were also shot from the nailing and re-nailing.  I cut four inches off the one end.  The feeder is long enough that the loss of four inches doesn't make a difference.

Cattle and bicycle

I didn't work on my planned projects today.  When I went out to feed the cattle in the morning I discovered they weren't mooing because I was a few minutes late and they were hungry, they were mooing because the cattle (most likely Maria) pushed against the loading corral fence and popped off one side on one section.  

The cows couldn't get inside the loading corral but some calves could.  Four calves.   Once they squeezed inside the calves couldn't get back out.  They ate all the grass in the half of the loading corral ramp area they could access as the grey gate was closed dividing the ramp in two.

One calf was reaching under the fence to reach the grass in the loading corral.  As I took the photo the calf pulled her head out from under the fence.

They must have been in there for a while as they were hungry for their mother's milk once I let them out. And several calves were slightly hoarse.

The nails had come out with the boards.  I had to use a sledgehammer to pound the nails and panel back on to the railroad tie as a hammer wasn't strong enough to do the job.

Then I rode my bicycle uptown to pick up my prescription refills.  Or I tried to.   I was almost two and a half miles from home when I heard a "Tic.  tic.   tic." sound from the back of my bicycle.  When I stopped I found a fence staple in my tire.  Half of the staple was in my tire and the other half hit my bicycle frame as the wheel went around.  I walked home.  What are the odds of running over a fence staple and having it stick in your tire?!

It took two tries to fix my bicycle tube.  The first hole was easy to find.  When I re-aired my tire I found two other small holes on the opposite side (diameter) of the tube where the staple must have pressed against the tube against the wheel rim.

It was mid afternoon before my tire was fixed and I was able to ride to get my prescription re-fills.


Donna caught a Columbia ground squirrel in a conibear trap I had lent her.

In the evening I rode down to release the dead ground squirrel from the trap and reset the trap so she can catch another ground squirrel.

When I got home the cattle were mooing again.  Because the cows push the heifers aside when they eat hay I feed the cows in the extended corral and the heifers in a wooden feeder inside the main corral and close the gate between them.  A few hours later when everyone ate their fill I open the gate.  The cows were mooing because once the heifers finished eating their hay two of the heifers had pushed another loading corral ramp panel open.  This time it was a back panel which allowed the heifers to get inside the back of the loading corral ramp.  One of the heifers was Maria's heifer - of course.  The two heifers were furiously eating grass and the cows outside the corral were gathered at the fence mooing as they were furious the heifers were eating grass.  I chased the heifers out and with a sledgehammer pounded the panel back into place against the railroad tie.  I added a few more large long nails for good measure.  The loading corral fence is built more to keep the cattle in and not as strong to keep them out.

Dang.  These cattle really want to eat grass, even when their bellies are full of hay.  I have a week or two before the grass is tall enough to let the cattle out on it.  The battle will continue.

Calf photos

Here are some photos from yesterday.

 Mother - daughter

Yesterday was a good cattle day.  Today the cattle were a pain.  #40 who had gotten better and was not limping any more is again limping even though she is in the small temporary corral by the road.

Maria (cow #7) is still causing trouble.  Shortly after eating the hay tonight she went to work on the temporary corral panels.  I have placed chain link or field fence along all of the panels to prevent Maria from trying to go underneath the panels. Maria tests everything and is the fence if not wired enough she pushes the field fence down and puts her head under the panel to reach the grass on the other side.  Otherwise she pushes the fence up when she can and goes under the panels.  I caught her doing this tonight and she had lifted several panels up and pulled several metal t-posts out of the ground.  I chased her away.  I went to get more posts and a post pounder and when I returned I found her under the panels again in the same spot. *Insert* lots of yelling by me here. *End insert*.  Maria glared at me as I fixed the fence and added more posts and wire.  Maria is so fat she looks like she is pregnant even though she just had a calf last month and is nursing her calf.

When fixing the fence I found Maria's calf's ear tag laying on the ground under the fence.  Her calf is learning from her mother and must have snagged her ear tag on the fence when trying to get her head through to eat the grass.  Last year Maria's calf also lost her ear tag by snagging it on a fence over Summer.

Calf 13 - Mama's

Mama was due to give birth tomorrow - May 17.  This morning when I went out to feed the cattle I found her with her new calf.

As usual Mama was very protective of her calf.

In the afternoon after the cattle ate and then went out to the temporary corral to rest, I closed the gate to the main corral.  Then with Curtis and Donna's help I separated Mama from her calf so Donna and I could band/castrate her little bull calf.  Yes, that's right.... in a year of 9 heifers and 4 bull calves Mama had a bull calf.

Mama is smart and fast and from outside the fence I couldn't get her separated from her calf and through the gate which Curtis was handling.  I got my pickup and used that to herd Mama from her calf.  Of course they stuck together like glue.  One time I got out of my pickup and used the pitchfork handle to try to get them to move apart.  Mama came after me and I threw the pitchfork in the pickup bed and jumped back inside the pickup and closed the door before Mama got me.  Donna found this amusing.

Finally Mama slipped up and I got the pickup between her and her calf and herded Mama out of the corral.  Curtis swung the gate to close and then ran up a fence before Mama could get him.  Once I latched the gate Donna and I were able to enter the south corral and band the calf.  Mama was on the other side of the fence and furious at us.  Good thing I built a strong fence.  Once the calf was banded we let Mama back through the gate to her calf.

All while this was going Toby the bull got interested and started to get in the way.  Curtis opened the gate and Toby went out of the south corral.  Once he was out he got excited and jumped around.  I opened a gate to the loading corral where the grass was green and tall.  Once he could eat the grass Toby was happy.  When I was done banding the calf we moved Toby out of the loading corral and back to the south corral.  He wasn't too keen on that idea.  Before he went into the south corral Toby bent down and rubbed his head and neck in the dirt in the main corral.  Then he went jumping and twisting and bucking back through the gate into the south corral.  Lately Toby has shown more signs of life.  Must be those cows going into heat.   A few more weeks Toby, a few more weeks.

You can tell this is one of Buddy's calves as the calf looks more like Buddy than he does Mama.

Mama's udder and nipples are so big.  The back two nipples seem to be small enough for the calf to suck on.

60 days after the first calf was born on March 17, I am now finally done calving for the year.

Rainbow

Last evening when I was out for a bicycle ride just before sunset the clouds parted slightly and the bottom of a very bright and intense rainbow appeared.   Actually it was two rainbows with room for a third rainbow even though the photo captured only one rainbow.  I didn't have my camera but Donna saw the rainbow when she went out to feed her horses.  This is her photo.   About a third of the way down the photo you can barely make out the outline of the mountains behind the rainbow.

Temporary corral panel damage

The cattle were at it again today.  The grass is greener.   They didn't want to wait a little longer for their next feeding.  Grass tastes better than hay.  Whatever the reason.

This evening when I came to give them more hay I saw they beat up and bent some of the corral panels.  Number 7 (Maria) of course.  When the other cattle came into the main corral for hay, Maria stayed at the corral panels.  Along with her calf who Maria was probably teaching bad things.

Over the years I learned to pound in a few metal t-posts to prevent the panels from being pushed out.  Then I learned to tie the panels to the t-posts with twine to prevent Maria from lifting the panels up.  Now this time Maria (and most likely help from other cows) lifted some panels up and pulled three t-posts out of the ground.  To move the panels back into place I had to untie the t-posts from the panels.

Once the panels were back in place and the t-posts were pounded back into the ground I added some field fence and small sections of chain link fence to the corral panels so the cows can no longer get their heads under the panels.  I have 80% to 90% of the panels covered with fencing.

It was raining again by the time I finished.  That is why the following photo is not a sharp.

Rain and Beulah's calf

We had several nice rains this afternoon.  Perfect for my newly planted field.  I'm so glad I got my seeding done yesterday.

Here is recent photo of Beulah's calf.  She has turned from the silver she was at birth to a light brown.

Then

Now

This morning I found one of the two calves in the temporary corral panels by the road laying outside the panels and in the NE pasture.  He must have crawled under a panel.  I put him back inside with his mother.

Planted my hayfield

I finished discing the hayfield a second time on Sunday.

I put extra weight on the disc so it would cut into the ground deeper.

I started planting my hayfield last night and finished planting this evening at sunset.

While the seed company sold me a little more seed than needed for 15 acres (at my request), I was afraid I would run out of seed.  That was because the control for dispensing the seed was vague.  (The control is the lever near the right top handle in the photo below.)  There were two scratch marks on the control and Chris (the owner) suggested to set the lever at one scratch.  I set the lever at the second, slightly higher, scratch which was approximately two-thirds open.

It turns out I should have left the control full open.  I had six 50 pound bags of seed (One bag of seed completely filled the red seed compartment.)  When I finished seeding/packing the field I had used 3 and 1/3 bags of seed.  I had 2 and 2/3 bags left - much more than I expected.

So I had to go around the field a second time.  Once I covered half the field a second time I moved the control down to the first scratch.  That enabled me to completely cover the field a second time just as the seed ran out.  I didn't finish until 9 pm.   I hadn't planned on making two passes over the field.

Fortunately as my soil is not firm to begin with, packing the soil a second time was ok.  The second go around was trickier than the first go around.  As seen below I could easily see where I had already packed/planted during the first go around.   Not so easy the second time.   I went clockwise the first time and counter-clockwise a second time.   I rejected the idea of going diagonally the second time.  While it would have been easier to see due to the perpendicular grooves, going diagonally would have resulted in multiple instances of going over and over the same areas.   I did go diagonally a few times to make "perpendicular marks" as reference points of being on course when going counter-clockwise.

I had been pushing to complete the planting today.  I would have preferred to have been done last Friday.  That is because it rained on Saturday and again on Monday.  The forecast is for rain tomorrow and again on Friday before a dry period starts.  With the seed in the ground I need water to germinate.

I thought discing and replanting my field would make it smoother.  No.  As you can see, even the packer's weight doesn't compress the soil as much as the tractor's tires.

Each little square below the box and above the shield is where the seed exits the box.  The seed falls in front of the shield which guides it to fall between the packer's rollers.

The seeds are mixture of alfalfa (80%) and orchard grass seed (20%).  I don't know which is the purple seed - most likely the alfalfa seeds which I understand to be smaller than the grass seeds.

I'm so happy to have my field finally replanted.