Corral fix and grass

A few days ago I had to fix a board on the loading corral.  While the cattle are in the corral and the temporary extended corral they don't have access to inside the loading corral.  So the grass is growing inside there.  Which is what the cattle want.   When I made the corral and loading corral I placed the boards on the railroad ties more to keep the cattle in and not out.  Right now the cattle want in and when they put their heads between the boards to reach the grass they can - with effort - push boards off the railroad ties.  Or break weaker boards.  I think a combination of these two items did one board in.  While the cows and replacements were still too big to get inside the loading the corral, that didn't stop the new calves, many of who were inside running around.  A few calves, once inside, then reached through the fence in another spot to eat the grass in the NE pasture - and not in the loading corral.  Duh!

The past three afternoons I gave the cattle freshly mowed grass from different people's lawns.  When I got grass from Jan's lawn I also trimmed a few caragana bushes away from her evergreen trees and removed an old tree stump.   No wonder it is taking me a while to rebuild another section of my pasture fence.  No pasture fence rebuild that day.

Below is the grass from the Fosters.   Today I gave the cattle grass from Donna's yard.   The cattle quickly realized what is going on.  Now whenever I am in the backyard by my pickup they begin to raise a ruckas.  When I returned with Donna's grass the cattle were in the extended corral eating from the hay feeder.  By the time I drove the pickup into the corral the herd came running into the corral in a full-on stampede.  I was able to get the corral gate shut behind the pickup.  The cattle really want the green grass and are tired of eating hay.

Hay feeder rings

In the Spring about the time the snow starts melting the area around the hay feeders take a beating from the cattle standing at the feeder and eating.  It takes some time for the grass to recover.

Below you can see how the calves broke branches on the three evergreen trees I planted last Fall.  In the first photo on the left side you can see the wire fence I had wrapped around the trees.  Even with the wire the calves pushed against the wire and reached through where they could and tore the lower branches off the trees.  The calves had all you could eat hay but they apparently were bored.

Several calf photos

The first photo was taken the day after calf 11 was born.  Notice how the calf is curled up and laying on her mother.

Beulah and her calf

Speckle's calf

Calf 12 - 40's

Cow 40 had a little bull calf overnight.  The surprise was that the calf has a white face, breaking Toby's run of all black calves.  I realized why cow 40 was late this year.  She is not late.  Last year I planned to sell her and had her keep cow 20 company.  They were not exposed to the bull.  After cow 120 got the swollen jaw and became hamburger I decided not to sell cow 40 as I didn't want to haul just one cow to the auction in Missoula.  So I let her back out to join the rest of the herd and Toby.  That was back in July.  So that explains why cow 40 didn't give birth until today.

I just have Mama and Diamond left to calve.  And yes, both are a little late in calving.  Any day now...

More tall tree trimming

That one dead tree branch was calling to me.   So yesterday I found a way to cut it off.

I placed the extension ladder against the tree trunk and climbed up to the branch that goes out under the one I wanted to cut off and then walked out on that branch.  First I went with a handsaw to clear a path and also cut some smaller dead branches nearby.   Then I got my chainsaw.  I started the chainsaw on the ground and warmed it up.  I shut it off and very carefully climbed the ladder and on the tree and out on the branch.  When it came to start the chainsaw one light pull should be all I needed to do.  But the chainsaw didn't want to stay running.  After a half dozen hard pulls while also trying to hold onto the tree branch, I finally got the chainsaw started.

I didn't want to send the whole branch down on the patio roof below.  So I cut the branch in sections.  Two sections fell on the branch below and then stayed there as seen in the following photo.  I couldn't reach them to push them off.

I had to get my long rope and toss it over parts of the branches.  After a number of attempts to get the rope over the cut branch I was finally able to pull the two branches down to the ground while missing the patio roof.

I didn't have a much success with one shorter section I cut off the branch.  It went through the patio roof.

The piece that went through the patio roof.

I had more success with the next piece I had cut.  I quit cutting the section just before it was about to fall. Then I was able to push it to the side as it fell and it just missed the patio roof.

This link has photos of Daisy "helping" me untangle the rope I used to pull the branches down.  https://tallpinescat.blogspot.com/2019/05/helping-untangle-rope.html

Calf 11 - 90 heifer's

I finally had another calf born overnight.   The previous calf was born way back on April 13.   Heifer #90 (not to be confused with her mother, cow #90) gave birth.   By 10 am the calf was warm and dry and walking so it had been born some hours earlier.   The calf is a heifer.

The other calves were very interested in checking out this new calf.  The calf's mother has her back to us and eating hay I placed near her.

Another cute little calf.   The new mom is a good mom.  She is attentive and usually near the calf (other than when she grabs a quick bite to eat).  When the calf was walking around checking out the corral the mother followed gently mooing over and over, "Be careful.  Be careful."

I have one heifer left to calf and two cows.  All are looking closer to calving.  The last heifer to calve is the largest heifer (almost the size of a cow already!) so I hope that helps minimize first time birth problems.

Tall tree trimming

I thought I was done with tree trimming for now but then I looked up at the two large box elder trees over my patio and saw some dead and dying branches.  The tree is so massive and tall I can't get to the top branches.  I trimmed a few "lower" branches.


Before and after for the latest branch cut.  Even putting the ladder in the pickup bed I could not get the ladder all the way to the branch I wanted to cut.  I climbed up the ladder and using a chainsaw I could just barely reach the branch.

As you can see there is another dead branch.  But it is a little higher and over the patio.  So unreachable by the extension ladder.

The second photo below shows how far I was away from the branch I had just cut.

I was uneasy about the branch coming down while I was way up the ladder holding a running chainsaw.  So when the branch was mostly cut and close to coming down I stopped cutting.  I got a long rope and then standing on the ground pulled the branch down and away from the pickup and the patio... barely missing each of them.

For extra safety I attached a bungie cord to the bottom of the ladder.

Pasture harrowing done

I finally finished harrowing all my pastures.  I had gotten bogged down / delayed in the middle pasture when I decided to trim lower branches on the trees.  Partly because the cattle ate some of them over Winter and partly because the tractor would not fit under them.  I didn't realize how many trees and branches I needed to trim.  Some trees have downward growing branches so I needed to use an extension ladder to reach where the branch started at the tree trunk.  Step ladders and extension ladders made the trimming go slower as I was using a chainsaw and being careful.  I only had to jump off a ladder with a running chainsaw once when a falling branch hit the stepladder I was on.

Once all the branches were cut I thought gathering the branches would be quick.  Nope.  That took a few days to do.

For clusters of trees I placed the branches in one pile.  Then using forks on my tractor I was able to carry the branch piles to one big pile for the branches to dry for later use in burning tree stumps.

I had a few fallen tree trunks to cut up once the branch work was done.

Again I thought the stump and cut branch pickup would be quick.  I had two full loads of stumps to stack.  The branches filled one and half pickup loads.

The cut branches need to dry also.  Rather than toss them in a pile I also stacked them.  This also took time to do right.

Once the middle pasture was done I was on to the north pasture.  The fallen tree in the north pasture..

actually came from Calvin's side of the fence.  It had laid there all Spring but when I was about to harrow the pasture (and cut up the tree) Calvin then told me he wanted the tree.  The day before I harrowed the north pasture he pulled the tree to his field.  No trimming of the tree's branches.  He must have thought he was doing me a favor but in dragging the tree with all of its branches he left a trail of broken branches.  He picked up the biggest branches but left the rest.  I had to spend over an hour picking up and raking the remaining branches and hauling them off.  I would have preferred that he had trimmed the branches before dragging the tree.  So I was not in the best of moods that morning as I had a very busy day of work to complete.

Once I finished harrowing the north pasture I harrowed Calvin's field working around the tree he had drug there.  He had let my cattle graze down his grass last Fall and they left manure that needed to be broken up.

That was a busy day.  I had taken 40 minutes to finish harrowing the middle pasture, raked manure from around the trees in the north pasture, raked the branches from the drug tree, harrowed the north pasture, harrowed Calvin's field, took apart the corral panels and electric fence, harrowed the extended corral, got the harrow into the NE pasture, put out a large hay bale for the cows, and put out a large hay bale for Toby and Mama.   *Whew!*

Yesterday I raked manure from around the trees in the NE pasture and from along the sides of the pasture and today trimmed a few tree branches and picked them up, then harrowed the NE pasture.

I am happy to be done harrowing for the year!

Anchoring a hay feeder

The cattle - mainly cow #80 - push on the heavy metal hay feeder sliding it around.  The feeder is so heavy I struggle to move it slightly.  And cow 80 easily pushes it around.   There could still be plenty of hay inside the feeder and I find the feeder moved with hay under and some hay outside the feeder.  That hay often get wasted as it is stepped on or pushed into the mud or manure. Even though I set the hay bale on two wooden pallets I also often find the pallets pushed around or flipped up in the hay.   To stop this behavior I pounded four steel fence posts inside the feeder.  This worked.  The feeder stayed put even though by the end of today all the hay was eaten in the feeder.

To get another hay bale in the feeder I will have to pull the metal posts out so I can flip the feeder on its side.  Once the feeder is back over the new hay bale I'll have to pound the posts in the ground again.  Extra work, but worth it.