Cattle into the hayfield

This afternoon I let the cattle into the hayfield.  The past few days the temperature has been above freezing and much of the snow has melted.  And the cattle finished eating the latest large oat hay bale.  And I have had the cattle eating from a bloat block instead of a salt block the past 24 hours.

In the north pasture, Diamond in front and Speckles behind her.

Toby the bull eating next to Maria.

Somebody is a little fat.

The calves were last to come and enter the hayfield.   It wasn't long after they were born that I let them out into the pasture with their mothers.  As a result they have not been around me as much as the other cattle.  And they probably watched me load the other calves into the stock trailer and haul them away.   Therefore it seems the calves are more wary of me.

Diamond's calf. A steer.

Diamond's calf. A steer.

Maria's calf. A heifer.

Mama's calf. A steer.

A 32 second video of the cattle entering the hayfield: https://youtu.be/bQn1rWcWNsg

More calves taken to auction

I got my check from the last week's livestock auction.  The prices all calves are being sold for are down this year.  For me on average, it is about 11 cents a pound less. The prices were not as low as I feared since I didn't make the newsletter.  The heifer who didn't make the list was two cents a pound lower than the ones on the list.  The steers, four of my steers should have made the list as they were above the bottom four mentions on the list.  My brown steer - once I account for the small weight difference to another one of my black steers - sold for around $150 less.  I guess, because the steer was brown, not black.  So, no, that calf wasn't close to making the list.

My calves were again a good size.  I had three steers who weighed 710 pounds each.  One steer weighed 600 pounds.  The brown steer weighed 560 pounds.  One heifer weighed 645 and the other heifer weighed 450 pounds.

Anyway.   I have 7 calves left.  I decided to keep the smallest (because they were born months later) three calves till Spring.  I decided to sell the other four calves now.  I do have enough hay to keep them to Spring also.  But wait, due to global warming and our colder weather, I'm now feeding hay to the cattle a month earlier than normal.  So maybe I don't have enough hay for these four calves.

The three calves not taken to auction.

One of the long legged heifer calves taken to auction.

The weather was decent today.  Meaning it wasn't snowing or raining or windy.  So I took the calves down to Missoula today, the day before the auction.

The snow is still on the ground.  So pulling the stock trailer with the "newer" pickup had the pickup spinning its tires through the snow as I very slowly pulled the trailer.

The calves were easier to load into the trailer than the calves were last week.

The two calves with white on their faces are the twins born March 27.

The black area at the far end of the loading ramp is the stock trailer's open door.

Four calves and not seven calves.  These calves are smaller and lighter.  And the ground was frozen. This time I was able to drive and pull the stock trailer loaded with the calves out of the corral and did not need the tractor to pull the pickup out of the corral.

Because the road on the east side of Flathead Lake is shaded a lot by trees, Donna thought the road could be slippery than normal.  So I drove on the west side of the lake even though it is hillier.  Traffic was lighter today than last week so I didn't slow much traffic when I went up hills slower.

Even though I only go to the auction a couple times a year, the secretary inside the building remembered I had fractured my skull last year and asked how I was doing these days.  I was surprised she remembered.  I forgot I had told her about my injury in the past.  I guess my story made an impact.

Views on the drive home.

This time we could see the mountains near St Ignatius where the waterfall is located.  The waterfall is located in the 'gap' just left of center in the photo.  Though at this time of the year one can't see the waterfall under the snow. 

Sunset

Nice sunset tonight.

At least we are over setting new record low temperatures of 0 degrees each of the past couple of nights.  Our high temperature today got a little above freezing this afternoon and so the snow is finally starting to melt - although very slowly.

Snow total

I am not happy with our weather.  I still have a few projects left to do before Winter starts, and it appears Winter has started early this year.  Where is my global warming?

Snow began Friday afternoon and didn’t let up until early Saturday morning. Kalispell saw a daily record of 7.3 inches, which also ranks second highest all-time for October, trailing behind 11 inches set on Oct. 26, 1946, according to the National Weather Service in Missoula.

A push of arctic air was expected to bring record cold to Northwest Montana through the weekend, the National Weather Service reported.

Lows Saturday night in the Flathead Valley are forecast to dip below zero, with wind gusts at 20 mph. Sunday’s high temperature is expected to top out in the 20s before plummeting below zero again. Wind chill values of minus 15 were likely.

The unseasonably cold temperatures should stick around through the week, with a chance of a slight warm up by next weekend.

It looks like we will be setting new record low temperatures today and over the next few days.

I spent part of today shoveling paths through the snow.  Not what I usually do in October.  And with our cold temperatures predicted, who know when - or if - the snow will melt this month?

Daisy usually wants to go outside early in the morning.  At 6 am Daisy put her head out the door after I opened it and looked and sniffed into the wind and cold and came back in the house.  15 minutes later I had to get up again to open the door again for Daisy.  Again the same thing.  Five minutes later, after her third attempt, she gave up and jumped up on the bed to sleep next to me.  Over two hours later I got up and found the wind had blown the door open a bit.  Sometimes the door doesn't catch strong and, even though I also have a screen door, the wind can blow the inside door open.  The temperature in the house was 51 degrees. 

In the morning for the cows I put out a few small alfalfa/grass hay bales into the wooden feeders.  In the afternoon I discovered the floor at one end of the large wooden feeder was down. Apparently a cow, or the bull, stepped into the wooden feeder to eat hay.  So, another work project for me to fix the feeder's floor.  Also in the afternoon I put out another large oat hay bale.   Afterwards, at one point, the cattle thought I may have put out more alfalfa/grass bales and they ran from the oat hay feeder in to the corral and the wooden feeders.  They were not happy to not find alfalfa/grass bales in the corral.

More snow, and oat hay

The weather forecast had snow starting at noon, and sure enough it did.  I thought the forecast was for 1 to 2 inches of snow during the day, then at night when the wind picked up we would get another 2 to 4 inches.  We got more than 2 inches by sundown.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was 4 inches of snow already.  It sounds like the wind is picking up speed now.

In the morning I tried to get things out away before the snow fell.  I parked the stock trailer.  No chance to clean it out until next week, whenever the temperature get back above freezing.

Since the snow started falling slowly I rode a few miles on my bicycle.  In the beginning of the 13 mile ride the snow melted when it reached the roadway.  By the end of the ride the snow was starting to stick on the road.  I had ice on my bicycle that I chipped off when I got home.

Late afternoon I saw that vehicles on the road were slowing down near my driveway.  I looked out the window and saw a car in the ditch near my NE pasture fence.  By the time I reached the car the neighbor and his son driving his pickup were pulling the car out of the ditch.  A short straight section of road, but if you aren't driving smartly, one can slip off a slippery road.  The ditch is deep so the car came to a stop against the other side of the ditch, and did not reach my fence.

With all this snow this week I have had to put out a bale of hay for the cattle for the times when the snow covered the grass. Because the cattle like to over eat, the first evening I filled the pickup box with hay to last the night.  The hay was the oat hay from Donna's field.  The oat hay was very dry and getting to the edge of being more straw than hay.  The cattle weren't too pleased with the oat hay.  They complained and would work extra hard to eat some grass on the ground.  The oat hay lasted a day, not a half day like normally.

From when I put some oat hay into the pickup.

When I got back from the livestock auction Wednesday night I put the rest of the bale out into a metal feeder in the north pasture. No worries about the cattle over eating the oat hay.

Today I got the wooden feeder ready in the corral.  I had plans to work the area where the feeder sits so that come Spring when the ground gets muddy and soft the feeder won't sink a bit.  Well, with our early Winter and snow, that didn't happen.  So I moved the feeder back to its location and put the floor back in it.  Before dark I put a couple small hay bales in this feeder and the barn wooden feeder, and let the cattle into the corral.  When the wind picks up tonight the cattle can stay in the loafing shed out of the wind and snow.

Earlier I had cleaned the loafing shed, and the shed where the calves sleep, of manure.  I thought there would be more oat hay left and planned on putting some of it in the calves area for dry bedding.  But I found most of the oat hay had been eaten.  The cattle had picked up on eating that hay today.  I could only put a couple of pitchforks of the oat hay in the calves' area.  Tomorrow I'll have to put out another bale of hay for the cows.

Today I got the newsletter from the livestock auction.  They usually list the cattle sold, leaving out the ones that sold at lower prices.  Usually all, or all but a few, of my cattle make the list.  This year I had only one small heifer make the list.  And the prices on the list were less than last week, which are already less than the prices from last year.  It doesn't look good for what prices my cattle sold for this Fall.  I'll find out when I receive my check.

Day after calf trip to auction

Today was a decent day.  I guess I could have hauled my calves to auction today instead of yesterday.  Nah.  I'm sure the roads were slick this morning.

I spent some hours this morning and onto over the noon hour adding some boards to the loading corral fence.  I have a small gate in the middle of the loading ramp area to try to hold the cattle towards the beginning of the ramp area while they decide whether they want to enter the stock trailer.  Sometimes it helps to put boards in the fence to stop the cows from backing up to the gate.  It is especially useful when it is calves, who are smaller.  It would be helpful to have more up-and-down boards in the fence that would hold the boards in place from fence to fence.  Today I added a few more up-and-down boards in three sections of the fence.

It may not look like much in the photo, but as a cow is shorter than a fence section, these boards may hold the cows in place and not give them much forward and backward movement when they want to back up.

Here are the four heifers I have weaned that are left to go to auction.  In a few days I'll start weaning the last three calves so they will be ready for auction next week.

While the temperature did get above freezing today, it wasn't much or for long enough.  So I didn't get the stock trailer cleaned.  A strong Winter storm is predicted to start tomorrow afternoon and last for a day. Then a number of days where the high temperature stays below freezing. So it doesn't look like the stock trailer will be cleaned anytime soon.

Half the calves to auction

It's that time of year to take calves to the livestock auction.  I had to wait until the pickup I bought from my brother was fixed.  The auction is on Thursdays and I had planned on taking the calves early Thursday morning.  But our weather - Winter weather now - keeps changing day by day.

Today was suppose to have bad weather and snow and on into late at night.  Thursday morning would be iffy.  To make an early Thursday start earlier I had planned on putting the calves into the loading corral overnight Wednesday and also parking the stock trailer at the loading corral's gate.  Then it would be a quick load of cattle Thursday morning.

Last night, due to the latest weather forecast change, I thought of canceling the trip on Thursday and delaying it until next week.  Since I need to make two trips to haul the calves that meant two trips next week.

This morning it starting snowing around 9 am.  Not looking good as the weather prediction already started.  But the snow quit after an hour and the clouds lifted and were not so dark.  Donna stopped by after her appointment to see the doctor.  She said the Thursday morning weather forecast had improved for Flathead Valley.  Missoula - where I would be going - still had some freezing weather, rain and snow. I decided not to wait a week to make one trip. I can take cattle down a day or more before the auction.  One then just has to pay a daily cost of hay per head of cattle.  It was already 11 am.  I went and filled the pickup with gas and got the trip permit to move livestock out of the county.  It was after noon when we started the livestock loading.  First I had to get the calves into the loading corral.  Then I had to back up the livestock trailer to the gate.  Backing the livestock trailer in the corral was difficult.  This pickup, while it has a more powerful engine and is a 3/4 ton and not a half ton, is not a four wheel drive.  With all our recent rain and snow the corral's ground is a little soft.  But mainly the problem I had was the odd grass (weeds?) growing in the corral is very slippery, especially when wet and/or snow covered.  It took some effort but I finally got the trailer backed up fairly well.  I would have preferred the stock trailer gate to match 100% with the livestock gate, but it was close enough as moving the trailer was difficult.

I have more calves than will fit in the trailer.  I wanted the larger calves loaded and the smaller calves left for the trip next week.  That meant all but one of the steers would be loaded and then a few of the larger heifers.  Getting the calves loaded was a hassle as first they didn't want to go into the trailer.  Second, the smaller heifers would then be the first to go down the ramp's path and I would have restart the process.  Once I got the first steer finally into the trailer, the other calves were a little more willing to enter the trailer.  While Donna watched and discouraged the calves in the trailer from coming back out I got more calves in the trailer fairly much one by one.

Years ago I could haul 10 calves.  Then only 9 calves.  Last year I was down to 8 calves.  This year I only got 7 calves into the trailer.  If I hadn't closed the inner trailer gate to stop the first 3 calves from exiting the trailer, perhaps I could have squeezed one more small heifer into the trailer.  I have seven calves left to take to the auction next week, and they are smaller, so they should fit into the trailer easily.

Now that the calves were loaded I found that I couldn't move the stock trailer.  The pickup would just spin its tires. *sigh*

I got my tractor and hooked a chain from the tractor to the pickup and easily pulled the pickup and trailer out of the corral.  Once out of the corral, and on the yard's grass, the pickup easily moved the trailer.

Donna and I were on the road by 1:33 pm.  As we drove south the clouds got dark to the south and west.  Doesn't look good, but I was on my way.  No turning back.  As we started driving east around Flathead Lake the snow and rain fell.  Not good, but fortunately this lasted less than half the drive around the lake.  Then it was back to dry roads.  A few times closer to Missoula it rained a few times briefly as we went over a few minor mountain passes.  Rain stopped by the time we reached Missoula and it was dry when I unloaded the calves at the auction.  There were a lot of cattle already in the pens and a number were bellowing.  While waiting to be unloaded some of my calves mooed back at the sound of the cows mooing in the pens.

While the pickup can handle the trailer weight better, and the pickup has a more powerful engine, I still found climbing long and steep hills slowed the pickup down.  A little more than I expected.  But still, the pickup hauls the stock trailer better than my other pickup.

Leaving Missoula to return home it began to rain.  Long and hard.  It was nice to not encounter all that rain when I hauled the calves in the trailer. It stopped raining by the time I got closer to Flathead Lake.  By the time I got home the sky was partly cloudy and somewhat clear.  With all that rain down that way, the forecast predicted slick roads tomorrow morning.  Another good reason it was better to haul the calves today and not tomorrow morning.

I didn't get home until 6:30 pm.  The sun would soon set.  I had to use the tractor to put out the rest of a bale of the oat hay for the cattle to eat as the ground and grass is still somewhat snow covered. Then it was dark.  So I was unable to wash all the manure out of the trailer.  The temperature right now is below freezing so the manure will freeze in the trailer tonight.  The weather forecast predicts high temperature for quite a number days to be around freezing and maybe a degree or two warmer than 32 degrees.  So who knows when I can clean the stock trailer of manure.  Our normal high temperature right now is supposed be 54 degrees.

With all the rain I was unable to take a photo of the waterfall near St, Ignatius on the drive home as I couldn't see the mountains at that point.  Here are some other photos on the drive home.

Mission Mountains

The following photos were taken near the south end of Flathead Lake while driving east towards the Mission Mountains so I could drive on the east side of Flathead Lake.  The rain clouds are mostly hiding the mountains.

The clouds are hiding the tall mountains.

Snow and hay for cattle

The high temperature predicted for today was 50 degrees.  We briefly got up to 37 degrees.  So, the snow that fell yesterday and should have melted today, barely melt.  What happened to global warming?  I want it back!

The English walnut tree today.

Since there was still snow on the ground this morning, and since the forecast predicted the snow would melt during the day, I fed the cattle another three hay bales this morning.  After 5 pm the snow had not melted.  I didn't want to put out more small hay bales.  So I got the smaller / partially round hay bale from the stack as seen in the photo below.

The snow hadn't even melted off the tarp so it was a hassle to climb up and get rid of the snow so I could move enough of the tarp to uncover the stack of bales.

Before accessing the stack of bales for this Winter I had planned sometime later to move the large bale of straw to a different location so I could easily access the hay bales. Of course that hadn't been done as Winter was not suppose to start until next month. I was able to reach the small hay bale from the side.  That is why the bale is on the bale spear in a funny way.  But since the bale was on the small size it stayed on the bale spear as I drove - slowly!

You'd think that since I baled the hay when it was so dry during the second cutting in August that the bale wouldn't show any signs of moisture.  But you can see some signs on the bottom of the bale.

 

Of course Toby couldn't wait for me to reach the metal feeder and he tried to reach the hay bale.  I had the bale high enough he couldn't quite reach it.  Thankfully the bale did not drop off the spear and onto Toby.

I made it to the feeder without dropping the bale.  As the bale was smaller, and on the bale spear in a funny way, I was able to drop the bale into the feeder successfully.  The cattle couldn't wait and started attacking the bale.  I parked the tractor and then came to take the net wrap off.  I was able to cut the net wrap the cattle hadn't torn yet so it didn't surround the bale.  With the cattle insisting on eating the bale I was unable to roll / move the bale to get the net wrap that laid on the ground under the bale.  I gave up.  I'll retrieve the net wrap tomorrow.

Snow

It snowed most of today.  Other than feeding hay to the cattle, I didn't get anything done.  The weather forecast for the next week or longer is for well below normal temperatures.

This morning

This afternoon

Weaning calves and mountain view

A cold and windy day.  High temperature was maybe 42 degrees.  Snow flurries at times.

The low clouds pretty much hung around a good portion of the day.

Of course I have a calf that likes to stand in the feeder to eat the hay.

Walnuts, apples, weaning calves

Still more of the cattle bawling today, but less than last night. In the morning the calves were louder than the cows.  By mid afternoon the cows wandered off to eat in the pastures and were quieter.  By evening the calves started to bawl less.

I let Toby the bull out of the corral this morning.  He took his time.  For a while as he stood near the gate he looked at the cows mooing at their calves loudly.  I think he was deciding if he really wanted to be near these loud cows.  Finally he listened to me and walked through the gate.

Later I found that Toby had pulled down an extra section of wire I had temporarily draped over the top of the corral fence, until I use it on a future fence rebuild.  He then bent the wire.  I had to straighten the wire.  This time I placed the wire on top of the loafing shed roof so Toby can't pull on and then bend the wire.

Rainy off-and-on today.

I gave a bag of small apples to the calves this afternoon.  Then I went to the neighbor's apple tree and picked another bag of apples to give to the calves another day.

Late morning I picked all my walnuts.  I've been checking them off-and-on the past weeks and figured I would pick them sometime this week.  Today I noticed some of the walnut husks were splitting open to reveal the walnut shell.  I never had any of them do that last year.  It is time to pick the walnuts.  I think I got all the walnuts harvested.  It was hard to tell as the green husks blend in with the green leaves.  Over and over I thought I had picked them all, then found a few more hanging on the tree branches.

For the walnut husks that were splitting I was able to use my fingers to easily remove the husk from the shell.  I cracked one shell open and the walnut tasted close to being dry like store bought walnuts.  This year is much more successful than last year's harvest.

Last week when I took my old roofing shingles to the landfill I saw lots of good items that were thrown away. At one point, next to me, there was a moving truck. It appeared they were throwing away all of a household's contents.  Sofa and chairs that looked perfect and not old; boxes of pots and pans that looked still new.  I had to look away.  I had to restrict myself in the metal area of the landfill. Too much stuff that shouldn't have been thrown away.  Donate it people!!  Still I could not resist rescuing a ladder.  Look below.  What a great ladder.  Taller than a typical step ladder.  And one I could use when an extension ladder would not work.  This ladder was perfect to harvest my walnuts.  The tree is too tall for a normal step ladder and the branches to thin for me to climb in the tree to do the harvest.  The ladder is about 10 feet tall.

This is a little less than half of what I harvested.  And more than I harvested last year.  This tree is doing well and better each year.

Start weaning calves

 I bought from my brother an older but more powerful pickup to better tow my stock trailer with cattle inside.  I had a repair made on the pickup and also added wiring and a plug connection to the pickup for towing the stock trailer.  They were done today.  So now I can use this pickup to tow my stock trailer.  I tested it out and the wiring and connection all work fine between the pickup and trailer.

I plan on hauling calves to the livestock auction next Thursday as it is getting late in the year and the weather is starting to change for the worst. Snow is predicted for this weekend. So today I started to wean the calves from their mothers.  Well, all but the three smallest calves.  I have 14 calves.  My trailer won't hold all of them at one time.  Last year I was able to haul only 8 calves as they were heavier than usual.  Again this year I have at least 5 heavier calves.  So maybe 8, or 9 or 10, calves will fit in the trailer if I am lucky.

While Donna is still recovering from her surgery on her big toe, and therefore doesn't walk too much, she still came and stood at a gate and opened and closed it for me as I herded cattle.  I had let the cattle into the main corral.  Then I either herded cows back out of the corral, or if easier at the time a calf or two into the south corral.  It went better than Donna or I expected and we quickly got all the cows out of the corral, and 11 calves into the south corral.  Toby remained in the main corral as he preferred to eat the grass on the east side of the corral.

Off and on the rest of the afternoon I checked on Toby in case he wanted out of the corral to join the cows.  He didn't.  When not eating he would lay in the loafing shed.

After the sun set and it got dark I again checked.  I even stood at the corral gate.  But the cows who were standing outside the corral and mooing at their calves saw me and wanted in the corral.  Toby had walked closer to the gate but he preferred to just stand there and watch the cows outside the corral.  Eventually I gave up.  He can stay in the corral overnight.  With the cows wanting into the corral I couldn't leave the gate and herd Toby out of the gate.

Mama has one of the three smaller calves.  When we started getting the calves to go in the corral Mama - being a smart cow - immediately knew what was going on and came over to protect her calf before I could close the gate.  Fortunately I was able to herd Mama's calf as the first one out of the corral to go join his mother.

Once out of the corral, as time went on, the cows made more of a fuss than the calves did.  By dark a few calves started mooing.

Looking at the 11 calves together in the south corral it is obvious not all will fit in the stock trailer.  Of the 11 calves the smaller ones are females.  I would prefer not to keep females until next Spring in case they come into heat early. Early pregnancy is not good.  And Toby is a large size.  My large cows are able to handle his weight, but not a small calf.

Cattle prices seem to be trending down this Fall.  Doesn't look like a good year to make money.

So for now I am not sure what will happen next Thursday.

A few of the calves in the south corral.