Fence and feeder

This morning I saw one of the corral fence boards was partially off.   Haynes or one of the cows must have pushed on it.  Fortunately none of the calves got out of the corral.  The board was the middle board.

Later I found the salt feeder in the middle pasture was flipped.  Speaking of which, I forgot to go back with a sledgehammer and pound the one steel post back into the ground.  Tomorrow I guess.

The bloat block is still there.  The first bloat block lasted only one day.  This bloat block is on its third day now.

Turkeys and apples

Not as many yellowjackets this year trying to eat my apples.  But I find a number of apples partially eaten.  If not yellowjackets, when who?

Then I noticed the turkeys by the apples tree.  Ah ha!

The next day the turkeys came back to the yard.

Cattle into the hayfield

The pastures are eaten down a lot so it's time to let the cows and Haynes into the hayfield.

First off, I gave the cows and Haynes a bloat block (and took away their salt blocks for now) on Monday after I separated the cows from the calves and when I let Haynes and the cows eat the yard down.  The bloat block lasted one day.  Only one day!  I needed a second bloat block, but last Saturday I found CHS was out of bloat blocks as some woman bought their last 11 bloat blocks a few days earlier and CHS wouldn't get any more bloat bloats until this Thursday.   Tuesday afternoon, as the bloat block was almost gone, I tried Murdoch's Ranch store.  Last year they told me they didn't carry bloat blocks, which was odd as they carry salt blocks.  I decided to ask them again.  Murdoch's does carry bloat blocks.  The one store thought they had 2 blocks left, but after they checked, they had none.  I called the other store.  They had one bloat block.  I told them to hold it for me and I would be there in 20 minutes to get it.  When I got home the previous bloat block was all gone.  Today, Wednesday, when I let the cattle into the hayfield at noon I saw the second bloat block was 2/3 here.  So the cattle are slowing down in their licking of bloat blocks.  The two bloat blocks should be enough to protect the cattle from getting bloated due to overeating alfalfa.   It has in the past.

I did see the salt feeder was tipped over and moved away from the two green posts to hold it from being tipped over.  Haynes... Haynes... Haynes.  Stop doing this.   Another feeder to repair.  I have the bloat block in a plastic bag as I planned on carrying it to the feeder in the middle pasture.

The cattle were happy to go into the hayfield.  Some ran in.

Once in the hayfield they stopped moving and began eating.

Here are two videos of the cows and then Haynes coming into the hayfield.  Haynes just walked.

https://youtu.be/PnrZPR7qFdQ

https://youtu.be/Qd7e3urSTuk

Calf jailbreak, and more fence repairs

I woke up to mooing Tuesday morning.  And then I noticed a few calves in the yard along with the cows.  Four calves in fact.  Some mothers, or Haynes, pushed a rail away from one fence post, and the gate out, and some calves figured out how to crawl through the fence.  Big calves, and the littlest calf.

I partially moved the rail and gate close to the post before I took the photo.

I had planned on herding the cattle out of the yard in the afternoon as much of the grass was eaten down.  But in the morning I herded (enticed them using apples) the cows and Haynes and several calves out of the yard and into the NE pasture.  That way I could open the gate to the road so Donna could come and help me sort the calves.  Before then I was able to herd two calves back into the corral.  With Donna's help we quickly got the last two calves back into the corral.  All four calves had to start weaning all over again.

 After the cows and Haynes were out of the yard I took most of the protection back down.  I see the cattle messed with the fencing protecting the caragana trees.  I let it be for now.  I'll fix it later.

I let the calves out of the south corral so they can also eat hay in addition to the grass.

The cows and calves are still mooing.  But they take breaks now and then to rest between the times they moo constantly.

We had some rain this afternoon.  Afterwards I fixed this fence between the hayfield and the middle pasture.  Monday I saw it this way.  The fence is barb wired. Years ago after I had seen Maria the cow stick her head through the barb wires to eat from the hayfield, I added wire fencing to the barb wires so the cattle couldn't get their head through the fence.  Sunday I had seen Haynes stick his head through the fence.  His head went between the top barb wire and the top of the wire fence so he could reach the hayfield.  Well... here is the result.  The post was rotting at ground level only and he broke it off.  Some metal posts are leaning and the fencing is lower.  Haynes didn't get through the fence thankfully.  You can see the hayfield grass is lower where Haynes could reach.

So I kept the cattle out of the middle pasture until I could fix the fence.  I put in a new wooden post.  I straighten the metal posts upright. I also redid the barb wires and wire fence from here to the tree.  On the remaining posts Haynes had pushed the wires down a bit.  Now the wires go up high.  I added small wires connecting the top of the wire fencing to the top barb wire in spots between the posts so the cattle can't slip their heads through that area.  Maybe this will stop this from happening again.

My irrigation guy has a piece of equipment that could lift me high so I could trim my tallest box elder tree that has dead branches near the top.  He was going to come over after work Tuesday.  But a last minute request came in as a friend needed the equipment to unload and move logs for a log house he is building.  That will take a few days.

Start of the calf weaning

Monday afternoon I started the weaning of the calves.  I plan to sell the calves October 5, so it is time to start the weaning.

I was going to have Donna help me sort the calves from the mothers.  But at 1 pm all the cattle were down at the river in the south pasture.  I decided to wait until they came back by themselves.  I also decided that I would let the cows eat the yard grass down.  So I worked on protecting things in the yard.  When I was done I saw that Haynes, 13 cows and one calf were laying outside the corral gate.  The rest were still down by the river.  The calf was laying and sleeping away from the corral under a tree.  This is easy.  I let Haynes and the cows into the corral and then into the yard.  A short time later a couple cows came to the corral gate.  This is easy.  I let them into the corral, then the yard.  Once that was done the rest of the cattle came to the corral gate.  The last two cows were by the gate so I let them into the corral, then the yard.

The 13 calves were now by the gate so I let them into the corral, then herded them into the south part of the corral.

It couldn't get any easier to sort the calves from the cows.

Usually this section of the fence keeps the cattle in the corral.  And I can slip through it when I want to get in this part of the corral.  But I don't trust that the calves wouldn't try to slip through this section to get to their mothers.  So I put a gate there for now.

Once the calves were in the south part of the corral, even though for now they have grass to eat, I got a larger hay bale to put in the wooden feeder for the calves to eat later.  I have one of those partial hay bales as it was the last bale made. The bale just fit.  Since this bale is smaller and these are calves, I wasn't sure it would be easy for the calves if I put the bale in a large metal feeder.

Before letting Haynes and the cows into the corral and yard, Haynes stood next to the gate.  I scratched his head and neck with my fingers.  He really liked it.   After a while he laid down next to the gate.

Haynes had lost much of his curly hair on his head.  For a few days he looked like he had a mohawk.  Now he looks like Eddy Munster as he has a window's peak of hair.

Well... by evening the mooing began.  They are still mooing now.  Some sound like they have a sore throat.

Last corral fence repair... for now

Today I finished the last corral fence repair.   This fence breakage was back in mid-May.   Placing an extra gate here let me put off the repair until now.

I'm working around the time I'm spraying weeds so this fence repair took me a few days to complete.  Also slowing me down was that I mismeasured the length of the rails.  I thought they were 9 ft long.  No, they were 9 1/2 ft long.  I had to take the two 9 ft rails I found back to my pile and finder longer ones.  10 ft.  Okay, 10 ft rails will work as since the end goes past the post and has the loafing shed wall, a longer length is okay.

Also slowing me down is the 10 ft rails were a little thicker.  I had to cut the sections that go against the posts thinner.  That way I had long enough nails to nail them to the posts.

Now the corral is all repaired.  Just in time as this afternoon I let the cattle into the corral as I am going to start weaning the calves.

Corral fence pipe repair, chainsaw, weed spraying

Today I finished the pipe repair on the corral fence.   First off I drilled holes in the installed pipe to fasten it to the metal support pieces on two railroad ties.  That way the cattle won't be able to slide the pipe sideways like they have done in the past.

Then I found the pipe for the last sections of the fence.  This pipe was broken off the fence a few years ago and really bent.  Also, part of the pipe was broken off from the rest of the pipe and made it shorter.  I couldn't attach another pipe to this pipe, so I found a larger pipe for the length I need and slid into it the pipe I already had put on the fence, and this new section of pipe.

I also had to straighten - as best I could - the bent pipe.  I put the pipe under a metal gate and then pushed or pulled the pipe as best I could.  It is relatively straight now.  Not perfect, but straight enough for what I need.

Then on to nailing/screwing some metal pieces to the railroad ties to support the pipe.  To better protect the pipes from the cattle I also nailed some boards below and on top of and outside of the pipes.

Then for the larger pipe that "connects" the pipes, I drilled and put in screws on each end of the larger pipe so the cattle won't slide the larger pipe and it come off.

My repaired pipe fence.

I also had gotten my chainsaw back from the repair shop.  After cutting Jan's tree a few weeks ago, the same day, I wanted to cut some branches from my pile of broken branches.  But the chainsaw didn't want to run.  It ran a half hour earlier when I cut Jan's tree.  I tried this and I tried that.  I replaced the spark plug.  Finally I took it into a repair shop.  To get the chainsaw to run they replaced the carburetor and the throttle.  A few days ago I ran the chainsaw to test it.  A short test went over a half hour until I ran out of gas.  I couldn't stop cutting the branches in the pile.  The next day I gathered the branches in four wheelbarrow loads and hauled them to my pile for firewood this Winter.  I have lots of branches left in the pile of branches, but cutting them and using them will wait until another time as I have already enough wood for my woodstove this Winter.

I'm still spraying weeds.  I now am a third of the way into the south pasture.  Every day two to three hours of spraying.  It's working as I see weeds wilting that I sprayed a few days ago.

Fence repair and weed spraying

Yesterday, after my weed spray was done, I had a little time before dark and I started fixing the corral fence.  This break was done by Haynes back in May.

The board length is 11 feet so I had to look for a replacement board long enough.  I found one a little longer and trimmed it down to size.  I removed the broken board which was difficult as the nails in the right railroad tie did not want to come out of the tie.  I had to use a crowbar to remove the nails.  I was able to put a couple nails in the board to hold it in place and then it was too dark to work.   Today I finished nailing the board to the railroad ties.  Hard to do on the right railroad tie as that tie is so dense the nails don't want to come out or go in.

This is a board I got from Curtis last year when he was using his sawmill to cut logs into boards.  He gave me the outer boards as they vary in width and thickness.  Because the right end of the board is thinner, I put two old short posts in the ground to help the board in case Haynes decides to push on the board next year when he is in the south corral until it is time to breed the cows.  I have the board a little high as this is a section where I place an irrigation pipe when irrigating.

With this fence fixed I took time to fix the metal pipes that I had placed on the opposite side of the fence.  The pipes were suppose to prevent the cattle from pushing on the fence boards.  Instead the calves and the bull liked to rub against the pipe.  They bent the pipe and also broke it off the fence.

I have several pipes.  First off I had to separate two pipes. I had one pipe a little into another pipe as the pipes were of a different size and could not be screwed together.  The bull had pushed one pipe way into the other pipe and it was now stuck.  I had to use two pipes wrenches so I could turn the pipes and eventually pull them apart.  The light brown of one pipe shows how far the bull pushed that pipe into the other pipe.

I had to use new metal pieces to hold the pipe onto the railroad ties.  I have a little more work to do tomorrow as my drill's battery needed to be charged some more.  Due to the hardness of the one railroad tie I had to use the drill to start holes so I could screw screws into the railroad tie.  That done, I ran out of battery power for my next drilling project.

Here you can see how one pipe fits into another pipe.  The smaller pipe had been bent by the calves and bull.  I had planned to install this pipe another day, but I decided to see if I could straighten the pipe and I was able to.

I installed the smaller pipe.  The pipe now covers the five railroad ties on the left.  I have another pipe that the cattle had bent the previous year.  That pipe is more bent.  I haven't straightened that pipe.  When I do it will be installed on the 3 railroad ties on the right.

This used to support a pipe.  The cattle had broken off the boards.  The nails were left.  You can see the cattle rubbed against the nails to... scratch an itch?

The fence / pipe repair took longer than expected. Now on to other things. First I went across the road and gathered the thistle seeds from the thistle I had sprayed Friday. I saw the herbicide was taking effect as some thistles were starting to droop.   Then I went back to spraying weeds.  I didn't think it would take as long to go through one tank of herbicide, as once I finished spraying the north pasture, I would go to the middle pasture, which wasn't sprayed last year.  But there weren't many weeds there. Some of the yarrow I had pulled in July hadn't come back yet.  I ended up spraying half the middle pasture.  Spraying took me 3 hours 40 minutes; 20 minutes longer than yesterday.