2024: Calf 13 - 10's

This afternoon I got a surprise.  A new baby calf.   This is the calf I expected to be born in mid to late May as last year her mother had her previous calf June 23.   Today's calf was born almost two months early.  I expected a month earlier, not two months.  But I am happy that all calves have been born this year.

The new calf is a male.  Donna came over at 6 pm to help me band and ear tag the calf.

Garage window

Today I discovered a pane had fallen out of a garage window.  Fortunately the pane did not break when it landed on the ground.  I was able to put the pane back into the window.  I added a couple small nails to hold the pane in place.

Trimming a few more tree branches in the pasture

After I finished harrowing the north pasture last week I went back and trimmed a few more low tree branches on a few trees.  

Now that I bought a new pole saw, and it is a longer pole saw, I was able to cut the remaining dead branches on a dead tree.  I found this saw on Amazon.  It is a Dremmt pole saw and its length is from 7 to 27 ft. 

It worked well on tree shown below and I didn't have to use all the sections to reach the top branches.

Today I tried using the pole saw on my box elder tree over my patio.  Last Fall when using the machine to lift me up high I wasn't able to reach all the dead branches.   https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2023/10/trimming-box-elder-trees-by-patio.html

I used all the sections of the pole saw and found the pole would bend slightly and was not completely straight.  And it was windy today which made it hard to maneuver the saw.  I was able to trim a few lower dead branches.  I'll try again for the taller branches on a day without wind.

Here is a look at the harrow job I did in the north pasture.

Some of the cut branches were big enough that I plan to cut them up later and use them in my woodstove next Winter.

More wooden fence posts

This afternoon I got more wooden fence posts.  The neighbor across the river started to remove his fencing along the river.  I had a talk with him as my cattle have water rights and access to the river and that fence kept them off that property.  For 70 plus years; though this "newer" fence is only 20 years old.  It is a new owner and he doesn't want a fence anymore.   He agreed to keep the rest of the fence while I work on my fencing and river access. (More work for me.)   For the fencing he had removed he asked if I wanted the posts.  Otherwise he planned on hauling them to the landfill.  It would be a shame to throw them away so I took the ones that were decent.

Couple photos of Little Beulah's calf

Here are a couple photos of Little Beulah's calf.   He still has his color.

A side note.  This afternoon I checked on the carcass of Little Red.   The grass around her is matted down quite a bit due to whoever is eating her carcass.  Her overall shape is still the same.  But she is being eaten inside.  I looked in the large hole in her back end and saw a calf's legs.  I pulled it out.  Little Red was carrying a nice red furred calf when she died.  It was probably less than a month before she would have given birth.  Too bad.   No photos. You don't want to see it.

2024: Calf 12 - 70's

Yesterday, April 20, cow 70 finally had her calf.  This is the first calf for 70.  The calf was not a big calf so that was good for a first-time mother.   The calf is a heifer.  Since the calf is born on 4-20 I think I will name the calf: Mary Jane.

Donn wasn't around to help me ear tag the calf.  It took a bit to do as the calf moved around and wanted to get up.  But I got it done.

One cow left to have her calf.  Last year that cow had her calf June 23.  So I imagine she will have her calf the middle to end of May this year.

You can see the size difference between the first-born calf and this new calf.

My lost bicycle cat

I forgot to mention that when harrowing the hayfield I found my missing bicycle cat.   I found it way out in the middle of the hayfield.  That was a strong wind this past Winter than blew the bicycle cat away, and that far.  Well, now I have a backup bicycle cat.

Here is what and where the bicycle cat should look like and be.

Haynes pushing on the corral fence

Haynes has been pushing on the fence boards separating the corral.  He wants to be with the cows.

Looking at the cows.

Rubbing her rear end against the fence to tease Haynes.

The fence board was pushed out and then I nailed it back to the railroad tire before I took the photo.  You can see the second board from the bottom is partially broken.

I pounded into the ground a few new (old) fence posts to help hold the boards in place in the future.  In the second photo the pipe is no longer straight as Haynes likes to rub on it.

I have a pipe on Haynes' side. A board is in place to hold the pipe against the railroad tire.  As you can see the board was broken.

The board re-nailed to the post.

As you can see, Haynes likes to rub against the pipe.

2024: Calf 11 - 60's

This morning I found a new calf.  I've been watching cow 70 as she should have been next to have a calf, but cow 60 had her calf.  Last year cow 60 had her calf June 2.  I was expecting cow 60 to have her calf the first few days of May as cows can calve a month earlier than the previous year.  But I am fine with her having her calf a little earlier than expected.  The earlier the better.

The calf is a male.  Donna came over this afternoon and banded it and helped me put an ear tag in the calf's ear.  The calf's scrotum was larger than the other male calves born this year so it was easier for Donna to band the calf.  I had to switch from facing backwards to hold the calf's leg when banding was done to switching forward to put the ear tag on the calf.  The calf tried to get up and move away and I struggled to grab the calf's legs to stop it from getting away.  Apparently I also grabbed one of Donna's legs.  I kept the calf down and Donna was able to get up.

After banding the new calf I then looked at cow 70.  Her tail was swishing more today.  Her udder is a little bigger today.  And her rear end is puffier than usual.   Cow 70 is looking close to having her calf.  Any time now.   These photos of cow 70 is from a few days ago.

Harrowing the pastures is done

Monday I finished my harrowing for the year.   Well, all but where the extended corral is located.  When that is taken down in June that spot will be harrowed then.

Harrowing took some time this year.   First it was slow to start because I decided to fix one of the damaged harrow sections.  On the section shown below, one of the side (up and down) pieces was broken off.   I have lots of broken harrow section pieces from years past.  I got one of those side pieces for this harrow.   To put this piece on I had to straighten the top side-to-side piece.  When doing so half of the piece broke off.  Argh!!  So I had to replace the entire piece.  Also, the middle side-to-side piece was half broken.  So I replaced that piece also.

Making this repair work slow going was that I had to remove the teeth of the pieces to remove or add the side-to-side pieces from the up-and-down pieces holding them in place.  These harrow sections are old and the bolts holding things together were stuck and hard to remove.  I still must have some strength as some of the bolts twisted into two pieces when I tried to unscrew the bolt's nuts.  So I had to find replacement bolts and nuts.

But as you can see the 'rebuilt' harrow section looks good.  Now that harrowing is pretty much done, this piece held together.   But as usual the tree roots that sometimes run along the top of the ground did a number on a different harrow section.  

The middle section on the right side got damaged / partially broken up from the harrowing this year.  The following photo is before I started to do the harrowing.

At one point I had to move the large metal hay feeder sitting in the middle pasture.  After I did so, I completed the harrowing of the middle pasture.  Then at the end of the day I saw that I was missing a piece from my tractor's 3-point hitch.   The next day I looked and looked where I harrowed the field after moving the metal feeder.  (Moving the metal feeder had nothing to do with the loss of the piece.)  After a few go-rounds I finally found the piece. Here is where I found it.  I screwed it back onto the 3-point hitch.

Also slowing things down is that before harrowing the middle and north pastures I hand raked the manure next to and under the trees in the pastures away from the trees and the roots at ground level.  Lots of trees.

The pastures all now look good and the manure is all broken up.

Now on to other projects.

Time to separate Haynes

This morning Donna saw that Haynes was getting interested in one of my cows.  He tried to mount her but fortunately she wasn't in standing heat - yet.  The first cow to have a calf this year had her calf a month ago - 30 days ago.  The cow Haynes was trying to mount was the third cow to have a calf this year - on March 14 - not even 30 days ago.   Normally cows don't come into heat until 45-50 days later.  But in 2020 I had a cow come into heat 34 days after having her calf.  Guess what, she then had her next calf early - January 30, 2021.  I don't want that to happen again.  So Donna and I herded Haynes into the south part of the corral to be by himself until June 1.

Corral board and one calf breakout

Today I saw the cattle had pushed off again the one corral fence board they like to push off.

I re-nailed the board back to the railroad tie.  I added a couple more nails.   The railroad tie should be solid, but not as much anymore due to the nails going in and out of it.  I may have to find a big screw to fasten the board, or a bolt that goes all way through the railroad tie.  Another item for my 'to-do' list.

Later in the afternoon I heard another cow mooing.  Yup.  Another calf slid under the extended corral fence and was in the north pasture.  Little Buelah's calf this time.  A few back-and-forths and then the calf went through the gate and back to his mother.

Two calf breakout

This morning I heard a cow mooing when I went out to check for any new babies.  No new babies.  But I found the reason for the mooing was that two calves were outside the extended corral.  I think the calves had laid down by the extended corral panels, and when they got back up they rolled and came up outside the corral.  The corral panels are low enough cattle can't go under them, but calves can if they lay down a certain way.

I had a job herding the two calves back into the extended corral.  I have one panel that has a gate one can open.  Some back and forth with the calves while watching that no cows came out of the open gate. Then I got the calves to go through the gate and back to their mothers.  The calf with the mooing mother immediately went to drink from her mother.