Picking transparent apples

Donna said it was time for me to pick my transparent apples so she can make apple butter and apple sauce and whatever else.   Yesterday it rained most of the day, so after noon today, once the grass dried off, I went and picked the apples.

I didn't trim the apple tree last Winter so I had to use the two ladders to pick the apples as I couldn't climb in the tree.

Yellowjackets are a big problem this year and are all around the apples no matter where they are located.  On the left are the apples for Donna and on the right are the partially eaten by yellowjacket apples for the cattle.  I couldn't always see the apples as I picked them, and I got stung twice by the yellowjackets.  On the side of my index finger on one hand and on the thumbprint on my other hand.  Both spots still feel sore as I type this post.

These are only half the apples for Donna as I already filled the large box she dropped off for me to fill.

I also removed some dead branches that were getting in my way.

Donna will be by tomorrow to get the apples.

Hay bales put away

This afternoon I finished hauling and stacking my hay bales.  I filled the hayshed.  The last row of bales just stuck out a little bit so I can't close the hayshed gates.  I put a temporary corral panel in place so when I let the cattle into the NE pasture they won't be able to get to the hay bales.

It is nice the hay bales don't stick out much.  Less work where I would have to sweep the snow off the bales when it snowed.

Glad to get the second hay cutting done.  One less annual project to do this year.

Hay is baled

I got my hay all baled today.   I got it completed before the rain came.   Donna called me and woke me up before 9 am to let me know that the dew was almost gone and I should start baling my hay.   She said she heard the rain would come at 6:30 pm.   I was uptown at 6 pm and the rain started there.  When I got home the rain was starting.  Donna lives near the weather service monitoring site and that site said rain started at 6:30 pm.

I got an early start to my baling.  Around 10:30 am.  Things went well.  Early afternoon I figured I had about a half dozen bales left to make.  I decided I would try to adjust the baler's diameter's sensor.  That is because, though the baler's monitor is set to make the bale to be 60 inches in diameter, the bales made are 54 inches in diameter.

The baler's sensor.

Here you can see how the sensor is positioned close to the outside indicator of the bale size.   How they work together - I don't know.   Red indicates an oversized bale.

How to adjust the sensor?  I looked for a YouTube video.  The only ones I found were for the new version of the monitor, with new features.  I checked my manual.  Two different descriptions were found.  I went with the simpler description.  I found the monitor's channel's setting for the bale diameter's sensor to be 56.  I adjusted the physical sensor and the channel's setting became 60.  I made a bale.  It was an inch or so smaller.  Huh?  I checked the setting.  It was now 59.  I adjusted the sensor so the setting was 50.   The bale was an inch or so larger?  Huh?  I checked the setting.  It was now 53.  Huh?   I adjusted the setting smaller to 46.  The bale was about the same.  The setting was now 49.  I adjusted the sensor to 41.  This time when I made the bale, and went to netwrap the bale, the monitor said the bale was oversized.   I wasn't sure the bale was netwrapped so I manually selected to netwrap the bale.  The bale was netwrapped.  When I unloaded the bale the knife didn't cut the netwrap, so I cut it by hand.  The bale size was 58 to 59 inches.  This is less than the 60 inches that is suppose to be the max size.  Why did the baler think the bale was oversized?

The monitor setting was 43.  I changed the sensor so it was 45.   I made another bale.  But this was my last bale and it was a touch smaller even though I went around the north pasture to try to get enough cut grass to make a full bale.  I couldn't.  So I did the manual override to wrap the bale.  This time the monitor kept wrapping the bale and would not stop.  So I stopped the PTO.  The baler's actuator had not retracted to make the cut.  I tried to manually - through the console - retract the actuator, but it wouldn't - no matter how often I tried.  Even though the bale had lots of netwrap around it, I manually started the netwrap again.  This time it worked.  It did a little netwrap and then cut the netwrap and stopped.  Finally.

After I unloaded the bale, and before I started to clean the baler, I decided to try to adjust the baler's diameter sensor using the other method in the manual.  This method's steps were a little confusing.  And the setting that was mentioned was "173".  No idea why this setting.  It made no sense.   But I did it.  Now I won't know until next year when I make a bale if this works to make my bales to be 60 inches in diameter.

This done, now onto cleaning the baler.  Cleaning the baler this time was even more work.  Because of the roller failure and fix earlier this year, I hadn't cleaned the baler back then.  Apparently the rain and moisture since then hardened the dust and hay.  This made cleaning harder and slower as I had to brush and scrape stuff to get rid of it rather than just using an air compressor to blow it away.

I was partway done when I realized the time.  I checked my mail and the check from the livestock auction had arrived.  Haynes the bull weighed 2015 pounds.  I got 1.58 a pound for him.  My last bull that I sold in 2021 weighed over 2400 pounds.  I got the low end for a price.  Bulls back then were selling for upper 70s to mid-90 cents pound and I got 70 cents a pound for my bull.  This time the price I got for Haynes was in the mid-range for what the bulls sold for at this auction.  I got over twice as much for Haynes as I did for the previous bull.  My, how prices have risen.  Still, prices the auction charges have risen.  The cost charged by the auction for transporting Haynes, and then feeding him overnight until the auction, was a little over $50.  Still cheaper than if I hauled Haynes all the way to the auction myself.

Then off to the bank to deposit my check before the bank closed.  After that, and grocery shopping, it started to rain for the day.  We got .13 inch of rain.  That ended my cleaning for the day.  I hope to get it done tomorrow.  And then work on putting my bales into the hay shed once they are dry.  At least my windrows didn't get wet before baling.  During my drive home from the bank I saw another field of cut hay into windrows laying there were wet.  Not good.

I ended up with 35 bales.  This is the most bales I ever got from a second cutting.  Don't know why. Usually I get 26 to 28 bales in a second cutting.  My time between first and second cutting this year may have been a week or so longer than usual, but 7 to 9 bales more?    This is year is the first time I got more bales from my second cutting than from my first cutting.  In the first cutting I only got 27 bales.  Much less than normal.

Started baling my hay

Late this afternoon I started baling my hay.  I have a small window to get all my hay baled as the weather forecast has rain coming tomorrow afternoon sometime.

Wednesday I did a little more grass cutting in the middle pasture.  Then I spent time cleaning the MoCo.  Because the hayfield was not super dry when I cut it, the MoCo had more 'crud' to clean.  Kind of like a lawnmower when the grass is not dry.  I got a lot of the MoCo clean but I have more cleaning to do.  But I don't have the time right now so I unhooked the MoCo from the tractor and left it to finish cleaning another day.  I then drove the tractor to the gas station since rush hour was over and my fuel tank was low.  I filled the tractor with 40 gallons of diesel then got to work raking the hayfield windrows - two windrows into one windrow.  I got 3/4's of the hayfield raked by dark.  Early this afternoon I got the rest of the hayfield's windrows raked 2 into 1.   Then I raked those windrows - again.   That is because 2 into 1 means raking one windrow on top of the next windrow.  Because the top of the windrows were dry and the bottom of the windrows were damp/wet and with some green, I needed to rake/flip all the windrows.

Usually the windrows would dry by now.  After all I cut the grass back on Sunday and Monday.  But several nights of rain.  And the ground was still damp from back when I irrigated the hayfield.  Here you can see the grass is really growing after being cut only a few days ago.

Then I waited the rest of the afternoon for the windrows to dry.  

After I gave the cattle a couple sacks of apples I then started baling the hay.  It was now 7 pm.   This is the first time I baled hay since I fixed my baler's broken roller back in June.  Would my fix work?  Yes, it works.  Yay!

Then on my third hay bale the console ended up flashing with the same warning as when the roller broke in June.  Oh no!  I tried the manual override.  Nope. Still a warming of a failure. I checked the baler and found netwrap really rolled around a roller that feeds the netwrap into the baler. I never had this happen to me before.   Because this roller is covered in rubber, I had to use a scissors to cut the netwrap rather than using a knife.  Slow going to cut thick netwrap.

This is how the roller should look.  This is how the roller looked after I repositioned the netwrap and then successfully netwrapped the bale.

The rest of the bales were successfully netwrapped.   I did have two bales where part of the netwrap got stuck on the baler's belts.  This has occasionally happened to me in the past.  Not sure why.  But with a little effort I got it removed from the baler.

I baled until dark at 9 pm.   In two hours I got 13 bales made and four windrows baled.   Now tomorrow I hope the dew is gone early and the rain starts late.  Then I may get all my hay baled before the rain comes.  I hope so.

Hayfield is cut

Monday I finished cutting the hayfield.  I wanted to cut the hayfield last week but this August has had rain every few days.  After last Friday's rain day it was forecast to be dry for a week.  It wasn't.   I didn't start cutting on Saturday, like another farmer I know who did.  I was waiting for the hayfield to dry a little more.

Late Sunday afternoon I started cutting the hayfield. I only got 8 rows cut, a little over 2 hours of cutting hay.  The rest of Sunday was getting Haynes and the stock trailer ready.   Since the transport of Haynes went well on Monday, and the pressure washing of the manure in the stock trailer was quicker than normal, I got back to hay cutting after 3 pm and got it done by dark.  Hay cutting with my new MoCo is much faster than with my old haybine.

As to the rain... I had some rain after 5 pm Monday when I was cutting my hay.  I was on the edge of building rain clouds.  The rain clouds were building to the east and SE, not the west like it normally does.  And the rain would be when I cut the east side of the hayfield.  Then no rain on the south, west and north sides.  Then rain again on the east side.  This happened three or four times as I went around the field.  Short and not heavy rain.  But, still rain.  I kept cutting.  Later I was surprised how wet the road pavement to the east of the hayfield was.   Donna said she got a heavy downpour plus hail.  No hail for me, but I did see briefly white stuff come down with the rain.  It was odd looking.  Not hail.  Not sleet.  But like big snowflakes. In August?!  I must have been on the edge where hail was forming.  Donna is near the weather station and they said they got .15 inch of rain.  I didn't get that much rain.

The rain quit around 6 pm.  I thought I was done with rain but after 2 am I woke up to the south of rain.  It rained for a little while.  The weather station said they got .07 inch.  I don't know if my rain matched their rain.

Back to the 5 pm to 6 pm rain, I saw a few lighting bolts to my east and SE.  Long bolts to the ground next to the mountains.  The news tonight said that three people were hit by lightning on the high school athletics field at 6 pm yesterday.  That field is a few miles to the west of me.  I didn't see any lightning that way, nor did I see rain clouds and didn't think they were getting rain.

I talked with a neighbor today.  She said during the rain last Friday in the west part of the Valley a lightning strike caused a grain field to catch fire.  She said there were 9 tractors in the area and they fought the fire.  A short time later the rain got heavy and that helped put out the fire.  I don't know how much of the field got burnt.

The weather forecast has another rain chance for us after midnight.  *argh*  I want my cut hay to dry so I can get it baled before the rain that is predicted Friday night.   I checked the hay I cut on Sunday.  The underneath is green and damp.  I probably will have to rake the rows tomorrow to help the hay dry faster.

Today I used the MoCo to cut grass in the south and north pastures.  Not down to the ground.  But a foot or so above the ground.  The pastures have some tall grass that is turning brown and is stemy and hard.  The cattle are avoiding them for now.  Most likely after it completely dies this Fall and Winter it could be easier to eat.  But I figured I would cut it high now.  I'm curious if the cattle will eat it after it is cut.  I also cut a small part of the middle pasture where the cattle are right now.  The neighbor's apple trees are dropping small apples and I have been gathering them and feeding them to the cattle.  I cut part of the middle pasture so I would have a better place to toss the apples.  I don't want the tossed apples to get lost in the tall grass.

Haynes delivered to the livestock auction

Today I got Haynes delivered to the livestock auction.   I had planned to start loading him into the stock trailer at 8:30 am.   But I woke up earlier than usual and decided to start the loading at 7:45 am.  I had Haynes in the loading corral's runway by the time Donna and Rascal arrived.  Loading Haynes into the stock trailer was surprisingly easy and we had him loaded a little after 8 am.  We drove off by 8:30 am.

The drive went well.  Haynes was too large to lock him in the front half of the trailer but he didn't move around that much.   He is large enough that you can feel the trailer sway a little when he did move.

It was after 10 am when I got to the stockyards in Ronan, MT where cattle heading to Ramsay is dropped off.  The truckers weren't there yet.  Other people there dropping off their cattle said the truckers usually didn't show up until almost noon.  Another person showed me a pen where I could put Haynes.  I backed the trailer up and unloaded Haynes and he walked down the alley to the pen with an open gate.  I shut the gate.  Haynes was interested in the other cattle that were already there.  There were a couple of bulls in the pen next to his pen.

I left my name and a cattle description of Haynes on a paper in the drop box like everyone else did.   Haynes does not have a brand.  He also had lost his ear tag last year and I never bothered to put a new tag on him.   To put an ear tag on Haynes or a cow I need to put their head in the headgate so they don't move much when I put the tag in their ear.  I wasn't sure Haynes would fit in the headgate so I didn't put a new tag on him.  I hope Haynes doesn't get mixed up with another person's bull at the stockyards.  I'll see once I get the auction results later this week.  The truckers take the cattle placed in the stockyard to the sale and I was told the cattle would be to the auction yard by 5 pm today.

The stockyard I left the cattle at is old.  I guess it works.  I didn't get a chance to walk around it as several people were lined up waiting to unload their cattle and I didn't want to get in their way.

I got home right at noon.  Earlier than when I used to take cattle to the livestock auction in Missoula.  Since it was only Haynes and a short drive, there was less manure to wash out of the stock trailer.

In the loading corral before I loaded Haynes into the trailer.

Haynes at the stockyard.

Rusty rode along with us.

Flathead Lake from near Polson, MT.

Haynes can fit through

This morning I found Haynes laying in the loafing shed in the corral.  He is able to squeeze through the headgate in the loading corral.

I let him be all day.   In the evening it was time to put him back in the loading corral and also to hookup the stock trailer and move it to the end of the loading corral next to the headgate.  Donna came over at 7:30 pm.  After she arrived we found Haynes already back in the loading corral.  He did it on his own.  He went through the headgate again.  The stock trailer is now parked and we are all ready to load Haynes in the morning.  I hope tomorrow goes as well as today.

This afternoon I found that Haynes had broken a corral fence board while he was in the loading corral earlier.  Thankfully he didn't squeeze out of the loading corral this way.  I replaced the broken board once I found a 9 foot long board.

Getting ready to sell Haynes the bull

I'm going to sell Haynes at the livestock auction on Tuesday.  Haynes has gotten big.  Time for him to go.  I had the other bulls for four years each.  Haynes only three years.  But he is big now.  No sense keeping him another year to get even bigger.

It is a little more complicated this year.   The livestock auction in Missoula closed this Spring.   The next two closest livestock auctions are in Great Falls or Ramsay, MT.   They are close to the same distance away from me.  Great Falls though means driving over the Continental Divide to east of the mountains.  So Ramsay it is.

Still, it is a long drive.

I spoke to the livestock auction and they told me there is a person in Ronan, MT who will haul cattle for $2.20 per hundred weight.  So if Haynes weighs 2400 pounds, the cost would be $52.80.  This is cheaper than driving 446 miles roundtrip.  And would take less time.

I have to get to Ronan by noon on Monday.  That should be possible.

Now, loading the bulls in the past has been a problem.  The bulls have been too large to fit through the loading corral runway and the headgate at the end of it.  

Since the former bulls wouldn't fit, I had to load them by encouraging them to step into the trailer from the open part of the corral.  Here is the post about how hard it was to load the previous bull, Toby.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2021/09/toby-is-gone.html

And the story of loading the previous bull, Buddy.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2017/08/buddy-has-left-ranch.html

So the loading of Haynes on Monday may be another adventure.  I hope not.

This time I put the bull in the loading corral, not the south part of the corral.  The loading corral is smaller than the south part of the corral.  With Donna's help I got him in the loading corral by noon today.  I left the headgate open as a test today and on Sunday to see if Haynes walks out of the loading corral on his own.  Then I will know he will fit through the headgate and I will put him back into the loading corral to load him on Monday.  If not, then I will back up to the loading corral large gate and then have to get Haynes to step inside the trailer.  I will have Donna and my neighbor Curtis to help me encourage Haynes to get into the stock trailer.  I hope it goes well.

Photos from when Donna and I got Haynes into the corral.

Outside the corral the cattle and calves watched Donna, Haynes and I inside the corral.

Haynes in the loading corral.

As you can see Haynes has his head of hair again this Summer.

Irrigation pipes put away

Since we have had rain off-and-on the past week I decided to put away the irrigation pipes for the year.  The ground is wet enough.  I put the pipes away yesterday and finished today.

Yesterday I took a bag of apples out with me.  The cattle were resting elsewhere in the pasture.  As I was taking the first line of pipes away one cow came and checked things out.  She found the apples I had spread around the ground near this line of pipes. She ended up eating all of the apples before the rest of the cattle later came to this area.

When walking to move the second line of pipes I saw the remnants of the tree trunk was rolled away from the pile of branches where it had formerly laid.  More than likely Haynes pushed this tree trunk around. 

Pushed metal feeder

Here is a photo of the metal feeder Haynes the bull pushed last week when I was moving irrigation pipes.  

Yesterday I started the tractor to move the metal feeder.  This is the first time moving a metal feeder using the new tractor.  I use the tractor's bale spear to flip the feeder on its side and then carry it to a new location.  The feeder is too heavy for me to lift upright.

The new tractor's bale spear is different than the old tractor's bale spear.  The old bale spear had a long center spear and then two short spears below to keep the bale from spinning.  The new bale spears are all the same length.

To flip the feeder I used the old spear's longer middle spear to go under the metal feeder to flip it upright.  The former bale spear's lower shorter spears wouldn't go into the ground when the middle spear's tip reached the ground.  But the new bale spear's lower spears go into the ground when the middle spear's tip go under the metal feeder.  Eventually, after trying this and that, I got the feeder flipped upright without damaging it.  The soft dirt helped.  But I will have to come up with a new method in the future this Winter.

Weeds at the neighbor's place

Across the road weeds grow on some of the property the land developer does not farm.  I usually try to take care of the weeds as he doesn't.  I had planned on spraying them when I sprayed my weeds this year, but I never got around to spraying yet.   His bull thistle weeds are going to bloom.  This afternoon I took some time and pulled or cut the flowers and seeds off the weeds.  I put the flowers and seeds in plastic grocery bags.  I filled three of them.

Bull thistle

There were also some mullein weeds.  These weeds are not as bad, and can have medicinal purposes, but cattle don't eat the weeds.  I cut off the seeds head and pulled the plants.

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/common-mullein-verbascum-thapsus/#:~:text=Although%20thought%20of%20primarily%20as,on%20how%20they%20were%20processed.

https://www.healthline.com/health/mullein-leaf

Mullein

Irrigaton

Here is a photo of the broken sprinkler riser on my irrigation pipe that was broken yesterday.  I have it halfway fixed.

I may be done irrigating for the year.  We'll see.  It rained again this morning, almost a couple tenths of an inch.  I think this is the third rainfall in the past week.  I was sleeping really hard but the thunder during the rain shower woke me up.  We may have had enough rain the past week that I don't need to irrigate the last quarter of the pastures.   And I am tired from moving the pipes twice a day plus the other stuff I am trying to get done each day.  I usually get up to move pipes by 7 am but this morning I didn't get up until 8 am.  Then I went out and turned the irrigation pump off.  I also undid and laid down the sprinkler pipes in the middle and north pastures.  I don't want the calves rubbing on them and breaking another riser.   At 9 am I went back to bed and slept solid until 2 pm.  That makes 12 hours of sleep last night.  I needed it.

Mainline pipe removed from hayfield

This morning I removed the last of the mainline pipes from the hayfield.  Monday I had unhooked the pipes in the hayfield and removed three of the valves (6 pipes).  Today I removed the last 8 valves (16 pipes).  The pipes are stacked in the south pasture.  Now all I have to do is wait for the hayfield to dry.  That may take longer than expected.  Sunday was a rainy day.  This afternoon we had a rain shower.  The weather forecast is for cooler weather (70s) and a chance of rain a number of days.  Drying is going a lot slower now.

This evening when I moved the irrigation sprinkler lines in the pasture I ended up with a broken sprinkler riser.  When the sprinklers are not throwing water the calves like to rub on the sprinkler risers and sprinklers and scratch their face and neck on them.  For the first time ever they broke a riser.  I didn't notice it until I turned the sprinkler line back on.  I then saw I had a geyser.  Initially I thought the riser had unscrewed itself from the pipe as that has happened in the past.  Not this time.  I had to go and get another pipe.  I thought I would be able to slip this pipe in the line.  But it turns out this pipe is a foot longer than the broken pipe.  So I had to unhook three-fourths of the pipes and then add this pipe and then re-hook all the pipes again.  Now that the sprinkler lines are in the pastures it has been taking me almost 2 hours each time to move the sprinkler lines.  Tonight it took me 3 hours to get the lines moved.  It was dark by the time I turned the line back on.

Hayfield irrigation done. And Haynes.

This morning I finally got the last of the irrigation pipes out of the hayfield and into the pastures.  It took three days.  First day, the south line. The next day the north line.  This morning the extra line.  It is some work to do as I have to lift the pipes over the hayfield/pastures fence.   But I am happy to be done irrigating the hayfield.  Now all I have to do is to wait for the hayfield to dry so I can cut my hay.   The alfalfa is blooming to beat the band so it is ready to be cut.

I estimate I have 12 days left to irrigate the pastures before I am done irrigating this year.  I can't wait to be done.

This evening when I was moving the irrigation pipes in the middle and north pastures I heard a commotion.   It was Haynes.  He was pushing on the large metal feeder in the north pasture just outside the corral.  So, yes, it is Haynes that pushes the metal feeders around.  I never seen him do it before.   He puts a lot of effort into it.  And for a long while with break in between.  His tail was swishing wildly back and forth.  The dirt outside the corral slowed the feeder movement, but he still did move the feeder some distance.

When I was moving pipes in the north pasture he would stop and look at me.  His tail kept swishing and his head was held high.  I kept an eye on him as I moved pipes even though I was some distance away from him.  If he ever left the feeder to come my way I would be out of that pasture right away.  Haynes never left the feeder to come over to me and the cows and calves who were around me as I moved the pipes.  As I walked back across the middle pasture to open the valve and start irrigating the north line he watched me as I walked across the pasture.  He kept his eyes on me the whole time I walked.   When I was done I walked across the hayfield instead of the north pasture to return home.  I didn't want to be in the same pasture as Haynes as he seemed to have an attitude at that time.   He reminded me of the bulls in the bull riding events.  They have an attitude.  Donna loves watching bull riding.  I'm sure she would have liked to watch Haynes - from on the other side of the fence.

Weeds

Once again other projects interfered, and I didn't get my weeds sprayed by now.  By mid-July it is too late to spray the yarrow weeds, the ones that are most common for me now.  That is because yarrow will go to seed by mid-July then slowly die.  Spraying to kill them is useless by mid-July.   So to get rid of the seed heads I pull the yarrow as their roots are not deep.  That doesn't mean that yarrow plant is totally gone as the yarrow's death may not have made it down to the roots, or not all of the roots come out of the ground when pulled.  But as least I got rid of the seeds so at least there won't be more yarrow next year.

Between the time spent moving irrigation pipes, and the hot weather slowing work down, I would spend a few hours a day after moving the pipes in the morning to pull yarrow weeds.  This lasted me over a week.  I got most all of the yarrow - 98 to 99 percent - pulled.  I still find an occasional yarrow here or there.  Some I missed, some late bloomers even though most yarrow has lived its life by mid-July.

I do still have some other weeds, though not as many.  Canada thistle or spotted knapweed.  Those weeds' life last all Summer so those can be sprayed later.  Still, when pulling yarrow or moving irrigation pipes in the pasture (my hayfield has no weeds), I will pull those weeds also.  It doesn't get rid of Canada thistle as those weeds have an interconnected root system.  It seems that the only way to kill them is to spray them.  But at least pulling them stops the seeds from forming.

Pulling spotted knapweed also tends to not kill them as they have a very long root.  I read their roots can be 3 feet deep.  I didn't believe and dug down.  After two feet I quit.  I now believe they have very long roots.  But, if the knapweed is less than a year old sometimes one can pull the knapweed, root and all as the root is not as long or thick.

Here is a young, 'less than a year,' knapweed I pulled.  The red arrows show the knapweed top of the weed to the bottom of the root.  The blue arrow shows where the root starts.

Back in June I did buy some more herbicide for spraying weeds as I almost used up my herbicide last year.  When my works slow down I will try to use it to spray the weeds that are left.