No new babies today

No new baby calves on Friday.  Or at least, before it got dark.  After that, who knows?

Here are some photos of the cattle this morning.

This is the second born calf.  The one I had to pull to help the mother give birth.

Some cows will partially climb in the feeder to eat hay, even though they can easily reach the hay standing on the ground.

The third born calf and mother were out of the corral this morning.  But they weren't in the middle pasture with the rest of the cattle.  They were in the north pasture under a tree.  They stayed in the noth pasture most of the day.  At 7 pm when I checked on the cattle again, they were still in the north pasture under a different tree closer to the gate.  So I herded them into the middle pasture as I wanted to close that gate.  That way when the hay is eaten the cattle stay in that pasture and I can easily bring out a new bale in the north pasture.   When I herded the two into the middle pasture they didn't go to the hay feeder and instead went to the middle / south pasture fence.  They didn't want to join the other cattle.  The other cattle did watch them.  Who is the new baby?

2024: Calf 3 - 62's

Thursday afternoon another calf was born.  In the afternoon I went for a bicycle ride.  On the way I stopped and removed /changed the winter tires from Donna's car.  Then I trimmed some tree branches by her driveway near her garage.  When I got back home I discovered I now had three calves in the corral.  The cattle were in the corral today waiting for me to put out a new large hay bale by evening.  The mother had a calf before so she didn't need any help from me to have her calf.

The calf is another female calf.  That makes three in a row.  She was laying next to her mother along the east corral fence.  I was able to put an ear tag in the calf's ear as the calf was young enough it couldn't outrun me.

After I put out the hay bale I let the cattle out of the corral.  62 and her calf stayed in the corral along the fence.  So I left the gates open.  When they are ready they will go out to the hay bale.

Calf 1 went out with her mother.  Calf 2 stayed laying along the loading corral fence.  After the cattle left the calf got up.  I herded her out of the corral.  Then herded her to the gate to the middle pasture.  In the middle pasture she didn't head to where the cattle were at the feeder.  Instead she started walking south along the pasture / hayfield fence.   When she got halfway her mother saw and mooed for her.   She didn't get the 'memo' so her mother then walked / ran after her.  Once they were together I let them be.

2024: Calf 2: 11's

In the afternoon when Kari and Michael came over to help me put an ear tag on calf 1, we also looked at the other cows.  No calf yet from Panda.  But then Kari noticed something, a string-like substance, hanging out the back of cow 11.  We looked closer and then could see the tips of the hooves sticking out cow 11's backend.

So we stood and watched.  Cow 11 wanted her privacy and slowly walked away.   Cow 11 is a first-time mother this year so she needed extra watching in case she needed help with the birth.  Other cows were walking around and we lost track of cow 11.  Kari found it laying under a tree near the middle pasture fence.

Cow 11 then got up and walked off.  She eventually made it to outside the corral fence.  One could see occasional contractions, but the hooves kind-of came out, then when the contractions stopped, they would mostly go back in. 

The pasture is still wet.  I wanted the cow to go inside the corral.  I would put her in the south corral which is drier.  And if I had to help pull the calf, the cow couldn't go far away from me.   The three of us herded cow 11 into the corral and kept the other cows out.

Then we watched.  Cow 11 watched us and wanted to be as far from us as she could.  She stood for the longest time.  She would have occasional contractions.  Hooves out a bit, then back in a bit.  Finally she laid down.  The hooves came out a little more due contractions.   After a while a sack of fluid came out and then burst.   Maybe the hooves were out enough that I could go over and pull on them.   When I approached cow 11 stood up and walked off.  At least she left a dirty muddy part of the corral.

Again she stood.  Or walked around the fence as she wanted out of this part of the corral.   Kari called Donna to come over if she wanted to watch or help.  After Donna arrived cow 11 laid down.  She was laying in a way that we couldn't see the back end where the calf was coming out.  We watched and could tell the contractions were stronger.  Usually cows who have calved before don't take this long to have a calf.  The cow yesterday had her calf in minutes.

Eventually Donna walked around to see how much of the calf was out.  The hooves were, and maybe the tip of the calf's nose.  I walked over to help and the cow stood up and the calf went back inside a little.

Ok.  Let's change things.  It has been a half hour to an hour now.  Let's get it done and make it easier on both cow and calf.  We herded cow 11 into the loading corral runway.  I partially opened the headgate and the cow tried to run through and got her head caught.  Ok.  Now she can't move away from us.

The hooves were out and I could grab ahold of the legs just past the hooves. It is easier to hold as just trying to hold on the hooves doesn't work as they are slippery.  I began to pull.  No movement.  Understandable.  I would have to time the pulling to her contractions.  I waited.  Over and over we went.  I could get the calf out a little at a time.  A few times I could feel a leg move slightly.  So the calf was alive.  Finally the calf's nose started to come.  Michael broke and cleared the sack away from the nose.   It was harder to pull the calf as now I had the legs and the head coming out.  With the mouth now out I could see the tongue was out of the mouth.  The calf wasn't beathing yet.

More pulling.  And now I was trying to pull downwards as that direction helps when a cow is standing.  And gravity helps.

The head was out.  Now to get past the shoulders and ribcage. A larger area.  Once that is out the rest of the calf comes out quickly.  Now I tried to catch, hold, slow the calf, so it wouldn't fall to the ground hard.  I was able to.  Then all the fluid came out and over me and my arms and lower legs and shoes.  But the calf was now completely out.

I drug the long calf down the runway back to the larger area with grass.  The calf was breathing.  Donna, Michael and Kari then released cow 11 from the headgate so the cow would back up in the runway to come to her calf.  Which she did.

The next I watched for was if the cow would accept and lick her calf.  Cow 11's mother was cow 110.  Cow 110 was the mother who would always reject her newborn calf and Donna and I would have hold cow 110 in place so her calf could drink until the mother would finally accept her new calf.  No problem with cow 11.  She licked and accepted her calf while keeping an eye on us.  So we left them alone so they could bond.

An hour later, after her calf was licked clean and had drunk milk from cow 11, I moved both over to the south part of the corral.  They can spend the night there together and tomorrow I will let them rejoin the herd.

The calf is another female.  A big calf for a small cow.

I have three more first time mother cows to go this year.  Wish me luck.

It was like this for a while.

A few minutes after the calf was born and I had drug it down the runway.

I still had some goo from the birth on my arm.

Later the calf came out of the runway and I put an ear tag on her.

Now in the south part of the corral and taking a rest.

2024: Calf 1: 8's

Last night, around 7:20 pm, the first calf of the year was born.  I've been watching the cows closer since March 10.  I went out last evening to look at the cows.  I've been watching Panda as she looks to be the closest to give birth.  Looks can be one thing, actuality is another.

I walked close to Panda.  Especially as she was standing alone away from the others.  Nope.  No calf yet.

I walked around, to the river and back.  On the way back a group of cows had spread out.  Then I saw a small figure.  I walked over.  Yup.  A calf.  It was born a few minutes earlier.  It was still mostly covered in goo as the mother just started licking the calf clean.  Through the goo I checked, and it looked like a female.   I left mother and calf to be alone together so the calf could be licked clean and then get up to drink from mother.

The cow and calf were under a large tree, so it was a drier place and would be warmer overnight.  After midnight I went out and checked on them and they both were standing together under the tree.  So I was sure the calf already had drunk from the mother, and they were staying under the tree, a warmer place overnight.

This morning I went out and checked on them, and for any more new calves.  No new calves this morning.  The mother was eating from the hay feeder and yesterday's calf was laying among the branch debris I hadn't cleaned up after chain sawing the fallen tree.  At least the calf was in the sun.  The mother came over and the calf stood up.  Everyone was fine.

In the afternoon Donna's daughter and her husband came over to help put an ear tag on the calf.  It took three of us as I didn't want to kneel on the wet ground.  I put the calf between my legs; Michael made sure the calf didn't back out from under me; and Kari held the calf's head while I put the ear tag in the calf's ear.  I like the head held so I can made sure I put the tag in between the veins in the ear and not through an ear vein.  No minor bleeding then.

January's fallen tree cutup

A few days ago I worked on cutting up the tree that blew over last January.  I spent part of one afternoon cutting up the tree.  Then part of another afternoon stacking the cut logs.  I wanted everything out of the way when I harrow the pasture later.  Since the tree was very much alive when it blew over the cut logs will have to sit for a year or so to dry out.

Later I will rake this left-over stuff to clean the area nicely.

As you can see the tree trunk got bigger as I went along.

Enough dirt is around the roots to hold the trunk off the ground as I got closer to the roots.  That made cutting easier.

This part of the trunk was so big I had to cut from one side then the other to cut the log off the tree.   This part of the tree is out of the way from harrowing so I plan to leave it this way until it dries.

Stacked, the trunk doesn't look as much as it did when laying down.  Those are the side branches I plan to later cut so I can use as firewood in my wood stove.  The other smaller branches I got rid of.

Haynes pushing the feeder again

Haynes is back to it.  This morning I found the large metal feeder pushed into the corner of the middle pasture. And push it some distance Haynes did this time.

Lately Haynes has been good at not pushing the feeder.  But I had been using the feeder in the north pasture and I think the feeder's legs had sunk into the ground making it hard for Haynes to move the feeder.  This Spring, much more than usual, the ground is wet and soft.  Even when driving the tractor to bring out a hay bale in the north pasture the tractor's tires sink more than usual.  Usually in the Spring the tractor's tire tracks would be made.  This year ruts are formed.

The middle pasture has more snow and therefore the ground is firmer.  Therefore Haynes can push the feeder after the hay has been eaten.  And another difference is that much of the remaining snow is mainly hard ice. It can be hard to walk on as the ice is not flat and my feet can slip sideways when walking.  So much ice this Spring is odd.  But I think that may be because we had a slow melt, and there were lots of melting then freezing over and over, and the snow turned to ice.

Tree icicle

We are still below normal temperature-wise.  At least we get a few degrees about freezing these days so a little snow melt is happening.  But it is slow going.  Calving starts March 10 or shortly thereafter.  I want more snow to melt and it to be warmer for the new calves.

Here is a photo from today of my female box elder tree by my house.  It is unusual to see an icicle hanging from a tree.

Tree that fell in January

Here are a few photos of the tree that fell back on January 11 when cold temperatures and very strong winds arrived.

Here is how the tree looked back then.

After a bit the cattle started eating some the needles off the branches they could reach. Not the best thing for cows to eat if there is a lot to eat.  So I started cutting the branches with needles off the tree and put them somewhere where the cattle couldn't reach them.   Then I cut the rest of the branches off the tree and hauled them off.  I did this slowly day by day as it was still cold and snowy outside.  

I finished this task the first week of February and that is when I took these later photos.  That is why it is still fairly snowy on the ground.   I haven't raked and cleaned up the rest of the small branch pieces or use my chainsaw to cut the tree trunk into sections.  I will eventually do so when it gets a little nicer.  I want this cleaned up before I harrow the field as this tree is in the way.

Here you can see how and why the tree blew over even though the ground was frozen.  No tap root and the roots to the side didn't go all the way around.  The wind got from a certain direction and no side roots to help the tree stay upright.

Strong wind on my bicycle ride

A cold front came through when I was on a bicycle ride.  I didn't know that a cold front was coming.  Last day of the month, and since I hadn't been riding much bicycle earlier this week and today's temperature was decent, I went for a bicycle ride.  The ride was going well.  So I decided to ride more miles and make my loop larger.  Then on the larger part of the loop I noticed dark blue ground-to-sky clouds to the west.  No matter which way I went, the distance home was about the same.  And I thought I would get home before the dark blue clouds reached me.  I was wrong.

I had south winds most of my ride.  But when I turned west the wind started to turn to the SW.  By the time I turned back south and had 5 miles left to ride the wind switched to the west.  The clouds had arrived and the wind picked up quickly and it started to rain.  Actually the rain went sideways and not down.  Within a half mile my left side was soaking wet.

In the 5 mile ride home I had a half mile turn to the west.  I struggled to ride 4 mph and stay upright riding west even though the wind was head-on.  Now the entire front of me got soaking wet.  Once I turned south the wind "lightened up" and changed to WSW.  I made it to Donna's place and took a break until the rain stopped and the wind lightened up some more.   I made it home and was very wet when I got there.

Another eventful 25 mile bicycle ride.

The time, temperature, wind, visibility distance, rain amount.

Little Red is dead. And another death.

This morning when I went out to give a small bale of hay to the cattle I found Little Red was dead.  Yesterday she was fine.  I have no idea why she died.  No signs of an injury. A very small amount of blood was in her nose.  The weather was decent, and the temperature overnight stayed above freezing.

Little Red was born in March 28, 2018.   She was almost 6 years old.  Too young to die.  I no longer have any red angus cattle as last Fall I had sold Little Red's mother at the livestock auction. I'll miss Little Red and am sad.

I used the tractor to half carry and half drag Little Red out to the SW corner of the south pasture.  I will let the circle of life take care of her body.  The past deer and calves I left there were soon gone.

This was the first time I have been to the south pasture this year.  As I took Little Red to the SW corner I noticed something on my south fence.  I found the remnants of a dead deer.  It must have gotten caught on the fence and died.  I don't think the south neighbors left it there.  As you can see there was not much left of the deer.  I took the rest of the deer off the fence.

So... lots of death at the ranch today.

Missoula tractor trip

Today Donna and I drove down to Missoula, MT.   Missoula is where I usually go to sell my cattle at the livestock auction.  Today, though, I went to Missoula for a different reason.  For the last few weeks I have been looking at tractors and mower conditioners.   My New Holland haybine has seen its better days and I want something new to cut my hay.  Over the years hay cutting equipment went from swathers to haybines, now to mower conditioners. 

Once I get a mower conditioner I will talk and show how they are different.   For now, the one difference I will mention is that mower conditioners require more tractor PTO horsepower to run the machine.  70 hp or more.  My tractor's PTO hp is 65.   Not enough to run a mower conditioner - though some people say I could use my current tractor to run a mower conditioner if I cut the hay slow.  No, I don't want to.  I don't want to cut my hay slower or risk a problem with the mower conditioner or tractor in doing so.  So that means a slightly larger tractor.  And that is expensive.

I am looking at two brands of tractors and mower conditioners.   John Deere or Case IH New Holland.  The two dealerships had the tractors I want/need at their Missoula branch, not the Kalispell branch.  I want to see the tractors in person before buying.  I've been trying to get to Missoula for a few weeks now, but between my schedule, Donna's schedule, or the weather I haven't been able to get to Missoula.  The John Deere dealer already had a mower conditioner in Kalispell.  I didn't ask, then told them they didn't have to, but they decided as I wasn't making it to Missoula last week they brought the tractor here to Kalispell.  I looked at it last Friday.  Today Donna's and my schedules and the weather worked and we were able to drive to Missoula.  Because Donna can get carsick riding long distances if she is a passenger, she drove.  So I saw the Case tractor and mower conditioner.  Now I have an idea how I want to proceed and what I prefer.  I just have to a little more work to do, so perhaps next week I will have things settled.  I'll let you know.

Of course, I took a few photos at my typical favorite viewpoint of the Mission Mountains along the way.

Horse trailer, moving snow, and Rusty

Yesterday Donna's daughter and husband brought three of their horses over to Donna's place.  Good thing Donna and I rebuilt her fence last year before Winter came.  The daughter and husband's new place isn't fenced yet for the horses.

They needed a place to leave their horse trailer overnight before they returned to their current home today.  I said they could leave the trailer in my NE pasture.  The snow is not high but is dense and hard.  I shoveled a spot inside the NE pasture gate where he could back up and store the trailer.  But he thought he could drive through the snow in the pasture and turn around.  When turning around the trailer's tires no longer followed the pickup's broken snow path and had to also break snow. Too much hard snow to break and everything came to a stop.  I did some shoveling around all the tires to get him going again.  Still turning wasn't going to work so he made it to the tracks where I had driven the tractor to get the large hay bale earlier.  So I changed plans and had him drive to the north pasture and then back into and through the corral, and then had him park the trailer in the backyard.  That all worked.

They plan on bringing the rest of their hay in a day or two and will store it at Donna's for now.  So they don't get stuck in snow in Donna's yard, today I went down and with the tractor made a path back to the shed.  Then I moved the snow away in front of the shed so they can turn around and park to unload the hay bales.  I also moved a snow drift away from where the horse's water trough is located.   Even with the tractor's help it was hard to move a lot of the hard dense heavy snow and I spent a few hours doing so.

The path back.
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Rusty wanted to ride in the tractor and spent much of the time helping move the snow away.  He was good and only a few times was in the way when I wanted to use the clutch pedal on the tractor.  Rusty likes to ride with 'grandpa'.

Corral double gate

Today, the second time in a week, I discovered the cattle had been trying to open the double gates between the corral and the NE pasture.  Why?  There is just snow on the other side of the gates.  The bar is on the other side of the gates, yet the cattle find a way to slide the bar.   If you look lower you see I also have a short chain wrapped around the gates.  A backup way to secure the gates.

Vitalix mineral lick for cattle

Once a year I like to supplement the cattle's hay with a mineral lick.  Gives them extra vitamins.  I give the cattle this near the end of their pregnancy.  Yesterday I put out a 250 lb tub.   The cattle love licking this.  The molasses in the mix is appealing to them.

Of course... Haynes.   On the first day he was pushing the tub around the corral.  I was going to get my camera to take a video of him pushing the tub but then he flipped the tub completely over.  I had to go in the corral and tip the tub back upright.  By the time I got the camera he had left the tub.  So, no video.

Today the cattle pushed the tub around only a little bit.  Here are some photos of them licking from the tub.

Wooden feeder board trimmed again

My boards never seem to stop growing.  I have trimmed the width of the boards in the large wooden hay feeder many, many times.  You'd think this would end.  But, no.    Today I noticed the boards width increased yet again, and doing so, popped up a board in the feeder floor as all the boards would no longer fit.   I had to trim the board narrower yet again.   In the photo, the board is before I trimmed it today.   So you can see how I had trimmed the board last year, and the year before. 

I don't over trim the boards as I want them to fit together without big gaps so the hay doesn't fall through the floor.  When the boards are dry they are loose with small gaps between some of them.   The board was so wet the sawdust was not light.

The board now fits.  I'll see how long this lasts.  The boards increase in size when wet, and this has been a wet Fall and a wet Winter so far.