I gave the four steers a bunch of apples. A short time later I noticed one apple had been accidentally pushed back through the fence. Curious George tried to reach the apple under the fence and got his head stuck. He had turned his head sideways to slip under the fence then turned upright. When his head was upright he couldn't get it back under the fence. Also when through the fence his ears popped up and that also prevented him from pulling back through the fence. When they get stuck I notice the cattle usually try to push forward more than they pull back. My new fence boards bent slightly but held when George frantically pushed against the fence.
My walking closer made him even more panicked which wasn't helping. To give him time and space to settle down I went in the house to get my camera. then as I approached he turned his head just right and pulled out from under the fence. I got the photo just after his head slipped back under the fence.
It is hard to see in the photo but the side of his head is grass stained green. Other than that he seems to be fine.
Buddy is back with the cows. I went and found where he went through the fence. It wasn't at his usual spot. I patched the fence.
Daisy followed me out to the pasture when I worked on the fence. Then over to the neighbor's property where I set some traps to catch their pocket gophers. When I walked through an area of tall grass Daisy got distracted by the potential of finding a mouse. I left her be after she gave me a "Be quiet. Get out of here. I'm hunting." look.
Hours later as I split firewood Daisy showed up and wanted supper. Later in the evening she was outside. She didn't come to get her "special treat" cat food supper. Then I saw the reason why. Sitting on top of my TV antennae was a large owl. It wasn't afraid of me walking around. I had to wiggle the antennae before it would fly away. A short time later Daisy showed up at the door.
I got my check today from selling the calves. The market is down!!! Really down!
Last year I sold my steers for $2.11 a pound. This year I sold my steers for $1.24 a pound.
Last year I sold my heifers for $1.90 a pound. This year I sold the three black heifers for $1.07 a pound and the grey and red heifers for $1.035 a pound.
Wow! The price of cattle sure had dropped - and last year they already had dropped in the Fall when I sold them. Expect the price of steaks and hamburger to drop next year once the cattle sold now make it through the system.
The steers weighed close (9 lbs less) to last year's steers. I'll know better once Dan buys and weighs the four largest steers. The two heifers weighed about 15 pounds on average less than last year's heifers. The surprise was the three black heifers - they weighed 70 pounds more on average than last year's heifers. And so far, weighed more than the steers. I'm not sure why.
So as you can see from the prices I made much less money than last year. Many thousands of dollars less. It appears I barely made enough to pay for the high priced hay from last year. Not much I can do when the market drops so suddenly and so low. On to next year with hopes of better prices.
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