Hay and harrowing

Dan called this morning.  He had three more hay bales he thought I would be interested in.  The bales were slightly smaller - about a hundred pounds or so - than the previous hay bales I bought from him.  I think the hay may be one year older.  The price was right - $15 a bale.  So I bought them.  For now I am storing the hay bales in the loading corral to keep them away from the cattle.

With the cattle in the NE pasture I took down the temporary corral panels in the north pasture outside the corral.  I drug the harrow around the area to break up the manure and leftover hay.

Before

After

The cattle are eating the grass down in the NE pasture.  There is still grass left but all of it has been partially eaten.  The cattle want uneaten grass and sometimes complain when they see me out and about in the yard.  The cattle are so spoiled.

Cow #7 tried to push through the gate to get into the fruit tree and garden area's uneaten grass.  I then reinforced the gate.

Buddy complains when he can't see the cows in the NE pasture.

Other times the cows are nice and take their siesta in the corral and this makes Buddy happy.  As you can see in the background I restacked the pile of logs the two cows had partially knocked down.  It took me around five or six times of restacking before the restacking held.

NE pasture fence

Last week I posted about redoing the NE pasture's gate.  At the same time I continued on to rebuild the entire NE pasture fence that goes along the road.   The fence and wire were very old and I held my breath every time the cattle were in this pasture.  If the cows broke through the fence it was a very short hop to get on the road.  And the road has a slight bend at this point so it is not a good place for cattle to be.

This not an especially long section of fence but it still took a few days as I replaced all the posts and wire.  Similar to the corner where I have the gate, I used boards for several fence sections on the other corner.

Before

After

For the fence wire I used barbless wire.  I also strong eight strands on the posts, up from the four strands previously.   I tried not to make the strands to tight as that usually causes the end posts to lean a bit.  A few days later I have trouble unchaining the gate to open it as the end post had a touch f a lean to it.

Now tonight I found number 7 with her head through the wires and eating grass from the ditch. Even with eight wires close to together she got here head through the fence.   Maybe I should have used wire with barbs on it.  Now that all the grass in the NE pasture had been partially eaten, cow number 7 wanted virgin untouched grass in the ditch.  A few of the wire looked to be stretched a little bit and were now loose.  I'll have to look at it tomorrow.

This tree in the corner was touched by fire some years ago.  That s why the bark looks like this.

View of the gate from the road.

Northern Lights

Last night / this morning at 2 am I saw the Northern lights.  It was the brightest and largest display I have seen in Montana (not that I have seen the lights often since being in Montana).  I even saw red and green colors briefly.

I tried to take a video of the lights as they moved and changed colors but my camera couldn't pick the lights up.  I was able to take a few photos.

Cattle from yard to NE pasture

24 hours later the cattle ate most of the yard grass.  I could have kept them in the yard to 'clean up' the odds and ends of taller grass, but between some of them complaining to me and the chance they may get out of the yard if they pushed against a fence to reach taller grass on the other side, I decided to let the cattle into the NE pasture.

I should have had my camera to record a video of them as the entire herd came running and mooing after I opened the gate and the first couple of cows walked through it.

So, this year no jailbreaks from the yard and no broken stuff.  Several cows did knock part of the log pile down in the backyard.  No one got hurt.  When I went to check on the noise two cows came from back of the tool shed and looked at me like it was my fault the logs fell.

This morning I was woken up at 7 am as cow number 7 (of course!) was reaching under a corral panel to get a few pieces of taller grass growing among the shrubs against the house.  One end of the corral panel banged against the concrete as she went in and out and along the panel.


After I let the cows and calves into the NE pasture I moved some corral panels and old gates to be around the log pile in the NE pasture.  No sense having the cows knock that pile down.

I also had to protect a couple of small evergreen trees I planted last year, and to redo the fencing protecting the three clusters of caragana bushes there.

Once the cattle were in the NE pasture Buddy started mooing for them more.  He can't always see them from where he is in the south corral.

Daisy is happy the cattle are out of the yard.   The days the cattle were in the yard she would meow in disgust when she went outside and saw the cattle outside the door.   The calves are fascinated by Daisy and run after her when they can.

This morning as I filled the water trough and brushed Buddy, Daisy laid right under Buddy's head as he hung it down as he enjoyed the brushing.  She then moved over to the corral fence laying on the corral side.  Half a dozen calves came over and tried to sniff Daisy and occasionally she would hiss at them and swat at them which caused all the calves to jump back each time.

Special election judge and cattle in yard

Thursday Montana had a special election to fill the U.S. House of Representative seat for Montana. Perhaps you heard of the race as the day before the election the Republican candidate was charged with assault of a reporter trying to question him.

There was an effort to make this special election a mail-in election to save all the counties money (a half million dollars).  But the Republican leadership prevented a bill in the Montana legislature from passing that would allow this to occur as they feared this would help the Democratic candidate.   So we held a traditional election on the earliest possible date for an election, which happened to be a Thursday before the Memorial Day holiday.

I was a chief election judge for our precinct again.  With only one question on the ballot, and an uncertain turnout prior to the Memorial Day holiday, the county election department, to save money, limited the number of judges at each precinct.   Instead of six judges at our precinct we had four.  While the turnout was higher than I expected, it was less than for a normal election and we were able to handle everything successfully.

The election had the same hours and procedures.  So I was there at 6 am to setup before the polls opened at 7 am.  The election was over at 8 pm and by 9:30 pm we had taken down and cleaned up the polling place and delivered the results to the county election department.  A long day!  So I am tired today.


Even though I still have one large hay bale left, it is time to let the cattle out on grass.  I will save the hay bale until Fall.  The cattle have been complaining to me that they want to be let out to eat grass.  Wednesday before the election I blocked off the yard at the house with corral panels and let the cattle eat the grass in the back yard.

The calves were all excited.  They ran all over checking everything out.

Over night, and all day Thursday, I had the cattle back in the corral.  They finished their second to last hay bale by this morning.  I let them back in the back yard for a few hours to finish the grass while I added protection to the pump house, windmill, caragana hedge, and various bushes and shrubs in the front yard.

In the afternoon I let the cattle have access to all the yard.  They have plenty of grass so I am letting them stay in the yard overnight as they should have enough to eat to occupy their time and not get into trouble.  The faster they eat the yard's grass down the faster I can let them into the pasture and then clean up the yard.

I put a tarp over the pump house roof.  Otherwise the cattle will try to eat the roof shingles and tear some of them off.

After the calves run all over, they drink from their mothers then lay down together and rest.

 

NE pasture gate

This past week I redid the gate for the NE pasture from the road.  I had bought a used gate two years ago and planned on redoing the gate last Spring.  But I got delayed digging tree stumps and had no time before I had to let the cattle into that pasture.  This year I made sure I made time to redo the gate before the cattle go into the pasture.

The old gate was a barb wire gate.

The new gate is 20 feet long.  It is a HW brand and a brown gate, which means the tube diameter is smaller than typical but made of a stronger and heavier metal.  To support the gate I used railroad ties as posts and used old boards to make a solid corner for support.  I added railroad ties and boards to the other (left) side of the gate for symmetry, and to use up old boards.

I also made the corner a 'corner' to 'clean' the corner up and make it look nicer.  In the past the chain link fencing hadn't quite reached the corner and I had to add a chain link gate as part of the fence and not as a gate.  You can also see in the previous photo a warped board to support the end of the fence.  That board predated my work on adding the chain link fencing to the fence.

Most of my railroad ties are 8 1/2 feet long and I place them 2 1/2 feet into the ground.  For the tie that the gate attaches to I used a 10 foot railroad tie.  I placed that tie 4 feet into the ground, for two reasons.  One reason was to make the ties the same height above ground, and the other reason is a deeper tie provides more support.

While I can lift and place most 8 1/2 foot ties into the hole in the ground, the 10 foot tie was too heavy for me to lift.  My tractor made it easy to lift the tie.  I wish I had the tractor back when I rebuilt the loading corral.  I had to get creative back then to lift those 10 foot ties into the ground.  And I was younger back then.

I bought the brown gate used.  The gate didn't come with bolts which didn't concern me as I have extra lag bolts.  Ah... but I discovered a problem.  On most gates the top hinge is adjustable.  That allows the top bolt to point downward.  Having the top and bottom bolts point in opposite directions prevents the cattle from lifting the gate off the bolts, which I have learned the cattle can do.

On the brown HW gates both hinges are fixed.  What the brown HW gate has are bolts that have a cotter pin that goes in the bolt above the hinge to hold the gate in place.   Most bolts hinge part is 1 1/4 inch tall.  The brown HW hinge part is 3 inches tall.  I didn't have any bolts that would work.

I called all the stores that carry HW gates, a fencing company and a hardware store.  No one had a bolt with a hinge part over 3 inches tall.  Not even the stores that sell brown HW gates.

Oh great.

I went to the HW web site:  http://livestockequineequipment.hutchison-inc.com/item/heavy-duty-cattle-equipment/gate-hardware-2/hb800-030-0054

$34.29 for one bolt?!  Plus shipping!  And who knows how long it would take to be shipped to me.   No thanks!


So I needed the top bolt to face down to hold the gate in place when the hinge part is less than 3 inches.  Most of my bolts are screw-in bolts and would not work.  I did find one pair of complete bolts where I would have to drill holes all the way through the railroad ties.

I have a wimpy battery powered drill so it took three charges to drill the two holes.

Fortunately I have a tractor so I could hold the gate in the air so that I could slide the gate and the bolts into the two holes at the same time; then bolt the gate in place.

While I bought the gate 'used' from a fencing company's bargain / repurposed area, as you can see from how the end of the chain was still welded to the tube, I doubt the previous owner ever used the gate.

Due to the length and weight of the gate, I placed a short piece of railroad tie in the ground on which to rest the gate when closed.  This will help prevent gravity from warping the end of the gate downward over the years, and takes pressure off the railroad tie to which the gate is attached.

So.  Another barb wire gate is replaced, which makes opening and closing the gate much easier.  And this gate is more solid than the old wire gate.

Two feeders - zilch

Lately I have been trying to buy another used cattle feeder.  This would be my third feeder.  I got used to having two feeders for the cattle over Winter.  But when I have to segregate a cow temporarily, or like now when Buddy the bull needs to be kept away from the cows for a few months, I use one of the two feeders to feed him.

Last Monday the weekly auction had a few ranch related items.  Mainly I was interested in the one feeder that was identical to my two feeders.  The feeder at the auction was faded but no rust or serious dents.   The feeder new costs $795.

I quit at $471.50, which was more than I wanted to pay for a used feeder.  The winning bid was $483 and I would have had to bid $493 to top that bid.

Then today I tried to buy a used feeder advertised on Craigslist.  This feeder was a lightweight feeder.  I could easily lift the feeder to tip it on its side, something I cannot do with my current feeders.  But this feeder was being sold for only $150.  For this price the feeder would last long enough before the cattle bent it to make it worthwhile to own.

The problem was the owner wasn't going to be home until 5 pm and there was at least one other interested buyer.

I got there at 4:50 pm and arrived just a few minutes after the other buyer.  He had originally called before I did.  He looked at the feeder and decided to buy it.

So two feeders and no success.   I somewhat expected to come up short on the second feeder.  Earlier today, as I was riding home on my bicycle from a bank visit to get cash to buy the feeder, my rear bicycle tire went flat about five miles from home.  The bicycle tire was new as I had put it on two to three weeks ago.  The cause of the flat was a very old inner tube patch that suddenly decided to now leak.

I rode four miles on a flat tire where the roads were good and walked one mile where the road was poor and where I didn't want to risk damaging my tire or bicycle rim.

Growing

The planted hayfield finally started to grow.  It started to grow this morning.

This afternoon we had a good rain shower.  That will help it along.

Fixing a wooden feeder

Earlier this week I fixed the large wooden cattle feeder.  Again.   The feeder does hold up well but this Spring the cattle were hard on it.

Initially I had to segregate, from the cows, Buddy in the main corral and feed him from this feeder while Big Red and Buster were in the south corral.  Often Buddy would reach across the feeder to eat hay from the opposite side.  With no cattle pushing from the opposite side Buddy put a "lean" into the feeder.  After I put Buddy in the south corral and let the cows back in to occasionally eat from the wooden feeder they further "rocked the lean".

So Monday evening I took time to fix and rebuild the feeder before the cows pushed it completely over.

Cattle jailbreak, haybine, and fertilizer spreader

This morning cow #7 got out of the temporary corral enclosure again.  This time only she got out.

It appears she laid and reached under one of the corral panels to reach the grass on the other side.  She pushed and pushed and bent the bottom rail upward.  The metal t-post by this panel was partially out of the ground.  The twine tying the panel to the t-post was broken. I think she got under the panel and pushed it upwards and slid underneath the panel to "freedom".   She is not a small cow.

The panel dropped back down to the ground and the rest of the cattle were upset.  They were standing at the corral panels, mooing loudly, and watching cow #7 ignore them as she ate grass on the other side.

I fixed the corral panel and post and twine.  I left cow #7 alone.  There was no way I was going to get her back into the corral panel enclosure when all the other cattle wanted out to join her.  I would deal with cow #7 later when I put a new large hay bale out later in the day once the cattle finished the previous bale.

Later cow #7 raised a ruckus.  Her belly was full of grass and her udder was full of milk and she wanted to calf to drain her milk.  I left her be as I wasn't ready yet to put a new large bale of hay out.

Mother and daughter wanting a reunion

Rusty came over late afternoon with a pickup load of fresh cut green grass from his lawn.  The cattle all love it and swarmed over the piles we made as we raked it out of his pickup.  Cow #7 wanted back in the corral to get what the other cattle were getting.  So I opened one corral panel and let her back inside.

I saved a little hay for Buddy as he has been behaving.  It was a challenge driving Rusty's pickup into Buddy's part of the corral as Buddy really wanted to come out through the gate.  One of the cows is in heat as I seen another cow mount her repeatedly today.  I finally was able to wave Buddy away from the gate long enough for Rusty to drive inside.  Rusty had placed the grass on tarps so we were able to quickly pull the tarp out of the pickup and dump the grass.  Buddy was distracted by the fresh cut grass so Rusty was able to easily drive out of the other corral gate.

I put a large bale out for the cattle before sunset as they had eaten all of the grass by then.


The other news...  yesterday I bought a used haybine and a fertilizer spreader.  A guy - Mike- near Libby, Montana had these and other equipment for sale on Craigslist as he had upgraded.  By coincidence the day before I had spoken with the salesmen I bought my tractor from asking if their dealership had any used haybines for sale.  Nothing right for me.  He did mention Mike might, and praised Mike's upkeep of his machinery.

Mike is quite the talker.  He can equal, or even outdo, me.  And he has an beautiful and interesting place.  So lots of time was sidetracked on stories and tangents.

I did buy his New Hollander 488 haybine.   And a fertilizer spinner spreader that mounts on a tractor's three point hitch.   Now I need to fix my tractor's three point to replace the missing bolt.

I pulled the haybine home using my pickup.  I had to pay attention as my pickup's left tires were on the yellow center line and the haybine's right tire was on the white line on the side of the road.  Some parts of the highway had a nice shoulder and many parts had not much of a shoulder.

The drive was from about 6:30 pm to almost 8 pm so the traffic was lighter.  Thankfully.   I didn't go faster than 50 mph to be safe.  I made it home without any mishaps.  The closest call was that I nearly took out my own mailbox but fortunately noticed in time and moved the haybine so it missed the mailbox.

And wouldn't you know it... the night after I bought the haybine some posted a newer John Deere haybine on Craigslist that looks interesting.  If I had waited one more day...

Cattle jailbreak and manure

This morning it was time for another large hay bale for the cattle.  But when I went out to the corral I found the cattle out in the north pasture eating grass.  They had pushed against the temporary corral panels and created an opening.

One panel was bent into a U shape.  One metal t-post was pushed out of the ground.  The wires holding the last panel to the railroad tie were loose.  The cattle moved three corral panels to create an opening.

I put out a new large hay bale. Then I had Donna drive the tractor to help herd the cattle and I herded the cattle on foot and we herded the cattle back into the temporary panels enclosure.  It went much easier than I expected.

I am sure it was cow #7 who pushed against the panels to reach grass on the other side.  While the other cattle were at the hay bale, cow #7 came over to watch me as I replaced the U shaped panel and pounded more metal t-posts to hold the panels in place.  #7 wasn't too happy with my work.

With the cattle back in the corral area I let Sugar and her calf out of the loading corral.  Her calf ran around meeting the other calves.

That was my morning.  In the afternoon it began to rain as I was refilling the cattle's water trough.  I decided to get a rake and try to clear some manure out of the loafing shed.  Sugar had given birth in there and I wasn't fond of her choice to do so.

The manure and straw mixture is still wet under the surface and it was difficult to rake more than just the surface.  The manure just sticks to the rake.

The rain continued and I couldn't do much else outside so I concentrated on the loafing shed section with the smallest thickness of manure.  Hours later I got a lot of the manure and straw out of that loafing shed section.

Here are a few photos of the cattle from yesterday when the sun shone and the cattle were behaving.

Now a days it seems like every time I turn around Buster is drinking from Big Red.

Calf 12 - Sugar's

Sugar finally gave birth this morning a little after 10 am.  When I checked on her at 10 am I could tell she was close to giving birth.  She was up and down in the loafing shed and moo moaning.  Her water started to come out in a 'balloon'. I went inside the house to get my camera and go to the bathroom.  10 minutes later when I went back outside Sugar was up and licking her newborn calf.   That was a fast birth!

A number of other calves were flitting about like mosquitoes trying to check out the new calf.  Sugar was getting annoyed with the other calves as she was trying to focus on her new calf.

The new calf was relatively quick in standing.  Between his wobbly legs, his mother constantly licking him, and the other calves milling about, it took him a little longer to get to drinking his mother's milk.

Eventually he did. His mother stopped licking him and chased off most other calves.  Mama's calf still hung around so I told her to stop bothering the new calf and to go away.  Mama's calf stopped,  looked and listened to me, and when I was done speaking, trotted off.

Later in the afternoon Donna came over to help me band the little boy and put an ear tag in his ear.  Sugar was none too happy with me when I grabbed her calf and picked him up as he started to run off.  I told Donna it was best that we went into the loading corral section to do the work on the calf as the way Sugar was acting I was concerned Sugar may do more than moo at us.

We worked on the calf as Sugar stood outside the gate and frantically mooed as us.  Donna and I were glad we had a gate between us and Sugar.

Sugar and her new calf spent all day resting in the corral.  The hay bale was outside the corral so Sugar wasn't getting anything to eat.  She continued to run off most of the other calves when they came again to check on the new calf.

In the evening, since the calf wouldn't follow Sugar out of the corral, I put some hay in the loading corral and let Sugar and her calf go in there for the night.  Between the hay, water, and fresh green grass growing in the loading corral, they will be happy and undisturbed for the night.  Sugar immediately started eating.

While I normally prefer male calves, in this case, since I plan to keep a few of the females calves as replacement calves, it would have been nice if Sugar's calf would have been a female as the calf is such a nice black calf.  But it wasn't to be.

On Beulah is left to calve; then I will be done with calving for this year.

Mama didn't attack me.  She just stared at me briefly to let me know to leave the new calf alone.  Then Mama walked off.  I left the new calf alone.

"While Sugar is distracted maybe I can sneak some of her milk."

Newly banded and ear tagged and trying to get back to his mother.

The slobber on the calf's had is from Sugar as she checked her calf out after being reunited with him after Donna and I banded the calf and put an ear tag in his ear.

Here is a 48 second video of the new calf and his first steps:  https://youtu.be/JQPsUi7LRA8