Cattle into NE pasture

The weaning is going well.  Not much mooing now.  Of course when a cow or calf does moo now, most of their voices are hoarse.

This afternoon I let the cows into the NE pasture. Some more green grass before it will be time to put out another large hay bale for them.  After I let the cows into the NE pasture the calves did some mooing.  Not for the weaning, but because the calves wanted to join everyone else in the new pasture.  The calves all lined up along the corral fence to watch the cows in the NE pasture.

Beulah

I also left open the gate into the fruit tree area.  It didn't take long for the cattle to go there.

The pear tree has lots of pears.  I haven't picked them yet.  I was talking with my neighbor Rusty this morning.  He waits until after a freeze before he picks his pears.  He says the freeze softens the pears.  When I pick one of my pears right now they are hard.  It takes days for them to soften slightly.

Of course some of the cows immediately tried to eat some pears.  But I have a high fence to stop them from doing so.

Weaning has started

Late this afternoon the calf weaning has started.  Kari and Donna came over after 5:30 pm to check on No Tail.  She is doing fine and no disinfectant or fly spray was needed.  Her wound is no longer open.  Her eye seems to be still blind but it does look better.

Not the greatest photo of No Tail but it was the best I could get of her.

Yesterday, in preparation for the calves, I placed a large hay bale in the corral.  Here are the calves going to auction along with No Tail.

Herding and separating the calves was fairly easy.  The cattle's large hay bale had been eaten and they were eager to come into the north pasture.  Herding them into the corral went quick.  Then it was time to herd the cows back out of the coral while leaving the calves in the corral.

Then it was time to separate the three heifers I am keeping as replacement heifer from the rest of the calves.  First I had to decide which three heifers to keep.  It was harder to get these three heifers out of the corral one at a time.  The calves move faster than the cows, and the calves all wanted to stay together.  But Kari and I running around and around got it done.

Here are the three heifers I am keeping. Once they were separated from the other calves we let them out of the corral to be with their mothers.

Later this evening the mooing has started.  Not as bad as I expected.  Tomorrow probably will be noisier.

Yarrow weeds picked

Yesterday I got the rest of the yarrow weeds 'picked'.  By 'picked' I mean I pull the yarrow weed then break off the seed head and toss it into the bucket and leave the yarrow stem on the ground.  Therefore I can fit more yarrow weeds in the bucket.

Days/weeks earlier I had got all of the yarrow sprayed to be killed.  But by the time I sprayed them they already started to form the seed heads.  It appears that before the yarrow completely dies they finish off the seed head.  Therefore, it is now time to 'pick' the seed heads so no more yarrow weeds come up next year. 

Off all the weeds in the pastures, yarrow is the most I have by far.  Still, I initially thought it would take me a day or two to 'pick' the seed heads.  Nope.  Over a week.  I would put the seed heads in a 3-gallon bucket.  My north pasture I filled three and a half buckets.  The middle pasture I filled four buckets.  The south pasture has few yarrow weeds, and I had 'picked' / pulled those weeds a while ago.

I would have taken a photo of the bucket filled with yarrow weeds but my camera' battery had died.  I wasn't going to wait as this was my last bucket of weeds.  I got rid of the weeds and took this photo today.

Also, not the greatest photo of the yarrow weed.  But again, my camera's battery had died before I could take a photo of another yarrow weed.

Now on to the next project.

Eye screw, day 3

Today Doctor Kari, and Donna, stopped by to check on No Tail's condition. That meant we had to get No Tail back in the headgate.  It was harder this time as No Tail's calf did not want to leave No Tail's side.  Once I got the calf out of the loading corral, we worked on getting No Tail into the headgate.   No Tail knew what was going on and resisted.  Finally I walked to the house to see if I could find my zapper to encourage No Tail to move forward.  Before I could get out of the corral No Tail decided to try to get through the headgate.  The headgate triggered and held her in place.

Then the attempt to put the harness on her head.  No Tail resisted and moved her head.  I dropped the harness and was knocked backwards.  Donna was right behind me, didn't see me coming, and got knocked down.

Kari worked on inspecting the wound.  Looks good.  It is filling in.  No blood or signs of an infection.  Kari cleaned the area again with the Betadine.  She also rubbed the fly spray/rub on No Tail's head.  Around the wound, around the eye, and elsewhere on the head.  Flies are a problem for the cattle this year.

While Kari did this Donna left.  She had talked about getting an eye patch for No Tail to protect against flies.  But after waiting a bit, we called her and found out she had gone home to lay down as she had gotten nauseous.  So we released No Tail from the headgate.  Her calf immediately started drinking from No Tail.

No Tail looks to be doing good.  No checkup planned until Saturday as Kari is back to working days until then.

Eye screw, day 2

The 'No tail' cow is doing fine today.  The wound looks okay.  Less swollen.  'No tail' has her eye open, not shut.

This morning Dona came over and we got 'No tail's' calf into the corral to be with her.  Not too hard as the calf wanted to be back with his mother.  He was at the fence in the south pasture, away from the rest of the cattle.  I opened gates and he walked to the middle, then the north pasture, then into the corral.  Once they were together the calf immediately started drinking.

So no more mooing by mother and calf to be together.  'No tail' mooed off and on last night and into the morning.

I am leaving the two in the corral.

Eye screw in eyebrow

I now know what happened to the eye screw that went missing on my south and middle pasture gate.  August 31 is when I first saw that the eye screw was missing.

Here is where the eye screw was located.

This is what the eye screw looks like.

I looked and could not find the eye screw. Last Friday I bought a new one at Home Depot and installed it on the railroad tie.  Today I found the eye screw.  I had let the cattle into the middle pasture and walking around the cattle I noticed something on the head of the cow with no tail.  It was the eye screw.  The screw was in the skin of the cow in the eyebrow about the right eye.   What?  How did that happen?!

Donna came over and helped me separate the cow from the rest of the cattle.  Not easy as she didn't want to leave the herd.   After a number of attempts we let 'No tail' and two other cows through the gate into the north pasture.  Then we had to herd 'No tail' into the corral.  'No Tail' and another cow went into the corral.  Then we had to herd the other cow out of the corral.  That done we got 'No tail' into the loading corral.

Earlier I had gone to the ranch store and got Betadine, a disinfectant.  A fly 'spray or wipe' to keep flies away.  And some gauze sponges to apply the disinfectant and the fly spray.  $47.

Donna and I needed Donna's daughter, Kari, to help us.  'Doctor Kari' as I now call her even though she isn't really a doctor.  Kari had to work at the hospital ER today until 9 pm.

While we waited I put out another large hay bale in the south pasture for the cattle.  Donna handled the gates so I didn't have to get in and out of the tractor, and she also kept the cattle from coming through the gate.  Donna's dog Rusty was along and he wanted to ride with me in the tractor.  So he did.  He sat on my lap and looked around as I drove.  He also licked my neck and chin a number of times.

It was dark when Kari showed up.  I had the barn light turned on and we wore head lamps.  Donna and I had 'No tail' in the head gate by the time Kari arrived.  Even so we also needed more to stop 'No Tail's' head from moving when we worked on removing the eye screw.  Kari has a harness she uses on her large horse's head and the harness fit on 'No tail'.  With a rope attached to the harness we wrapped the rope around a fence to hold the head in place.  Still a little movement of the head was possible but for the most part 'No tail' didn't jerk her head.  She was calmer than expected.

Kari worked on removing the eye screw but couldn't get it out.  The skin had swollen and made it hard to remove the screw.  I then worked on removing the eye screw.  The gap in the eye screw is small but I worked on pushing and pulling the skin through as it bunched up.  I finally got the eye screw off.   Thankfully.  Otherwise I would have to take 'No tail' to the vet tomorrow and they would have to cut the skin to get the eye screw off.

Kari applied the betadine to the wound and also the fly spray around the wound.  No real bleeding by now.  The bad news is that it looks like it affected 'No tail's' eye.  The eye looks blank.  No eye movement when passing the hand nearby.  The left eye seems fine and there is eye movement when passing a hand nearby.  I let Kari and Donna do the eye check as the look of the eye now 'creeps' me out.

I am keeping 'No tail' in the corral for now.  Better to keep her away from other cows who may want to fight. Also it will be easier to check on the state of the wound.  As of now it doesn't look infected.  Tomorrow Donna and I will herd 'No tail's' calf into the corral for them to be together.  The calf is with the other calves in the south pasture.

As I now have replacement heifers I had planned on selling Panda as she is the oldest cow.  The last time I planned on selling Panda a few years ago something came up with another cow and that cow was sold and not Panda.  Once again Panda is saved.  I now plan on selling 'No Tail' along with the calves.  While 'No tail' could survive with only one eye working, it is time for her to go.

As you can see in the photos it is unlikely and amazing she got the eye screw stuck in her skin. A freak accident.  She must have rubbed her head on the eye screw and did it in a way her skin got into the small gap.  Not only that, she pulled the screw out of the railroad tie and did not tear her skin loose.  Poor 'No tail'.  We all feel sorry for her.

Weed spraying done. Black bear and two cubs.

Yesterday I finally finished spraying the weeds in the pastures for this year.  Well, maybe.  I find that I can miss some weeds.  And the Canada thistle weed has a tendency at times to pop up another weed or two from its root system when other weeds have been sprayed and are dying.

My pastures are about 36 acres.  The hayfield has no weeds.  Because of the trees in the pastures, and the herbicide I use is also for snowberry bushes - a woody plant, the herbicide can also affect trees.  So I use a backpack sprayer to spot spray the weeds and do not drive around broadcasting the herbicide in the air and ground to kill weeds.

The tank holds 4 gallons.  As you can imagine spraying this way takes much long than if I just drive around blasting herbicide in the air.  And I only want to carry this tank only for a few hours, and not all day.

I started the weed spraying back when I was still irrigating in July.  There were breaks at times as some days I had other stuff to do.  When I got back to spraying I often would go over areas I had sprayed days earlier.  That way I caught weeds I missed or new weeds that popped up.

Once irrigating was done I tried to spend more time spraying weeds.  I wanted to be done spraying weeds, but I also wanted to cover all the pastures.  Unsprayed areas can get more weeds the next year.

When I got to the south pasture I made great progress.  One tank covered 60% of the pasture.  One or two tanks left and I'd be done.  Nope. That didn't happen.  Many tanks more were needed.  The SW corner of the pasture has lots of Canada thistle weeds.  Then I got to the island and was surprised at the number of Canada thistle and bull thistle weeds.  I even spent time one afternoon just pulling or mostly cutting the top of weeds that had or were starting to go to seed.  At this point spraying the weed will kill the weed but not stop the seeds from spreading.  I removed and gathered the seeds and got rid of them so they would not spread.

Then yesterday, my last day, when I got on the island I heard sounds across the river on the neighbor's land.  I looked and saw a black bear cub climbing a pine tree.  After the cub got up a distance then I saw the mother bear at the bottom of the tree.  Then the mother climbed up the tree.  Once the bears reached decent branches they moved to the branches.  Then I noticed there were two black bear cubs in the tree. They sat up there looking at me.  Better there and not trying to chase me.

Also, I now know in the future to not try to climb a tree to avoid a black bear.  Those bears climbed the tree really fast.  Much faster than I could climb.

I didn't have my camera when I saw the bears.  Today I went back - no bears - and took a photo of the tree.  The red arrow points to where the mother had climbed.  The cubs had climbed higher.

I went back to spraying.  By the time I was done spraying it was starting to get dark.  I didn't go back to look at the tree and never saw the bears again.

Here is my island.  As you can see the trees are not made for climbing.  Also, they are mostly hawthorn trees.

I even found Canada and bull thistle weeds among the thickest part of the trees, even where the grass doesn't grow.  Being hawthorn trees it made it hard at times to get close enough to spray the weeds.  I had a few hours left today after taking the photos. I spent time cutting some of the hawthorn tree branches.  I didn't make a dent on the number. I got poked and got bloody on my hands by the thorns, and ended up pulling a half dozen or more thorns out of my boots where the thorns went through the boots and reached my feet.

I'm glad to be done spraying.  Still, I may come back in a week or so and spray again to find the weeds I had missed.  We'll see if that happens.

I had a few areas in the north and middle pastures that had yarrow weeds.  They were sprayed but they were starting to develop seeds.  Now that those weeds are dead tomorrow I plan to go out and pull and dispose of those weeds and seeds.

Canned beets

Being half Ukrainian I love beets.  Really love beets.   I buy lots of beets and Donna cans them for me.  Last Christmas I bought Donna an electric pressure canner to make it easier. Donna likes her new electric pressure canner.

https://www.amazon.com/Presto-02144-Digital-Canner-Stainless/dp/B089P2W2N6?th=1

I may have enough beets for a year. Maybe, we'll see. I do eat a lot of beets.

30 quarts  (1 quart not visible in photo.)

Hay bale set out for the cattle

An odd year.  This afternoon I put out one of last year's hay bales for the cattle.  The grass in the pastures is getting short.   Usually the grass lasts until late October or November.  I still have grass in the hayfield but I don't want to let the cattle into the hayfield until days or a week after we have a good freeze.  That way the alfalfa shouldn't cause the cattle to bloat.

Normally I feed hay to the cattle in the north and middle pastures.   I rotate back and forth as the cattle wouldn't be in the pasture getting the hay bale as I unload the bale.  Since it is nowhere near Winter I decided to put the feeder and bales in the south and middle pastures.  A different area to spread the hay leftovers and manure.   That meant moving the feeder from the north pasture to the south pasture.  I was able to do that as the cattle were elsewhere in the middle pasture.  Then when it came to moving the hay bale the cattle were now at the middle/north pasture gate blocking my way.

Fortunately I have two middle/north pasture gates, and I drove the tractor to the west end gate while the cattle remained at the east end gate.

Here is the hay bale in the south pasture. With all the calves around I have more animals than can eat at the feeder at the same time, which is what the cattle want to do when they initially get hay in a feeder.  So I also took some of the hay from the bale and made 10 small piles around the feeder.

When it came to move the salt block to the south pasture I found the salt feeder in the south pasture like this.  No salt block in the feeder and the cattle decided to abuse the feeder.  The two metal posts are there so the feeder doesn't get tipped over.  That didn't stop it from getting lifted up and over.  And one of the legs broken.  I had to fix the feeder and put it back between the metal posts before putting a salt block in it.

The other problem was the south/middle pasture gate.  The past few weeks I have left the south/middle pasture gate open so the cattle can move between the two pastures.  The railroad tie has an eye bolt that I can put the gate's chain through to hold the gate in place.  This eye hook is a little loose but held in place.  Well... the cattle apparently don't ever want me to hook the gate closed in the future.  The eye hook is now missing. The cattle pulled the hook out of the railroad tie.  I looked all around on the ground and I can't find the eye hook.  The eye hook is large enough the cattle shouldn't have swallowed it.  But where did the hook go?

I got an extra chain and added it to the gate's chain so the gate's chain would be long enough to wrap around the railroad tie.  This will work for now.  Either I find the eye hook, or more likely, have to buy a new one.

All this took time. I have other things to do. I am trying to get all the pastures sprayed to kill the weeds.  Not as much sprayed today.

Hay bales stacked

Yesterday I gathered and stacked the hay bales from the second hay cut.  First I unstacked (took out of the hay shed) 18 of the 22 hay bales from last year.  Four bales were large and sitting perfectly so I left them in the hayshed.  Once this year's hay bales were stacked I re-stacked last year's hay bales.  

I have more hay bales than usual.  This year's hay bales filled the hayshed and a few rows outside.  Overall I ended up with 5 rows outside the hayshed along with two bales for a sixth row.  Amazon had a sale on tarps so I bought a couple.  I'll see how many hay bales the new tarps cover when the tarps arrive later this week.

It is nice to be done with the hay for the year.  Now on to other projects.

Photo from today.  It was 9 pm when I finished stacking hay bales last night.  Too late to take a photo as it is getting dark earlier now.

Hayfield gate down

When I started to cut my hay on Monday I moved the cattle from the neighbor's field to my middle pasture. This was done using the corner gate.  Once that was done I started cutting hay.  When I drove by the other gate to the neighbor's field I saw that gate was down.

The cattle once again messed with a gate.  The top lag bolt faces down to hold the gate in place. But the cattle somehow worked the gate to loosen the lag bolt and for the bolt to turn slightly sideways.  Down went the gate.  At least this time the gate was partially down and the cattle couldn't walk over the gate to get into the hayfield.

Today I fixed the gate.  Yesterday I had bought a new slightly larger lag bolt.  It is more snug in the railroad tie fence post.  Hopefully this lag bolt lasts longer than when I last rebuilt the fence and gate back in June 2019.

Hay is baled

I got all my hay baled this afternoon.  I got it all done about a half hour before Donna and I went to the Montana Shakespeare in the Park play.

I think I got the bale diameter sensor adjusted the way I want it.  It took a few attempts.  I want the bale diameter to be 5 ft (60 inches).   I got it to be 59 inches.  Close enough. Sometimes the diameter would be 58 inches or 60 inches.   What I learned is the bale diameter is not always identical on each end.  It can be off by and inch or two as more hay was fed in one side over the other.  If I set the sensor to be 60 inches sometimes the oversized sensor would go off as part of the bale may be 61 inches.  That happened a few times, but as the bale was only slightly oversized, the netwrap still worked and wrapped the bale.  Still, I didn't want to risk having an oversized bale and the netwrap not working so that is why I set the diameter sensor to be 59 inches.

Otherwise things went well.  Unlike the past so many years when I had a tractor problem, or a haybine problem, or a rake problem, or a baler problem.  No problems or breakdowns this time.  Things mostly went smooth.

I was worried initially as this is the most blooms I ever had on my alfalfa when cutting.  But I think this is the best hay I ever had.  The hay dried.  But it still has a green tinge and not a yellow or brown tinge due to dryness.  Many times the hay is dry enough that the baling action can breaks parts of it and I get chaff to clean out of the baler every so often.  Not much chaff this time.

I planned to let the bales sit for a few days before stacking them.  In case they are not completely dry as the drying action in a bale can start into a fire when a lot of bales are stacked on each other and the heat gets too hot.

I had a handful of instances where a small part of the netwrap snagged on one of the baler's belt.  I had to remove it from the belt.

This was the worse case of a snagged netwrap.

Most times the snag as at the end of the bale.  Once in a while the snag was in the middle of the bale.

I also had two instances of where the netwrap would not stop on its own and I had to stop the netwrapping.

What my netwrapped bales should look like.   Also, you can see how sometimes one side of the bale is larger than the other side.

I ended up with 52 bales.  Plus this left-over amount.   This is the most bales I ever got from a second hay cutting.  And especially since the bale diameters are now 59 inches instead 54 inches.   Fertilizing my field worked.  Plus the first hay cutting was two to three weeks earlier than normal.

My baled field.

Shakespeare - As You Like It

This evening Donna and I attended the Montana Shakespeare in the Park play, "As You Like It".   If Kari showed up we didn't find one another.  Donna and I, and most people attending the play, brought chairs to sit on.

It was a good time.  Not one of Shakespeare's better plays, but the cast, and watching the play outdoors, made it a nice time.   The play is a romantic comedy.

Official photos.

My camera's zoom no longer works, so my photos aren't the best.

At one point one of the main actors walks off the stage.  He then walked through the crowd before exiting to the left.

Info about Montana's Shakespeare in the Park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOYDtt1QjN4

Still working on the hayfield

Monday I had finished cutting the hayfield.

Tuesday I took Donna and Kari out for their birthday lunches.  Their birthdays were the end of June and the beginning of July.  Both are Cancers, like me.  This was the first time we could all get together for a lunch.  Later on Tuesday I got the parts of the middle and north pastures cut like I wanted to do in order to get rid of some tall stemy grass.  I was going to cut a small grass strip by my neighbor's driveway to help him out but I couldn't get a hold of him.   So I started pressure washing to clean my mower-conditioner.

Today, Wednesday, I finished pressure washing / cleaning mower-conditioner and then parked it for the year.  I also noticed the conditioner's blade are getting dull.  Either I will have to replace them or sharpen them if that is possible.  Two years and now dull blades.  The salesman mentioned they could probably only last a couple of years before they got dull.  He was right.  Something for my to-do list before next year's cutting.

Then I drove the tractor to the gas station to fill up the almost empty diesel tank.  $139, and 43.5 gallons later, and the tank was full.

Then I raked the hayfield.  Two windrows into one.  Then again to turn the rows over.  It was very windy this afternoon and the wind moved parts of some windrows.

They windrows are 99% dry.  Time to start baling as rain is in the forecast by Saturday.   First I reset / adjusted the baler's sensor.  My baler makes 4.5 foot bales when it should be 5 foot bales.  I tried adjusting the baler last year and it didn't work.  Earlier this year I talked with Jack at the John Deere dealership about adjusting my baler.  The way he and the book recommended was the last way I did adjust the baker.  I'll try again.

This time I noticed a different way to do a step.  The step mentioned to lock the baler before raising the belt tension arm.  But a sticker next to the lock says not to lock the baler before raising the tension arm and opening the gate as it could cause damage.   I looked online to set if there was more info that made sense.  Nope.  So I locked the baler and then raised the tension arm.  I then adjusted the sensor so that it read 173.  That is the number the manual said to set it to.   Before adjusting the sensor the monitor said it was 155.  I adjusted the sensor so the monitor said it was 173.  Then off to baling hay.

Once a hay bale was made I measured it.  It measured 4 feet.  What?  Smaller, not larger?   So I readjusted the sensor to 150.  The next bale was 53 inches (4 ft 5 inches).  I readjusted the sensor to 140.  The next bale was 57 to 58 inches.  I readjusted the sensor to 130.  The next bale was an oversized bale.  I got a warming on the monitor.    Before off-loading the baler I tried to netwrap it.  I unloaded the bale and the bale was partially netwrapped.  Not good enough.  The bale size was 62-63 inches.  Anything over 60 is an oversized bale as the max size for a bale is 60 inches.

I re-adjusted the sensor to 136.  I unrolled by hand the oversized bale.  I will have to re-bale it tomorrow as it was now getting dark.

It is odd.  Who knows why the manual says 173.  The odd thing is this evening when I looked up the manual online to double check, the number is now 208 with slightly different wording for the steps.  For the same model of baler.

And to increase the bale size is to go with a lower number?  None of this is making sense.  When I talked with Jack earlier he showed me the same description as my physical manual and mentioned 173.  He didn't know why it would be 173.  It is just what the manual says.

I hope the baling all goes as planned tomorrow.  I had hoped to get more baling done today as late tomorrow afternoon is a 'Shakespeare in the Park' outdoor play I am planning on watching along with Donna and Kari.

I'll see how much baling I get done tomorrow.

Hayfield cut

This evening I finished cutting my hayfield.  I started the cut last night with four rows cut.  Then finished the hayfield today.  I spent 8 hours cutting the field today, minus an hour where I had to go and buy some more diesel def for my tractor.  Add in the cutting time from last night and it was between 8 and 9 hours to cut the field.  I could have cut a little faster but I drove a gear slower.  That is because the alfalfa and grass were thick and I wanted to be careful and not cut fast.

The alfalfa and grass were dry on the outside to cut.  But the alfalfa and grass still had a lot of moisture inside them.  It will take longer to dry than normal.  Before cutting today I kneeled on the ground to check out the mower-conditioner.  Doing so my knees on my pants got wet.  That was due to the ground moisture.  The ground wasn't "wet" with water, but "wet" as the soil hadn't dried out from the recent rain and my earlier irrigation.

I would have liked to wait a little longer to cut the field as the alfalfa and grass still had moisture inside them, but the forecast is suppose to be dry this week and the temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s.  And the alfalfa is more than ready to cut due to their having lots of blooms on them.   More so than anytime I ever cut alfalfa.  Usually one cuts alfalfa shortly after they start to bloom.  That would have been a week or two ago.  But between the irrigation and then the rain I had to wait.   Unlike some other people around the Valley who took a chance last week and cut their field and lost as it then rained.

After cutting the hayfield I trimmed some in the south pasture.  The cattle eat the grass but some they miss.  Those grow tall and become stemy, and then will start die / dry out from the top down.   Right now they are hard to eat as they are tough.  By Fall and Winter they will become dead and softer.  But who wants to wait.