Hay feeder for the corral

If you remember to back when I bought my current bull, I also bought a used - and slightly damaged - metal feeder.  The feeder was missing two of the uprights that prevent the cattle from climbing into the hay.  I still have pieces of an old broken feeder, and while they are of different styles, I was able to use two of the uprights on my newer feeder.

I screwed the pieces together then I had Curtis do some welds to strengthen their connection.  When I got the feeder back yesterday I also added bolts as the bottom to further strengthen the connection.

Today I brought a large hay bale into the corral for the three heifers and cow and the put the three feeder sections together around the bale.

To distract the heifers and cow I gave them a large bucket of apples in the wooden feeder next to the barn.    They were all over to the hay bale before I got all of the twine off the bale.  They dodged around the bale eating as I finished the work.

With the large bale I no longer have to put hay from the small bales out for the heifers and cow twice a day.  The cattle have already eaten up all the loose hay from this past Summer.  And with the above freezing temperatures the past few days and partial snow melt it got really muddy mucky next to the wooden feeder.

One section with a missing piece.

Replacement piece

Section with replacement piece screwed on.

After final weld and bolting.

After final weld and bolting.

All put together.

The cow likes to burrow her head into the bale to eat.

Tonight Kelly shot the buck he wounded last weekend.  This was the first time Kelly seen the buck come out of the trees since he first shot him.   The buck had a slight limp as the earlier wound was through the leg.  This time Kelly shot the buck through the heart.  When cleaning out the organs Kelly found the heart in two pieces.  Even though my help this time was only to help lift the buck into his pickup (Kelly's wife was with him during the hunt and helped clean out the buck), I still got a little blood on me.  It never fails.   I washed the blood off the coat but left the little bit of blood on my patched pants.  It just adds more 'flavor and style' to my pants. 

Thousand dollar pants

Another pair of pants came to an end the other day.  It had gotten to the point where I had to patch the pants multiple times after wearing them.  Then I had to patch them after washing them.  It got too much - even for me.   The pants became a pair of pants trying to get out of another pair.

This Summer at the Murdoch's store a woman told me that if I went to New York City I could sell my pants for a thousand dollars.   Well... the pants were one of a kind.   But I removed the patches that are still good to use on other pants and burnt the little of the pants that remained.   Maybe I should have sold the pants on Ebay?

Don't worry... I still have more patched pants. I can create them as fast as I wear them around the ranch.

Holstein calf results

Today I got the check from the auction for my Holstein calf.  The result was not pretty.

Three weeks ago - when I sold my calves - Holstein cows weighing a thousand to sixteen hundred pounds sold for 63 to 65 cents a pound.  Two weeks ago Holstein cows weighing twelve hundred to fourteen hundred pounds were selling for 60 to 63 cents a pound.  This week Holstein cows over a thousand pounds sold for 55 cents pound.   Not a week to sell a Holstein calf.  I am not sure why Holstein prices were trending down as the overall calf market the past few weeks has been steady to a few cents a pound higher.

When I talked with the livestock auction owner a few weeks ago he said Holstein calves weighing around 550 pounds were selling for 80 to 90 cents a pound.

While I don't have experience estimating the weight of a Holstein, my calf weighed more than I thought.  I thought he would weigh 550 to 600 pounds.  Remember, my beef steer calves weighed on average 595 pounds.  My Holstein calf weighed 645 pounds.  He weighed more than Donna, Dan or I had estimated.

The bad news... the price I got for him.  60 cents a pound.



My beef steers sold for 1.625 a pound.  Because it was a Holstein I expected to get less per pound - but not this much less.   I paid $150 for him as a newborn calf.  I had expensive vet bills plus the auction and transport costs and I probably broke even to making only a few dollars on him.  Not really worthwhile from a financial aspect.  It was a learning experience.  An experience - grafting a Holstein calf on a cow who lost her calf - I would think twice about doing again.  Knowing now what I now know, I would have been better off keeping the Holstein and feeding him over Winter and then selling him in the Spring.  He would have put on more weight and I mostly likely would get almost as much or more cents a pound.

This is the second steer I got hammered on price this year.  Making money raising cattle... not an easy proposition.

Surprisingly, Sunday's wind didn't blow the snow off the shrubs.

Sunday it stormed most of the day.  Wind and snow.  Miserable.  The cattle mostly stayed in the shelter of the loafing shed.  Daisy and I stayed inside and made sure the woodstove was fed.  Snow blew everywhere.  I did notice Sunday afternoon that cow #20 - the one who had broken her leg this Summer - was by herself at the water trough.  Her front leg - the one that acts up in Winter - seemed stiff.  In the howling wind I herded her into the south coral to be with the heifers.  No need for cow 20 to have to walk more than necessary on the snow.

The Winter weather forecast is for a cold and snowy Winter.  What I didn't realize is that also meant a longer Winter.  Not even a week into November and I and others are already sick of Winter.

Today was a decent day.  Sun and no wind.  The temperature was near freezing as the snow melted a little in the sun.  I shoveled off the front driveway and paths to buildings in the backyard.

While I was concerned at having enough hay due to feeding three heifers in addition to the cows and bull, and feeding the cattle starting weeks earlier than normal; I found the cattle are eating the oats/barley/pea hay quicker than usual.  Usually a large hay bale lasts three to three and a half days.  For two bales now the cattle have eaten each bale in two days.  I had to put out a third bale late this afternoon. At this rate my hay won't last until Spring.  It is always something.

Winter and hunting

More snow today.  More in the forecast.  Strong wind overnight and into the afternoon.   Snow is everywhere. I believe the official snow total so far is 3.5 inches.  It seems like just a little bit more to me.  I did shovel paths to the outbuildings.  No enthusiasm to shovel any more snow.  When the wind blew the cattle would come back from eating in order to stand in the shelter of the loafing shed.  Tonight no wind.  Cattle are staying out in the trees near the hay bale.

Kelly shot a large buck late this afternoon.  At about 110 yards.  The deer ran into the trees and Kelly needed help finding the deer.  With the fresh snow it was easier to track the deer.  Still we had to look for blood as there were other tracks the deer made before coming out of the trees where Kelly shot it.  Around and around we went.  Finding the correct track with a few spots of blood, then losing it by following another track, then again finding a track with a spot of blood.

Around and around through the thick trees, by now in the dark.  My feet were freezing in the tall rubber boots I wore.  I didn't hear it, but Kelly said he heard the deer get up and run from its hiding place up ahead.  The track no longer had blood.  Kelly made have slightly wounded the buck.   After almost a hour and a half of tracking we gave up.  Kelly plans to go out tomorrow to look for the deer in case it did die over on Wyatt's property.

When Kelly came to ask me for help tracking the deer Daisy insisted on coming outside too.  She was waiting on the rug outside the house door and was happy to go back in the house where it was much warmer.  We both sat near the woodstove to warm up.

Winter and first hay bale

I woke up and saw it was snowing hard.  I went back to sleep for another hour.  No change the hour later.

Daisy stayed inside the house all day except for a few minutes ago. She either laid by the woodstove or on the couch and looked at the snow falling outside waiting for it to quit. Daisy prefers to go to the bathroom outside instead of using her litter box so she held it all day but finally gave up and went outside.  Update.  After a couple of minutes Daisy is back in the house.  She grumbled a few times to me as she came back inside.  Daisy is not happy about this Winter weather.  She is warming up by the woodstove.

The weather forecast this evening...

Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until noon MDT Friday.

* Heavy snow occurring. Plan on difficult travel conditions. Additional snow accumulations of 2 to 6 inches, with localized amounts up to 8 inches, are expected. In addition, brisk northeast winds 15 to 30 mph will result in blowing snow and wind chill temperatures in the teens.

So plenty of snow today.  While the grass in the north pasture is somewhat tall and the cattle were able to poke around and find something to eat, I put out a large hay bale for them in the afternoon.

The bale doesn't look so big when on the front of the tractor.

This year I am feeding hay to the cattle weeks earlier than usual.   "Brother, can you spare a little global warming?"   Seriously though, we could use some global warming out here as I still have stuff to do outside around the ranch.


I only rode 1 mile on my bicycle today.  In the evening the road was very icy from the snow that was compacted and partially melted from the traffic.  Lots of crashes in the Valley today.

Yup, snow came

I woke up to snow this morning.  So I went back to sleep.

When I did get up hours later...

Even though much of the snow melted by late afternoon I didn't get much done outside today.  Neither did Daisy as she spent most of the day inside with me.

The forecast is for much more snow starting at 6 am Thursday and continuing until noon Friday.   Four to eight inches of snow is possible.

*sigh*

Busy rush before snow

Wednesday (tomorrow) snow will arrive.  And not just a dusting - here today and gone tomorrow - but perhaps snow that will last until Spring.  4 to 8 inches, and maybe more snow, depending on where the cold front and the moist air front collide, and for how long.   Right now snow is predicted every day till Saturday.  Then more colder air with high temperatures struggling to reach freezing.

So the past few days I have been in a rush to get things done as this snow looks to shut work down for the year.  For those of you hogging all the global warming, you need to share.  We want warmer weather too.

I got most of the loafing shed rebuilt.  More on that in another post later.

Last night I won the bidding on several items at a local auction.  I got...

4 three inch irrigation pipes

7 more three inch irrigation pipes

16 foot gate

A standalone temporary corral panel gate

Today I needed to pick up my items. In the morning, when I tried to pull my irrigation trailer with my pickup I discovered the trailer's wheels were frozen and would not move.  Oh no!   I can't get my new pipes without my trailer.  And I have a very busy day planned and didn't have time for problems.

Moving forward and backward over and over did not free the wheels.  I asked my neighbor Curtis and he said the trailer's differential was the problem.   I would have to take the differential apart - a major job.   Or perhaps water somehow got into the differential case and was now frozen as the temperature was still well below freezing.

I have a weed burning propane tank and after heating the differential case for ten minutes the wheels started moving.   Hurray!!

I was able to bring home the pipes on the trailer and the corral panel gate in my pickup.  Then I had to immediately hook up my stock trailer and load Buster to take him to the Majestic Valley Arena to meet Evan.  Evan was collecting cattle from the area to haul down to the Missoula Livestock Auction for the Thursday auction.  Then I didn't have haul Buster all the way to Missoula myself, which wouldn't be worth it.

Back home I let the bull out into the hayfield to be with the cows.  He immediately walked up to one cow and sniffed her.  Then I opened the gate to the north pasture and called the cows.  They came running all excited to be in a new pasture.  Even cow #20 moved right along.  Once in the north pasture the bull and cow #60 briefly sparred before everyone got down to eating the taller grass.  Even though the hayfield and other pastures had been eaten down, my cows were all still fat.

Then I moved the remaining heifers to the south corral where the bull had been.  I needed the north corral open so the cows would have access to the water trough.  The heifers are much too young to be exposed to the bull.

After lunch at Mudman's restaurant I came home to wash out the stock trailer.  I had kept Buster in the back half of the trailer when I hauled him to meet Evan, but even in the short time Buster was in the trailer he made a mess.

Thne back uptown to get gasoline, groceries and pick up my 16 foot gate.

Back home I unloaded the new irrigation pipes from the trailer and put the trailer away.  I moved the salt blocks from the middle pasture to the north pasture for the cows.  I rolled the mineral lick to the south corral so the heifers can continue to lick it as desired.  I gave the heifers more hay.

I picked up and put away all my tools I used to work on the loafing shed rebuild and placed a few heavy items on the roof on the parts of the roofing I hadn't nailed down yet and I have a few more fixes left to do.  I picked up odds and ends of small pieces of wood around the backyard I didn't want to be buried under snow.

I also rode 18 miles on my bicycle to reach my mileage goal of 670 miles for the month.

If the weather is bad in the morning I am going to sleep in.

Fruit tree and garden gate replace

I replaced the gate to the fruit tree and garden area.  I had the gate and board fence done last week before I took my calves to auction.  I only just finished removing the old corner fence.  Even with Daisy supervising the fence removal it took about as long as the new fence build as I kept having other events eating up my time.

As you can see in some of the photos, the old gate was two chain link fence gates I used for the past decade.   They worked well until this year when Maria (cow #7) pushed against them.  She had popped off, on one side of one gate, the clips holding the links in place.  She was trying to squeeze through the gate when I caught her.

Hmmm... time to upgrade this gate sooner than later.

I installed a regular HW livestock gate.  As you can see I added boards on each side of the gate.  This is because I decided to "cut the corner off".  The "corner" wasn't used - or needed - for the fruit tree and garden area.   Also, having the gate at this angle is more convenient for entering this area.  And, the old fence for the corner was wimpy.

Nice having a tractor to hold the gate as I decided where to drill through the posts for the bolts.

A much nicer gate, and better and cleaner looking fence.

Instead of using my normal railroad tie to hold the gate I used some large fence posts.  Using a rounded fence post allows me to open the gate more than a 180 degree radius.  That should come in handy when carrying the long irrigation pipes in and out of this area.

I used some of my 8 ft tall fence posts.    The light - blonde - fence posts were not treated.  My neighbor Curtis thought he had some preservative, but when he looked, he didn't.  So, I used some used motor oil.  I put the posts in a bucket and poured the oil on the posts a number of times to get the oil to soak into the wood.  After several days of soaking, and shortly before I put the posts into the ground, I "painted' the soaked area with roofing sealant, making sure not to "paint" the bottom end of the post (no sense sealing in any moisture that may migrate down inside the post from above the treated area).

I wrapped the sticky sealed part of the post to make handling the post easier as the sealant was still sticky.  And the plastic is yet another barrier to water and rot.

My main concern was to treat the posts at ground level and four or so inches lower as this is where posts normally rot first.  For whatever reason I miscalculated and the top of my sealed and wrapped area was a few inches below ground.  So I had to add more oil and sealant and plastic.

I hope my treatment of the posts allow them to remain rot-free for many years.


I have lots of roofing sealant left over from my previous roofing project.  I had the can sitting in this location so the sealant would warm up in the sun one morning.  My neighbor Jan came over later looking for me while I was gone.  She ended up turning around in my yard near here.  She had her two dogs in her SUV with her.  The calves were still in the corral.  I imagine it was a 3-ring circus and that is why Jan didn't see the can.  She ran over it denting the can.  Fortunately, only a small amount of sealant leaked out onto the grass from the lid.

As you can see in the following photo I did a little more than replace the gate. I added a 15 feet section at the corner.  The whole fence over to the yard fence on the right side of the photo was bad.  When I took down the corner fence and gates I also took down the entire fence over to the yard fence.  The old fence was so bad I had to use the corral panels to supplement the fence so I wouldn't worry about the cattle getting through the fence.  With the corral panels in place, why did I need the old bad barb wire fence to catch and tear on my clothes?

I don't have the fence rebuilt all the way to the yard fence.  That will wait till later.   It took longer to assemble the materials for the fence than I expected.  Both the boards and the posts were at the very bottom of their respective piles for posts and boards and took an afternoon to get.

Four of the posts needed to be treated, which took time.

And lastly, I need to fix the loafing shed roof which blew off in the windstorm last week.  The 30 feet left of fence to be rebuilt will have to wait until another day (or year).

Calf sale results

I got my check and statement from the livestock auction. 

From pulling them in my stock trailer I knew the cattle were heavier.  Last year the nine calves weighed 4335 pounds.   This year the nine calves weighed 5310 pounds.  Last year the heifer's average weight was 488 pounds.  This year their average weight was 588 pounds.  Exactly 100 pounds more.   Last year the steer's average weight was 474 pounds.  That was the average weight sold at auction; Dan bought my largest steers and they weighed over 500 pounds each.   This year five of the six steer's average weight was 595 pounds.  Again about 100 pounds more.  A difference this year is most calves were born about 10 days earlier and I sold the calves two weeks later than last year.

The sixth steer's weight was 570 pounds.   Which brings me to prices.  Prices were higher this year than last year, though still not as high as two years ago.  Still, a nice improvement.

One steer sold for less money, which was a surprise.  The black steer, Sugar's calf, was separated from the other steers and sold separately.  While I got $1.625 a pound for the five steers (and I was told that was a little higher than usual for 600 pound calves); I only got $1.11 a pound for the black steer.  51.5 cents a pound less!!  Today I called the auction to learn why.  I was told the steer was a poor quality steer.  Again a surprise as several people who had seen the steer this Summer thought it was a good looking steer.   I was told it was short, and his weight for his size was considered high.  He mentioned bloating, though he said my steer was rounded on both sides and not just one side as with bloating.  Since the steer wasn't obviously fat, the buyers thought it was poor quality due to the size versus weight ratio.

Anything to knock the price lower.   But seriously, 51.5 cents a pound less?!  The buyer got a great deal.

I'm no expert but I still think it was a good calf.  The auction suggested I get rid of the cow if she produces calves like this.  Well, the calf was from an unknown bull as I bought Sugar last Fall.  Next year Sugar's calf will be Buddy's calf so I'll be interested in seeing how that calf looks and how much I get for that calf.  I think part of the situation was that the other five calves looked like Buddy and this was a different looking calf.

Cow 20

Here are a couple photos of cow #20 (the cow that broke her leg in August).   The photos were taken last week, the day before I took the calves to the auction.  Cow 20 healed and is doing fine now.

Lower snow level

The snow is getting lower.  Winter is coming.

Calves to auction

That time of the year.  Time to take the calves to auction.  Actually it is a little later than I usually take calves to auction.  This year I decided to wait a few more weeks to allow the calves to grow, and the cattle prices to rise.  The prices have been inching up the past few weeks.  I hope the prices continue to rise this Thursday.

I started off a little before 8:30 am scraping the underside of the trailer's receiver hitch.  I wanted to improve the contact with the pickup to ensure the trailer's lights work properly.

I am keeping three heifers as replacement heifers, so once I got the calves in the loading corral I sorted the replacement heifers back out into the main corral.  Cow #20 - the one with the healed broken leg - is good.  So Donna and I herded  her into the corral with the bull, then out the next gate into the hayfield to be with the other cows.  We watched to make sure the other cows didn't start fighting with her.  Some cows came up and sniffed her and all seemed to be getting along.

Loading the ten calves was a challenge.  They are so tame they preferred to stand and look at me rather than run away.  I had trouble turning them around, and keep turned around. Donna was trying to entice them with apples down the runway to the trailer but only a couple calves followed her.

Eventually we got most of the calves in the trailer.  Not all the calves.  It was a struggle to get the ninth calf into the trailer.  Finally we got the other calves in the trailer to move slightly and squeeze together more so the back half of the ninth calf would fit inside.  Then we closed the door.    Looking inside there was room for about a half a calf if all the rest squeezed together super tight.  The last calf was Buster, the Holstein.  The biggest calf.  He was the most resistant in going down the loading chute.  Even when I had him in the middle of the group he would work his way to the back.

I had to leave him behind.

I never had a problem with ten calves in the trailer before.  The calves really are bigger this year.  They started to be born about ten days earlier and they are leaving for market two weeks later.  So it makes sense they are bigger.  And last year when Dan bought four steers, he had bought the four biggest steers.

I had six steers and three heifers to sell this year.  Well, seven steers counting Buster, the Holstein.

Buster refused to come out of the loading chute until the truck and trailer were out of the corral, and both Donna and I were far away from the loading corral.  He had been standing there locked leg refusing to move at all; then once we were away he quickly came out and ran out of the corral to join the three heifers.

We were finally on our way around 10:20 am.

This felt like the heaviest load I have ever hauled in my trailer.  As I drove I could feel the calves move about in the very small space open inside the trailer.  Usually when the trailer moves the cattle stop milling about.  It took much longer for the calves to stop moving.  And a few times on the trip they would begin moving for a little bit - which I felt as I drove.

It took longer than usual at two and a half hours to reach the auction in Missoula as I drove slower due to the extra weight.  The check-in lady was by herself and was harried.  A load of cattle had just been unloaded as I got there, then after she did my paperwork three more large stock trailer with cattle arrived. Another auction worker told me there would be lots of cattle sold on Thursday.  When I got my cattle trip permit in Kalispell on Tuesday the worker told me she had written lots of permits this week.

Unlike last year when Clyde tried to get back into the trailer to return home, these calves all wanted out. The concrete was slippery from the manure and several calves slipped when they hopped out of the trailer.  No one seemed to get injured.

It was like night and day towing the trailer when empty.  Sometimes it didn't feel like I was towing anything.

I drove around Flathead Lake on the east side which is curvier, less hilly and has a slower speed limit.  I was going the 50 mph speed limit when a car two vehicles back passed me and the pickup behind me.  He had passed the pickup when we could see an oncoming car.  He briefly hesitated.  I am not sure there was room between the pickup and my trailer for the car to get between in time.  So he gunned it and passed me.  Donna and I both thought the two cars would have a head-on collision next to us between my pickup and the guardrail across the other lane right next to Flathead Lake. But he just slipped in front of me before the oncoming car reached us.  This must have has a sobering effect on the driver as we noticed that he declined to pass the pickup a distance ahead of us once the car caught up to that pickup.  Another crazy Montana driver.

We made it home without further incident.  I parked the trailer in the NE pasture so I could wash the manure out.  There was so much manure it had been oozing out of the side door.  Once I parked Buster immediately came over and checked the trailer out.  I think he was disappointed I hadn't brought the other calves back home.

Then the long and dirty task of washing the manure out of the trailer.  Tomorrow I will finish cleaning the rubber mats as it got too dark to clean them well.

The 10 (well.. 9) good-looking calves going to market.

And once again, the Mission Mountains near St Ignatius, Montana seen on our drive home.  I do believe that snow will stay until Spring.