Raking and harrowing the pasture

A few days ago I finally finished harrowing all of the pastures.  I did the middle pasture last as it was the hardest to harrow.  Since I kept and fed the cattle in that pasture over Winter there was lots of manure all around the pasture.  Plus hay remnants from the feedings.  And since the cows like to lay under the trees there was lots of manure under those trees. While manure is good and fertilizes the ground, too much manure under trees and close to the tree trunks can be bad for the trees. Since I can't drive under or close to lots of those trees I ended up hand raking the manure away from the trees. Under some trees the manure was so thick from cows laying on and flattening the manure over and over, I had to chop the manure with the rake to break it up so I could then rake it away from the trees.  That manure was so thick it was killing the grass under it.  The hand raking took a lot of time to do over a number of days.

Here are a few photos from a couple of the trees.

And another tree.

A number of the trees have roots poking out of the ground that go a distance away from the tree trunk.  Those roots were hard on the harrow sections breaking or bending parts of the sections.  I have six harrow sections that I chained together.  I had to re-adjust the sections.  One harrow section by the time I was done was in pieces.

Before and after.

Cattle break-in

After spending a few hours uptown this afternoon, I came home to find most of the cattle in the south corral.   It appears a cow figured out how to slide the lever on the gate by the water trough.

I didn't have the chain positioned around the lever to prevent the slide.   The handle is rusty, and the bar slides into a hole in the wood posts.  So the handle does not slide easily.  It is hard to slide. That is why I didn't position the chain around the lever.  Now the chain is positioned.

The cattle have hay in their feeder in the main corral.  But they wanted to eat the hay in the feeder in the south corral.  Something new, you know.

I had to herd the cattle out of the south corral.  Mama cow and her calf were already out in the main corral, and I decided to leave her out there and not herd her back into the south corral.  For a while now her calf wanted to be with, and play with, the other calves, and he was happy.   Mama wasn't fighting any other cows over her calf.  I'll keep an eye that she behaves.

When herding the cows and calves out of the south corral I thought I had made sure not to herd the bull out.   An hour or so later when I walked by the south corral I saw it was a heifer in the south corral, not Haynes the bull.  They look the same, mostly.    The bull was close to Little Beulah.  Uh, oh.     I herded the bull into the south corral and the heifer out of it.  I had an extra gate open and before I could close it Little Beulah ran into the south corral to be with the bull.  I had to quickly herd her out.  Little Beulah wanted to be with the bull.  In case they already had some "action" I now have to keep track in case she gives birth on February 17 next year.

Chain sawing downed Winter trees

Starting back in March, and then through April, I worked off-and-on chain sawing the two trees that blew over this past Winter.  Plus I finished cutting up the other tree I had chain sawed earlier in March.  I wanted to cut up these trees and clean the areas before I harrowed the middle pasture.

This was the tree I chain sawed earlier in March.

I cut up that tree's branches.  Notice on these branches: their coloring.  That was because the cattle liked to rub against these branches back when they supported the tree trunk off the ground.

The tree trunk and branches stacked for now.

Tree number 2    The tree was not dead when it blew over.  After the tree blew over the cattle ate the tree's needles over Winter.

To make it easier to cut the rest of the tree trunk I lifted it off the ground.

The tree trunk and branches stacked for now.

Tree number 3   And this tree also was not dead when it blew over.  The cattle also ate the tree's needles over Winter. 

The tree trunk and branches stacked for now.

This was part of this tree's trunk, or stump, or whatever.

Part of what slowed down my chain sawing was my chainsaw's chain was getting worn out.  I re-sharpened the chain over and over.  Eventually the chain stretched and lengthened.  The photo shows the bar is completely lengthened, and still the chain droops.  I had to buy a new chain and wait for it to arrive before I could finish cutting up tree number 3.   With the new chain the cutting went way quicker.

More photos of calf 11

At 9 am calf 11 was hungry.  He drank and drank milk from his mother and drank from all four teats over and over.  When I checked at 12:30 pm he didn't seem hungry.  I checked another handful of times up until dark, and either he wanted to walk around or just lay there.  He didn't seem hungry.

His mother doesn't headbutt him anymore.  She will lay next to him or will lick and clean him.  Her teats don't seem overly large, so apparently, he is drinking from her now.   I am keeping them in the loading corral area for another day so they be "alone" and can bond.

Calf 11 - 110's

The "Bad Mama" cow had her calf this afternoon.  Finally!  I saw she was about to give birth.  I called Donna and got my camera.  Donna suggested I get the cow into the loading corral before she had her calf as most likely we would have to help her calf drink from her.  So I did.  Donna arrived and we waited a short time before the calf was born.  All of a sudden there was the calf.

The calf is a boy.  That makes 7 boys and 4 girls so far this year.  One calf left to be born.

The mother would lick her calf.  Then headbutt it.  Then lick.  The cow couldn't decide what to do.  So Donna and I went into the loading corral, and using towels, dried the calf off.  We didn't want to wait longer as a large rain cloud looked like it was coming our way.  And the temperature was only around 50 degrees and a slight breeze was occurring. It felt cold.  So much for global warming.

After we cleaned the calf the mother wanted less to do with it.  So I put the cow into the loading corral runway and then got her calf in beside her.  The calf was still learning how to stand or walk and what to do.  Donna and I worked and worked with the calf.  I put my finger in the calf's mouth to get it to start sucking, and it would, but then it wasn't working getting the calf's mouth over to the cow's udder.  The calf would lose the nipple and wanted back to my finger.  Finally we got the calf to drink a little bit.

After we let the cow and calf into the larger part of the loading corral runway the cow occasionally would headbutt the calf.  I had to put the cow back into the smaller runway section.  The previous rain cloud had veered off to the side so we didn't get wet.  But if it rained later I didn't want the calf to get wet then cold.  So I got boards to make a little roof in the corner of the area.

We waited a little while, then banded the calf.  After a little more time I ear tagged the calf. Before I went off to do other work, I put the calf back in with his mother.  This time the calf figured out what to do and he drank more milk.  After I let them out, since the cow would still occasionally headbutt her calf, I left the calf in the runway area and on the other side of the gate put the mother in the rest of the loading corral.

After 8 pm Donna came back to help me with the cow and calf drinking again.  This went smoother.  The cow mostly stood.  The calf drank even more and sucked on all four nipples before getting his belly full.

I checked them at 11 pm but the calf was relaxing and laying.  I went out after midnight and this time got both of them up, the cow into the runway, and then the calf in beside her.  The calf drank some, and then I let them back into the overall loading corral.

I'll see if the cow accepts her calf tomorrow.

You can see the calf's hoof starting to come out.

After I put the cow into the loading ramp area, you can see the hoof went back in.

The calf immediately after it was born and before it really took his first breath.

She is trying to decide if she wants that calf.

Now we are trying to help the calf drink from his mother.  Donna is trying to push the calf back towards the udder.

The calf is still figuring out how to find and suck on the nipple.

After the first drink was done we put a blanket over the calf to keep it warm.  Usually the mother cow would then lay by her calf.  Not this mother cow!

Really to go for a second drink?

The calf has figured out to drink on his own.

Here is a 1 minute 31 second video of the calf standing for the first time and then his first steps: https://youtu.be/hgYPXnVvPlM

Broken rails and tipped panel

Yesterday I discovered several of my corral fence rails were broken.  Fortunately I had wire attached to the rails.   Recently I noticed that cow #110 would stand against these sections of fence and rub her rear end on them.  She must have an inch while she is waiting to give birth.

To keep the extra corral panels standing upright I tie them to the corral fence with extra baling twine.  Well, the cattle untied one of the pieces of baling twine, and then were able to knock the one panel over.

Calf in the feeder

The other day, when checking on the feeder to see how much hay was left, I found one of the calves in the empty feeder.  I thought I may have to somehow lift her out of the feeder.  But after I got into the feeder the calf jumped out of the feeder.   That was easy.

Calf 10 - Red's

Saturday morning Red gave birth to her calf.  A heifer.  That makes 6 boys, then 4 girls.  I have two cows left to calve.  The calf and Red are doing great.  In the afternoon Donna came over and helped me ear tag the new calf.

I saw the calf drinking from Red.  Instead of going into the corral to get near to take a picture, I zoomed the camera to get a photo.  Red saw me and she started to walk out of the corral, and the calf had to stop drinking and run along to follow Red.