Hayfield first cut

Yesterday and today I cut my hayfield.  The earliest ever for me, but the grass was high. Time to cut.  Saturday noon I saw an animal walking in the hayfield.  I saw the ears, top of the head, and sometimes its back. What animal was this?  It was a deer, not a dog.

I saw other people had cut their hay.  Usually they cut early as they want three hay cutting in a year.

The weather forecast looks good for hay cutting and drying.  Warm to hot temperatures and mostly dry.  Of course, after I cut my hay the forecast now has a rain chance later this week.  Normally it wouldn't be a problem as I normally can bale in four days after the hay is cut.  But in the areas I had seen hay cut on Sunday and Monday - or was it Monday and Tuesday? - and saw they had raked the hay on Thursday; on early Saturday afternoon their hay was not baled.  The hay was drying, but didn't seem quite ready to bale.  Hay is drying longer this week.  I hope my hay dries quicker.

I had to fill diesel in my tractor.  Almost 40 gallons so I wanted to drive my tractor to the gas station.  Better to do that on a weekend instead of a weekday as there would be less traffic.  And there was.

I filled my tractor yesterday afternoon and got to work to hook up the mower conditioner.  The cattle had eaten most of the grass in the NE pasture and fruit tree area and time to let them out to the north pasture.  I wanted to wait to do that after I got the tractor and mower conditioner into the hayfield as that would mean less gate watching as I drove through.  Slowing me down was after I got the tractor ready the cattle decided to take a siesta next the gate to the north pasture where I would drive my tractor through.  I waited an hour and then the cattle went back to the fruit tree area and I was able to drive through the gate.  When I finished cutting on Saturday I then let the cattle into the north pasture.  They were happy.

It was late so I only got 7 rows cut Saturday.  The first row was slow going as I wanted to cut near the fences but not into the fences.  The grass was so tall in many places that it was hard to see the mower conditioner as it moved near the fence.  So, slow going.  But no fence damage.

Also in the southern part of the hayfield kind-of close to the south pasture I saw two male deer in the tall grass.  They were growing nice antlers.  They kept staying in the grass each time I came around.  Today they were gone.  But as I cut today I saw quite a number of areas through the hayfield where deer had laid down flattening the grass.   The deer will have to find new areas to bed down now.

Saturday I drove at 2.2 mph.  Today I drove a 2.9 mph.  At times when the hay was not as high or thick I may have been able to drive a little faster, but I kept at the steady 2.9 mph speed.  I was making good time.  I remember the last time I cut my hayfield after fertilizing it.  That was when I had my old New Holland swather.  The swather struggled and I had to drive at the slowest speed and even take a few stops every now and then so the cut hay could get through the swather.  The mower conditioner - no problem.  Back when I fertilized and cut with the swather it took me almost three days to cut my hayfield.   This year, 8 hours over two days.  This is why I wanted to get a mower conditioner to replace the swather.

Today's cut was off to a sad start. When walking out to the tractor I found next to the hayfield gate, in the house yard, eggs in a nest.  It looks to be turkey eggs.  Several damaged, others not so.  The hole in the one egg was due to a magpie that flew off when I approached.  But no turkey.  Either my cat, or when the cows were in the yard eating grass they disturbed the turkey and she left.  I never had a turkey make a nest in the yard before.

Then when cutting the hay, when cutting my second row for the day, I saw on the first row a dead bird.  I think it may have been a hawk.  It wasn't a turkey.  And I don't think it was a pheasant.  Why the bird didn't leave the grass as my mower conditioner came, I don't know.   Then a few rows later on the east side of the field - the dead bird was on the west side - I looked back at the mower conditioner and saw a bird fly out of the grass just in front of the mower conditioner.  If the bird waited 10 seconds later it would have been dead.  The bird looked like the dead bird.  That is why I think it was a hawk.   Then for 5 or so go-arounds I would see the hawk standing on a windrow near where it had flown away.  Most likely it had a nest there.  So sad.

The power line towers are so annoying to cut around.

The field is cut.

Cattle now into fruit tree area

This afternoon I let the cattle into the fruit tree area to eat the grass there.  The NE pasture was fairly eaten down and the cows were starting to let me know they wanted to go elsewhere where there was more grass.

The fruit tree area before I let the cattle in.

Entering the fruit tree area.

In the NE pasture I had added extra fencing and chicken wire to protect the caragana trees, and a few other trees.  You can see the cattle pushed and moved some of the fencing and got to some of the caragana trees.

Here is a Scotch pine tree.  The cattle pushed up the fencing and reached and broke some of the smaller lower branches.

Lightning Picasso in heat

Around noon I seen Lightning Picasso was in heat and Fritz the bull was attentive.  Around and around they went.  Fritz tried to satisfy her but Lightning wasn't in the right spot or would move a bit.  Lightning wanted 'action' now and when Fritz took a rest before trying again Lightning would mount Fritz.

The action took place in the corral.   Lightning and Fritz are behind cow 31.

Fritz is standing in first photo behind Lightning.  Second photo shows Lightning getting impatient and then getting on Fritz.

Beulah who was watching came over to Lightning as she just rode Fritz.

Fritz is trying but Lightning is standing too close to the barn and Fritz can't right behind Lighnting.

Fritz took a break from the previous attempt; Lightning can't wait and then she got on Fritz again.

Now Fritz is back at it.

Here is a 15 second video of Lightning on top of Fritz for a bit.  https://youtu.be/5vC25lFNxZg

I checked an hour later and Lightning and Fritz were laying in the corral.  At different spots.  I think Fritz got the job done.  I never saw them together the rest of the day.

Cattle into NE pasture

After 8 pm tonight I let the cattle into the NE pasture.  The yard is mostly eaten down now.   The cattle were starting to go where they weren't suppose to in the yard.   They torn some of the chicken wire off the walnut tree and ate some leaves.  A little more leaves the cattle ate off the lilacs.  They tipped the fencing roll protecting the black walnut tree and ate some of its leaves.  They got through some fencing and ate half of the flowers.   And they tried to break off the electrical boxes for the pump to pump water into the water trough.  The electrical boxes are still partially attached to the railroad tie as the cattle didn't get them completely off.

Here are the cattle before I let them into the NE pasture.  Then them going into the NE pasture.

The gate I let the cattle through.

On the back of this cow a bird rode his back for a while.

Cows on grass. Bull stuck.

Last evening I let the cows out to grass.  The grass in the back half of my yard.  First I had to cattle-proof the yard.  I split the yard in half.  That is because the cattle prefer the front half grass over the middle part grass that is under the box elder trees. I think the grass tastes different from under the trees.  So I have the cattle eat the front half grass last. Otherwise they eat and eat the front half and try to avoid the grass under the box elder trees.

I put up temporary corral panels to split the yard in half.  I also protect the flowers, leafy trees and patio area.  I didn't start early therefore didn't get done until dark.  The last so many hours the cattle mooed at me to let them out of the corral as I worked on protecting the yard.

After I opened the corral gate to let the cattle out, I went to check on the cattle still in the south part of the corral and the hay feeder area.  I herded the few cows and calves out.  Fritz the bull... Well... he was standing in and out of the metal feeder.  A couple of cows like to stand on the hay in the feeder when eating hay.  Fritz must have decided to copy those cows.  The hay was now all gone and Fritz was now stuck.

A few years ago a replacement heifer did the same thing and got stuck and I had to help her get unstuck.  The way I did it then was to encourage the heifer to completely go into the feeder as she didn't want to backup,  She was then able to get out of the feeder on her own.  I tried to encourage Fritz to completely go into the feeder but he wouldn't move.  I tried to encourage him to back out of the feeder but he wouldn't move.  And I couldn't push him as he is too big for me to move.

I spent over a half hour trying to get Fritz to move.  It was now almost 11 pm and now dark.  I let Fritz be.  Maybe he will figure it out on his own.  I went to bed.  I woke up at 6 am and went out to check on Fritz.  He was still standing there in the same position.  At least 7 hours of standing there.  He was mooing lowly for me to help him as all night he had to stand and watch the cows eat grass in my backyard.

In the daylight I could see he couldn't lift his legs high enough to get over the side of the feeder.  I got a wooden pallet and a number of boards.  I put the pallet down and then worked on getting him to step one leg at a time on the pallet.  Then a level of boards, one for each leg.  Then another level of boards.  Then a third level.  To get him to step on the boards I would have to grab a leg and get him to lift the leg up.  One leg at a time.  And I move slow and watched that he wouldn't try to kick me.  He never did.

With the third level of boards I tried to get Fritz to step over the feeder side.  By now he didn't want to move much.  I helped him lift his leg all the way up and then over the side of the feeder.  I then tried to get Fritz to step into the feeder with his other leg.  Yet again I had to lift his leg up and over while pushing against his backside to squeeze his hips through the upright rungs.

Finally Fritz was in the feeder.  He could move around.  The feeder is an old, repaired feeder.  The distance between some rungs were a little wider than others.  I tried to guide Fritz.  He found a spot and got out of the feeder on his own.  Finally.  Yay!

At 6 am a turkey was watching over things in the corral.

Where Fritz was stuck overnight.

In the feeder now looking for a way out of the feeder.

Success!  Now to find the cows.

When I thought of taking this photo I had already taken over half of the boards back to my stack of boards.

Since the hay bale in this part of the corral takes longer for the bull or replacement heifers to eat I place the hay bale on several wooden pallets.  The pallet in the previous photo survived the Winter.  The two pallets in the photo below didn't.

There was a lot more grass out here last night at 10 pm.  The view after 7 am.

There was still grass available but now the cows - and Fritz here - had to work at eating the grass.  I wanted to watch Fritz to make sure he was okay after being stuck in the feeder.  He was.

Of course Beulah had to stick her head through a fence.  I did more work to further cattle proof the area.

Lower lilac bush leaves.  Overnight the cows had pushed the fence around and ate over half the leaves.  I did more work to protect the rest of the leaves.

The bottom rail was already damaged.  Overnight the cows completely broke the board in an effort to reach the grass in the hayfield.  Another thing for me to fix another day.

I had chicken-wire fencing to protect this English walnut tree's lower branches.  Of course the cows pushed and moved the fencing and got some of the leaves.

Since I had trimmed these box elder trees last year, this year the trunks sprouted lots of new branches.  I didn't mind the cows eating these branches and leaves.  Less for me to trim later. 

Once I got up after noon and had breakfast I noticed Panada was in heat.  Standing heat.   She wanted some action by Fritz.  Poor Fritz.  After standing all night and not eating he wanted to rest.  Panda was not having that.  Often when Fritz mounted Panda she would then take a step or two forward due to his weight.  Since Fritz is a little smaller he needs her to not move so he can get it done.  When he took a rest sometimes Panda would try to mount Fritz.  Often Fritz would lick her back hip while he rested up for the next mount so Panda would stand still and wouldn't try to mount Fritz. It took Fritz an hour or two to satisfy Panda.   After that they went their own ways.  Fritz to eat some more grass.  Panda stood for a little while with her tail stuck out a bit.

I spent part of the afternoon cattle proofing the front half of the yard.  Not as much work was needed.  Some cattle are waiting for me to be done.

The dividing line.  Last night at 10 pm the grass was the same on each side of the fence.

Time to let the cattle out into the front half of the yard.  It is 4 pm.

Last night at 10 pm this area was thick with tall grass.  Not much for me to mow now with a lawnmower.

By dark tonight I noticed the cattle had spent lot more time laying and chewing their cud.  With their bellies full from last night the cattle were eating a little less.  The front half may last more than 18 hours for the cattle to eat.  We'll see.