Author: Steve Hardin

Cows wander afar.

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The farm has been busy the last couple of weeks and I keep letting myself get behind on the blog.  I keep saying I will do better about making timely entries but I am usually so tired when darkness arrives that I just sit in the chair and watch some television.  So this is my written vow to do better!  I seem to stick to things better and have come to realize that this blog is a record of our farm life and a window into our lives.  I go back and review it occasionally and am always impressed by the amount of “learning” I have done over the years.  Since I seem to learn best by my mistakes it takes a lot of mistakes to learn that much.  

The bull has been getting out.  He went down to the wire gate behind Donna’s house and pushed through.  Now I had been meaning to tighten the gate as it had started to sag.  The bull beat me to it.  It was a Saturday morning when we noticed he was missing.  Annmarie headed over the upper hill with Zeke following cow tracks.  I jumped into the pickup and started driving around looking for the bull.  I had four separate pleasant conversations with our neighbors but no one had seen the bull.  I picked up  Annmarie and Zeke over the hill at the neighbor’s farm.  Still no bull.  We all drove around looking for the bull.  No bull.  Donna called us and said the bull was down in the one neighbor’s house who we did not go visit.  By the time we got back, Gannon was pushing the bull up the road into our lower pasture.  He ran right to the creek and waded through the water into the lower pasture by Donna’s house.  I had to go lower the panels back over the creek and wire them in place.  The cows don’t mind wading through the creek.  The sheep won’t get their feet wet, kinda like a cat.  
This necessitated the purchase of lots of fencing supplies including new gates, T-posts, smooth wire, cattle panels and wooden posts.  We went to the PGG spring extravaganza sale and bought in bulk for maximum purchasing power.  The nice thing was the new pickup proved why a V10 is a very nice engine.  It may only get 10 MPG but it does that loaded and unloaded.  It didn’t care that the bed was full and the 16ft trailer was full.  

Gannon and I mounted two 16 foot gates in place of the rickety gate and the bull has not gotten out since.  Now he just keeps terrorizing my cow panel in front of the machine shop so he can get to the all you can eat hay buffet.  Yesterday, I had to finally open the gate because he had gotten stuck inside the hay area and could not get out.  He will still come over and take food from our hand but now we have to chase him off occasionally.  He gets upset that there is no treat and starts shaking his head at us waving his horns around.  Annmarie and I have gotten bumped a couple of times.  So we let him come to us and take food from us but if he starts to toss his head around then we chase him off just like we do the horses. He is learning that he has to be polite if he wants to approach us.  

Water come th.

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It is officially spring.  The rain is here and it is starting to warm up.  We went away for two days and were amazed by all the greenery sprouting every where.  Zeke went outside with me yesterday and just got soaking wet.  It was so muddy that when I stepped out of the chicken coop the chicken he was chasing around the coop turned at the corner and Zeke slipped and landed on his side and skidded forward on his side over the mud.  He doesn’t know Mr. Newton personally but he did demonstrate his law quite effectively.  I had to hose him off and dry him before he could go inside.  He doesn’t particularly like that but he is starting to understand it is the price for getting to come out and work the animals in lousy weather.  

This morning, while in bed, we heard this metal scraping out in the back creek.  The water has raised a foot overnight and is raging.  It must have picked up some old metal debris and was dragging it down the creek.  I suspect it will get lodged down at the apple tree dam.  That is going to be interesting to clean out this summer.  I just hope it doesn’t wash out the back creek.  Annmarie tells me that it has in the past.  

Fencing prep.

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I need to get the new upper fence pasture created.  I have been trying to figure out how to get it done quickly and easily.  I realize that fencing and easy are words that don’t belong together.  I was going to run the fence up the hillside and cross the creek but every time I cross the creek I have to hang panels and they have to be moved up every spring and lowered every summer.  For ease of installing and maintaining I have decided to fence off the creek.  This will cost me some extra materials but it will be better in the long term maintenance department.  I am going to just run the new fence in the bottom only.  I may even decide to run the fence up the hillside and cross the creek later.  

Thursday I took the box blade off the tractor and attached the mower.  It is getting easier with repetition.   It only took me about 40 minutes.  I had to straighten and adjust my front bucket leveler indicator also.  I wanted to mow the upper pasture fence line so it would be easy to find.  I ended up spending a couple of hours mowing the entire upper pasture prime area (my new name for the soon to be fenced in area). I mowed along the creek and all over the bottom.  It was mowed late last year to a height of one foot.  I mowed it down to three inches.  I left the bunch grass higher as it runs next to the wheat field fence.  I saw lots of field mice and voles.  Zeke snagged a couple of them but spent most of his time tearing all over the place.  I had to keep calling him back.  I want to install two gates in that fence line. I will only be installing two sides of a rectangle and repairing a third.  I opted to enclose a bigger area.  I was going to build three separate upper bottom pastures eventually.  I decided to enclose the first two in one fell swoop.  I can go back later and subdivide the “upper bottom prime” pasture later.  

The mower did good work.  I had one metal part fall off!  It is on the front of the mower and helps hold the front skirt in place.  When it is not pouring down rain I plan on looking for it.  I did try and use a new app on the iPhone to figure out how many acres I am fencing in.  No go, user error.  I again proved that a Lifeproof case is water proof.  I also discovered that when the water is running off the screen and your hands are cold the iPhone won’t sense your touch. I finally just gave up.  
Annmarie wants me to install a cable to help hold, the already installed, gate leading into the wheat field.  I was thinking I would have to put in a new post but I might not have to do that.  I am going to try it.  I also need to install a cow panel over that gate so the sheep cannot get through it.  This has prompted me to make up a list of needed items to go into the fence budget.  The two 18 foot gates and 70 T-posts and 8 wooden post for the lower barley field are necessary.  The new 16 foot metal gate for the machine shop hay area is mandatory!   I will also be installing two rows of 1×12 along one wall side to prevent the cows from reaching through the supports there also.  At current prices that is $480 in gates, $335 in T-posts and $100 in wooden posts for $915 total.  I need at least another 125 t-posts for the upper pasture at $600. Five rolls of wire $315 and a bag of clips is around $200. Two more gates at $360 for prime pasture and one six foot gate for $90 for lower pasture.  I need about six cow panels at total cost of $150.   Grand total $2630.  Not bad only $130 over budget, only trouble is I didn’t allow any money for labor.  Good thing I work cheap!  This is why I am hitting the spring extravaganza sale on this upcoming Friday.  If I only get a 10% discount I will make my budget!  

Cows just want to be difficult.

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I have spent one week trying to get the cows organized.  They are not on board with this plan and have been thwarting every attempt to separate them.  The youngest calf is now almost eight months old and they all think milk straight from a tit is still necessary to sustain life.  They only nurse a couple of times a day but the poor cows are pregnant also and it is too much.  Gannon and I sorted the caves into the barn lot, the bull into the machine shop area and the female cows into orchard.  This put 150 feet of dead space between the mothers and calves.  No one liked this arrangement, there were some very vocal cows all night long.  The next morning the babies were still in the barn lot.  Now the barn lot was open to the upper pasture which is full of old not fixed fence (not secure). I was hoping that the cows would stay in the barn lot as they would be the closest to their mothers.  
Nope, Gannon found them out on the road by the school house.    He put them into the school house pasture, which they promptly got out of and into the lower pasture.  That dividing fence was just done last year but I had to go raise all the fences over the water last month and the cows just jump in the creek and wade up it.  The sheep refuse to get their feet wet!  Sometimes I think they think they are a cat.  I had not thought this would be an issue when I raised the fence.  So now the calves can get next to the mother’s dividing fence which let’s them nurse through the fence again!  I went to town and purchased a 240# supplemental feeding tub, 30% protein! vegetable matter only and placed it in with the female cows.  It took them a couple of days to figure it out.  Per the supplement directions the cows will eat 3/4 pound per day so it should last for three months. The babies should be born next month. 
A couple of days later the lower people gate got left open (not me) and the babies and bull got back into the machine shop area.  At least all three babies are in the same spot now.  We had to leave for the weekend but Sunday when we came back the bull was in the machine shop hay pile munching away contentedly.   I had a wire cow panel across it but he started lifting the middle and crawling under.  Now there are four T posts across the opening and panel is wired to them.  He went to the far end and found there was no anchor on the bottom of the T post.  He pushed it in and bent it while it stayed attached at the top of the post and proceeded to crawl under! I have it wired in two places at each post now.  The cows in general are forcing me to change my plans.  
PGG is having their Spring extravaganza sale this upcoming Friday and Saturday.  I plan on purchasing all my yearly supplies in one day at a 10-15% discount.  I even get to talk to some of the fence distributors. I might put in some metal corners using the fancy braces.  It is cheaper than three wooden posts and two cross braces.  I need to talk with someone about it.  I might just try it in one place this year and see how it does.  The real test is the animals.  I am going to take the trailer and fill it up!
My goal is going to be getting an area that is cow proof where the babies can go and not get to the mothers!  This has again prompted me to rearrange my fencing priorities.  I am going to have to do the upper pasture first.  The lower pasture needs about 100 feet of sheep fencing added to the upper half so the calves cannot reach through the fence and nurse.  That is not very much fence and totally do able this summer.  I am itching to get outside and get some fencing done.  Spring is here!

Outside chores during weather break.

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scrap metal pile on south side of machine shop.
 
Sunday, I had a couple of hours of decent weather and went out to work on straightening the used T posts I got from the scrap yard.  There were a couple I could not straighten.  I just tossed them in the scrap metal pile.  Every time I go outside and the ground is thawed out I pick up more scrap metal.  Sometimes I think it grows under the ground and just erupts from the soil when it is ready to be harvested.  Every spring I find lots of metal and start building piles all over the farm.  I work on it every time I am outside.  Sometimes 5-10 minutes other times a few hours of just picking up trash, old wood pieces and scrap metal.  It is starting to pay off, the place is looking much cleaner.  The scrap metal still astounds me in shear quantity.  I have five growing piles all around the farm not including the little pieces that get thrown in the rock cribs. 
Zeke is watching the cows. 

My T post pile consists of crooked and sorta straight.  The sorta straight ones are the ones I have bent back into shape (kinda) and I think they will be able to be pounded back into the ground without crumpling.  It is a slow process but I save $4 for every one I can use so I keep at it.  These will go down by the back creek for a subdivision of the lower bottom.  I have all the cord and wooden stakes to mark out a new fence line, but I am waiting until all the posts are ready and the ground is ready before putting up a string fence.  Why not just start pounding stakes in the ground?  The spacing is never right and the fence is not straight.  I use some wooden stakes and light nylon cord to mark the fence line then use a tape measure and some marking paint to paint a mark every 10 feet.  That is where the T posts go.  This lets me layout the design.  This fence line will have two jogs (bends) and two cow panels near the creek that will allow the animals to get water year round.  No troughs or buckets needed for watering.  I have managed to get every subdivided fence to touch water so far.  That is going to go away as I subdivide further up the creek.  Those will not have water readily available so we will just have to keep them open to the barn lot so the animals can come back and get water when needed.  

I have a fencing budget of $2000 and spray budget of $1000 for this year.  I will have to purchase some RoundUp this year to kill down the driveway and fence lines.  Last year I only used 2-4-D.  The animals have helped reduce our herbicide use dramatically.  I have held off purchasing any fencing supplies until the weather improves.  I am itching to get some fence done, but Mother Nature is not cooperating.  It will take 70 T posts, 8 wooden posts, two 18 foot or 20 foot gates and one 4x4x8 board to fix the fence out by the road around the old barley field.  It is falling over and will be much easier to repair before it is all crumpled up on the ground.  The old barley field already has 50% of the fence repaired.  If I can get the rest repaired then after the wheat is harvested we can hopefully run animals on it until it is ready to be replanted.  This will help us extend out the pasture ground.  After that the lower pasture addition will need one 6 foot metal gate.  The back fence on the orchard needs retightened and another two gates added.  Also it will take the addition of three H braces to be built.  Lastly is a new fence in the upper pasture just past the old well.  It will take the addition of two 16 foot metal gates and a bunch more used T posts that have not been straightened or collected from the scrap yard yet.  The scrap yard is collecting them and woven wire for me again.  Everyone else is trying to get rid of it and I keep adding more!

On a plus note my chickens just up and decided to start laying eggs again.  Who knows why, we are getting 6-12 eggs/day.  This is good news!  I am still not sure I will be positive again for the year.  After having to buy eggs in the grocery store I may have to raise the price again on a dozen farm fresh eggs.  I am going to hold off until later to recalculate the overall cost of production.