#stewartcreeksomethings

Haying season is starting soon

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Haying season is starting soon. Our weather went from warm and wet to hot and dry in a very short time. This has caused the grass to shoot up and made me realize that I had better get ready for hay season. Unfortunately, there are always other tasks to complete on the farm and there is very little single task focusing allowed.

So on Friday I went over to LaGrande in the pickup to get four cut and wrapped beef. The fifth one had gone to Ascension Camp in Cove. I agreed to pick up the four that were on this side of the mountain. So I went over first thing and had them all loaded up into the back of the clean pickup bed. I had washed it out the night before in preparation for this task. They bag it! I was expecting cardboard boxes which is how I have always received cut and wrapped meat. The bags were easier to handle but wow did they not hold the cold very well. I made three stops before getting home and by the time I got home we ended up having round steak the next night due to the thawing that occurred from the bags.

The meat tasted great as always. It is definitely grass fed and it is obvious when you look at a steak. The meat is very dark and not very pink (fat filled). Our freezer is now full again but we have a lot of ground beef left over from the cow before this one. So more hamburger is on the menu.

While I was doing that Mr Rainman came out and starting to mow all of the cheat grass around the farm. Three fields I planted with grass are nothing but solid cheat grass. So basically worthless to use as fodder for the animals. So we are trying to get all of it mowed down before the heads become mature. I am also trying to see exactly how much needs to be harvested. Some fields that were wonderful last year are now mostly cheat grass and others that were mediocre last year are very good. There is no rhyme or reason as to why some fields have turned. Although, if I worked the field with the cultivator the cheat grass seeds are taking over! The fields that I left alone are the ones that are doing great this year.

I spent most of Saturday mowing and cleaning up the edges of fields that are going to get harvested. I saw lots of quail but not once did I spot a coyote or any other type of predator running around on the place.

Sunday once I got back to the farm, Mr Rainman and I put the new sickle bar mower on the Kubota so I could start cutting hay tomorrow evening after my real job. It went on fairly easy but when I ran the blades there was a horrible clacking. I turned it off and looked closely. It appears that at the end of last years haying season I broke the bar mower and failed to fix it all winter/spring. I don’t specifically remember this but it is fairly obvious that I did it. Because I have had to help repair this exact problem I knew what it was. It’s a broken bolt near the rocker arm. The only real problem is this is a special bolt that is shaped and rounded on one end then it bolts through the back half of the arm and onto a stop nut that must be inserted as you screw in the bolt or the nut won’t fit. I do not have any spare parts for the newer sickle bar mower. So I went and “borrowed” parts from the other small Italian sickle bar mower. The bolt was too long and the threads need to go down the shaft about 1/4” more. Luckily, I had gotten tired of this exact scenario a few years ago and had purchased a metric 110 piece tap and die set. My father was a machinist and I had learned how to create threads from him. I just needed to extend the threads. Luckily, I had the correct die and was able to extend the thread. We got it all together and got it all greased up. It is now ready to start cutting some hay!

If it fails to rain tonight I will be cutting hay when I get home tomorrow! Mr Rainman has figured out that if we use a leaf blower on the tractor and mower it is a faster than trying to use an air hose. The air hose is now only needed for the radiator. The rest is much faster and effective to use the leaf blower. I had to order farm diesel fuel which should be delivered this week.

I am now trying the electrolyte replacement powder “liquid IV’ in my water when I am out and about. My hope is it will let me tolerate the heat better than I did last year. It doesn’t taste that great but it did stave off any headache. I will use it a few more times and see if it really works.

Is that twin calves?

Steve Hardin2 Comments

Well, we may get some calves yet. We were not sure the bull was able to do his duty with the bum front foot he had but we have had one stillbirth and we now have twins! This is our first set of live twins, I think? Maybe? I may have to get spousal input on this determination but she is taking a nap so I am just gonna run with it for now. Mr Rainman said he spotted twins but I had only seen a single twice so did not believe him. Last night when we were rounding up the sheep to go back into the barn lot, Annmarie spotted the twins with a brown cow. So now we have a set of brown twins and two black single calves. I looked at the cows today and spotted at least two maybe three more pregnant females. So it looks like we will get at least five calves this year.

Today I went out and sprayed all of the stinging nettle from our house all the way up to field one. The stuff is everywhere! It has definitely been multiplying. Two of the upper fields are half cheat grass. We bought some new spray that is supposed to suppress the cheat grass but it is fairly new and not commonly used around our region. We are going to figure it out and use it on those two fields. I am just going to fix the fence, mow the grass and let the cows and sheep eat on it. We will work on fixing the fields down by the schoolhouse with good orchard grass. So we graze the upper fields and hay the lower fields. This was Annmarie’s plan all along. Amazing how the wife’s ideas are usually right.

I looked at the spot for the yurt today. There is a nice totally secluded spot on the other side of the bluff but the view is only in one direction due to being surrounded by about 210 degrees of rock bluff. I don’t like it as well as our original spot. I had time to look around as I was spraying weeds today. I may spend a couple of evenings exploring the bluff edge with the tractor. I don’t think people realize how noisy it is out here! The wind blows in the evenings. The cows holler, the sheep holler, the alpaca fight, the birds are incredibly noisy, the grass makes noise, the running water makes noise, the coyotes are incredibly noisy at night. There is a constant cacophony of wild sounds 24/7.

I put plastic owls in the machine shed in an attempt to slow down the birds nesting in there in the spring and summer. If you look above and to the right of the owl you will see a bird’s nest. They know the owls are plastic! I may try the little silver strings but the birds seem fairly smart when they are not harassed.

Bee swarm success!

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The bees are helping us out. We had just purchased two more used hives with miscellaneous bee working tools and ordered a second full hive kit. I had just assembled the new hive and we were deciding where to store all of the stuff when Mr Rainman spotted a bee swarm. We were outside working and the bees started to swarm and he came over and asked me what was going on. They are very loud and become a cloud of bees before they settle down onto something. They ended up in a tree on an old magpie nest. Way too high to mess with trying to catch them. I thought it was a missed opportunity. About an hour later Mr Rainman spotted them all massed up on one of our lavender plants! It was one of the grey plants that have not yet started to green up but they were inside the bush.

I decided to give reclaiming it a go. I had never attempted it nor worked the bees. Annmarie does the bee work usually but I did not want to miss out on a free colony. I donned the bee suit, Mr Rainman had to help me zip it up as I could not figure it out once I had it on. He took some pictures and attempted to film it until he got stung on the forehead. I just knelt down and started scooping the bees out of the bush and putting them into a plastic starter set we had just picked up. I did that for a while until the bees were good and upset. I could not reach down into the bush and was only able to get about half of them and I figured the queen was still in there. I had a full honey frame that I slipped into the starter box in the hopes that it would attract the bees into it. It did attract the bees but they just went in and ate all of the honey! They took it back to the mound.

I was working on the driveway when Mr Rainman spotted them swarming again. They flew up into a tree near the barn, again out of reach. They came back to the lavender about an hour later on a different greener bush this time. I had the starter box out there already so I had Mr Rainman take the new hive box I had just assembled and put it out in the lavender with the hope that they would migrate into it.

By the time Annmarie came home they had not moved. My set out houses idea was not working. So she went out and took the super, removed some frames so there was only five in the box and set it on a diagonal over the bees with the lid on it. Just before we went to bed I put on a bee hood and gloves only and went out to check on them in my short sleeve shirt. They had gone into the box and were on the frames. So I picked up the box, put it on a bottom and put the lid back on. I was going to do more but working in a bee hood with a head lamp is not super conducive to actual work and the bees were starting to get upset. I realize that as we get more comfortable around the bees we will wear less protective gear. If you are calm and don’t hurt them they are pretty passive, you just have to stay calm and move in a controlled manner. It definitely takes some practice.

The next morning she went out, closed off the hive and moved it to the new area we set up out in the orchard. Eventually, we will get the hive from the lavender patch moved out into the orchard, but it is full of bees and heavy so it needs to be moved as an entire unit early in the morning when its cool.

Annmarie watched a You Tube video on how to clean bees wax and make wax pellets. There was a full honey super of no plastic insert frames in the used hives we just purchased. So I cut them all off and am now filtering the honey out so we can harvest the bees wax also. She cleaned up the little bit of wax we had collected last year and made pellets out of it. Once I get the honey out of this crushed wax mess we will take the wax out to the hive and the bees will clean it all up then we can harvest the wax. They are far more efficient at finding all of the honey then I am.

Horse trailer wired!

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Finally, something has gone my way this month. It has been a long month and a lot has happened, most of it not great. My new hard hat came and after three of us tried to adjust the straps to lower it on my head, Meathead figured it out. I wore it when I was wiring the trailer! I will definitely need to wear a cloth rag on my head when I wear the hard hat. I was sweating. I complained to Annmarie about the heat and she pointed out that it was 84 F. This would explain why I though it was so hot, that is the highest we have been this year. I managed to get the entire horse trailer wired, added a small internal light and taped up all the future wear spots to protect them. I was worried that I would spend all that time and something would not work, that problem is very hard to fix if you think you did it right the first time. Everything worked perfectly, I was truly amazed. I did not even blow the fuse in the pickup. I had three spares just in case I needed to do some trouble shooting.

Now I need to get the tire off and replaced. I will take the tire off today and get it replaced tomorrow. I will also probably pickup a second spare tire. I will also get the spare tire for the flat bed trailer fixed. Might as well get it all taken care of at the same time. Unfortunately, the pickup tires need replacing soon also. I have to take five cows over to Lagrande this week to get slaughtered.

Mr Rainman worked on spraying around the house and the garden area had a nice kill rate. In a few days we will be able to clean up the dead grass and weeds. Field #1 & 2 are sprayed with 2-4-d and Milestone. I am hopeful I can get out and spray #3 this afternoon. He also got the lavender spot sprayed and started spot spraying the orchard. As soon as we get the spraying done we are going to spread some fertilizer. This will be the first year I have ever tried to fertilize. I am hopeful it makes a difference. The real test will be to see if the value added is worth the cost.

Annmarie has been working on the garden watering system. She added all of the wine barrels onto a new line and they will be growing our herbs. We kept some dried herbs to use throughout the winter and found that they were way better than the store bought ones. So we are going to put up more herbs this year.

We are going to get more bee hives. Mr Rainman made three concrete block spots out in the orchard for the hives to live on. I am going to add two posts and then we will hold them in place with a 2x8x16’ board across the top. I will use eye hooks and clips on the post and ends of the board to keep the hives from getting blown over in the wind like last year. The bee hives don’t do well in 80 mph winds. We are hoping to have the same success this year that we did last year.

Our back runoff creek has stayed amazingly quite this year. It is running clear and only about eight inches deep. No four foot mud wave roaring behind the house. This bodes well for not getting the upper fields flooded out this year. I need to do a little more ditch digging and cut down 1-2 trees and we will be ready for another flood level stream height.

The sheep may be done now. We have had a set of twins and a set of triplets in the last week. I need to catch them and tag and band them still. I will get the final stats done in a couple of weeks. I need to make sure there are not any more stragglers.

2022 farm finances / 2022 chicken financials

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INCOME: $6380

Sheep sold 25 lambs for $2000

Eggs sold $600

Cows sold 6 cows (2/3 of profit) $3780

EXPENSES: $18,440

Truck = $850 for repairs

Chemicals = $0

Conservation = $0

Custom Hire = $0

Depreciation = $0

Feed = $7469= cows $7250 alfalfa is way up! This is our single biggest expense. This year we are going to try and hold over on some grass and cut down on the grass harvested. I did not do very well with tracking the dog, chicken and sheep feed last year. I could not find very many receipts. Chicken food is now $18.50 for 50#. At the beginning of the year we were only paying $16.50 its an 11% increase.

Fertilizer = $0

Freight/trucking = $0

Gasoline/Oil/Fuel = $1096, tractor fuel cost $1062 using 205 gallons, I now have an 100 gallon tank that I filled twice last year. This is almost triple what I was paying.

Interest on Loan Equip = $0

Insurance = $1947

Rent/Lease vehicles machinery/equip = $0

Repairs & Maintenance = $5420, Tractor $1766, sprayer $400, truck $1574, side by side $ 153, water pump $1400

Seeds/plants = $348, we bought some triticale seed and planted it this last fall.

Supplies = $3992, gloves over $250, 10 yds gravel $250

Taxes = $1181

Utilities = $0

Vet/Breeding/Medicine = $1298, we got a new Border Collie puppy. She got sick once and had to be spayed. So for everyone that keeps telling me to get a guardian dog they really need to look at the vet and food bill plus the purchase price on the dog and calculate out their losses to see if its really worth it.

Purchased Animals = $1125, we had to get a new bull after 12 years! It’s time to get some new genes on the farm.

Total for 2020 was a loss of $12000. We did better on keeping some of our costs down last year. This year we are going to focus on selling our leftover hay from the barn and machine shed. We are going to put up less hay, only fill the barn. We are going to spray the weeds 3-4 times this year, I have some old fertilizer I got off the neighbor and we are going to try it for the first time. We have one more length of fence to install alongside the creek so we can give the animals another 7 acres to browse on. In the fall we will work on replanting another half of the bottom down by the school house. We keep trying to improve the forage available for the animals to eat. Having the ram get off cycle really hurt us on lamb production.

 EGG Production

Well, the chickens lost money this last year. The predators killed me and the wife says I need to focus on predators this year so they don’t kill half the flock. I want to raise the prices again, we currently charge $5/dozen but she tells me we need to double down on timely egg collection and some serious predator control this year before we can decide to increase the prices. The price of feed has not gone up since we raised the prices last year so I am going to keep them the same for now.

We averaged 21.8 laying hens for the year and currently only have 13 hens. We collected on average 6.3 eggs/day for a lousy production rate of 27%! I am sure this is my worst production rate ever. Our monthly feed weight was 154#/month at a cost of $54.25/month. The crazy part is our feed cost was 28 cents/egg or $5.62/dozen. Our total cost for the year was $6.18/dozen eggs. We sold them for $5/dozen. We ended up losing $100 on the chickens last year. Now mind you, every time the weather goes crazy or a raccoon showed up the chickens refused to lay eggs. This happened quite a bit throughout the year. We have 12 new chicks and will work to try and get another 12 to get our numbers up for this year but those chicks won’t lay for 6 months.