tag and band animals

Cows for the revenge

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Sunday became the day the Gingerman and I would tag and band calves. I went out and started picking our tame blackberries. They are getting picked about every four days now and we just had a hot spell which they loved. Gingerman came out and helped me finish up, we picked two half flats full of blackberries. I have a running total of how many blackberries we have collected to date, when the season is over I will add it all up, it’s a lot!

The Gingerman had brought his four wheeler over and I took the tractor out to herd the cows into the barn lot. We locked the horse up with some food in the lamb shed so she would be content. If we keep her out she wants to help and in reality she is no help at all. We got the cows pushed down fairly easily. I did notice that the spring in field #3 is dried up. There is no water coming out of the ground in the middle of the field. There is a small spring in the corner that is still running but that one has always ran since we have been here. I did notice that the golden plum tree actually has plums! I checked them today and they have about another week before they are ready. We will give some seeds to the Gingerman and hopefully he can propagate some new trees from seed. The plum tree is probably at least 80 years old. The plums are quite sweet when they are ripe. Our Italian Plum tree has antoher 1-2 weeks before they are ready and there is at least another week on the nectarines. Those are the last of our fruit trees that will need to be harvested. We are quickly running out of freezer space for the fruit. We have an entire standup freezer stuffed full of fruit and there may be just enough room for the nectarines. We will need to take out the tomatoes and process them to make that open space.

We got the cows all pushed into the corral and after sorting off two cows I latched the gate loosely and one of the brown cows pushed it open. Now we had contaminated our keeper group and were going to have to run everyone back through the chute and sort them again. Right after that happened I looked up and the Gingerman was standing fairly awkward. One of the brown cows had bum rushed him and ran into his knee directly or kicked his sorting board and that clubbed him into his right knee. He limped for the rest of the cow fiasco and is currently laying down on the couch with his extremity elevated and an ice pack applied.

We ear tagged the girl first, it went fairly smoothly. The next one was the smaller boy calf. He did not cooperate. We managed to get him banded (both testicles were verified present) and tagged without getting any cow poop on us. I consider this a significant win. Unfortunately, we saved the largest calf for last.

On our way to the ground we both managed to get covered in cow poop. It went downhill from there. The calf had virtually no scrotum. There was only room for one testicle. So we had to just keep trying to get the band on and both testicles pushed through. It took about ten minutes to get both testicles contained.

I mowed weeds with the Kubota because the parts for the John Deere bucket have not arrived. I mowed until the tractor heated up then came back to the shop and cleaned out the dust and weed debris. I also killed all of the puncture vine that was growing in the driveway. I had already sprayed and killed one wave. All in all it was productive despite the weather.

Predators 10, Farm 8

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Well it could not last, the predators are ahead again. At least this year it took them until September to get ahead. We are losing chickens daily now. They have killed eight chickens so I am down to 15 hens now. I will need another two dozen hens at this rate by the spring. This could really screw up my egg production next year. Bottom line as long as we make about one dozen eggs a week we can personally eat fresh eggs. No one else will get them but they don’t have chickens. Our plan is to move up creating a better Fort Knox for the chickens. We will finish the wire roof over the entire chicken run. Since there is an auto door going into the run now and it stays open 30 minutes after the sun goes down the chickens will all have time to at least get into the yard before that gate shuts down. This way any late chickens will be protected. They may be tormented by the predators trying to get into the chicken run but as long as a raccoon cannot get through the wire we should be good.

The other two deaths are newborn lambs. I counted them last week and there were only 13, there should have been 14. I walked the entire barn lot and could not find a corpse. I chalked it up to a miscount on my part. This is a common occurrence so it was an easy assumption. I was counting lambs today when we tag and banded them and there were only 12 lambs! Again, no corpse anywhere in the barn lot.

We talked about moving the lambs and mommas into the ram pasture and putting the other sheep out into the barn lot. But on further reflection we just decided to utilize the barn. It is ready, dug out, clean and has fresh bedding. We will just start doing the nighttime feed in there so the sheep will come automatically every evening. I locked everyone into the barn tonight. Mr Rainman will let everyone out in the morning when he comes to clean up.

We worked on the gazebo today until I pulled the not safe card. We then went and tagged and banded an even dozen lambs. We had someone reach out and ask us to save an intact ram boy. We saved a pure white one, the biggest of the lambs. He got a tag in the left ear and was not banded. This time around it is an even split between boys and girl lambs.

We then cleaned up the root cellar, put away tools and cleaned off the old house porch. Tomorrow, Mr Rainman will walk all the stream beds and pick up trash/limbs/lumber from them. We want to get all of this cleaned up before the spring ,when water starts running again. There are some boards that need to go into the burn pile and a second burn pile has been started up in field four, he will get all the loose material up there and toss it into the pile. We will have to wait until late fall after the rain starts to burn.

We are working on a list of things that need to be done in October when I take off on vacation, more like a staycation and farm catch up.

Calves tagged and banded

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Mr Rainman brought out a friend (Mr Interested) who was interested in seeing us tag and band calves, one of our nephews came out and the Gingerman offered to help. I was dead weight but was able to provide directions. Annmarie had spotted a ewe last night that had an abscess on her neck so the sheep got locked in so we could deal with it after the cows. We had to push the cows down to the corral and of course they were at the farthest field. They actually went in fairly well. They only back tracked once which is amazing as this late into summer all of the animals are crazy. They get fairly wild since they don’t have to rely on humans for food. We ignore them as long as there are no issues also. There is quite a bit of green grass up in field two. It snapped back nicely after we cut hay. All of the fields need mowed to knock down the cheat grass, but now that Mr Rainman is off of vacation he will have that done in a few days.

Once the cows all got pushed into the corral the mommas were sorted off and only the seven calves were left in the corral. I forgot to have the dogs moved inside so they were right at the corral trying to help. This was not keeping the calves calm at all so they had to be removed. Chance ended up on the run hollering at us and whining as she wanted to help. We had the calf table all set up but the small calves don’t lend themselves to the table at all and since there were four grown men it was decided they could man handle the calves. Yeah, it went as well as you expected. This is something that you really have to know how to do to tip a calf fast and easily. If you do not do it correctly the first time a fight will ensue in which a lot of effort must be exerted and a few bruises obtained to get the job done. I sat behind the corral fence hollering instructions. The calves all got tagged and banded. The wrong numbers and colors were used but the job got done! They only had to cut off one set of bands and redo it as there was only one testicle in the first attempt. Everyone was pretty dirty by the time it was done. The Gingerman just started to finally tackle and bear hug them which resulted in a lot of cow poop and dirt everywhere.

The sheep got chased into the barn, for this Chance did get to help on her lead rope. Gingerman ran her, but the sheep are so tame that they will just ignore humans. Once in the barn we proceeded to catch every black sheep and could not find any with an abscess. We did catch and sort off the one with a limp but there was no abscess. So I did not have to lance and treat an abscess.

All in all a successful venture with the cows and we are done for another year, there were 5 male and 2 female calves. We had three calves die for unknown reasons. We have had two momma cows die and most likely it is due to old age. We have not been rotating off the older adult cows. So we may have to start doing that every 3-5 years now.

Four weeks left on the broken foot.

Winter is coming

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I finally had to cry uncle and take some time off of work to get stuff done around the farm. I had worked six weekends in a row and winter just keeps getting closer. I have several projects to get done. The first one I am attempting to complete is to get some flood control and water management ditches dug. It seems I always wait until it starts to rain then it is so muddy I cannot get any dirt moved. I have managed to dig ditches out in pasture #3 and #2, they are all ready to go. I have managed to get all of the roadside ditch done in field #1. This way when the flood comes from upstream over the road the ditch will catch it and let it flow back to the creek and not out through our pasture. I still need to finish the secondary ditch alongside the field so that if the creek bank gives (like it has the last two floods) there will be a secondary ditch and another dirt berm to keep the water from flooding out into the field. This has been a lot of tractor work. I have about 40 hours into just tractor work alone moving dirt. I am hoping to have the ditches finished in 1-2 more days then I am going to hook the mower up, mow weeds for a day then start dragging a disc around and then planting more grass and a couple of fields of triticale hay. I even have some fertilizer that I want to toss out this fall.

The ditch digging is really letting me get through the books on tape! I can get a whole book listened to every 1.5 days. At the current rate of diesel consumption I am going to have to get the diesel tank filled for a third time this year!

I also need to rearrange the machine shed and get all of the equipment under cover and out of the weather. I have nine days off so I am going to make the best of it and I may have to take some more time off to get everything done. I did let the sheep into the front yard and get in a good mow down on the yard. I think I will have to do it one more time this year before winter sets in. A few of the ewes are pretty skinny. We did not get all of the old ones culled and boy can you tell who is old and decrepit. The new ram is fitting right in. He did wait until I turned my back on him yesterday before hitting me in the leg with his head. He only did it once and it did not knock me down so when I swatted out at him and he dodged it I did not pursue smacking him. I just let it go.

I found another dead lamb in field #3 yesterday. We have been spotting a coyote up on the back hillside but have been unable to get a shot at it. I may have to actually get a coyote call and start taking some time to thin the coyotes. Time is the most precious commodity I have when it comes to chores on the farm.

We had to tag and band the last two calves that were born late. We ran them up to the corral today and separated off the two babies. The nephews were out working on their grandma’s deck so they took ten minutes and helped us. Calf number 35 yellow tag is really a girl not a boy. I had two boy tags and placed the ear tag before I checked the gender. We separated off the bull and put him in Alcatraz with the other two bulls and then pushed all of the cows into the upper fields as there is a lot of green grass after that last rain. Tomorrow I am going to push the three bulls down by the schoolhouse. There is not as much grass down there but for three cows there will be plenty. We can keep the two fence between rule going so we should not have any winter surprises. I keep seeing at least two large covey of quail when I go up to the far end of the property. We will see how many survived when they all band together this winter.

The back creek finally dried up a week ago. That is the latest it has ran since we have moved back to the farm.

Animals all tagged and banded

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Saturday was the day to get all caught up with the animals. Daughter #2 needed time with the cows and this was going to be it. First we had to bring the calf table over to the end of the chute. This would have been easier were it not for all of the yellow jackets nesting in the pipe. Mr Tex got stung once before he bailed. I had to search everywhere to find one can of hornet killer and we were able to spray them and get the calf table moved into position. We then had to get the portable arena set up around the calf table so when we let the calf out it would stay close and allow us to open the gate and get it back into the corral. We were able to chain it all together except for one end by the table. Mr Tex then went to move the steel gates around in the corral and ended almost getting stung again from yellowjackets inside the metal gates. We had to wait for Annmarie to bring more hornet spray. While she was headed back from town, we went into the barn and started to set up all of the gates and a working table for our supplies. I only had enough dewormer for 20 sheep so we ended up dosing all of the old ewes that are super skinny.

By the time we were done with the sheep we had 41 lambs, 41 ewes, 12 market animals and 1 ram. We had to cut open abscesses on three of them. They were along their jaw, most likely from cheat grass. We are not feeding any cheat grass they are just getting it out in the fields. I had to make up a sterilizing solution so I used a mild bleach solution buffered with baking soda. We used that to irrigate the wounds after lancing them open and getting all of the gunk out. It smells but last time we did it they recovered so there is hope this batch will do it also. We now have the 12 market lambs down by the school house and the rest above the barn lot.

The first batch of cows were the momma’s and babies and the new bull. Annmarie and Tex walked down and pushed them up to the house. The cows came in the back way, not through the orchard and front yard like Annmarie wanted. Tex got the calves sorted off and we started to run them through the chute into the calf table. There is an art to using the calf table, this is where you do not let the calf run through the table and actually get its neck caught in the squeezer. We had five calves and I let two get through. One we caught and shoved back into the table, the second one pushed right through our corral panels, then ran along the fence several times refusing to go into the corral. It then took off across the property and ran down to the mother in law’s house. It took us 25 minutes to catch the calf. We did get it tagged and banded. Those cows and the bull all got treated with fly powder, we ended up with two steers and three heifer calves. Everyone got put back down to the school house area.

The real trouble started after that. We had been at this for almost five hours already and the five feeder cows up above needed to be treated for flies. Annmarie went up to get them on foot in 100 degree weather. She got them down about the same time I decided to let all of the sheep out of the barn lot. The sheep got right in the gate opening and stopped therefore blocking the cows from being herded to where they needed to go. This led to some frazzled comments and some typical cow working vernacular, most not suitable for small children. We did eventually get the cows into the barn lot but they were so wild we could not get them into the area behind the barn. I need to install a fence inside the barn lot to cut off access to the spring. I know this and honestly I think we could do it with the same panels we use for the calf table area, I just need to know to reset those to stop cow access. This would allow us to push the cows along the fence directly through the gate instead of them being able to run down a dead end spur that is just too big to block off with a human. We gave up. They have water, we fed them and I will set out a dust bag tomorrow and let them out.

Tex left for another job and we all went inside, took showers and much needed naps.