Final Harvest

November 6, 2010

Cows harvesting the standing hay and cornstalks on my contour strips.  Here is a picture taken right before corn harvest.

The cows above are the ones the vet. confirmed pregnant when we pregnancy checked at the end of October.  I wrote about my expectations, and the problems we faced this breeding season.  90% of the cows and heifers ended up being bred with a 60 day breeding season for the cows, and a 45 day breeding season for the heifers.  10% open is normal for us and acceptable.  We have an excellent market for hamburger, so the cows that didn’t breed end up as beef.  We have appointments with our butcher over the next month.

Below is a cow which didn’t breed, and Wilma, of course.  The open cows are grazing one of our best remaining pastures.  I was thinking about the life they lead.  I think it’s pretty good.  They get to be in a herd of peers, eating quality forage, moving weekly, breeding, raising young.  Up until the bolt-gun shatters their brain, it’s not a bad life.

We took the boys to a city-wide Halloween party.  A friend gave me the low-down on the best place to go trick-or-treating: the manor, or old-folks-home.  The residents are seated in a semi-circle, each holding a bucket of candy.  It’s funny, because whatever aversion a child has to old people is overcome by the lure of easy candy.

I don’t know what kind of life each person has had, but the ending can be difficult.  We all want to live a good life and die in our sleep.

2 Comments | Curious cattle, Curious crops | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

Weaned Calves

October 21, 2010

Calves in the corral, separated from their mothers.  We weaned all of the calves, October 14th.

After sorting the cows away from the calves, we run the calves into the catch-chute one at a time to administer a couple of vaccine cocktails.  We use what our vet. recommends, and what is common in the industry.  Ultrabac 7/Somnubac is $1/dose.  Vira Shield 6 + Somnus is $2/dose.

The vaccines cover about a dozen diseases, or strains of a disease.  I have a difficult time believing one can get a good immune response to all.  But in the vaccine’s defense, we have lost a calf from Blackleg, but never after vaccinating.

Below is a view down the alleyway leading to the catch-chute.

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Passion, Productive?

September 12, 2010

Citygirlfriend is Jewish.  We drove to Iowa City to celebrate Rosh Hashanah with family.

The boys played Pokemon on their DS the entire car ride, (about 2.5 hours).  After we ate lunch downtown, we searched bookstores for more Pokemon books.  The boys already spend their free time reading a huge, Pokemon reference book.

“I’m so glad you like reading,” Citygirlfriend said.

“It’s not really reading, because I’m trying to learn something,” Shepherd said.

I listened to the boys talk Pokemon to each other, and I thought, ‘I hope they find something to be this passionate about later in life, something productive.’

And then I thought, ‘Am I passionate?  Am I productive?’

Family and farming are my main pursuits.

On the homefront, I’m working with Citygirlfriend to establish a stable environment.   Here are pictures of the boys eating breakfast on a Saturday.

Shepherd with his kitties.  He’s wearing my boots on the wrong feet.

Gameboy, mugging it up for the camera.

Every morning is the same:

  1. Get up.
  2. Get dressed.
  3. Chores.
  4. Eat breakfast.
  5. Cello and Violin duet.
  6. DS, if time permits,before school.

On the farm, we are:

  1. Preparing for corn harvest.
  2. Planning to vaccinate and wean calves.
  3. Evaluating bull calves to keep or castrate.
  4. Planning and ordering boar semen to AI sows.

The top picture is my favorite bull calf.  He is out of Leland Julius and my favorite heifer, 816.  We are planning on keeping him to breed next year.

The picture below is of a productive Yorkshire gilt.  Look at her udder.  I’m studying boars to find the best AI mating for her, as well as the 16 other sows in the group.

Oh, and I continue to enjoy updating this blog.  Thanks for reading, and thanks for your comments.

I have passion, and it feels good.  Am I productive?  Time will tell.

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Posted by curiousfarmer

Breeding Season II: Problems

August 10, 2010

My early July post, “Breeding Season Starts”, was full of optimism.  We started breeding season with five, virile bulls, breeding 131 beautiful cows.  We now have one, extremely popular bull, with 131 cows.

The bull in the bottom of the picture above, “New Chapter”, fought with the other bulls instead of breeding the cows.  We took him to market after he hurt the other five-year-old bull, “New York.”  “New York” is refusing to rejoin the herd and is recovering his confidence in the back pasture.  “Red Direction” and “Judge” are lame and limping along with the herd.

But “Julius”, “Julius” is thriving!  Look at him in action!

Even though he’s busy, he still makes each cow feel special after he puts a kink in her tail.

We’ve kicked around some options to make sure the cows get bred.  We could take the yearling bulls out of the heifer pasture and put them with the cows.  We could buy bulls, but we may not find quality bulls on short notice.

We’ve decided to watch and wait.  We aren’t seeing many cows “in heat” now.  We think the bulls settled many of the cows during the first heat cycle.  A cow’s cycle is 21 days.  We are nearing the end of the 2nd heat cycle, so a decision needs to be made because the 3rd cycle is their last chance to get bred.  All cows that don’t breed are butchered.

We won’t know for sure what percentage of the cows are bred until November when a veterinarian pregnancy checks them.  I’ll let you know how we did, then.


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Sleeping During Calving

July 15, 2010

A robin’s nest, with fledglings, in our cattle catch-chute.

I realized I needed to post this picture when WSB asked an astute question: “If the breeding season is short, will you get any sleep during calving season?”

Yes, and this picture explains why.

This is my proudest cattle picture.  I’m striving to breed problem-free cattle.  We aren’t there yet, as my post, “A Weekend During Calving Season” illustrates, but if birds can successfully nest in our catch-chute…

We pulled two calves coming breach, (backwards), in April.  We helped one calf nurse a cow with too-large teats.  We transferred a twin calf onto a cow that had lost her calf in the creek.  We pulled one large calf out of a heifer on May 7th. But that was it, out of more than 130 births. We didn’t use the corral from May 7th until the middle of June when we corralled some cattle for grass-finished beef.

Calving problem-free cattle in April and May should be fun.  I’ll keep you updated.

Breeding isn’t going as well as I planned.  Soon I’ll post about the problems we’ve already experienced early in this breeding season.

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Breeding Season Starts

July 6, 2010

Our cowherd at the end of June.  We turned the bulls in with the cows on July 1st.  This means they are due to start calving about April 8th.  This is early enough for us as we remember early April snowstorms.

Cows have a tremendous ability to fluctuate their weight based mainly upon environmental conditions.  Low-cost managers time the peak nutritional requirements of the cow with the time of peak nutrition in the environment.  Put simply, calve in late spring.

May and June pastures in the driftless region are tremendous.  Our cows gain at least 100 lbs. from calving in April and May until breeding in July.

The picture below shows a cow in excellent condition in the foreground.  The background shows two cows engaged in homoerotic behavior.  This is common for cows when they are ‘in heat’.

This is a good sign, because it shows the cow is ovulating.  It takes good genetics and good management to keep cows on a yearly reproductive schedule. They need to calve, lactate, and have their reproductive tract return to normal so they can start cycling again.

Our breeding season last year was six weeks for the heifers and nine weeks for the cows.  We only had two cows calve in the last week of calving, so I’m thinking of shortening our breeding season to eight weeks.

Ian Mitchell-Innes is a South African rancher I heard speak at a Mob Grazing seminar.  He claims to have a 30 day breeding season.  I wonder how short of a breeding season we could have.

2 Comments | Curious cattle, Curious reproduction | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

Placentophagy: Mammals Eating Their Own Placenta

June 10, 2010

Cow eating placenta, shortly after giving birth.  Why do they do this?  Many other mammals do as well.  It’s called placentophagy.

It’s becoming vogue for people to eat placenta.  There are purported health benefits.  Have you heard of this?

Here is a funny video of Joel Stein, my favorite writer for Time, watching his wife’s placenta being prepared for consumption.

“You’re not going to kiss me with that mouth, are you Mom?”

2 Comments | Curious cattle, Curious diet, Curious nature | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

Building a New Fence III

June 1, 2010

This is the final fencing post.

A metal rod is pounded into the ground and an old disc blade is placed on the ground to protect the soil.  The roll of barb-wire is placed on the disc and one end of the wire is tied to the ATV.  I use the ATV to pull the wire to the other end of the fence and tie it to the end post.

After your first wire is in place as a guide wire, pound the rest of your posts into the ground.  We use a ratio of five metal to one wooden.  Metal posts are cheaper and don’t rot; but wooden posts are stronger and resist cattle pushing on the fence better.

A fence-stretcher is attached to the wire.  As Dad cranks the handle, I make sure the wire is not caught on any brush and is in line with the fence.  I use a pliers because if the fence-stretcher slips off, the wire will slip quickly and cut through your hand.

Once the proper tightness is achieved, the wire is tied to the end post and the fence-stretcher is removed.

A clip is used to secure the wire to the steel post.  There are notches on the post and we use these as markers to make sure the wires are evenly spaced.

Staples are used to secure the wire to the wooden posts.

This concludes my fencing posts.  If you have any questions, please comment.

1 Comment | Curious cattle, Curious livestock costs | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

Building a New Fence II

May 25, 2010

Brace posts with metal brace and brace wire running diagonally from upper second post to lower end post.  Once you’ve decided where to put your fence, put your brace posts in.  You need a set of brace posts on each end of your fence in order to pull the barb-wire tight. 

You can also have more, based on your needs.  We put six sets of brace posts in this quarter mile of fence because we put a space for a gate, and had to fence across two valleys. 

We use six-inch diameter, eight-foot long, creosote-treated posts and pound them into the ground about three feet for our brace posts.  The posts in the interior of the fence are five-inch diameter, seven-foot long creosote-treated posts.  We have found no other wood treatment comes close to creosote for preserving wood from rotting.  It is frustrating to build a new fence and watch the wooden posts rot off in ten or fifteen years.

The metal brace is secured to the posts with a lag-bolt.  We put our brace in level, about two-thirds up the posts.  Many people are putting the brace at the top.  The old-fashioned way is to put the brace at an angle.  This has the tendency to pull one of the brace  posts out of the ground, though.

The brace wire is run through a staple at the top of the second post, around the posts, and through a staple at the bottom of the end post.  After it is tied, I use the handle of a fencing pliers to wind it, thereby tightening it.  This pulls the two posts together against the brace, making an excellent anchor to stretch barb-wire for your fence.

1 Comment | Curious cattle, Curious livestock costs | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

Body Language in Cattle

May 21, 2010

Citygirlfriend helped us move the herd to the next pasture.  The young calves are slow to move unless they are at their mother’s side.

Citygirlfriend did fine.  I didn’t go far from her, though.  I worried she wouldn’t recognize dangerous body language in the mother cows.

The cow above is protective of her new calf, but neutral.  When I approached her, look at how her body language changed.  She is telling me she won’t back off and I better.

What do you see? 

3 Comments | Curious cattle | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

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