Another week of growth.
This is not what I envisioned when I started this series. You can hardly see the alfalfa through the weeds. I eat a huge slice of humble pie every time I post.
So I’m including a picture of last year’s new hay seeding for my wounded pride. It’s ready to be cut for a third time this summer, and there isn’t a weed visible.
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Big news. I’m splitting up farming with my parents.
A little background. My parents own 510 acres with roughly 200 acres tillable, and 300 acres pasture. I own 120 acres with roughly 80 acres tillable, and 40 acres pasture. We have managed our farms as a collective farm for the past 17 years.
We raise beef cattle and hogs, pasturing and growing all the forages for the cattle, and growing all the corn and oats and straw bedding for the hogs. Soybean meal is purchased for the hogs.
A few years ago, I started a partnership with a couple about my age to direct-market an increasing amount of our beef and pork in the Madison markets. This is where my passion lies, and I want to continue this business.
So I’ve been spending a lot of brain power figuring out how to do this on my farm. What I’ve decided so far is to buy steers in the fall and grass-finish them the following green season. I believe I have enough pasture and forage to raise enough cattle to meet the demand of our direct-market.
What I’m going to have to give up is the beautiful herd of cows and calves pictured below. I simply don’t have enough land to have everything.
I am going to continue to have my swine breeding stock. Genetics is another one of my passions, so I have to continue to play with the genetics of something. I plan on raising just enough hogs for my direct-market. I’ll probably have to purchase more of the grain than I do now.
Pictured below is a Duroc boar I raised who will be the first herdsire on my new farm. I haven’t named him yet, so I thought it would be fun if you have a suggestion to leave a comment. I’ll pick the best name out of your suggestions.
This blog will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this change. Since I no longer have anyone’s privacy to protect but my own, I can be as open as I am brave. I’m looking forward to sharing more.
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Ideal growing conditions with heat and plenty of moisture.
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Herald of spring,
Barnswallows are back!
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Tropical winters,
Wisconsin summers.
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New mud nest,
Or top-mud the old one.
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Two or three clutches,
Of insatiable young.
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Dive-bombing children,
And curious cats.
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Feeding their young,
Who wait on the line.
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Finally feasting,
On Leafhoppers flying.
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Circling tractor,
As I mow hay.
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I’m disappointed in this alfalfa/grass stand. There is as much Foxtail as alfalfa.
Looking at the positive though, I appreciate the rain which helped the alfalfa, grass, and weeds grow. The farmers of Texas and the south probably haven’t had enough rain for weeds to grow.
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The alfalfa is growing, but so is the Foxtail, (weed).
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Field of baled hay.
Below is a picture of the Round Baler, unloading a finished bale. Hay is picked up underneath the baler. The belts keep tension on the hay as an ever-increasing amount is rolled up, resulting in a tightly-packed round- bale of hay.
Photo by Melissa.
Each bale weighs about 1500 lbs. and feeds at least 50 cows a day in winter. We feed the cows by unrolling the hay on the frozen ground so all the cows can eat at once. They eat their daily allotment in a few hours.
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Curiousfarmer 