School starts, hay season wrapping up and some other items!

So, school started a few weeks back and things have been going great.  It took a couple of weeks to get back to the school schedule but we are getting better!

Last week my wife came down with the flu and was quite sick and couldn't go to work.  Since she couldn't go to work that meant my son also couldn't go to day care since his day care is about ten minutes from where my wife works in Wooster.  So I stayed home to watch Alex and put Lisa on the bus for school.

While we were waiting for the bus, My dad (Lisa's Grandpa) drives the bus, Lisa and Alex decided to climb the willow tree at the end of the drive.  I thought it made a neat pic so I took one.  If you look closely you will see Alex hiding behind the rose bush just below Lisa.

I recently wrapped up my third, and most likely final, cutting of hay on all my rental fields over the weekend.  I had a decent year and if we have an extremely late fall I may get a fourth cutting but I am not counting on one.  Three will do me just fine for this year. The bale below is from my fourth cutting squares, it is quite similar to the hay in the round bales below.

Orchard Grass Hay

 I attached a couple of pictures of the third cutting hay.  I made it all in rounds as it is a little bit of a drive and it is much easier over all to do it in rounds vs. small squares.  The hay was perfect and dry and looked awesome when I baled it up.  I was hoping for a little better production but it was still a great cutting and really nice hay so I am happy.

Third cutting mixed grass hay

 I am barely able to fit through the tiny railroad bridge between the property and the main road with more than one layer.  If I load it right and strap it down though I can squeeze it through!

Mixed grass hay loaded on gooseneck trailer

 When I got back to the house to wrap the hay for storage I had one bale that I made from the outside row of the fields that was still a little damp.  So instead of putting it in the tube row where it would spoil the bales around it I put it in to the cows to eat it instead.  The pastures have slowed down and need time to recover for winter so I penned them out and this was their first bale for the year.  I know it is a little early but I have plenty of hay to feed and I would rather they be well fed and ready for calving and butchering/sale than make them eat the weeds and be thin or under weight going into winter!

I was lucky enough to get a picture of Thunder and all four of his boys from his first calf crop lined up eating next to the fence.  I was also lucky enough to find them in order of age from left to right.  The first one was born in early may last year, the middle two were born the day of my customer party last year on Sunday of memorial day weekend, and the fourth one was born June 30th the day before we left for vacation.  Not bad for being a couple of months past one year old!! The first one is out of our small Black Angus cow Chilli.  The second is out of Frosty, our Black Angus x Shorthorn cow.  The third is out of another Black Angus cow Koyuki, and the fourth one, next to Thunder, is out of Sally Shorthorn.  Sally is Frosty's momma.  She is mostly shorthorn with a little Ayrshire in her.  Her steer is younger than all the others by over a month and is probably 150-200 # heavier!  I love crossbreeds!

Our Charolais x Angus cross Thunder and his progeny from 2012 

My wife planted Tomatillo tomatoes this year.  She made a fresh salsa with them that she used with a couple of meals this week.....awesome!!!  They are delicious and when you couple that up with her being a well schooled awesome cook it makes it hard for me to lose any weight!!

Tomatillo Tomatoes being cooked for use in salsa

Lastly, I was on craigslist before we went to the football game two weeks ago and found a stainless steel pig feeder for sale.  It was the perfect size for the piglets that I am feeding and was heavy duty as well!  We picked it up on our way home from the football game and I put it in the pen for them to eat out of the next day.  It is working awesome.  The little porkers are growing fast!  I keep them penned up for a couple of weeks till they are completely weaned from the mommas.  After they are completely weaned I will let them back out in the pig lots for a few weeks to be sure they know the fences.  Then, once big enough I will turn them out to the big pasture to feed them out.  

Our new pig feeder

 The feed they get is just a blend of corn, soybean meal, a lot of alfalfa meal, and minerals to balance their diet.  I feed this blend to give them what they may not get off the pasture nutrition wise.  They do well on it and the taste of the meat they produce is so good!!!

Berkshire x Tamworth cross piglets

I hope everyone has a good day and I am really looking forward to the weekend, even though most of it may be spent in the tractor, but that ain't all that bad!!!

Talk to everyone soon!

Kenny