Updates and pictures!!!

Ok, so I knew I was pretty sick when the cows decided they needed to come see me!!  On top of the broken finger I also contracted an intestinal virus a couple of days after surgery that rendered me pretty much useless till yesterday.  I was sitting on the back porch the other night trying to relax and they entire herd came to the corner of the pig lot. 

Cows coming to say hello to me!

Once I noticed them I realized they were not leaving right away and one in particular was staring right at me.  It was Black Eye.  She stayed there for 20 minutes watching me till I finally came over and said hello and told her I was getting better.  Then she went back to eating and left to go with the rest of the herd.   It is amazing how sometimes we realize that the animals care for us as much as we care for them.

Black Eye checking to make sure I was ok!

Now, I haven't had a chance to tell everyone much about the project I got approval for so I will talk about that shortly.  The picture below is of all the pigs and piglets headed out to the pasture for some food.  I was working on the new project and was there to get a picture of them all headed out.  It was quite cool to see.  

Pigs and Piglets headed out to the pasture.  

 Now, for more about the new project.  This is a trial run of a hopefully successful future nutrient trading program being done by the Electric Power Research Institute.  In its simplest form, this is a program to eliminate pollution.  For a power company to spend $10,000 on upgrading their pollution scrubbers on their Coal powered plants the actual impact would be almost pointless.  However, If they spent the same $10,000 on pollution control measures in rural areas where funding is tight or non existent they impact is enormous!  Now, this isn't free money.  The program covers 75% of the project costs up to a $10,000 cap.  I have to put in 25% and anything over the cap myself.  After designing the project it totals about $25,000.  My labor and equipment counts toward that cost so actual moneys I have to pay out are not $15000 but they are not zero either!!

Due to my rapid growth and location I am high risk this winter to excessive stream erosion and non-point source pollution.  I will be housing around 50 cattle here this winter and next winter will be approximately 65.  My pastures are not large enough to support this many cattle without some changes.  First of all, to protect the stream that my farm is named after, and is 50% of why I purchased this place, we are fencing on the stream to limit access for the cattle to only times when they can eat there without causing damage.  I  put in a stream crossing yesterday for the cattle and I to use to get to the other pastures.  This is simply a specific spot of the creek that is based in with Limestone gravel that will be lined with fence to use as a crossing.  The limestone allows the cattle to cross but is not comfortable to stand on for long periods of time.  So they will cross but not lounge.  The limestone also helps balance the pH of the water and pull some pollutants out of the water.  

New crossing installed in the creek using limestone.

The second control measure is a buffer strip between the feeding area and the bottom ground by the creek.  This is a mixed grass and legume strip on the hillside bordering the entire barn and new heavy use pad that will stop any runoff coming off the pads.  The plants will trap and use the nutrients and then I can graze the cattle on this as needed to keep it eaten down and keep the plants healthy!!!  This will be great for feeding the cattle as the area will get fertilized naturally and I will basically be getting free feed for the cattle.

  

Cows eating the grass on the new buffer strip

During construction I had to open the area back up to the cattle till I can get the new fences installed.  I had it temporarily fenced off starting in the spring to get the grass and stuff established.  After the winter we just had and the extremely wet spring this hillside was nothing but mud.  It looks so much different with grass growing again!

Cows eating and relaxing in the new buffer strip.

The third portion of the project is a heavy use pad to feed the cattle on during wet weather and the winter when there is nothing to eat out on the pasture.  This new pad will also have room to store the manure in the corner for composting and also will have a waterer in the NW corner for the cattle and larger pigs to drink out of when they want.  By piling and composting the manure during the winter and the wet spring I will be able to break it down and before applying it so I have less large residue on the permanent hay fields.  The nutrients will also be readily available to the plants as it will already be mostly broken down during composting.  Furthermore, this will allow me to time my applications in the fall and maybe in the spring after first cutting so that there is far less chance of runoff and the plants are getting nutrients when they need them the most.   

The area for the new 90 'x 46'  heavy use feeding pad.

 The new pad is 90' long and 46' wide with an exit ramp and small area of concrete outside the corral fence where the waterer is to keep it from getting muddy when they drink from outside the new feed pad.  

The area for the new 90 'x 46'  heavy use feeding pad.

The pig lots will be changing a little as well.  Because we put a swale in to catch any rain water coming off the hillside I had to rethink the layout of the lots for the pigs.  The swale is to catch the water before it gets on the pad where the cows will be eating.  This will keep the chance of runoff from the pad to a minimum and help keep it drier during heavy use.  The water is diverted to the property line between my father and I and will disperse out over his pasture.  This will give the grass in his pasture the chance to benefit from any nutrients washed off the pig lots by a heavy rain and keep it from getting into the stream as well!

Water swale on the top side of the pad to divert water away from the feeding area.  

Where you see gravel spread out is where the exit to the pad will be located.  There will be a 14' gate mounted on the right hand post to close to keep the animals in during flooding or extreme weather or for herd checks and cleaning the barn and such.  Between the corner and the left side of the gate is where the waterer will be installed.  The cattle will have access from both inside and outside the fence.  This will allow me to separate the cattle if needed and still allow everyone to have access to fresh water as needed. 

To the right of the gate is the corner where the manure will be stored.  I will probably add a few more shorter posts in between the tall posts to help add support to that corner to be able to stack the manure a little higher.  I am planning on putting a semi solid wall on two sides to hold the manure and allow the moisture to bleed off for better composting.  The posts are currently on 10' centers, this is too far apart to give good support to the boards.  I am thinking 4-5 more posts will do it.  

Another angle of the heavy use pad.

 If I keep the pig lots the same as before the pigs would be walking right in the swale to get to the sow lot where they spend most of their time in the winter and spring.  To eliminate this I added a walkway to the north edge of the heavy use pad.  The pigs will be able to walk on concrete from the pig shed all the way out to the lot through this walkway.  The short posts to the left will have electric fence on the outside of them.  The walkway will end with the last short post and the pigs will exit to the lot right there.  The entire are between there going back toward the pig shed to the pig waterer will now be part of the Boar lot.  This will balance the lots out much better and allow me to keep the sows and boar in that lot for breeding and weaning if necessary without limiting their space too much. 

The corral fence will follow the taller posts on the inside.  I learned a valuable lesson on the first corral.  I had the posts too short to begin with and once I was done with concrete and had a manure pack I quickly realized that the wooded fence was not nearly tall enough to keep the cattle in when doing a herd check or trying to pen up a cow that needed veterinary treatment.  So, once I am completely done with the concrete and the fencing is all finished and high enough I will then trim all the posts to the final height.  

Future walkway for pigs to get to the sow lot. 

I put the picture below in to show how I am going to change the height restriction for the entrance to the pig lot.  The old gate and height restriction will be coming out.  I am going to mount a 14' gate on the barn wall that will lock to the first tall post of the corral fence.  This will allow me access to the pig barn from this side with the tractor and the skidsteer.  I also will be able to use this to clean the pig barn and put the manure in the compost pile without having to drive all the way around the barn to do so.   The height restriction will be built into the section between the first and second tall post of the corral fence.  The new concrete will angle from the first short post up to the existing pig waterer concrete.  When I install the new cattle waterer I have to tie into the water lines in the boar lot where the pigs are standing in the picture.  While doing that I will regrade the boar lot to catch water and take it to the new swale to keep it out of the pig shed.  

Old gate and height restriction for the pig lot entrance from the new heavy use pad.

My last picture today is of the hillside that was so drastically changed when the excavator harvested the sand and gravel to build the site for the new pad.  I had some misc. seed in the barn and scattered it all over the disturbed areas to get a cover crop to keep it from eroding.  It is starting to pop up!

As I have been typing this it is raining again.  This weather pattern has been sticking around since last fall.  We have had measurable rainfall here on the farm almost every other day for three months.  The longest span we have had without rain was 4 days.  Several people tried to make dry hay during that time but because the ground is so wet it just wouldn't dry all the way.  Would be nice to send some of this water out west where they really need it but I will take this wet weather over a drought any day of the year!!

Update on my hand and health.  I was finally able to get a doctors appointment Friday.  They believe I have an intestinal virus.  This normally puts a person in the hospital so I am going to consider myself lucky in that I have still been partially functional for this time.   I am starting to get better slowly.  I have days that are worse than others but on the whole I am getting better.  

As for my hand I have been in a cast since the surgery on July 11th.  The cast started coming apart this week at work and while working on the posts for the heavy use pad yesterday I managed to get some animal manure on the cast and sand inside of it.   I tried for a while to clean it and get the sand out but nothing worked.  So, I ended up taking the cast off.  It was coming off this week anyway so I will contact the doctors office in the morning and see if they want to put a new one on for two days or just leave it.  In the mean time I am being ultra careful with it and being sure not to bump it or bang into anything till I talk with the doctor.  

The good news, as I am sure you can tell by the length of this post, is that I can once again type with both hands!  I had no idea how important that simple task was to me and how difficult it would be with only one hand!

Hopefully my luck is turning back around and it will be another 36 years and 3 days before I have this many bad things happen at one time.  Furthermore, I have learned a lot from being completely out of commission about planning for the worst and hoping for the best.  The one thing I never planned for was me being completely out of commission for an extended period of time.  I have had to rely on other people for a lot of things over the last month and will have to continue to rely on them for a few more weeks.  I thank everyone who has helped and continues to help.  I will be sure to have a back up plan moving forward in case something like this should ever happen again.  

Have a great day everyone and hopefully we can get a little dry and sunny weather soon!

Kenny