A few notes from the pasture!

I mowed some hay down one night this week and parked the tractor in the lawn by the house.  I went out to feed a calf and on my way back to the house noticed something on the hood of the tractor.  It turned out to be Mistletoe!  It was cool out and she found that the hood scoop vent for the muffler on the tractor was letting out a constant breeze of warm air.  So she snuggled up against it for the evening to relax under the stars!

Another treat this week was received when checking on the baby piglets.  I found them all snuggled up against a tree stump in the shade relaxing.  There was a nice breeze blowing and they were as happy as could be.  So damn cute at this age!

I haven't had a break till today to get some updates on a few of the calves from this year.  I wanted to show you some photos of how they are doing so far.  

The first pic is of  one of the three bulls born this year.  All have Legacy for their father.  They are looking really good.  Growing fast and look great and showing great traits!

A pic of two bulls on the left and heifers on the right.  The second bull from front is a grandson of fifty.  His mother is Precious.   He is looking very very nice!   The cows as a whole are looking very nice this year having good pastures to eat off of and having buttermilk to drink as well.  The difference is amazing and I am super excited about seeing the long term results!

I wanted to attach a picture of the shorthorn heifer I got at Christmas time.  Her name is Sugar and behind her is Spice.  Spice is part shorthorn and mostly mixed breeds.  Sugar is looking very very nice.  The neighbor is talking about taking her to the fair.  It would be exciting to see how she does at the show.  If she goes I will definitely post the results.  

Here is a picture of Frosty.  She is Sally Shorthorns first calf and is the mother to Baby Girl.  She was still pretty small in frame and stature last summer when Baby Girl was born with baby girl being her third calf.  I am amazed to see such a change in her after not feeding a calf over the last 11 months.  I think the break helped her a lot as she never really caught up after having her first calf and may have lead to part of why baby girl struggled last year after being born.  

If you look in the background to the right is Butterscotch and her calf Brillo is to the right.  I am not sure who is in the middle.  Brillo was born with a condition where her front feet were not working correctly and she had problems walking.  She was almost 3 months old before she would walk more than just a short distance at one time.  Now she is much much better.  Her stride has become much closer to normal and she doesn't walk hunched up like she did in the spring.  Hopefully she continues to improve and provides us with another reliable great mother to add to the herd!

As I type this the full realization that another year is well past half over is setting in.  I have mixed feelings on this as I want to continue to grow the farm and what we do here.  However, the more I try to make things easier and less time consuming it seems that more things demand my time and the time is flying by very quickly.  An even deeper realization is that my daughter is already half way to College age.....not cool!!!!  I need to get some of the added projects buttoned up before fall and then set some solid goals for next year this winter.  One of these will be to either find someone near full time help for the farm or alter what we do here to allow for some free time.  I want to spend some more time with the family and less time by myself in the field and at work.  I am also hoping that as the kids get older they will want to spend a little more time with me out in the field when I do have to work.   However, I have a gut feeling that that will not happen how I would like it to!

I will leave everyone with this small piece of advice.  Stop and smell the roses this week as many times as you can, for in a very short time, they will once again be dormant and covered in snow!  Sometimes the memory of that rose will be all you have to get you through those very cold and dark nights!

Have a great week everyone.

Kenny

BERKY HAD A LITTER OF PIGLETS TODAY!!!!!!

I am so super happy tonight!!  I almost sold berky earlier this year because I didn't think she was bred.  My wife and I discussed it and decided to give her and Lady until July 1st to show pregnancy or they were to be sold. Berky showed a lot of signs by July 1st so we kept her.  She had 9 beautiful purebred berkshire piglets today with no problems.  

We tried to move her into the barn tonight after she got done birthing but she wanted nothing of it.  So, I will work on getting her to move to the barn tomorrow after she calms down and the babies get to moving around some more. 

Have a great night everyone! 

Kenny

The cows loving some fresh buttermilk!!!

So I got a fresh load of buttermilk today and shortly after I went out and filled up the tubs for everyone.  The cows came running as soon as they heard the Farmall 706 start up.  They have come to know that the sound of the 706 means the buttermilk is coming!   The pigs know it as well but we currently only have Baconator and Berky out on the cow lots.  The other two sows are in with Doublestuffed getting bred.  

I am now feeding more buttermilk than I can store for a week so I decided to add another tank today.  I got a pretty good deal on one at our local TSC store.  This will almost double my capacity so hopefully I can swing getting more milk per week since everyone is loving it so well.  

The differences in the cows and the pigs is showing quite well now.  The pigs gain weight quicker and between the buttermilk and the pasture I am down to feeding very little grain in the summer.  I am hoping this continues when the cold weather returns.  That has been my struggle with the pigs from the beginning is keeping them on a a diet low in grain during the winter.  The milk supplies them with all the essential vitamins, minerals, proteins, and amino acids that they need to digest everything else they eat at an optimum level.  That should mean that this winter when everything is frozen, I should be able to reduce the amount of grain in the ration and still have a balanced diet that they continue to grow well on.

I am also noticing a very similar difference in the cattle.  In the summer I feed the hay that is lower quality knowing that they get fresh grass from the rotational grazing and they also need less energy from the hay in the summer.  The side affect from feeding lower quality hay is that the younger animals have a tendency to slow down growth over the summer months.  The buttermilk has helped to turn that around and I am seeing a very positive change in the younger stock this summer compared to other years.  

I am excited to see how this continues to work out and what results we get from the process.  We are in somewhat uncharted territory so I am going with a gut feeling at this point. 

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Kenny