Winter is moving in as fall exited quickly!

There has been a lot going on since my last post so I am going to hit the high points. 

My brother has come on board here on the farm as well as at work.  This has been a game changer for him and I as well as the farm and at work!  Between him and I, we did more custom work in the month of September than I normally do in 4 months!  The good news is that I have a great feeling that this will increase in the spring, especially with the addition of a seeder to the lineup here! 

 I demoed a new seeder this fall for the farm.  It is an APV air seeder mounted on their custom designed harrow tool.  It is designed for use in overseeding/renovating pastures as well as minimum tillage and full tillage seeding.  I tested all of these types of seeding in the fall and was able to get a pic of one of the fields that came up before the weather went totally bad!

As you can see this was a field we plowed and only went over it one time with the disc.  We let the seeder do the rest and it did an awesome job!

Above is a pic of what it looked like before going over, and below is what it looked like after passing over with the seeder.  Phenomenal results and the germination was terrific and very even seeding.   Because it uses air and a dispersion plate to spread the seed you do not get rows of seed.  This results in needing 15~20% less seed than conventional drill seeding and a more even stand that more effectively controls weeds!

Below is a picture of the field halfway thru seeding.  We have had a tremendous amount of rain this year and we got a lot of rain shortly after we plowed.  So we had no way to work it down much and the weeds popped right up.  After running this tool over the soil it leveled it up quite nicely as well as tearing up the weeds resulting in them dying before the seed germinated.

Below is a picture of the rye two weeks after seeding.  I will have to get pics in the spring after it and the triticale actually get some sunshine to grow as everything is just sitting right now due to the extreme moisture and the cold temps since seeding. 

I love this monitor as well!   Shows all the information you need to know and is easy to use.  It is a costly upgrade but worth it in my opinion!

I also started another major project.....last year at this time.   I am finally getting some progress made on this project!  Since I started remodeling the barn in 2008 I have wanted to get rid of the old corncrib shed in the middle of the driveway.  It made sense back in the 40's when it was originally built but it is past its usable life and is completely in the way all the time!  

 Over last winter I had T&N, whom I now work for, haul in a bunch of processed fill material to make the base site for the new equipment shed.  I let it settle in since last Christmas.  I left the site sit idle for the year to see how it would function with everything in the area and the layout of the farm.  I am glad I did that as I  realized that I needed to move the site towards the creek by 6 feet to allow for proper flow of traffic in and out of the cow lot.  

A few weeks back I had my friend Sam and his son Andrew, who does construction, come out and help set the posts.  My brother, children, and our buddy skinny (seen above on top of the building) have been working on getting the boards up for the walls.  Today we started working on the Header boards.  It took 4 hours today to get three of these mounted.  I do want to put into perspective the task at hand though because it makes more sense once you understand what we are up against!

All of the lumber is rough sawn pin oak.  Very strong, but very heavy.  The headers were special cut to a true 2"x12"x 18' to be sure they are strong enough to carry the load of the roof as each bay is 16' wide.  The top of the front header is 17' high and the back header will top out at 13~14' high.  This will allow me to park tall equipment inside as well as stack up to three layers of round bales or a few thousand square bales of hay in there without any issues.   I am even toying with the idea of a loft in one of the bays to utilize more of the space!   The holdup, however, is the fact that each header board weighs around 230lbs and the loader only reaches 13'.  So, we had to build a jig just to lift the boards into place and then use my dads skidsteer to stand on to attach them.   You can see in the picture below just how small the skidsteer looks compared to the header boards!

I am hoping to have the shed completed before new years but I am not sure if we will make it.  It all depends on if I can gather the help I need to complete it as it is not a one or two person project like the majority of the cowshed and pigshed were.  Regardless of when the shed is completed, I will be taking the old shed down no later than new years break.  It has got to go and I cannot tolerate it any longer!

As I mentioned earlier, we have literally had rain or snow for almost a month straight, every day.   Even when it wasn't outright raining or snowing it was misty, foggy, or very cloudy!  Everything is mud every where you go, even parts of the lawn that are normally solid even in a wet spring!  

I say that because I cleaned the barn yesterday in a rain storm and tore my pasture up pretty bad spreading the manure to clean the barn!  Working through that miserable weather was worth it, even if it is only for one day, as today was warm and full sunshine....ALL DAY!!!!!  

For the first time in three months,

 we actually had dry patches on the feed pad for the cattle!  This brief respite from the rain and cold is short lived as while I type this the next storm system is moving in.  We are supposed to get rain turning to snow with cloudy and wet conditions all week.  

Now, on to new things at work!!!   Things are going awesome with the new job and I am tremendously happy I made this move.  I love the work and the fact that I am not stuck in an office like I was before.  I get to sell the work, manage the work, and do the work!  We are very busy and it looks like the work will continue steadily throughout the winter.  

One thing that Troy, the owner of T&N Excavating, and I discussed shortly after I came on board was vacuum excavation and the benefits of it.  I finally had a chance to see one in action when the city came to a job we were working on to fix a hole in the water main line.  It was mind blowing how easily it works and how much safer it is to use when you are working around other utilities.  This is not something you would use to dig a house foundation of course but is exactly what you use when digging up water and sewer lines in city streets!

We were able to demo a unit from Vermeer and two units from DitchWitch.  Both companies have great machines and it was not an easy decision.  In the end, we chose to go with the Ditchwitch due to higher water pressure on the wand, higher vacuum power, better locking and opening system on the door, option to use hydraulic tools with the power unit on the machine, and a full 3-year warranty on the lease option we selected.   We are currently the only excavation contractor with a unit like this in the tri-state area.  We are hoping that this not only makes us much more efficient and productive as well as safe but, should also open up an entirely new market of work for us!

One other little tidbit that I wanted to share.  Since I am now working in a much more flexible place of employment and my brother has now come on board to help with the farm as well as working at T&N with me when farm work is not needing to be done, I have the opportunity to do things when I want to instead of when I am allowed to!

Every year since our first trip to the Outer Banks my wife and I have talked about making a second trip down in the fall to just go fishing!  This year I promised her, as well as our extended family Eddie and Gail, that we would do just that!   Our kids stayed with my parents and we went back for a full week fishing trip.  Of course, Zeus had to go with us, someone had to keep us out of trouble right!   

On one of our trips to the beach to do shore fishing I decided to set a chair up to sit closer to the water.  I set my chair down, cast out my fishing line, and turned around to sit down to find Zeus sitting in my chair!  I ended up letting him fish and went and got a second chair for myself!!

Something else that has never happened before on a trip to the beach.....a full family nap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  One of us is always watching the kids while we are on the beach so we never really get to fully relax.  This time was so different!  The one day we went to the beach and both of us took a nap for several hours.....it was truly the most relaxing thing I think I have done in a very long while!  

Eddie took us out on the ocean side on the boat twice.  We caught some blue fish, a couple of false albacores, a cobia that was too small to keep, and some Spanish mackerel!   It was so awesome that I cannot wait to do it again....I just need more Dramamine!   We also went gigging for flounder and night fishing for drum.  I cannot say enough about how wonderful Eddie and Gail have been to us and how awesome it is to know we have a great place to stay any time we go to Hatteras.   Eddie is a vast vessel of knowledge and fishing skills and is always ready to help when he can!   We may just have to make a trip down in the spring before their season really picks up and spend some more time fishing in a different season!

My last picture is of my wife and me at our annual Buckeyes game.   It is always a great time to get to go to a game with her as she fell in love with me, or started to anyway, when I took her to her first football game in the south end zone in the background of the picture!  

I hope everyone is doing well and I am hoping for a very snowy winter!  I don't have to plow it anymore and I am looking forward to getting to enjoy a snowfall for once instead of having to work all the time during it!

Have a wonderful evening and I am looking forward to writing my annual New Years day post!

Kenny

Two weeks down, lifetime to go!

Good morning everyone!!!   I forgot what it was like to have a lazy Sunday morning without a bunch of work-related items nagging at me to be done!  I actually have time to sit and make a post and give you all some updates.  

On the first day of the rest of our lives, Zeus and I had a planning meeting during the sunrise on the back porch.   I enjoyed my coffee during the meeting alone because he didn't want any.  The meeting was pretty laid back and quite productive.  Plans were made for the day and the week and after putting the kids on the bus we headed to the barn.   

Zeus sitting on my lap...quite a big lap dog!

So many projects in the first two weeks it was insane.  Had to remove and install all new brakes and hubs for the flatbed trailer, custom baling and wrapping, get dad's old plow up and running, and the fair!

Lisa with Iron Man, her dairy beef feeder

Lisa took both of her dairy beef feeders to the fair this year.  She needs to put in a lot more work for showmanship if she wants to place in it.  She starts out good but has to focus too much on the calf and cannot pay enough attention to the judge.  If she gets them trained better she will do much better in the ring.  

Lisa with Thor, her other dairy beef feeder. 

We have been waiting for the last three cows to have their calves, two of them are Lisa's and the other is Alex's cow.  Alex's cow had her bull calf late last week and Lisa's cows had their calves during the fair last week as well.  All three were huge calves and none of the mothers had any difficulties during calving which is awesome when dropping 115# calves!  Thunder's cream coloring is a pretty strong gene as well as we are still getting creme colored calves out of his offspring including his granddaughters and great-granddaughters!

Charolais X Summitcrest Angus calf!

Now, we thought we were done with calving as of last week....we were wrong!   The belty in the middle of the picture below was checked as open by the vet twice over the winter and spring.  We cycled her with everyone else this summer to sync them all together for breeding including a shot to make them all cycle.   She even went thru heat and got bred....and still no inclination that she was bred.  

Yesterday morning while discussing plans for the new shed with Sam we looked into the pasture at the cows and saw what we thought was a new calf.  Upon closer inspection, we found that we did indeed have a new calf....from a cow that was supposed to be open!!!!!!

Pretty sure we are gonna call this one Lucky and I may change his mother to Houdini as she is the master of magic having hidden a calf from everyone for an entire pregnancy!   

As I mentioned we are heavy in the throes of renovating some of our worst fields for my dad's farms as well as mine.  Step one is getting some lime and chicken litter on everything as there are several parts of both farms that have not had fertilizer or manure in my 30+ years and the majority of the farms haven't seen tillage or lime in my lifetime and some since my father was my son's age!  

Eric Hutchison applying lime on dad's flatfield

We were able to get ahold of a local guy who specializes in applying chicken litter and lime and is pretty darn good at it too! 

Eric Hutchison applying lime to dad's flatfield. 

Now, my wife has a Ph.D. in soil science and I have 4 degrees in various parts of horticulture and crop science, so we both fully appreciate the benefits of no-till farming.  However, sometimes you gotta bring out the big guns and turn the soil.  This is one of those times.  The fields we chose are ones that are very rough from years of tile line repairs, groundhog holes, blow out holes from tile lines being plugged up, hundreds of ruts in all directions from being stuck, and just generally messed up.  The plan is to get them leveled up by this time next year so we can go back to no-till cropping.  

Kubota M110GX hooked to my dad's 4 bottom Oliver Plow

 As I stated we are working on the worst fields....some of which are not completely fixed when it comes to drainage issues.  Most of the tile lines we are working on were installed by my grandfather and great-grandfather with horses and shovels so they are not deep and are in need of maintenance.  

Below is a great example of what we are dealing with.  I was literally done and leaving the field and trying not to drive through the damp freshly plowed soil.  In doing so I caught the edge of a blow out hole that was covered in tall grass and was immediately buried deep and stuck...immediately!  When the tractor sunk into the mud the plow caught the dirt and sucked into the ground as well.

Luckily I had access to another 4 wheel drive tractor that is the same size as mine and was able to snag it out in the morning.  Only damages being made were to my EGO!  As this was the first time I ever remember getting stuck enough to need to be pulled out by someone else....in my life!

She was deep.  Could've stepped off the bank onto the roof!  This wet area is the last one we have to fix.  To put it all into perspective, the tile lines that are messed up run under the road.  They were installed before the road was a road like it is now, so we have to get creative to keep the repairs from being really expensive.  We know we have one good 6" tile still working going under the road.  The plan is to find it and then tie the blocked up 4" tiles into it at the road.  If that fixes it we are good to go.  If not, we are gonna have to have my buddy pound a hole under the road with his Air drive Mole and install a new 6" pipe under the road.   We want to avoid that if we can!

 Another wonderful thing about being your own boss is setting your own schedule!   On Thursday morning we had a meeting with our Financial Advisor Hank!  While getting ready in the morning to leave I remembered that the Kidron Livestock auction was Thursday as well so we took the livestock trailer with us.   After our meeting, we went to find some feeder pigs as we still haven't had any from the sows that we currently have.  

We were happy to find a couple of pens that we liked and were able to get them.  They are already settled in and doing well!  

Well, it has been raining for two days straight now as the remnants of the hurricane that hit the Gulf last week moves thru this area and up towards Maine.   After this moves out we are looking at a week of dry weather.  It was 95 degrees on Thursday, today it is 54 degrees today.  I have already had enough cold weather and I am ready for the heat again!  

Our newest concern is hurricane Florence, which is currently being projected to make landfall almost on top of our favorite vacation spot in Hatteras NC.  My wife and I are planning a long weekend trip down to see our friends Eddie and Gail at the beginning of October to do some serious fishing.   We may not be able to do that if they get hit by a category 4 hurricane this week as that will do some crazy damage to the area.   Let's hope it changes it's path and stays in the sea!

Have a great week everyone!

Kenny

Vacation 2018 and a life changing event, MUST READ!

Hello Everyone!

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything and I apologize.  Part of what has led me to take this long to post is part of the overall message in this post.   I hope that something I say here today will help someone in a similar situation to get thru it and enjoy their time on this earth!

So, as I have stated too many times on here I have been very very busy between work and the farm.  I have been working for several months to find a solution to this problem at work and at home with no solution.  So, we headed to vacation this year with a heavy decision on my mind.  

That decision was whether to continue on the current path I was on or try something new.  The decision to leave the only career I have ever known to go out on my own is something my wife and I have talked about but have never been comfortable with to date.   My thought was to clear my head with some salt water, wind, tremendous friendship, and some good fishing.   I never saw coming what was in store for us this year.

Zeus and I with the 05 F350 on the beach in Hatteras NC

Our vacation started out as normal with our 13 hr drive straight thru from home to Hatteras NC where we were staying at A. S. Austin Co.!   Eddie and Gail became our friends over the last couple of years of being on the OBX and this year I feel we moved past friends to family.  What started from a simple trip to go clamming has lead to a relationship that has brought tremendous learning and experiences that we never would have known existed before this year.  

Zeus and I on the front porch of A. S. Austin Co. in Hatteras NC. 

We arrived on the island late on Saturday night in a pretty crazy thunderstorm and most of the roads were flooded but the old girl (our farm truck) took us safely to our destination and so began the vacation of a lifetime!   The surf was very rough due to many days of thunderstorms and such so we did some fishing and careful swimming at the first clearing we had on Sunday.   We were excited to find that we were just in time to spend the evening with our host for his 70th birthday and got to meet several family and friends!  Eddie spent most of his life on the islands and was a commercial fisherman for most of his life and his children and friends mostly all have jobs relating around the sea as well.  Our night was filled with food, great family, and many warnings of the rough surf and how quickly it can change and warnings were headed but not fully understood.

Monday found us on the beach with some fun waves to play in which lead me to try something new.....Body Boarding!   It was quite fun for the first hour or so.   Then I got a great refresher course in physics when I got rolled up in a wave and smashed into the body board causing me to crack a rib and put some others out of place....but hey, after I caught my breath I was ok, lesson learned!

Tuesday found us back on the beach fishing and the kids playing with nothing much going on.  The sun was out, the breeze was nice but not crazy, no storms, just great weather and great waves to play in.  My wife and kids were in the water for most of the day and I didn't get in the water till completely low tide when the waves were more manageable and to my liking.   Unlike my wife and children, I don't swim.  I did a little as a child, but for me, waste deep is good enough outside of a swimming pool.  I had been fishing most of the day and actually caught a couple of fish but nothing exciting so I got in the water with my kids.  We played in the waves for a bit and after about 20-30 minutes I had to get out to reset my fishing lines so they were out of the area we were swimming in.   This should have been a sign to me but I had so many other things on my mind I wasn't paying much attention....just trying to relieve some stress.   

So my I got out of the water and put new bait on my lines while my kids swam for a little bit.  My daughter asked me to get back in the water again so I said sure, the tide was just starting to change so it was our last chance before the waves came up again.  Due to me having cracked a rib the day before as well as being in the water just a short time ago and the water being safe, I didn't take a floatation device.  Again, I had a lot of things on my mind and wasn't thinking of all the warnings from our new family of the dangers of the water at this time.  

Just my daughter and I got in the water this time as my wife was cleaning stuff up around the truck and my son was getting a snack.  We made it about 20' into the water and two very large waves hit us back to back.  Within seconds I realized that I was now 40' in the water and up to neck deep.  I yelled at my daughter to get help as she is a swimmer and could break free from what I now realized was a very deadly rip current identical to what had taken so many lives over the few days prior.  

Before my daughter could make it to shore, she was only 30' away from shore at the time and it took her just a few seconds to get to shore, I was sucked 200'+ out to sea.  I cannot swim and was panicking pretty badly.  I have heard of people being in situations like this but never expected myself to be one of those people.  The amount of information and thoughts that went through my mind in the 20-30 seconds between when my feet left the bottom of the beach until I saw my wife heading to the water was tremendous.  At one point I seriously thought that this was the end and the only thing that snapped me out of all of it was seeing my wife heading to help with a floatation device.  

At this point, my mind went completely free and clear of everything and all I could think of was this is not the way this is going to go and I am good, just swim!  I had been fishing all day so I knew where the sandbar was and it was my only chance of surviving.  If I couldn't slow myself down from being sucked out my wife would lose sight of me and that was it.  So I swam as hard as I could to where I thought the sand would still be.  At this point, I was 300'+ out in the water.  Some more really big waves hit and in between I managed to touch bottom so I knew I was gaining ground.  I swam some more and managed to get on the tip of the bar.  In between waves, I managed to fight the current and get onto the bar enough to hold myself till my wife got there. 

It took us several minutes to wade our way back safely thru the current to get to shore from as far out as we were.  My kids were obviously upset and I tried to be positive for them to help calm the situation.  Shortly after we headed back to the house for the night.  

To say the least, I didn't sleep well that night.....I really didn't sleep at all.  I couldn't stop the movie replaying in my head and the thoughts of everything that brought me to this point in my life.  The vision I keep seeing in my mind when it replays in my mind is of my daughter sitting on the beach crying.  That is what puts it into perspective the most.  My clouded mind is affecting everyone around me, not just myself, and it almost cost me more than everything we have.

By the time morning rolled around I was exhausted but my mind was clear of all of the clutter that had been clouding it for so long.  I no longer was fearing the "what if" but instead I now fear the "what if I don't"!  If I had died in the water none of what was worrying me would have mattered, only what I had actually done to date and the legacy I left behind.  Suddenly I was able to easily make decisions that before seemed to be impossible.  

All that being said we decided to take some time and do some less strenuous things on the sound side like clamming and crabbing!   We also decided to take a rainy day and while the wife and kids went to the library and lounged Eddie and I worked to get his boat in the water.  This was a major change for him as he is used to a large fishing boat with lots of power and plenty of space.   The new boat is a small 17' skiff with a 70 hp outboard engine.....but it is a boat!!!!    We ended up taking it on its maiden voyage to do some clamming in an area you cannot kayak to easily and had a lot of fun!!!  We even found a life vest for Zeus which works awesome!!!

Zeus in his new Doggie Life Vest

The rest of our trip was filled with fishing trips on the boat and a couple more days on the beach.   Eddie, who is an enormous ball of knowledge, took us out gigging for flounders.   We got three nice keepers and had a new experience that we will never forget!

My wife with the flounder she gigged!

A lot of people bait crabs...I just walk thru the grassy areas in a couple of our favorite spots with a crab net and snag them up.  I got enough for dinner in a short 30-minute trip out to one of our spots!

On our last day on the beach, we had some beautiful surf and weather and a low tide in the morning.  Zeus and I found the best way to enjoy both....take the chairs out on the sandbar and fish!

Zeus and I fishing on the OBX!

 We were out there for 30-40 minutes before the tide started to change and we needed to move back in to the shore. 

This spot was a great spot for fishing for the most of our trip.   We caught 70+ sea mullet, several breakfast-sized pompanos and a decent keeper flounder here!

Eddie and Gail are just as hard of workers as we are and they rarely ever get a break from the store throughout the summer so as a parting gift my wife and I fixed dinner for everyone the last two nights we were in town and on our final night we had perfect weather for our first ever sunset from a boat!!!

The sound was a little choppy but not bad and we got around Durant's point just in time to anchor up and watch the sunset!

An unexpected bonus to the sunset was another boat that headed out before us that was directly between us and the sun.  It made for a pretty sweet picture and a fitting end to a trip that will forever be engraved in everyone's mind!

Sunset off of Durant's point in Hatteras NC.

My daughter needed to be home for fair stuff on Saturday and so we pushed everything to the limit and packed and drove back all on Friday.  You can see that Zeus is ready to go....and wondering when we are going to get this show on the road.....and why we have to leave instead of going to the beach or out on the boat! 

Zeus on the deck at A. S. Austin Co.

 Every year we get a family picture on the beach.   This was the first year that we were able to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time and smiling while doing so!

 Now that we are home and back to all the happenings here I would like to share some updates and insight into the changes that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.   The main thing that was on my mind was the decision on whether to continue to grow the farm and leave the company I started with upon graduation from college....or forgo the farm to put more time to work.  This was a hard decision before we got to the OBX, leaving there, it was the easiest decision I have ever made!

Starting 8-25-18 our family is embarking on an adventure that I know will take us more places than we haven't even thought of!  I have part-time work lined up with a friend of mine running equipment when I don't have work on the farm but we are now fully invested in the farm.  We need to see where this will take us and we are excited to know that we can help feed so many people and have fun doing it!

I have greatly enjoyed my time at Enviroscapes over the 16 years that I have been there and I have met people, learned things, and been to places not possible without them.  However, it is time for the next journey.   We only get one chance at life.  I am just glad that I am fortunate to realize what I almost lost and have the chance for a new start with two great kids, a perfect wife, and a pup that is down for anything we want to do along the way!

I promise that I will get back into my blogging as well.  I will be talking to everyone soon.

Have a wonderful day and please, take a moment to be thankful for what you have and understand what you truly need.  All the worries are for nothing in the end.  The only thing that matters is that you take advantage of every day to its fullest and make your decisions based on you and your family, not others want's and perceived needs!

Kenny

Spring is coming!!!

Hello everyone!!!  I am sorry for the long break since my last post.  Between a very large amount of things going on at work and a cold snowy winter, I haven't had much time to do any writing!  In addition to work, we have been busy in planning and updating things here on the farm so I have some things to share!

I will start off with the meat we picked up today to deliver to one of our long-time customers.  I have known this customer from my time in the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir, which was many many years ago and we have stayed in touch ever since.  They decided to get a full steer this time and it was finished up yesterday so we picked it up and delivered it.  We are finally getting our breeding figured out and are getting an even better product and much better yields over the last couple of years for the pigs and the cows.  

For many years our typical hanging weight at 22 months for a steer was 625#.  Last year we averaged 730#/steer at 20 months and this year we are averaging 875#/steer at 18 months.   The pictures below are of a porterhouse steak from today's steer.  The hanging weight was 813 and he was 18 months old.  

I put one of my gloves next to the steak for size reference. 

We have made several adjustments over the years.  We have improved the hay that we are feeding by completely reseeding all of our hayfields into a solid performing alfalfa grass mix that we bale at the best times as silage hay.  The knowledge we have gained over the years is allowing us to produce a high quality highly nutritious that is easily digestible.   We also are using a lot more composted manure as fertilizer which adds to the quality of the hay crop produced.  

Another change to the feed has been to offer the cattle and pigs free choice of buttermilk.  This started as a supplemental feed source for the pigs from our local dairy.  It has since blossomed into a great relationship with the dairy and a constant feed supplement for the animals that is natural, low in fat, and high in protein. This change allowed us to move away from the commercial lick tubs as a supplement for the animals and the change has been tremendous as they have a much more balanced diet!

 Another major change has been to develop a three-way cross with better genetics.  When we were getting started we took whatever cattle we could get and bred them to whatever bull was available.   Once we had enough money we invested in a better bull, and then another, and we have now started doing Artificial Insemination with a leased bull for clean up.  Between the better genetics and the cross-breeding, we are seeing terrific results.  Our best producing cross so far has been Milking shorthorns bred to an Angus bull.  The milking shorthorns produce copious amounts of milk, sometimes enough for two calves, which gets the calves growing crazy fast from the start.  The calves also are taller giving them a better frame to grow on.   The Angus bull gives them the muscle!  The end result is a faster-growing animal that grows well on grass. 

As I mentioned above and have discussed before, part of the conservation project we did on the farm involved composting manure.  When we built everything I thought I had way more space than I needed to do this.  The picture below is proof that I was very wrong! 

This is the second pile of this size this year.  The first I spread right before Christmas.  Don't let the picture fool you as this pile is approx 20' wide, 20' tall, and 40' long.  My goal is to let it compost all summer and apply after forth cutting as a fall fertilization.  However, I will see how things go and I may put it down after second cutting.  Everything will depend on whether I can get the chicken manure I want to apply or not.  

Another project has been a fencing update for the farm.  For years now we have had a two-strand electric fence for the farm.  This has worked very well and for many years we had very little issues with the cattle getting loose or breaking the fence. However, two years ago that all changed.  We have at least one, and possibly several, cattle who do not respect the fence at all.  When I shut off a pasture they break the wire gate and go right back in.  The breaking point, literally the breaking point, was reached on Christmas Eve when I was cleaning the barnyard and had the cows on the holding lot.  They broke ALL of the fences between the creek and the barn and were running rampid all over the farm.  It took three of us an hour to get them all in and they have been locked in the barnyard since.

It was immediately decided that the time had come to upgrade the fences.  We contacted HP Fence, who did all the fencing for my parents, and they came to the rescue!  Last week they were finally able to install the first portion of our fencing.  The first section is the holding lot between the creek and the barn and we went with 5 strand Hi-Tensile fence. 

Above is our entrance to bring equipment into the pasture.  Eventually, we will have the property line remarked and install a line fence but for now, we are stopping here due to budget restraints and time. 

Below we are looking from the cattle crossing into the tunnel for the holding lot.  This turned out very well!  We squared up the corners of the buffer strip and expanded it a little bit.  The buffer strip is now one lot instead of two and with this secure fencing system it will be much easier to manage.



I let the cows off of the barnyard to stretch and get some exercise.  They were thrilled and ran around for probably 20 minutes.  Then they decided it was time to go across the creek.......till they found a solid gate and very hot very high fences.  This was an awesome sight to see knowing the chaos that ensued on Christmas Eve!

HP fence will be back out in a week or so to finish the balance of our fencing.  They will be installing some new fence, beefing up our old fences, changing everything over to 3 strand Hi-Tensil,  and installing some sweet metal gates so we can effectively control the pasture rotation!

 Due to the large numbers of Hay acreage I now have I need to produce more dry hay than Silage.  To do this I need to take every opportunity I can to dry the hay faster in the summer.  One of the best tools to do this with is a tedder.  Once the hay has reached the permanent wilting point, you run the tedder over the field and fluff it.  My old 4 basket Kuhn tedder did a decent job but was hard to open and close, as it was all by hand, and was too small to cover the acres I need to cover in a very short time.   

I spoke with Greg at Unkefer Equipment and he went on the search for a Kubota 6 basket, hydraulic fold tedder.  He found one at a tremendous price in PA and had it shipped in.  I cannot wait to use it.  It is hydraulic fold and after the initial setup for height, it shouldn't need to be messed with again short of switching it to a shorter tractor.  I demoed a 6 basket carry type tedder last summer and the production rate was astounding.  I didn't like the 3-point hitch version as it was too heavy, but, with the size, I was able to cover more ground in three hours than I could with the 4 basket in a day!

The last piece of equipment that I have been debating on upgrading was the baler.  As many of you probably already know I got this baler about 4.5 years ago.  It is a terrific baler and has served me very well.  It is in need of new belts and has 12,400 bales on it already, I bought it with 3300. 

The tipping point for the decision to upgrade came from feeding the extremely thick and tall first cutting we made last year.  Due to the length, we are seeing a lot of waste by the cows, even with our high-efficiency feeder.  To give you an idea of what is happening, imagine eating full-length spaghetti,  without a fork, while standing about 12 inches away from the kitchen table.  What happens is, as you take a bite and pull, a lot of spaghetti is pulled off of the plate with the bite you took and falls on the floor.  While you are chewing the extra that is hanging out of your mouth falls on the floor as well. Then you trample it because you are trying to eat from the same plate as 45 other people!  Now there is a solution!

Introducing the solution!  When I went to pick up my new tedder I found it parked right next to a "barely used" BR 7060 Crop Cutter round baler.  This is the baler I wanted when I got my BR 740 but couldn't afford the $45,000 price tag!   This unit, however, is only a couple of years old and has only made 3386 bales.  When I bought the  BR750 it had made 3393.  

The decision maker for me was that this one has been kept in the shed when not in use, like mine, and was very very well maintained and not damaged.  It also just had a brand new set of endless belts installed on it!  These belts, if properly used, should last 14000 bales!  To top it all off, this baler cost me 50% less than new but is basically brand new!

What makes this baler superior to my old one is the processor!  If you look closely at the picture below you can see the knives sticking up from the bottom and the fingers fo the feed roller that shoves the hay thru the knives into the bale chamber.  With all 15 knives installed you end up with a finished cut size of around 2.5-3' in length.  This should greatly reduce feed loss like we are experiencing now.  It will also improve digestibility of the hay due to its shorter length. 

Now, the only decision is which hat do I wear when spring finally gets here?!?!?!

I can say that I was heavily leaning towards a new Kubota baler with the processor on it.  But, my final decision was swayed by the price and the fact that I am familiar with the New Holland product and it has served me well.  Until there is a Kubota baler that I can demo and test before I buy it I cannot justify making that change. 

I hope everyone has made it thru winter without any major issues.   I am very much looking forward to spring and being able to shed the winter coat.....and my beard!  Our deadline for finishing the fence is mid march as calving season is very fast approaching and I need everyone on pasture for that.  We lost a lot of calves last year simply due to the mud and mess that they had to trudge thru every day.  with the new fences, the walkway repairs I made last year, and shifting calving to April instead of March, we should see much better results this year!  We are currently expecting 24 calves this spring/summer.  14 of them are due between the third week of April and the second week of May.  The other 10 are all due on or around my Birthday in July!

Let's hope for a quick and easy calving season and 100% success rate! 

Have a great day everyone!  It is forecasted to be sunny and almost 50 today so I plan to go out and have a fire in the fire pit and enjoy the day!

Kenny