Pouring concrete in the new building, a new baby calf, and a special interview for my EPRI/AFT project from last year!

Another busy weekend has passed and rolled right into a very busy week!  New concrete, new calf, and some new updates to the EPRI project from last summer!

We poured concrete Saturday morning.   I started at 5am with making sure the driveway was cleared out, grades were as close as I could get them and we were ready for the concrete.  Short of some little tweaks here and there I was pretty close with everything.

First truck arrived at 7:30 am.  We barely got the wire down and the two form boards that we needed set and he was ready to unload.  I am posting some random pics of the pour so that those who have never done this before can see a little of what is involved.  

I used a trench drain so that the floor could be evenly sloped from all corners and would also be much easier to clean as the space you are washing into is much larger than a small square or circular drain.  It also drains out the end so if something falls in it is not lost forever!  You will also notice that it is pinned in tight and also tied into with rebar and wire.  You pour the concrete under to lock it all together so it is one piece.  If you do not get the concrete to encase it well enough the concrete will break around the drain and fail.

Above the guys are getting the concrete spread and close to finish grade so it can be screeded of with the screed board.  To set the screed level you float the edges to the proper height and then using a long board you hand screed (scrape with the board) the concrete to finish grade.  After screeding to grade you use a large float to make it smooth and let it set for a while till hard enough to support some weight.

Once the concrete has set enough to support some weight they guys slide out on it on special kneeling pads to finish it off.  I wanted the shop floor smooth but not like glass so they troweled it one time to make it smooth but leave just a little roughness so you don't slip when it is wet.

The front apron has a broom finish so it is much more coarse so you don't slip if wet, dirty, or snowy.  This picture was taken just after everything was done and the guys were packing to leave.  Total time start to finish was about 3 hours total concrete was 14 yards.  It went very fast!

We always have to date our pours and so everyone got to put a hand print in.  If you look closely we had friends over for the day and their daughter got to put her print in with everyone else.  You may also notice that my sons print seams a little strange!  That is because he was upset for some reason and when he put his hand print in he tried to grab a wad of concrete so it is more of a claw print!  He will be able to tell his kids about that one!

Here is a good pic showing the finished floor inside and the broom finish outside.  

The last picture is of the back of the new building where the new feed area for the feeder pigs will be.  The new feed pad will be between the buildings.  The rest of the concrete I used to create a permanent swale so be sure the water goes away from the barn instead of into it.  Where the concrete is is also where the pigs liked to make a mud hole and would back the rain water up till it ran into the barn.  This will stop that from happening! 

Our last calf of the 2015 calving season has finally arrived.  Frosty had a beautiful little black baby girl over night Saturday night into Sunday morning.  

Lastly, those of you who do follow the blog will remember the large expansion project I did last year that included a buffer strip to control runoff, a heavy use feed pad, and a lot of fencing to keep the cattle out of the stream that our farm is named after.  This was funded through a program that is being research by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).  They are partnered up with American Farmland Trust and together are trying to develop a nutrient trading program to allow for power companies to offset their emissions at their plants by helping install and maintain pollution sources upstream from their plants.  

There were several projects in the trial run but only four of them were selected to be a part of their campaign and for more study into the affects of the project.  We are one of those four selected projects and I had the honor of being interviewed for their future presentation of the results.  I also was able to show them personally the results of the project and how it has helped us and those around us.  

Power plants are a major source of pollution that is generated while creating the electric power that feeds our society and makes the simplest things in life, like running water and lights, possible.  For many years there have been large advances and upgrades in controls to minimize this pollution source.  However, at a given point, the return on investment is so small compared to the cost that it just doesn't make any impact.  "The law of Diminishing Returns!"  So, what is being researched and developed is a system for the power industry to be able to invest that money into other pollution sources in the agriculture industry to offset those emissions.  The return on investment in the agriculture sector is enormous per dollar spent compared to the same money spent at the power plant.  

A huge side affect of this program is an increased standard of living and quality of life for farmers who are part of the program as well as the animals and family fed by those farms.  Personally this project allowed me to be able to expand our farm to be able to support more families with the food they need without negatively affecting the environment that feeds us all.  Furthermore, because of the systems we had help installing we are also able to provide a much better quality of life for the animals we are raising here on the farm.   

  

If you have never heard of this or want to learn more please visit their website and learn what you can do to be a part of a solution to a world wide problem.  

http://wqt.epri.com

I also encourage you to check out American Farmland Trust who is teamed up with EPRI and has been the group directly working with our local extension agency and other agencies to get this out to the agriculture sector to see if it can work.  

Have a wonderful week everyone and I will be sure to let you know when the video is ready for viewing!!!!

Kenny

New building updates

Hello!  A couple of weeks have passed already since my last post.  Things are moving fast and I haven't had time to stop to do anything other than sleep at night!  The building walls are up and I am prepping for concrete.  I installed the footer drains last weekend and waterproofed the north wall and parts of the east and west walls where needed.  

I am installing a trench drain in the center of the building floor.  This will allow for a nice even slope all the way around the drain from all corners.  It is also much easier to wash a floor with a long trench drain than it is to wash one with a circular drain.  

I have man doors on the east and west walls of the building.  There are windows on the west, north, and east walls.  The south wall is solid because it faces the barn.  You can see in the picture below the waterproofing on the wall on the corner.

Just as the sun was setting I finished my stone wall to hold the hillside back the hill from the door.  Because I moved the building over it pushed it into the hill more so I needed to put in a quick retaining wall to hold the hill up.  I will get a better pic in the day light when we pour concrete!

This is going to be the new pig feeding area.  I have always struggled with a good way to wean and feed the feeder pigs away from the sows.  This year I am planning on switching the boar lot to the new feeder lot to wean piglets and feed them during the nasty winter months.  They will need to sleep in the boars nest till they are fully weaned.  By then I will hopefully have my new height restriction build that will allow just the feeder pigs into this lot and only they will have access to this feeding area making it easier to give them access to the extra buttermilk without having to compete with the big pigs!  I will let you know how this turns out!  I have roughly 5 days to figure out what posts I want and get them installed before the concrete is poured!  I may have to leave myself a couple of holes or get creative if I don't figure it out quickly!

Another upgrade is a drain line for the new building with tie ins for all the downspouts for the new gutters.  I also ran a new water line down to where the headlock is at so I can use it to water animals if I pen them up in the shed for something without having a hose laying down the driveway.  

Here you can see all the new drains and the water line tying into the new building.

I know I didn't get any good pics of the building yet but I promise I will get some better ones this week.  I was much too busy hurrying to get things done before the weekend was gone to stop for pics!  Hope everyone had a great weekend and I hope this week is a smooth one.  We finally got some good rain this weekend and I am starting to see my newly seeded hay fields slowly starting to sprout.  I hope all the seed made it through the drought!

Goodnight everyone,

Kenny

Purchased a lamb at the fair and a slightly large project going on here at the farm!

The Stark County Fair was last week.  We took the kids to go see the 4-H animals sell and to see my cousins's daughters sell their lambs.  We were lucky enough to be able to buy one of them at the fair!!  They did very well and I cannot wait to have some lamb chops soon!  We will also be inviting them down for a meal of leg of lamb as well!

The big project I have going on is building a new building between the driveway and the barn.  It will house the tanks that I store the buttermilk in as well as give me shop space to park equipment to work on during the winter when I have time.  Until now everything has had to be repaired outside in the driveway or the yard which is not very desirable when the weather is not good.  It also leads to a lot of lost small parts due to falling in the gravel or the grass.  

The first step was to level the site and move my White Spruce that I planted several years ago.  

It was actually bigger than the tractor.  I took it up on the hill next to where the new house will go in a few years and planted it where it will provide some blocking of undesirable views from the new house.  We decided to leave the feed bin in place and install a feed pad directly behind it to feed the buttermilk and feed supplement to the pigs that we feed out.  This area used to be the boar lot.  However, in the harsh winter month this will become the feeder lot since they will not go out much when the temps are very cold anyway.  The boar will get to sleep with the cattle and the sows will have their lot and all the pens.  This will allow for weaning of piglets while feeding out older pigs as well.  

I am having JC masonry do the walls of the building for me.  The walls will be all concrete block.  This will be stronger in the long run and much more durable than wood.  I can also paint it and be able to wash it and not have to worry about moisture rotting out the walls down the road.  

There will be 3-5 windows, 2 man doors, and one 12'wide x 11' tall garage door.  This will allow me to fit all the different size equipment in the shed without having to worry about hitting the roof.  I am trying to remember to take pictures from the same two spots every day so I can show the change from start to finish.  However, just like usual, I get so excited to get started that I never remember to take a picture before I start any work at all.  Now I have to go back and find an older picture of the area from last year for the starting picture!  My wife was on it a little quicker than me and took some pictures just after I started digging.  

One last item that had a much needed upgrade was my bale feeder.  I have a bunk feeder that I have had for about 8 years now and I also have a Klene Hay Saver Pipe feeder, Model C-7.  I have used it for two years and I absolutely love it.  However, I have outgrown the C-7 as it is 7'x7' and can only hold one bale at a time. So, I upgraded to a C-12.  This is a 7'x12' feeder that I can fit 3 bales into snugly extending the interval of filling the feeder.  I have gone from feeding one bale every 4-6 days to 7-8 cattle to feeding 2-3 bales/day to 50+ cattle.   I actually need two of these feeders but with the building project the budget is super tight right now.  So, unless we can sell both old feeders and sell some cattle at some favorable prices this fall, it looks like I will have to use this feeder and my old bunk feeder for another winter! 

With pulling the bulls off the pasture in the winter and separating them from the herd I was able to set the breeding date for approx 95% of the females.  I released the bulls on June 30th which will put most of my calving from mid March till the middle of April provided everyone is bred.  This means I can have a herd check in the first week of October to see who is bred.  Now, because of the herd size I can start to sell any of the cattle who do not produce the best calves and be more selective in who I have on the farm.  This will also create some much needed income to offset my large building project.  

Hope everyone is enjoying the end of summer and beginning of autumn.  The leaves are getting close to changing and I am seeing the birds start to group up for the flight down south.  Sometimes I wish I could go with them for a winter!  Before you know it it will be cold and snowing.  I don't even want to think about it!

Goodnight everyone! 

Kenny