Rollin', rollin', rollin'......

My post last night was in a bit of humor. In reality, we have been dealing with some horrendous wind lately. In comparison to the recent tornadoes in other areas of the Midwest, the wind is minor. But it still creates a HUGE set of new problems.

For instance, my dad had to take his tractor and chisel to one of our fields because it was blowing so bad. Chiseling is done strategically around the field to break up the ground in an attempt to keep the topsoil from blowing so badly. Top soil is a key component in growing a good crop so it is never good to lose it. It also creates visibility problems when it is blowing so badly and if a field is next to a major highway, it can have deadly results.

Another issue is that any type of dead weed is transformed into a tumbleweed with the wind catches it and rolls it around for miles and miles. Those tumbleweeds have to stop somewhere, and it is usually a fence line or tree line. Once they all get caught in the fences, they create a lot of surface area to catch the wind. It puts a tremendous amount of force on those fences and often times it tears the metal staples out of the fence posts and sometimes even breaks the wire.

This is the fence line next to my house. 

This is the other side of the fence. You have to look pretty close to notice that it is even a fence. You can just barely see the top of one fence post.

Now, after all that complaining about the wind, I have to say that today was one of those days that makes me love living here. No wind, beautiful weather and just a day to appreciate what God has blessed me with. Hope that you were fortunate enough to enjoy the day as well.

Evening guests

The wind was busy herding tumbleweeds today. Apparently their destination was my back door and woodpile.

Weekend Work

I haven''t posted for a little while, but it is not because of a lack of work here on the farm. I have been running around, but I was home this weekend and got to do a little work with dad.

First off, this was my walk to work. I love this view. It's home.

 

First job for the day was to cut out a chunk of cement for this wood burning stove/heater that dad will hook up to his shed. It will actually heat water in tubing that runs under the floor of the shed so the shed will be heated from the floor up. For this part of the job I was strictly a supervisor...spinning blades tend to scare me.

 After cutting the cement, he still had to use some good ol' fashioned muscle to get it out. 

As happens all too often, dad and I got a little distracted on our way to get the tractor to move the stove back into place. So we took the opportunity to go check some cattle. We had a new calf so dad had to document it in his herd book. I like this new style of checking cattle in the mule ;-)

Dad had to see if it was a bull or heifer for his records. It was a heifer. 

Below is something new we are trying this year. It is called "wet distillers" and it is a milo byproduct from an ethanol plant. It is mixed with the feed we are giving to our first-calf heifers, some of our bulls and our cull cattle (older cows we will sell after they calve). It gives them some added protein in their diet.

After a little distraction, we finally got the tractor back over to the shed. The tractor is the multi-dimensional tool for the farm. It is used in many ways that might not really be intended. We use it a lot to move things. Dad attaches a chain to the scoop then hooks the chain to the item to be moved. He drove the stove into place, while I directed and got it situated where it needed to be. Teamwork and trust is a must in these situations. It's probably a good thing mom doesn't always see how we get things done ;-)

After all of that, we fixed a little bit of fence, cut a little firewood and called it a day. And for the record, I had to call my dad three or four times to get all the facts straight for this blog ;-)

Welcome to this world

Since some people might not understand what it means when we "pull" a calf during calving season, I thought I might take this time to document it. My supper was interrupted last night to help dad deliver this little guy.

 The young heifer had been working to have her calf for probably three hours. We like to let them have them naturally, but sometimes it just isn't possible. In the above picture you can see her amniotic sac hanging out. We first tied her up so she didn't move around too much.

 Dad had to put on his operating equipment.

 Next we have to loop a chain around the hooves of the calf. The chains have been disinfected before we do this.

 There are quite a few steps that I missed, but I was a bit busy helping dad pull on the chains to get the calf out. It's tongue was swollen and it was a pretty big calf for a heifer. Dad said he would have to look at what bull he bred her with and make a note of it since it made for a difficult calving situation.

 It's funny and sweet to see a big, gruff rancher being so gentle and talking to a baby calf the way they do to make sure the little guy is ok and breathing right.

 Poor mom didn't want to get up after this rough ordeal.

 She was pretty happy to see her baby was doing ok.

Another observation for the night: Don't set your camera somewhere and forget to make mention of it to your dad. He put one of his manure covered gloves on it when he had to change gloves in the middle of the job. Thus, a manure covered camera ;-)

Now, if you'll excuse me, my dad just phoned me and I'm on call again as we have another heifer "brewing" in the barn. Might be time to help welcome another one into the world!

Beef. It's what's for dinner.

Last night I had the privilege of escorting my parents to an ABS meeting. For those of you who don't know, ABS stands for American Breeding Service. This is the company from which we buy the bull semen to A.I. our heifers. It gives us more predictable results and causes less stress on the young cattle. You can choose the specific traits that are good for heifers having a first calf. We look to use bulls that will provide us with a good ease of calving rate. This means the heifers will calve easier than if we bred them with an unproven bull in the pasture.

The meeting was well attended and quite crowded. Like any meeting involving ranchers, you better serve beef for the meal. So we were treated to a nice chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Notice the lack of vegetables on the plates ;-) We did have salad before though.

Since the room was so crowded, I was at least pleased that I got to sit across from one of my students. She provided me with a lot of entertainment...especially while trying to get the steak sauce out of the bottle. Notice the pile of it on her plate. But, to her credit, she ate every last bit of it!

Calving Season

One of the hardest times of the years for cattle ranchers is calving season...at least if you do it when we do. February brings a round of new calves to our ranch every year. I've had all sorts of experiences throughout my years during that season. Some of them involve my sister and I comically trying to cart a newborn calf in a wheelbarrow through a maze of frozen cow patties in the middle of the night so we could get it out of the cold and into the barn. Poor little calf almost got dumped out several times! There are lots of highs and lows during this time of year.

We started our calving season a month early with a cute little premature calf. My dad and uncle had quite the time getting the calf and the mother loaded into a trailer. Since the heifers were not meant to calve that early, we still had them in a pasture several miles from home. Because the calf was so tiny, its legs kept giving out on the way to the trailer. However, when dad tried to pick it up and carry it, the mother took off and wouldn't follow her calf anymore. She is a first-time mother and didn't appreciate the human interference. We couldn't get her to come back to her calf until her calf started bawling for her. Her mothering instinct kicked in and she came back to it.

We have already lost one calf this season. Ranching isn't an exact science and a lot of things are still left up in the air. Among other things, you never know if the mother will clean its calf after it has been born. If it hasn't cleaned it and you don't get there soon enough the calf might suffocate because the afterbirth its mother should have licked off covers its nose. During the wee hours of the night it makes it hard for worried ranchers to get much sleep. The first-calf heifers are kept very close to my parents' house so dad can make nightly inspections during the height of calving season.

The older cows, who have already had at least one calf in previous years, are also kept close but we don't worry quite as much about them. They know the routine and have the wisdom to know what to do. It always cracks me up how curious they are though.

This is what I saw when I got to the bottom of our hill tonight. The cows were just hanging out and watching me drive up.

 As I got closer, their curiosity was getting the better of them. Notice how they are walking forward.

 This is my dog smiling for the camera....ok, maybe she's yawning. That pretty much sums up exactly how impressed she is with my blogging skills.

Finally! I got a decent picture of her and I have some very interested visitors in the background.

I am enjoying this "blogging" business so far. But I need your help. I have a tendency to get really excited about things and then it tapers off. So, if you actually read the blog and you notice I haven't posted anything for a while, please make sure to let me know about it. If people are actually interested, I will feel more responsibility to keep things current.

Have a great week,
The Farmgirl

"Snow" Day?

Last night I received the welcome phone call letting us know that we would not be having school today. Due to all of the overwhelming forecasts that we would be getting at least 8-10 inches of snow, all the schools in our area decided to play it safe. Fast forward to today at 3:19 p.m. We still have no snow on the ground.

As a farmer though, we don't complain about having extra time to work on the farm and we have gotten some moisture with it. So this is how I have spent my day so far.

 When I woke up, I knew that I had no electricity. It had been blinking on and off last night and finally went off and stayed off at 5 this morning. So first priority was to get a fire started to keep things warm. Then my dad got a call that our cows were out. So, by 7:45 I was out of the house and helping get the cows in. (Ok, in all fairness, my dad and uncle had most of them in by the time I got out there.)

It gets a little muddy in some of the pens, so we have to put chains on the tires of the feed truck so we don't get stuck. Not a fun task, but my dad does it time after time without complaint. I think they were still on the truck from the last snow, so at least we didn't have to put them on again today.

We feed our cattle in the pens a combination of things. We feed them ground up corn, feed and pellets. The pellets contain extra protein from things such as soybeans to help the cattle gain the weight they need. The pellets, feed and corn are all put into the feed truck and all mixed together with big augers inside the truck. After the truck is filled for the next morning, the tractor has to be plugged in because diesels don't like to start on cold mornings.

Dad and I had some work to do as we tried to fix fence. It is fun working with dad because we have worked together for so many years. Sometimes we get on each other's nerves (I know, I know. Most of you can't believe I would be annoying ;-), but we know which jobs we do and we work together to get it done efficiently.

Last, but certainly not least, my mom cooked a wonderful and hot lunch for us. We had a good time talking as a family and I found out my mom has some impressive style. Check out her new boots!

All in all, it was a good day and I love my farm and my family. Although the snow never showed up, it was a great "snow" day for this farmgirl!

THE SCOOP ON ME 

If any of you know me, you know that I like things simple. Simple hair-do, simple living…just simple and uncomplicated. This week I was flattered when a student chose to dress like me for "Dress Like Your Favorite Coach" day during homecoming. Come to find out, she did it because she ran out of time and she knew pulling her hair back into a ponytail and not wearing much makeup would be easy ;-) 

At a conference this past weekend it was once again brought to my attention how some people might not completely understand my world. My life on our farm is such a huge part of who I am and sometimes I forget that those who don’t know me might not understand why we do the things we do on the farm. Heck, even some of my closest friends might not understand how my life on the farm is intertwined with theirs.

I don’t have unrealistic expectations that I might “save the world.” But I do hope that through this blog I might be able to take the mystery out of some things on the farm. If any of you have any questions, please feel free to ask. In an effort to save the family farms in our nation, we have to change our way of thinking. Part of that is making sure that we explain the things we do on our farms in a way that allows others to make INFORMED decisions about their purchases in the grocery store and in other areas of their lives.

I’m not an expert in any way, shape or form. I’m still very much in the learning phase of this. I lived away from our farm for the majority of the seven years and a half years I was in college (ok, quit laughing about how long I was in college). I have returned to our community and now am seeking to take a more active role in our farming/ranching operation. Hopefully this blog will provide an entertaining, and often humorous, look at what my life on the farm can sometimes involve.