Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

The haying is done for now. This time I baled everything into small square bales for the goats (and Ruby, Madison’s mini horse) this winter. A big thanks goes to our wonderful neighbors who lets me use their old JD 24T baler whenever I need it.

I forgot to look at the bale counter to see how many bales I baled, but if I had to guess, I’d say we have approx. 300-350 in the loft now. This hay is mostly used for the nanny goats when they are in the birthing pens and for the little ones in the nurseries. If we had a skid loader I suppose round bales would be the ticket, but when you a lacking certain things for bale handling, the square bales work just fine.

For the most part I was the one to get the bales out of the field. Austin has a job, Madison doesn’t like driving the tractor on the steep hills and Carol has been busy getting her mother ready for her surgery date and then again, there is the occasional sales-barn auction. So.. when the mice are out playing, the cat (me) has to do the work when it needs to be done. This morning and early afternoon, I was able to load, unload and stack 3 hay racks of hay. Later, I was glad to have Austin & Carol helping collect the bales (when they could) and Austin & Madison doing the unloading while I stacked the hay in the loft. Haying is a real family event on this farm. The real labor saver was the the old homemade bale elevator that I pulled out of the woods. It works like a charm. I’m quite happy with it.

The next crop to command attention is the wheat. It is or is nearly ripe. It is such an attractive golden tan with the oats next to it just as golden as it could possibly be.

Planting the farm’s corn field was not an easy task.  We started planting on Tuesday afternoon, May 04.  That’s when the problems started.  I had planted only about 5-6 acres when the transmission or clutch or something went out on the Oliver tractor – the tractor I was using to pull the $100, IH #56 corn planter.  Carol and I got the tractor and planter pulled back to the farm-site the next morning.  And then, the rains came.

It wasn’t until Sunday that I was able to start planting again… this time with the 560 Farmall.  Sunday didn’t go any smoother.  After a round or two of planting, I noticed the shafts on the planter boxes would pause at time.  A short time later, the shafts (that turned the planter plates to dump the corn kernels for planting) stopped moving completely.  Out of desperation, I removed the planter boxes at the garage and drove the tractor, with planter in tow, to the neighbor’s place (the previous owner of the planter) to see if they had any ideas that could get me back in the field.  They did and even helped get it working again.

I headed back, but before I could get to the end of the field, the planter stopped working again.  About that time, the neighbors drove up.  They wanted to make sure the planter was working for me.  I felt kind of bad – not allowing them the satisfaction of helping a guy back into the field.

With rain in the forecast, I really wanted/needed to get this corn field planted.  The forecast showed that we were to get rain for the next week.  I was worried.  So…. I called Farmer Mike, explaining I was having troubles with the planter and it looked like mechanical clutch problems.  I also wondered if he was home and if he could help me.  As it was, Mike and his family were not home.  They were on their way back home from a weekend holiday.  The good news was that Mike thought he might have the part that was giving me problems – his family once used IH planters and had a couple in the grove.

Well, until Farmer Mike was back home, I thought I’d try to figure out this clutch mechanism.  About 45 minutes later, I had the planter drive clutch in pieces before me and I could now see why things didn’t work.  The clutch was so worn it just slipped… yet, it looked simple enough to be repaired.  I grabbed my little angle grinder and started to remove material.  With about 15 minute of grinding, I had two parts that looked like they fit together… as they should.  I quick slapped the planter clutch and drive assembly back together.  For the rest of the night I planted corn.

On my last round I discovered the planter plate shafts weren’t turning… again.  When I climbed off the tractor to take a closer look, I could see that the drive chain was missing.  By this time it was quite dark and I could not located the chain.  I had no idea how long I had been planting… or maybe I should say, “not planting.”  If I could have found the chain, I could tell how far I got with the corn.

The next morning (May 10), we still had not received the forecasted rain.  This is good.  I quick got dressed and walked the field to see if I could find the chain.  I waked back and forth… up and down the rows… nothing.  I gave up after about an hour of looking.  I then called Farmer Mike.  I wanted to know where I should go to buy a new chain.  He mentioned that he may be able to make me a chain at his shop.  He needed to know what size and how long of a chain I needed.  I couldn’t tell him.  I explained the chain was somewhere out in the field and I couldn’t find it.  He asked me a couple of question about how I planted.  I told him and he suggested I look for corn kernels at the end-rows.  Where I could find corn kernels, was where the planter was still working… where there were none, was after the point of where the chain came off of the planter.  Armed with that info, I set out again to located the chain.  Within 5 minutes I had the chain in hand.  It looked repairable.

I went into the house and grabbed a paper clip to use in place of a cotter-pin and installed the drive chain.  Long-story-short, I finished the corn planing for the season.  I was sure to call my more than helpful neighbors and Farmer Mike to thank them for their input and their help.  Without them, I would not have been able to get the field finished before the rains.

5 hours after I got the field planted, it started to rain… and is suppose to continue for the next 4 days.

I got done what I had been dreading for months – since December actually.  I finally poured the small cement pad for our Ritchie™ brand automatic waterer.  This needed to be done as part of the farm’s conservation grant program (it was suppose to have been done last year, but I ran out of time).  Although the pad was only 4′x5′x6″… I hated the thought of doing it.  Last December I had purchased 20 bags of cement mix when it was on sale.  I paid about $50.  I decided to do the cement work myself after contacting a couple local companies about the job – the cheapest price I got was $250… the highest was nearly $400.  Most of the cost was for the hauling of the cement, not the cement itself .

Anyway, I had borrowed a small electric mixer that was a throw-away from a small masonry company.  I now know why they got rid of it… it was/is junk.  It turned the drum just fine… until cement was in it… then it skipped, rattled and at times, stopped turning.  At one time, it dumped the concrete when my back was turned.  Grrrr!  It was so frustrating.  The thing is, once you start the pouring/mixing process, you need to keep going until it is done, so I really couldn’t stop what I was doing to fix the mixer.  I figure it took twice as long as it should have.  I got through it, but it was definitely Miller-time afterward .

When I finished the pour and drove back to the homestead, one of our neighbors was there with his pickup and livestock trailer.  It was Farmer Mike’s little brother Rod.  He was here to pick-up/borrow a few of our little goat kids.  His family hosts annual farm visits for some local preschool classes.  This year he wanted some new animals, aside his farm’s usual cows and pigs.  Needless to say, we were more than happy to contribute to this learning experience.  He didn’t want to ‘borrow’ Wilbert, our pot-bellied pig.

After helping Farmer Mike with some spring plowing on his newly rented land on Monday, he came over to help me with mine.  We worked the fields on this farm for a little while Mon. night, but finished on Tuesday.  It was fun to be doing the field-work in tandem like we did.  For a few hours we [kinda] felt like bigshots.  Total, we had 10 bottoms in the ground.  In just 2 short working days, we had approx. 70 acres of crop land worked.  It was fun.

As a new farmer I was worried about this spring plowing thing.  I had once heard, “Poor fall plowing is better than good spring plowing.“  I don’t remember who said it, but it was an old timer I talked to at the farmers elevator last fall.  Since then, I’ve worried about my spring plowing project… I think Mike was worried about his as well.  Mike, as with most experienced farmers, has some real horror stories associated with spring plowing.  In normal soil, spring plowing can cause clumping.  Instead of breaking apart over winter, these chunks of dirt seem to get harder and harder.  Crops usually fail.  The soil on this farm (and the land that Farmer Mike is renting) is concidered sandy-loam.  It really doesn’t clump up, due to the lighter, well drained composition of the soil.  Anyway, after we got done with the field work, the spring plowed soil looked very much like the dirt that was worked last fall.  Mike ran across his acreage with a disc… I’m going to leave ours until we’re ready to plant.  I’ll then work it with a digger (or field cultivator), just before planting.  Now we need rain.

I nearly forgot.  After plowing on Monday night Mike’s son informed me that he had talked with someone who said our cattle were out of the fence.  Crap, crap, crap!  I took off up the road looking for the rascals.  The girls (Madison & Carol) jumped in the car and headed east of the place.  They called me saying they found a heifer and Donkey.  That means we are missing 8 head.  I drove around the fields and the girls checked the roadways.  Heading back to the farm, I found them in our alfalfa field.  Needless to say, I’m glad I had the BB gun.  With Carol and Madison’s help, we got the cattle into one of last year’s paddocks.  From there, we chased them accross the creek and into another paddock.  After driving home, I headed out on foot.  With my trusty Red Ryder BB gun in hand, I drove the cattle from paddock to paddock ontil they were penned east of the farm.  I closed the gate and called it a night.  Tomorrow I’ll get them a bail of hay.  It turns out the fencer was grounding out in the goat pen… there was absolutely no spark where the cattle got out.  It’s fixed now!

After helping Farmer Mike install some brand spanking new high-tensile fencing I decided to do a little here on the place.  We still have a little ice and snow in places so I’m mot going to attempt to put in post just yet, but I can do a some fence repair.  Last year when I dug-in the water lines for the remote watering stations, I had to remove some of the fence.  I guess now is as good as anytime to put them back up.

It’s still rainy and cool here, but way warmer than it should be for this time of the year.  Typically, our daily high temp. is about 36°F with a average low of 18°F.  For the last few days and the forecast for the next week or so, the weather is well above normal (highs in the upper 30′s-40′s and lows above freezing).  Snow is disappearing daily, with only a few inches remaining.  Water and muck is the worst part of spring on the farm.  The farm yard is wet but the barn yard and outdoor pens are a saucy mix of wet hay, mud and manure.  Yes… I am aware that I used the term ‘saucy’.

The good news is that the wet weather didn’t stop Farmer Mike from coming over.  He was returning home from the butcher in Belgade, MN and said he had some meat for us.  If you know us, we love to barter and it seems as though Mike and his family like to barter back.  A few days ago, Carol dropped-off a few pounds of our pastured pork (since we had more than we needed).  We were just trying to be nice… You know… friends doing stuff for friends.  Anyway, it may have been Mike’s idea but his wife Karen insisted they give us some beef in exchange.  OK… no need to ruin a good friendship over farm vettles… “We’ll take some!“  So today… we got the goodie-bag of beef.  Not just regular beef, but some high quality organic beef.  Carol and I are still trying to figure out who got the best deal.  What sounds more expensive… organic beef or pastured pork?  Hmmm.

It is finally starting to feel like spring around here.  The weather is reaching it’s normal high temps. of 30ºF and beyond.  The creek that runs through the farm has opened up.  And best of all, we haven’t had frozen water pipes in the house for close to a week.  Just a week ago we still had 17″ of snow and now we have about 8″ of the stuff.  The bad part of it all is that the mud is showing up.

In the barn, I installed a small flood light for the outdoor goat & sheep pen (east of the barn).  Now when we want to do a late night baby-check, it will be much easier to do.  Small things can make so much easier.

This morning and tonight, I’ve been helping the neighbors with milking chores  Tonight, Madison went with to help feed baby calves.  While observing some larger cattle she noticed one heifer laying down.  The heifer was in labor and Madison knew it… she kept a good eye in the animal.  When chore was finished, the calf was yet to be born.  We scooted the heifer into the barn for safety sake.  About 9:15, I got a call fro the neighbor – the calf needed to be pulled.  Madison came with.  We put the chains on the calf’s legs and the neighbor and I pulled.  After only 5 minutes of hard pulling a new calf was born.  It was huge.  Since the mother was in the stall we carried the calf to where it’s mother could lick it dry.  This Holstein calf must have weighed 80+ lbs.  It was so much bigger than the normal sized calf that was born last week.  I will be helping with chores Sunday at 5am and then again at 5 pm.

Oh yeah… I nearly forgot.   Carol made approx. 2 lbs of Mozzarella cheese from our farm’s goat milk.  Carol has had some minor problems with some of the Mozzarella recipes out there.  She decided to heat the salt brine water a few degrees warmer and the cheese turned out so much better – it stretched better than it ever has.  It turns out that in some cases, goat cheese needs to be heated at least 2ºF warmer than cow milk (unless the recipe specifies goat milk).

This evening I got a call from our neighbors  up the road.  I now have hay to feed the cattle… they used their tractor mounted snow-blower to clear a path to our inventory of grass hay – 25 round bales.  He said it was pretty smooth going, as they have a 2-stage blower.  It cut through the snow pretty easily.  I was sure surprised when I was told how deep the snow was.  My neighbor said he ran into spots that were 5 feet deep.  I’ll try to remember to bring a camera when I go get hay.

25 bales… that’s enough hay to feed the cattle into the month of May.  I’ll go get some hay tomorrow morning, since we’re completely out hay on the place.