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… and inspected.

For the most part, I had the fencing project [north of the creek] done yesterday.  But today I added the finishing touches by installing temporary gates to the paddock entrances.   Just before that, I called my local Natural Resource and Conservation Service (NRCS) official and asked him if we could schedule an inspection time/date.  He said, “How about 1:00 PM today?”  My response was, “Um, OK.”  That’s when I put the temp. gates in place and connected the fencer unit.  And right on time, the NRCS guy pulled into the drive.

On an aerial map, I showed him what fences I built/completed and how to get out to the newly installed paddocks.  Roughly a half an hour later, he and his assistant were gone.  I’m hoping everything met government specifications.  That’s how I built the stuff.  I even built it better than what was called for.  While I was fixing the fencing for the goats and sheep (on the south side of the creek) I could see that the inspectors were photographing my fencing – and admiring it, I’m sure.  Once they were gone, the rains came… again.   So far this month, we have had 13 days with precipitation and only 2 day without.  What a change from last year.

Here’s hoping the fencing passed inspection.  Whatever the case, the Scottish Highlander cattle are in some tall grass now.  In some areas of the paddocks, I could only see horns and tail.  I’m assuming all the other parts, in between, are there as well.

After helping the neighbors with chores this morning, I was in the mood to do a little fencing… why not!?  I’m awake already and it looked as though rain was on its way.  “Gitter-done.”

I quick loaded 4 cattle panels onto an old hay-rack.   Recently, I have been using this type of cattle panel as semi-permanent gates.  Today would be no exception.  Once loaded and hooked up to the pick-up, I headed to the new pasture area, north of the creek.  Within 45 minutes, all 4 gates were in place and the new 10 acre pasture was now secure and could be used for grazing.

With only a few odds-n-ends to take care of, the Highlanders will be able to cross the creek to enjoy the waiting pasture grasses in an hour or two.  The main task to take care of was the transitioning of the old fence with the new and to make sure the fence wires that crossed the creek were still intact.  The time it took to do this was much less than I thought – easy-shmeezy.  It was now time to let the cattle out (or in, depending on your perspective)… or at least let them know they were able to access the crossing area of the creek.

Once I located most of the cattle, it was time to call them.  Within seconds I have a half dozen, long-horned, cows and heifers running and bucking in my direction.  They know that when I call them it is time to move to new grass… and they were more than a little excited.  Horns were flailing and mud was flying.  Once they got to me, they settled down a little, but when I heard the pounding of hooves, I was quick to turn around to see if they were gunning for me or not.

The cattle waited for me to walk though the gate opening near the crossing before approaching the creek bank themselves.  As they started to eat the grass, I could hear a faint “moooo.”  I looked to the east but couldn’t see anything in the old pasture… then I heard another call.  It was LaVerne and she was running towards me like a big red locomotive.  Apparently, she saw the others eating the grass and she wanted some of that action as well.  Within seconds, she approached the crossing and was ripping the tall dark green grass from the bank, with her mouth.

As the highlander cows and heifers devoured the grassy bank, it started to rain.  I had hoped the girls would cross the creek while I was standing there.  Instead, I simply got wet.  It seemed they were quite content where they were.  Hopefully, they will find their way across the waterway before too long… and w/o incident.  Once out on the north side of the creek, I feel confident they will stay there… it’s the crossing area that concerns me.  Winter was not kind to this portion of the fence line and it was/is a bit entangled and full of duck weed and old cat-tails.   Soaking wet, I headed to the house with fingers crossed.

This morning was beautiful – warm, with a nice breeze.  Although we had a birthday party to attend, I headed out, north of the creek to get a couple of hours of fencing.  By hand, I finished pounding in the remaining T-posts… approx. 25.  In the box of the pick-up, I had a few bags of pin-lock insulators, so I installed those as well.  I got back to the house in plenty of time for the party.

After coming home from the birthday party, I went straight to work on the new fencing again.  I finished the installation of the insulators… then I ran the high-tensile wires.  In a few short hours the job was completed.  I do have a few wood posts I need to get pounded into the ground on the ends of the paddock, before calling the pasture ready for cattle.  I had time to pound post.  Unfortunately,  the tractor I use for driving posts had a flat front tire.  Needless-to-say, that’ll need t be fixed.

All-in-all, it was a great Sunday.  A good day to be alive.

Carol, the girls and I headed south to the Granite Falls, MN area.  Our mission was to look at a Scottish Highlander bull that we’re interested in leasing for the summer.  We heard of this bull (name Curly) from Farmer Mike, who called me last week.  He asked if we’d found a sire for our four cows.  When I regretfully told him no, he mentioned he had gotten a phone call from a fellow farmer and among other things, this farmer asked if we had gotten a bull for the summer.  It seems the guy’s aunt had a Highlander that she may be willing to lease… and that’s how we got to this point.

The ranch we visited belonged to a gal named Terry (of Red Tail Valley Beef), who raises grass fed Angus/Highlander beef for direct marketing to [I believe] restaurants in the Metro area.  She was a lovely human being with a real passion for what she was doing on her ranch.  Her small spread was nestled in a river valley, with grass as far as the eye could see.  It was a wonderful site… like a mini version of the ranch on the old TV show Bonanza.  As we drove onto the place, Carol mentioned to me that she recognized Terry from an Organic Seminar we attended a year or two ago.  Anyway, after some light chit-chat, she escorted us to the pasture to “meet” Curly.  We first walked past some of her beef cows… a few with calves and then there was Curly.  WOW!  What a handsome little bull.  Immediately, we could tell how he came upon his name.  His forelocks were more curls than long hair.  He was dun in color.  I say he was a “little bull” only because when one thinks of bulls, we think of massive, almost monstrous creatures, but Curly was not that.  He’s a Highlander and as Highlanders should be… he was smaller in size, especially compared to Terry’s cows.

The size of Curly impressed me.  As most folks, who know me, know that I’m not a real big fan of large animals.  Big cattle are less efficient, harder to maintain if things get tough and they don’t dress-out as well as smaller cattle.  Large cattle have a higher ratio of bone and gut (waste) to meat than do smaller creatures.  Personally, I believe it’s easier to sell a small amount of beef than it is to sell lots.  If you want a half of beef, I think one can find room in the deep freeze for 300 lbs of meat much easier than 450 lbs.  Smaller is better. And Curly was small… just right for our cows.

After leaving the pasture, we talked about what she wanted from us for leasing her bull.  I asked if she still thought $25/cow was enough.  She thought it was fair… but after a few seconds of thought, she changed her mind.  She asked if we raised turkey… we said we did.  She mentioned how she would be interested in one of our free-range, heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving (instead of a store-bought bird).  She also thought some lamb-chops would be good too.  It seems as though $$$ is over-rated, but we all need food.  Score another point for team barter.  One could say we are trading beef for turkey and lamb.

After we got back from or little road trip, I headed north of the creek to do a few more hours of fencing.  I know have the wires on the east side of the paddock up… not all the insulators are on the posts yet, but the wires are there.  I also had time to finish all my H-post assemblies on the north side of the paddock.  I have more work to do on this side… like measure and mark the positions of the T-posts, install the insulators and then run my wires.  It sure is exciting to see this phase of fencing draw nearer to the end.  Once the perimeter is fenced in, I think I will let the cattle start grazing this area as I subdivide it into 3 smaller paddocks.  The grass right now is quite tall.  A little grazing over the entire pasture will do it some good.

WOW!  What a long day -  nearly 400 miles round-trip.

My first of two stops was in NW Iowa to pick-up an old 14′ Minneapolis Moline grain drill.  Although the drill was in less than ideal condition, I felt for the money, it was still a good deal.  I believe I can use an old drill that is in our grove for parts… so, I’m hoping for a few $$$ I can have a grain drill to use on the farm for planting oats, wheat and pasture/hay ground.

My 2nd stop was SW Minnesota near the town of Ruthton.  A gentleman had contacted me on one of my ads for a small acreage crop sprayer.   After meeting him, he explained to me the history of the sprayer and how his family used it.  We got it loaded on the trailer behind the drill.  After tying it down, he also gave me a bucket of filters, screens and sprayer tips.  Again, this piece of equipment is not in ‘like-new’ condition.  It needs hoses, brackets and over-all TLC, but for $150, we both agreed it was a win-win business deal for each of us.  Best of all, this small sprayer can easily be pulled by a Farmall H.

I plan to use the sprayer for spraying a milk-water solution on some of the fields and pastures/paddocks of the farm.  Studies have shown that spraying this type of solution on fields, with low fertility, does wonders for grass type plants (i.e. oats, wheat, pasture, etc…).  One of a few articles can be found on Facebook’s ‘Small Farm & Sustainability Group.’  The study was conducted by Nebraska extension agent Terry Gompert and dairyman David Wetzel and is referred to as the The Raw Milk Strategy.  So what’s going on?  Gompert and Wetzel are both convinced what they have here is microbial action. “When raw milk is applied to land that has been abused, it feeds what is left of the microbes, plus it introduces microbes to the soil,” Wetzel explained.  It repels some insects

We plan on using a solution of 3 gal raw milk to 17 gal water per acre.  According to Gompert and Wetzel, there no difference between using 3, 5 10 or 20 gals of milk per acre.  At this time, milk is cheap and even if paying a neighbor twice the market price of fresh milk, it is way less expensive than conventional chemical fertilizers.  Since our farm is in transition to becoming Certified Organic this raw milk strategy is a perfect fit us.

Some time ago, Farmer Mike taught me that when the Swallows show-up in this part of the country, it’s time to plant the corn. It seems the swallows migrate to this area when there are bugs/insects to eat … and not before.

What does this have to do with corn? Good question. I think we established that swallows eat insects… the thing is, insects need warm temps and living soil, plants and seeds to survive. When these things start to present themselves, we then know that the earth is ready to receive corn seeds – germination may commence.  Thus… the arrival of swallows tells us corn-planting season is here.

Farmer Mike called last Friday to let me know that he had a couple of barn swallows arrive in his dairy barn and that he was sure more would be showing-up shortly. For us, we have Bank Swallows. Out in one of the paddocks we have a small gravel-pit, where there are hundreds of swallow holes in the walls of the pit.  Well, today I walked the pasture fences and there were 100′s… maybe 1,000′s of swallows flying around, sitting on the fence wires, while others were scooping insects out of the creek water. So, for the record… the swallows are back.

Here it is… finally installed and ready for years and years of trouble free service.  If it can make it through our harsh winter just setting on gravel, it should have no problem providing years of dependable service, being installed correctly on a concrete pad.  The model we have is short enough for goats and sheep to drink from… and yet it’s tall enough for cattle.

Here is our recently installed remote automatic winter waterer

This waterer is located approx. 850 ft from the homestead.  I ran out of time last year to get it installed as I should have, but used it for the cattle anyway.  Because I did not have it on a cement pad I was not able to get paid for it with our NRCS grant money, but the funds should come through this year once the waterer and pad get inspected and approved.

Right now the cattle are locked out of the area where this waterer sets.  They are in a paddock down the lane that boarders the eastern property line.  There I have another remote watering station, consisting of a 60 gal. stock tank.  Currently, they are being fed grass hay in that same paddock.  Next week the pasture grasses will be long enough for me to turn them out.  I wish I could do it now, but timing is very important when practicing managed grazing techniques.

With Earth Day due the following day, we experienced ‘green’ today.

Carol came in the house after haying some of the critters in the morning.  She was pretty proud about something.  She asked a couple basic questions about hay… then showed me a $2 bill.  She found it baled into the hay bale.  Who says producing your own hay doesn’t pay?

Another sign of green -  as I was walking the pasture’s fence lines, keeping an eye on the growth of our pasture grasses, I noticed that our wheat has germinated.  Looking across the paddock fence, I could see a slight hue of green in the field that Farmer Mike planted for us last week.  It was exciting to see.  Even though this is our second year of farming I can still appreciate the new growth of the spring growing season.

Our alfalfa/grass field, across the creek, is growing well too.  Today, I decide to get the remaining [last year's] round bales from the edges of the fields, before the new hay growth gets too high.  I wanted to test the farm’s “new” loader to see if it could lift a round bale or not.  I borrowed a bale spear, hooked it to the loader and headed out.  With high hopes, I speared the first bale.  I pulled back the loader control lever and tah-dah… the loader lifted the bale.  I was then able to load bales onto a hay-rack and in no time, I had nearly 20 bales in from the fields and stacked nicely near the barn.  In the time it would normally take to bring 4-5 bales back to the farm I was able to haul them all.  I can see the savings of time and fuel already.  Happy Earth Day to me!  I guess it’s time for me to talk with Farmer Mike about buying one of his custom-made bale spears.  I know I will be able to put it to good use.

On a minor note – I put in a couple posts near the barn yard.  With the pastures growing and looking better every day, I decided to work on a new lane for the goats and sheep.  We have a small, 2 acre paddock that they will need to get to in the next week or so… and as of today, there is no way for the animals to get to it.  The posts I installed will be part of a gate system for the corner of the paddock… and part of the short lane leading to it.

This morning I had time to work on one of the farm’s remote watering stations for the most eastern paddock/pasture.  Last fall I had purchased a few 500 ft rolls of 1″, 160 psi, black poly water line.  My intent was to install it last year, but I ran out of time.  Today it would get done.

After chores, I unrolled approx. 1500 ft (3 – 500 ft rolls) of waterline along a primary fence-line and after lunch, I connected them together.  Approx. 2200 ft from the barn we have the watering station in place and functional.  The experts say that if cattle have water nearby, they will drink more and eat more.  In the past, the cattle would come home to get water [maybe] once each day.  The time they spent walking to water is time they should be eating.  OK, I get it… it makes sense.  Then, I saw the proof on the importance of having a nearby water supply.  Within an hour of having the new water tank filled, I saw the cattle walk from their hay, about 60 ft away, to the water and back again.  This time, individuals drank water at their leisure.  Most of the time, when the water is some distance away, the cattle move as a herd.  I was impressed to see this change in behavior.  When we get the goats and sheep out on the paddocks, I assume we will see the same behavior with those types of critters as well.

I think it worth mentioning… while I was observing the cattle eating and drinking, I heard some Canadian Geese honking away.  At first I couldn’t locate them.  Then I spotted them.  They were across the creek – 2 large Canadian geese, playing in a pond.  This was something I had never seen before.  It was a pretty neat experience.

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.