Archive for the ‘Life on Lost Creek Valley Farm’ Category

We got 100 bales of hay delivered- should be enough til Spring! We had it delivered on the other end of the farm where there’s alot more room to unload.  Craig will have to move them closer to the winter paddocks soon.  We are going to put up temporary fence for the cows in the hayfields one more time before the snow flies.  That green grass will help fatten them up for the winter!  We also have to winterize the water system soon.  The vet is scheduled to be here in early November to give the calves shots.  Then we’ll wean them after that.  All our cows are looking very good this Fall- the grazing in the hayfields was a good idea, since we couldn’t get the hay up because of all the rain this summer.  The pregnant cows need good hay and nutrients to get through the winter.  The bull went home October 15th so we are able to stroll among the cows again.  Such gentle cows, and fun to watch!  And, the Fall colors are beautiful like always on the farm!

As the temperatures get cooler, we are thinking about getting ready for winter.  Planning to move the water tank to higher ground to avoid a mud hole in the Spring.  Someday we’ll put a cement pad under it.  We didn’t get our water system upgraded this year- add that to 2018 to do list!  Hay for the cattle is being delivered next weekend. Hoping we ordered enough!  These guys can really eat!  When the bull goes home around the 15th, we will put the cows in the hayfields for a few weeks so they can get the last of the green grasses before the frost.  The other big project for Craig is finishing the engine rebuild on one of his tractors so we have a backup over the winter.  Always good to have that!  Calves are getting big and they all look great- JJ is growing fast and they are all getting their winter coats.  The vet will be here in a few weeks for de-worming and calf shots.  Hoping we have a nice long Fall!  It’s a beautiful time of year!

We leased a bull again this year from late August – October.  We are hoping for about 12 Black Angus calves in the Spring.  We ordered hay from our neighbors for the winter so that is a load off our minds!  We had a bad haying year because of all the rain.  That’s the problem with working a day job- it’s hard to find consecutive dry days around weekends!  So, for now, we rely on purchasing hay, with hopes that when Craig retires we can do more of our own.  We still have a few projects that we hope to finish before it snows- getting more gravel for the farm driveway and ours at home, and making some feeders for protein supplements through the winter.  The plan was to winterize the pump and put in underground pipes with a water fountain, but that has been pushed off another year.  So, we move into the beautiful Fall season with not so many projects planned this year!

We are adding another type of beef to our herd.  Next Spring we hope to have at least two Wagyu calves born to our surrogate black angus cows.  It is a risky adventure, and very technical.  Wagyu beef is a Japanese import that is highly marbled for excellent taste and tenderness.  That is why Wagyu beef is finding its way into fine restaurants across the US.  It’s healthy, too.   It is a niche market with various possibilities.  We can raise the beef to direct market to consumers or restaurants or we can raise the calves or yearlings and sell for premium prices.  We plan to join the American Wagyu Association to register any calves born on our farm.  Like I said, technical with lots of paperwork!  Embryos were implanted in six of our cows with a 70% chance of success. Calves are due in early May 2018.  Hoping all goes well and we have an easy winter!

Where has the summer gone?  Our cows have been happily grazing the pastures and the calves are all growing like weeds.  Because of the rain, and need of pastures, we did not get much hay put up this summer.  So, we are planning on buying round bales from our neighbor to get us through the winter.  Because of that, we decided to lease the top field by our house again next year and plan to purchase hay until we need that field ourselves for hay or pasture.   We are leasing a bull this month, the same one we had last year.  We are hoping for 14 calves next Spring if all goes well!  And some of our trees will be cut this year to satisfy our Forestry Plan- hoping we can use some of that money for farm projects.  We are continuing to make improvements when we can.  Would love to get our water system upgraded!

Our last calf, JJ, is doing much better.  His mom is letting him nurse, and he’s gaining weight.  So relieved!  But, he got an infection and we were lucky to have been watching him closely.  He got a couple shots, and is feeling better.  He is still quite lazy and sleeps alot.  But, he eventually gets up and follows the herd.  We wonder when he’s going to start hanging with the other calves.  Because of all the rain we’ve had, we didn’t get the some of the hay cut so we decided to put the cows in there instead.  They love it!  We had to purchase alot of temporary posts and wire because it is way out on the other end of the farm. And, it was hot, muggy with lots of gnats and flies when we fenced.  Horrible!!   We also moved their water tank out there and put in a keep-fill sensor so it stays full.  Had to string out about 500′ of water hose- but it is worth it to not worry about water!  So, the cows have had decent pasture this summer.  We are going to have to buy most of our hay again, however.  Unless we can get a good crop on the next cutting… fingers crossed! (video update shows JJ running with the other calves- finally feeling better!)

 

We couldn’t believe it!  Another baby calf was born on June 30th to one of our first-time moms.  A nice surprise, it was another bull calf.  We were very excited, until we noticed that the new mom was not keen on letting the calf nurse.  She would step aside or shove him away every time he tried.  We thought maybe it was because we were standing there, so we left and came back later.  Mom and baby were together, but we didn’t know if he had nursed yet.  We waited until the following day and decided to put them both in a corral so they could bond.  It seemed to work, but we still hadn’t seen him eat.  So, the next morning we bottle fed him some colostrum, which he took just fine.  Then he went to mom, and she let him nurse!  Success!!  We let them out of the corral the next day, but noticed that mom wasn’t hanging with the calf.  Again, back to the corral and the calf was considerably weaker than the day before.  OK, that was it!  We got out the bottle and colostrum again and he drank it all, went to Mom, and again, she let him nurse.  So, we are leaving them together for the next few days, but will bottle feed him as long as he’s hungry.  Hopefully mom gets the idea soon.  We really don’t want to bottle feed a calf every day!! But, the little guy is so cute!  We are calling him “JJ” because he has upside down “J” white markings that circle above each eye!  His Mom’s name is Harriet Potter because of the crooked mark on her forehead.  So, we are taking this day by day and hope we can convince mama to do her job.

We had a surprise baby bull calf on June 19th!  Last Fall, we had this cow preg-checked and she was negative.  Guess they aren’t always right!  It was a nice surprise!  Now we have 3 heifers and 3 bull calves.  That evening we planned to give the cows a treat of some high protein feed on the farthest end of the pasture.  Craig got it set up in several plastic feeders, and walked back to get them.  All he did was crunch the bag so they could hear it, and they came running, knowing they were getting a treat!  So funny!  We thought we had everybody there and suddenly heard a loud Moo from the pasture behind the shed.  What??  Who was that?  When I walked behind the shed, I was surprised to see “White Bag” standing there with a new calf at her side!  We were stunned- the vet said she wasn’t pregnant last Fall.  But, regardless, we now had a 6th calf!  Incredible news for our small farm!  Now we have 20 head.  I was tempted to name the calf “Twenty” but instead settled on “Duke”  What an exciting night on Lost Creek farm!

We are hoping that we get a good first crop this year!  With all the rain, the fields have really been growing.  But, it’s been hard to find a window of 3-4 dry days!  Darn chances of rain every day.  But, we did get part of it cut and baled this week and are waiting for the next dry spell to finish.  Meanwhile, the cows have ate up their paddocks, so we are back to feeding them hay.  We had to buy a few bales to tide us over, but that was expected.  The cows and calves are all doing well.  The 5 calves are starting to hang together and it’s fun to watch them tear around the fields!  We added a small paddock on the side hill and did they ever like that grass!  We plan to put them on the hill in early Spring when the mud gets bad.  We’ve never had so much mud as we did this Spring, with all of the rains!  So far, things are going well at the farm. We updated our farm logo recently- added a cow, since that’s our main focus!!  Check it out!

Our last calf, Beau, was born April 23rd.  So, we have two bull calves and three heifers- not bad!  All look very healthy and they must be pretty tough because they went through some loud thunderstorms, lightening and heavy rains this month!  We put them out to pasture on May 13 this year- so they didn’t have so much mud when all the rains came.  We left them there a week and had to move them back so they didn’t muddy up the pasture too much.  Seems like it’s been raining or storming every other day this month!

Beau wasn’t even a day old when he got into trouble (think I’ll rename him Trou-Beau).  He somehow got on the other side of the fence.  The photo below is what I saw when I came around the shed.  Hmmm… something looks out of place!!  Poor guy- bet the electric fence got him a few times.  He sure was scared, running along the fence line, with Mamma on the other side!  I shut off the fence and held the wires apart, trying to convince him to go under it.  It took a while, but he finally got the nerve to go through.  I happened to be alone that night too because Craig was out of town!  So, I was very happy when I got him back in!!

Our plans this Memorial Day Weekend are pretty much the same as every other… work!  This year we are adding another paddock on the side hill.  This will be a good place to send them next Spring to keep them out of the mud.  Another problem we had with all this rain is that the water table is high, and the basement of the old house flooded- which is where the well is.  It started pumping sand and mud, plugging up the pipes to the water tank.  Geez… another problem!!  But, it finally cleared up after pumping a while.  We need some sunshine and dry weather because we need to cut hay soon!