We spend these last winter months discussing plans for the year.  We want to make winter watering easier by winterizing the pump and possibly installing underground pipe to the water tank.  We have been lucky so far, only having to replace frozen pvc pipes once.  We winterized the water tank so the tank heater doesn’t run constantly- that helps with the electric bill.  We also want to add one or two paddocks so we will need to do some fencing again.  The cows are looking very good this winter- we are supplementing them with protein tubs in the cold months.  They love their shed, especially when we added some bedding for them.  We are also thinking about how to position the round bales for easier feeding.  Last Fall was very wet so there were a lot of ruts from the tractor in the pasture, making it hard to haul bales this winter.  Also, it got warm in January- actually rained for a few days- and the tractor got stuck in the field in one of the ruts.  After a few days it got cold so we could get it out.  Luckily, we could just move the temporary electric fence back to feed them until we got the tractor out.  It made us realize we need a backup plan in case we can’t use the tractor!  We plan to position bales on the outside of the paddock with temporary fencing, and move the fence as we feed next winter.  The hay bales in stock will last through March, so we will be purchasing a few more to get us into May.  Time to make some calls…

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