Time for catch up

[Madsaw]

Well its been one strange year for the farm. The whole summer being cold and wet with the fall being wet also. We ear pick our corn so we have been like veryone else in teh midwest waiting for our corn to dry down. But, atleast guys shelling corn can run it through dries if need be. Finally got the corn out and the cows strated staying in for the winter all about the same day. What a nerve racking mess. Nothing ready in the barn for winter. Of course everything wants to break and give fits in the barn the first week. This lead to the milk truck driver catching me on a very bad day. Needless to say many yrs of putting up with the constant issues with him came to a head. We now are sending milk to a smaller cheese factory yet that is just over the hill from us. Very strange how the new hauler comes in with a even bigger truck (quad axle compared to the tri axle before) and has no issues turnign around and does not get stuck with teh snow on the ground.
Then we got hit with over a foot of snow. which most of it dissapeared over the last few days when we got nice rain storm for christmas.
As Topside jinxed me by says how I raise some mnay calves here. He go the ball rolling for me. Last tuesday night a first calf heifer had a bull calf during milking. Not bad not a kicker, couldn't ask for much better. Looked at the other 3 heifers before leaving the barn that night, none of them looked like they was thinking about calfing. Well I was treated wensday morn to 3 more calves from the 3 heifers. Atleast they all got it out of the way fast. Now I am down for about 3 more weeks. The 4 heifers are milking great and real calm to boot. The calves(3 bulls, 1 heifer ) are doing great.
So, thats whats been keeping me busy the last few months. I hope now winter is here I can get some pic posts up.
Later
Bob

[topside1]

All that fun and a paycheck too...It's in your blood Bob no matter what kind of setbacks you encounter. Pics of the farm would be great, enjoy the last few days of 09, 10 is just around the bend...Topside John

[francismilker]

I've been dealing with some of these similar issues on a much smaller scale Madsaw. I don't have nearly enough room in the barn for all my small square hay, bulk feed sacks, and trying to jockey room to put newborn calves and sheep. We've had a really wet Fall season this year and it's caused knee deep mud that we usually don't encounter until nearly Spring. Everyday it get a little worse and I'm not able to get the barn cleaned out to counter my space problem. I find myself getting the tractor stuck or making bigger ruts and causing more problems than I had to begin with.

What I need is two weeks of dry weather or simply put, A BIGGER BARN!

[copperhead46]

I got my bull brought home, much to the delight of the girls, there were several who were very glad to see him. I moved the horses over to the pasture closer to the barn so that they wouldn't harrass the cows away from the hay. Went to Texas and got a new cow, poor girl, brought her out of nice warm Texas to a record blizzard for Christmas, she's looking a little bewildered !! This snow is not something we're used to, we never have snow at Christmas, and it sure has made a mess. I only had one suprise late calf and he's several weeks old so the snow doesn't seem to be bothering him, but I haven't been able to get him up to de-horn. I hope I can get him in before the next round of rain/snow. Oh, I did get some lespadeza sowed just before the storm hit, so maybe I'll get some good early clover. Jamie, a bigger barn doesn't help, I thought it would, we just filled it up and had to build a loafing shed on for the animals Hope you all have a wonderfull new year,
P.J.