April 22, 2010

New life is coming to this farm every day. The ewes are half done lambing. About one third of the cows have calved.

I spotted two fox hungrily looking into the lambing pen the other day. Yes, they will try to sneak in there and snatch a baby lamb or two for lunch. I chased them off and was pretty sure they were denned up down in a junk pile south of one of our ponds. I went back to the house, grabbed my shotgun and fox call and got upwind from the junk pile, hidden behind some old machinery. After a couple of toots on the call, a fox appeared and darn if the thing didn't start running right at me. I prepared for the shot! However, I'd forgotten about the 22 yearling beef heifers out in the pasture behind me who had been observing the drama unfolding. Acting like a bunch of teenagers, they decided to get in on the fun and came stampeding up behind me. Scared the dickens out of me just as I stood up to take a shot. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I killed a fence post, two dandelions and a dried up cow pie. The fox, unscathed by the incident and scared to death ran like the wind for parts unknown. Well, maybe they'll leave my sheep alone.

Good grazing to you, Bill

April 20, 2010

Planting corn today. Every which way I look, I see work that needs to be done. Such is the problem in spring. Best to take a deep breath and continue to prioritize and move ahead.

One of the projects that needs attention is our "quail habitat plot". We have designated about two acres of one of our pastures to be used as a demonstration plot for quail habitat and grazing. We killed the sod last fall and now will drill in a number of plants that are conducive to quail and their brood hatching needs. I'm told that the first year it will just look like a weed patch. That should entertain the neighbors! Anyway, the goal after establishment it is to quickly graze it for short periods of time with cows or sheep, then get off of the ground for a long period letting the forbs and grasses regrow and continue to allow some habitat for wild quail.

At the turn of the century, I'm told that Iowa was covered with coveys of quail, especially southern Iowa. Modern row crop agriculture has all but destroyed most of the habitat needed for these little birds to survive. The Conservation Reserve Program served as somewhat of a "band-aide" for a period of years but since the government decided to promote ethanol as the new fuel for America, the amount of quail habitat has gone straight downhill. And a lot of topsoil has gone with it, a sad state of affairs.

April 13, 2010

We had our first new baby lamb yesterday and she's a cute little critter. Just a single lamb but her mother is just a year old so that's all I expect from her. I need to improve their lambing facility today to protect them from predators. I've seen a local fox prowling around and we know there are coyotes all over the place, not to mention the neighbor's dogs.

A couple of years ago my wife, Mary, heard an animal crying out in distress out in our wheat field. When she went to investigate, she met a fox running out of the field carrying a brand new baby deer. Who would have thought that could have happened? The next couple of days we could see a young mother doe walking around looking for her baby. Nature can be cruel.

New calves are arriving daily, we've planted our oats and now the pace really picks up!

Good grazing, Bill

April 7, 2010 Blog

This morning I freeze branded 48 head of breeding heifers for Hugh Whitson, brother of Peggy Whitson, the famous astronaut. If you don't know who Peggy is, you should google her name and find out why Southern Iowans are so proud of her. Seems kind of strange to have two cattle producers branding calves and discussing the space program at the same time.

Tomorrow I have the sheep shearer headed our way to give the ewes their yearly clip. I'll try to film a segment of it and offer it on this blog or on our website. Always fun to watch the shearing process. The ewes are suppose to start lambing in two weeks and I'm looking forward to that.

The other big news it that my printed books are suppose to arrive by UPS this afternoon and I'm looking forward to actually seeing the finished product and begin marketing them.

Good grazing to you, Bill

April 6, 2010 Blog

When I started this blog, I pledged to make an entry each Tuesday and Thursday. Well, I already missed last Thursday. That day I was very busy running our spring calving herd through the chute, clipping freezebrands to make them more readable, replacing ear tags, scoring the cow's body condition and taking note of how close to calving they were. I should note here that even though we went into last winter with more feed then usual and fed more supplemental feed then we ever have, the cows now show the poorest overall body condition we've ever experienced at this point in the production cycle. People may get tired of hearing it but it was just the most horrendous past six months for taking care of cattle weather-wise. Of the 54 head I scored, I judged 34 to be in good condition or better, 15 head to be fair condition or better and 5 to be in poor condition. It should come as no surprise that all of the "poor" and most of the "fair" were coming with their second calf. This is a very vulnerable group to begin with and the problem at our farm is that these heifers were sired by a very popular AI sire who has tremendous growth numbers and a 6.7 frame. Maybe the right bull for a lot of other farms but not the right one for this farm.

The good news is that I delayed onset of the calving season by nearly 3 weeks for our 2010 calving season. The weather has been very nice the last two weeks and we don't start calving until April 12th so that is taking some of the strain off the overall spring calving program.

Keep those cow frame scores down and select for easy keepers. Shoot for cow longevity, keep as few first calf and 2nd calf heifers in your herd as possible, they are the most costly and hard to maintain. 9 out of 10 cow calf producers could increase their profits by delaying the onset of their calving season into warmer weather. Research shows that baby calves found dead in the snow or mud just don't perform very well.

With temperatures quickly rising towards the seventies, all graziers are rejoicing in that we are hopefully beginning to leave the horrible weather of the past months behind us. Years from now we will talk of the repeated efforts digging out trails of snow just to get to our animals to feed them only to be followed by the bigger challenge, wallowing through the mud to get late winter, early spring feed to animals getting closer and closer to birthing. There are many "experts" who chime in that supplementing ruminants with winter feed is silliness and the difference in making a profit or not. They would say that making hay is foolishness. I would agree that the less hay you make and the more grazing you do, the better off you will be financially, unless . . . Mother Nature forgets to read the rule book and decides to dump heavy snow on you the first week of December and then follow that up with another 30 or 40 inches mixed with intermittent ice storms and rain effectively completely shutting off any grazing from December through April. Those cattle and sheep have to eat. The challenge becomes feeding them as economically as possible once you find yourself in need of feed. We are using cornstalk bales, CRP hay and excess forage we harvested off of our pastures last spring. Some would argue that there are better combinations and I would love to hear what you're doing. The best thing I did the past year was to hold off the beginning of breeding season for both our cows and ewes. As of today we still have no little critters on the ground and have dodged many of the horror stories I've heard from fellow producers trying to save animals in the past month of mud, rain and cold weather. Next year, I'm going to back up the onset of our calving season yet another two weeks. Good grazing to you, Bill

March 25, 2010 Grazier Blog

Welcome to my first "grazier blog" entry. As I watch the rain coming down, slop through the mud choring and bemoan our cow's body condition, it would be easy to slip into a dialogue about the bad weather and the very, very tough past four months of winter. I will instead, focus on a brighter future and list my goals for this farm's grazing operation in the coming year.

1)Delay the start of breeding season until July 15th.

2)AI the yearling black heifers to a calving ease polled Hereford bull.

3)Combine the fall calving and spring calving herds into one unit.

4)Try some high density, controlled grazing on mature grass stands.

5)Continue quail habitat/grazing trial plot work

6)Focus our long term beef breeding program on 5 frame cattle with easy fleshing characteristics.

7)Raise the money to facilitate the purchase of a newer big round baler capable of baling crop residues, especially cornstalks.

8)Install rip-rap in at least one washed out crossing

9)Convert the syphon watering system on the Ryan pond to a through-the-dam system with a hydrant to allow for year round livestock watering.

10)Continue removing unwanted trees and brush from our pastures, especially honey locust tress and multi-floral rose bushes.

11)Continue to expand our sheep herd using Ile de France breeding stock.

Each of these goals could be a blog topic in themselves and I hope to touch on all of them in later blogs. Email me anytime with your thoughts and questions. Good grazing to you, Bill