This morning, I woke up to the sound of the wind roaring through the trees in the yard. For just a moment, I thought that it was raining but soon had my hopes dashed. The weather forcast is for a near 70% chance of rain tomorrow but they are not promising us much in accumulation. We are getting pretty desperate for rain around here. We have already started feeding hay. Yesterday afternoon, Neil, Seth and I had a big meeting over at the barn. We were trying to decide how and where to feed hay this year. Normally, we would let the livestock dictate when we fed. As soon as they cleaned up one big bale, we would replace it with another. Not going to be that way this year. I am afraid that everyone is going to be on short rations this winter.
Neil has done some research on limit feeding hay. Later today, Seth and I will have to get over there and rig up cattle panels and electric fence wire to make a paddock outside of the cow pasture but still connected to the working pens. We are going to place 2 big bales of hay in there. The horses will have access for 3 hours in the morning and then the cows will have access for 3 hours in the afternoon. We are planning on feeding hay for at least the next 20 weeks.
If we get a little rain to perk the fescue grass back up, it will give us a few more days of breathing room.
Last Sunday, we worked the 16 weaned calves. That is a record number of calves for us. Not much by ranching standards but we are proud anyway. In 2 weeks we will give them a second round of vaccinations. Then we wait until they have been weaned a minimum of 45 days. I am really anxious to get this payday! LOL! We will have 6 steers to sell. I cannot believe that we have 10 heifers! I am not sure that we will keep them all but the possibility is certainly there ----- especially if we get RAIN!
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