Recent content by oscarsteve

The bull was put with the cows April 13. So, today is his 62nd day with them. I plan to leave him in until June 28 (that's 76 days). This past calving season, all calves were born within 60 days. And that's what I like to see. I haven't seen him acting interested in any of the cows in quite a...

I'm a little North of True Grit and JMJ Farms. Haven't had any measurable rain here in 2 weeks and only 2.2 inches for all of May. AND we had a dry April too. No real percentage chance of rain in the forecast for 2 more weeks (hope they're wrong on that). At 4 pm today it was 98 degrees with...

Boy, my original post about the tire problem died away pretty quickly. And then like crabgrass (which I like), it popped back up out of nowhere and really spiraled into another realm. Pretty funny! Just FYI, I took the most frequent advice given and replaced that tire last summer. And BTW, my...

I'm currently at 11 bulls and 13 heifers alive with 4 more to calve. However, I have also lost 2 heifers and 1 bull calf (so the real ratio is 12 to 15 I guess). I've had 2 sets of twins this season with one survivor from each set (dead twins not included in the ratio). Calving started Feb. 2...

Cows enjoying crabgrass and some pearl millet.

Definitely not bahia or crabgrass. At first I thought it might be johnsongrass also. But something about it, at least in these pictures, didn't seem to let me make that match definitively. Not trying to be rude, but I assumed everyone in the southeast that does any kind of farming knows what...

Walked by my tractor this afternoon and found this. I assume air has gotten between the plys, somehow. Any of you had this happen? Is it repairable? It is a front tire and I do use my loader quite a bit. Drill a hole to let the air escape and then put a tube in it? Run it like it is? Or just...

Yep, both of my catch pens employ the "bud box". And I really like them. Mine are approximately 12 ft. wide and 24 ft. long, It works very well with the cows. However, I found calves are a little more difficult to get through the hole. To solve that problem, I installed a second gate that hinges...

In October I overseeded about 5 acres of summer grass pasture with Durana clover. I left the cows on it for a few days to tromp it in and crop the summer grass down (mostly bahia along with Quick-N-Big crabgrass). The cows haven't been on it since then. The clover is coming on pretty good now...

Marshall ryegrass (sown October 13) is up enough to give the cows some limited grazing time on it. They're getting 1 hour/day on 2-acre parcels, then it's back to the hay. There is some Wrens Abruzzi Rye on the edges. This is a one of my hay fields. Moved the cows over here October 30 to graze...

I just finished putting in cross fencing using a 2-strand hot wire with 3 ground rods set 10 feet apart. I was having the same issue. Voltmeter was reading 9.5 kV at the energizer terminals, but only 2.0-2.5 kV on the wire itself. This was my first experience with HT wire and an AC energizer. I...

Right now I have a total of 50 cows and calves, but in the process of building my numbers (slowly). I know the 4-ball waterers are a little "overkill" for my numbers, but I'm getting a really good deal on them. Fencing a perimeter around the HUA and waterer to create a "common" area from any of...

Looks like it worked perfectly!! Congrats to him. (Is he still an employee?) :roll:

I've qualified for some NRCS EQUIP help. As part of that, a well has been drilled and I'm getting ready to start laying pipe to the locations for 3 watering facilities. I'm going to use 4-ball freezeless MiraFount waterers. Each of these watering facilities is required to have a Heavy Use Area...