Central Texas Pictures

[1982vett]

Jogee, you inspired me to post up some of my baldies. I also added some of pasture and oats.

A 5 year old with a week old calf

Another 5 year old and week old calf

A 7 year old angus with about a 2 week old calf.

First calf heifer with week old calf

4 year old with 2 week old calf

A little subsoiling, natures way.

Have had only 5 inches of rain since the 15th of May. Out of 2 hurricanes and 1 tropical storm we got 1 8/10ths of rain. Ike brought us 1 6/10ths, Fay brought us 2/10ths and the tropical storm just blew hot air.

My latest partition fence project.

Oats patch. Planted September 22. The better of 3 patches. Broke the ground in mid May and disked once before fall prep. Wanted to plant some cowpeas and millet but never got the rain.

Burr clover is pretty good in this patch. Again it is the best of the three patches.

The worst of the three patches. It is a lighter soil but is also farthest west and has recieve less rainfall. This is usually my best patch, but not this year. Frost has turned the colorado grass that is in this patch yellow.

After the 1 6/10ths rain we got out of Ike, we got another 3/4 inch the first week of October. Planted some clover and oats on some pasture on the 11th and got another 7/10ths on the 15th. Oats is pretty much lost but I can find a little of the clover in a few spots.

 

[Jogeephus]

I got to hand it to you Vet, for someone who has had as little rainfall as you have this year you must be pretty dang talented to have been able to keep your cattle looking so nice in spite of Mother Nature's vindictiveness toward you this year. Those calves look great and the cows fat!

You got some rich looking soil. I suspect you could grow a lot if the rain would cooperate. Oats look good too. Wish I had planted some now. This would have been a good year for them in my area.

 

[bigbull338]

those are some real goodlooking cows an calves.your oat an clover patches sure are going good.hope you get some more rain so you dont loose them.

 

[1982vett]

It helped that I started with a lot of grass in the spring. Have been stretching the grass I had with hay since the middle of July. Was lucky that we didn't have all that many days of 100 degree temperatures. Ike brought us the most rain over a day that was followed up with two good ones in early October so most of the rain we did get was sort of recent. It refreshed the grass and it was growing (just didn't get ahead of the cows) until the frost we had a couple weeks ago. Nothing for the cattle to chase after now. And of course, I didn't post pictures of the skinner ones (late May and June calve rs) of which I have a few. The oats plays an important part in my system. (Not much of the wild mustard/turnip in it this year.) Normally it would be close to being able to be graze about now. It really needed a good rain out of the last front that moved thru. The missing rains have put that into question now. The 10 day forecast gives us a good chance of rain all next week. If it doesn't I'll have to sort thru and pen them off separately to give them a little extra attention and possibly early wean their calves. Still holding out hope of getting on the oats. They will bounce back pretty fast if I can. I had some of my hay tested so I'm more accurate in what I am feeding. Also bought one of the hay unrollers and unroll a days feeding. I'm not sure that I waste less hay doing this but I am spreading the waste more evenly over the pastures. Finding I rushed baling some of it last year. Get down close to the core and it shows it went thru a heat. Baled a bit green or ground moisture, maybe a bit of both. Still it tested where I thought it would.

If I remember to do it, I'll get some pictures of the trees turning colors. In our area they mostly go from green to brown, but this year they are going thru the yellows, golds and a few reds.

 

[Jogeephus]

In our area they mostly go from green to brown, but this year they are going thru the yellows, golds and a few reds.

Sign of clear cool nights.

We missed the rain you sent our way. It started drizzling for about 2 minutes around 1:00 a.m. It barely amounted to much more than a dew. I was hoping for about 1/2 inch. My world would have turned green then.

 

[novatech]

Vett,
Looking at that dirt you have to be pretty close to the river. I don't think there is any more fertile land than the Brazos river botom. If you just had a little rain to go with it. Your oats sure look a lot better than mine.
Sure hope you get a bunch of rain. Of course that might mean I will to.

 

[1982vett]

Vett,
Looking at that dirt you have to be pretty close to the river. I don't think there is any more fertile land than the Brazos river botom. If you just had a little rain to go with it. Your oats sure look a lot better than mine.
Sure hope you get a bunch of rain. Of course that might mean I will to.

Nova, I'm up on the prairie about half way between Cooks Point and Caldwell. It is a lot like the river bottom land around and south of Snook.

I took the pictures Thursday, it was cloudy most of the day and we did get a tenth of an inch of rain early Thursday morning. Freshened it up a bit. Ten day forecast gives us a chance of rain Monday - Thursday. Notice they dropped the chance for Friday and down graded Mondays chance of thunderstorms to scattered thunderstorms. Have to wait and see.

 

[1982vett]

In our area they mostly go from green to brown, but this year they are going thru the yellows, golds and a few reds.

Sign of clear cool nights.

We missed the rain you sent our way. It started drizzling for about 2 minutes around 1:00 a.m. It barely amounted to much more than a dew. I was hoping for about 1/2 inch. My world would have turned green then.

Jogee, guess we are going to have to make a trip up north and cut some of them barb wire fences so that rain can get farther south. :lol: Took some pictures of the trees and some of the skinny cows. I'll try to get them up later tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Jogeephus]

Hope you don't have any Imbalancers cause I sure don't need the comptetion. I'm hoping I can get in on the ground floor of this new venture and get some big checks so I can get a new grain drill. Of course, without rain I really don't need a drill do I? But that's beside the point isn't it. ;-)

 

[1982vett]

Hope you don't have any Imbalancers cause I sure don't need the comptetion.quote]

I had one that probably would have qualified had I kept her.

You might recognize it from the "ugly calf contest". Sold her near the end of September 2 weeks short of 7 months. She brought 85 cents and weighed 475. She probably would have helped you attain your goal. :lol2:

 

[Jogeephus]

I gotta say that is the oddest looking calf I've ever seen. Looks almost like a cow dog sired it. I know a woman that would have paid big bucks for it. She buys any and all "unique" calves she can find. They are her pets. Literally. They are extremely well cared for and they never make it to the market.

 

[Lammie]

Hope you don't have any Imbalancers cause I sure don't need the comptetion.quote]

I had one that probably would have qualified had I kept her.

You might recognize it from the "ugly calf contest". Sold her near the end of September 2 weeks short of 7 months. She brought 85 cents and weighed 475. She probably would have helped you attain your goal. :lol2:

I thought that was a goat when I first saw it. I was thinking that I didn't know you raised goats.

 

[HerefordSire]

I like what I see. It is obvious you know what you are doing.

 

[1982vett]

I like what I see. It is obvious you know what you are doing.

Thanks HS, but sometimes I wonder if I do. It is easy to spend beyond realistic returns. My motto of "It's cheaper to keep them in good shape that get them in good shape" is really being tested.

 

[alabama]

Thank you for the post. I always like seeing good momma cows taking care of calves. And your oats have a good start.
Your soil looks alot like alabama black belt soil. It srinks and cracks when dry and sticks to everthing when wet. If you try to plow it the soil just balls up and then dries in balls. But it makes good cattle land for pasture.

 

[1982vett]

Your soil looks alot like alabama black belt soil. It srinks and cracks when dry and sticks to everthing when wet. If you try to plow it the soil just balls up and then dries in balls. But it makes good cattle land for pasture.

Sounds like they have a lot in common. Needs some moisture to pull a chiesel plow thru it, pulls up big clods. They dry out in the sun and after and inch or so of rain, run a disc over it and you are ready to plant. If you can stick with it when it is dry, it will stick to you when it's wet.