How’s your grass?

[Travlr]

Update: I was told the guys in the kayaks were cited for not having pfds with them...lol

I like PFDs. But then it kinda drives the point home when you find a floater that was once a beautiful young lady with her entire life ahead of her... and when you grab her arms to drag the body into the boat the skin sloughs off and you end up holding two gloves made of what was once a person's hands. And it doesn't get any better from there because the flesh comes off the bones next, and the body ruptures and you do your best to capture any guts, but you know damn well that you've missed some. And could have been prevented if only there had been a lifejacket on board.

 

[gman4691]

I like PFDs. But then it kinda drives the point home when you find a floater that was once a beautiful young lady with her entire life ahead of her... and when you grab her arms to drag the body into the boat the skin sloughs off and you end up holding two gloves made of what was once a person's hands. And it doesn't get any better from there because the flesh comes off the bones next, and the body ruptures and you do your best to capture any guts, but you know damn well that you've missed some. And could have been prevented if only there had been a lifejacket on board.

This is true...working with parks and wildlife, that point does get driven home from time to time. Not required to wear one when out in a boat but you are required to have them aboard.

 

[LocustDaleCattleCompany]

Sad to see those pictures of drought with dried up pastures and ponds. This must be breaking farmers and ranchers out that way.

I hate festololium. We converted some crop ground 3 years back and it had some festololium in the mix. It grows some in spring, goes to seed and then does nothing over summer until fall. I'm going to try to now the seed heads off to see if that improves summer growth.

So not much different than regular fescue, great!

 

[LocustDaleCattleCompany]

Fall '22 calves weaned and back on grass. They all had their heads down eating and not balling yesterday evening which was a good sign.

Picked up 3/4" of rain yesterday evening which was a nice surprise.

 

[farmerjan]

Was calling for some decent rain here, again... and it broke up coming from WV and went north and then reformed after it got across the Blue Ridge and they got some good rain east of Charlottesville... we got 20 drops or so. It is getting dry here in the southern part of the valley. They are getting it south in the Roanoke area too... just going around us. Have only had .6 in nearly 3 weeks.... lots of cloudy days and some cooler, but the clouds don't drop the rain.
10 day forecast has no rain, so hay cutting will get serious this week.

 

[redcowsrule33]

That'll make it rain for sure

 

[Ouachita]

Jan,
You need to do a rain dance and post the video here; inspiration for others.

 

[farmerjan]

That'll make it rain for sure

At this point I don't think I would be too upset.

Since they are worse off in Kansas and other places that have gotten some but not near enough, I don't like to sound like I am complaining. But again, our grasses here have developed for a wetter climate than some of the plains states so when we don't get an inch or so instead of .2 , the grass feels it. Might need to plant some dryland grasses....

 

[farmerjan]

Jan,
You need to do a rain dance and post the video here; inspiration for others.

At this age I doubt anyone would want to see my " slightly overweight girth" doing any kind of a dance.... Might scare up some rain though....LOL

 

[Walker's Ridge]

Mowed about 40 acres of grass hay today. Yield is going to be less than last year, but the quality should be good.

 

[tex452]

Our grass is coming along really good now, with abundant moisture and warmer night temperatures it's starting to take off.
Finally getting dry enough to make first cutting of hay, should have done it a month ago, it's been too wet.

 

[dave_shelby]

Might need to plant some dryland grasses....

What are you thinking of planting?

We got an inch and we needed it. The old timers describe rain coming from a different direction and more regularly than currently. Some blame the route 48 cuts, others say it shifted earlier. Regardless, when I first moved here I learned that we have a lot of showers coming in from WV that seem to skirt around us.

 

[CowboyRam]

Went to the ranch today to check fences. I have never seen the Red Desert look so green. The cows should do well this year. My uncle bought the ranch in 92 and there are a couple ponds that he has never seen that full. There are still some places where there is still snow. We got home this evening and my sister said there was a calf stuck in a gate, so went to check on it, opened the gate and just as I was driving through the wind blew the gate into the truck. The calf got its self out. Now I have get a new post and fix the gate at home before I can go back and finish fixing the fence. At least I know what I will be doing tomorrow morning.

 

[GoWyo]

Went to the ranch today to check fences. I have never seen the Red Desert look so green. The cows should do well this year. My uncle bought the ranch in 92 and there are a couple ponds that he has never seen that full. There are still some places where there is still snow. We got home this evening and my sister said there was a calf stuck in a gate, so went to check on it, opened the gate and just as I was driving through the wind blew the gate into the truck. The calf got its self out. Now I have get a new post and fix the gate at home before I can go back and finish fixing the fence. At least I know what I will be doing tomorrow morning.

The Red Desert had a phenomenal amount of snow all winter long. A lot of winter killed pronghorn and mule deer. But it should be a banner grazing year.

 

[farmerjan]

What are you thinking of planting?

We got an inch and we needed it. The old timers describe rain coming from a different direction and more regularly than currently. Some blame the route 48 cuts, others say it shifted earlier. Regardless, when I first moved here I learned that we have a lot of showers coming in from WV that seem to skirt around us.

Have no idea, it was just a comment... but one year I planted buffalo grass in a mostly bare field in CT years ago, and it did real good and we were somewhat dry up there... before I moved south so over 40 years ago...

 

[gman4691]

The only thing I've been able to cut recently is a bunch of downed trees...lots of work when going at it solo. But did manage to get about 10.5 acres of grazing pasture open yesterday after removing a huge tree, a bunch of brush, and making fence repairs...about 9 hrs. worth of work. Now to get after about 5 more trees and I don't even want to look at the back 40...probably lots to do over there.

 

[TCRanch]

The only thing I've been able to cut recently is a bunch of downed trees...lots of work when going at it solo. But did manage to get about 10.5 acres of grazing pasture open yesterday after removing a huge tree, a bunch of brush, and making fence repairs...about 9 hrs. worth of work. Now to get after about 5 more trees and I don't even want to look at the back 40...probably lots to do over there.

Best investment ever has been hiring a 16 year old kid down the road. He's a HARD worker and has cut down so many trees, our burn pile is epic. But he is 16, so I'm going to drag up & stack all the cedars, limbs, etc. he missed on the first few rounds with the grapple bucket.

Since it's clear we're not going to be able to burn for a while, we're having the pastures aerial sprayed. And who knew NCRS would not only come out to help figure out which chemicals would be best (for our pastures) but will cost share?

 

[ClinchValley86]

I cut hay over the weekend and it'd barely going to be worth the time. It's interesting that species makeup of the hay this year are considerably different than years past. Some weeds we normally see aren't there at all. I assume they didn't have the needed moisture to get established. At the same time, some things we don't see much of are in abundance. Main thing being vetch, it is probably 500% the frequency as years past.

I'm very glad that I didn't throw any fertilize out. Based on others downed hay, it didn't pay. That makes two years in a row I think it's been a flop.

Rocks have a half inch gap around them it's so dry. Sure hope the warm seasons will catch some rain soon... we need it.

Thought about getting the drag out to scratch the ground in an attempt to get more crabgrass seed activated.

 

[Logan52]

With the almost total die off of White Ash, which was the dominant tree in my woods, hollows and fence rows, multi flora rose and bush honeysuckle have filled the empty spaces between the trees and along the edges. The rose bushes are even becoming a problem in mowed pastures.
Like Clinch Valley, I started to buy fertilizer for the hay fields but hesitated due to price and lack of rainfall. Glad I did because the fertilized
fields of my neighbors did not seem to benefit that much.
Checking the hay fields on Sunday I was actually surprised at the height of the grass but it was not thick at all. Like Clinch Valley again, the amount of common vetch growing in the hay field was many times more than usual, the most I have ever seen.
A think the cool and mostly dry spring has been very detrimental to pastures this year and grasses have headed out very low. The near constant wind events of Feb. March and April were hard on some plants and held back pastures (by drying the ground out if nothing else).

 

[Lazy M]

Around here we call vetch the poor farmer's alfalfa. I love it