A Manicured Lawn

Someone showed me a funny meme the other day that showed a manicured lawn as compared to a beekeeper's lawn.  The manicured lawn was immaculate - not a blade of grass out of place, cut short.  Then the beekeeper's yard showed tall weeds and wildflowers.  So true!  We put off mowing our yard for a plethora of reasons.  First, the white dutch clover is flowering along with many other wildflowers, and the bees love them.  Second, our bees don't like the sound and vibration of the lawnmower.  They chase me and sting me.  Third, my lawnmower is broken and I need to try and figure out the electrical issue that won't let the mower blades engage.  Finally, we always like to wait and rotate the cows through the yard and eat the spring grass.  I think the record-setting year was one year when we didn't mow the grass until May!

For some of our long-time readers, I apologize.  This is a redundant post as we seem to make this post each and every year.  We have a Gallagher solar fence charger with some temporary step-in posts.  I break up the yard into different paddocks and unroll the poly wire using a ratchet reel.  Over the years, the cows have learned the sound of the reel clicking and, like Pavlov's dogs, they begin mooing LOUDLY when they hear the clicking of the ratchet reel unrolling the poly wire.

 And so it begins...  I moved Rosie and LuLu into the first paddock.  They excitedly run around, scoping out the various types of grasses, like you and I might scope out a buffet table.  They settle for the white Dutch clover first.  It's a favorite of theirs.

The cows have learned to have a healthy respect of the one strand of wire.  The solar powered charger pulses electricity through the line.  You only have to be stung by it once and you learn to avoid it.  I trust the charger, but I'd never leave the house with the cows in the yard.  I've learned to keep checking on the cows every few minutes.  One time after church, we were having pot roast and rice & gravy when someone came knocking on our front door to warn us that the cows were out!  Not good.  

We generally leave the cows in the paddock in the yard for a full day.  At the end of the day, they have the yard clipped down pretty good.  They we'll put them back in the permanent pasture, roll up the fencing, pick up the posts and set up another paddock right next to it.  Over the course of a week, the grass will be all eaten throughout the entire yard.  It won't look like the putting green on a golf course, but much better than before the cows grazed all day on it.

The Mobile Vet

Tricia called Dr. Chip, the Mobile Vet, to make a farm call and palpate the cows.  We have the bull in a separate pasture because he's dangerous.  When we see the cows coming into heat, we put them into the bullpen with the bull and let them get amorous.  Over the months, they have come back into heat, meaning that they were not bred.  We don't know what the problem is.  Perhaps the bull is not "hot."  Maybe there is a problem with the cows.  We wanted to get those issues addressed.

The veterinarian arrived and Tricia got the three cows isolated in the barn and in the head gate so that the vet could put on his rubber gloves and palpate.  First up was Rosie.  Rosie is eighteen years old.  The vet said she is NOT bred, but is still cycling, meaning she COULD still get pregnant.

Next up was Elsie.  Elsie is a beautiful heifer.  She is also A2/A2, so is highly sought after.  Up to this point she has not calved.  Another vet on a previous farm call, removed a cyst from her ovary.  She came into heat after that.  The Mobile Vet said that there was fluid and a fetus that the body would absorb and then she'd go into heat again.  So she DID get bred but lost the baby.  The vet thinks we should get rid of her, but we want to try just one more time.

The final was LuLu.  He palpated LuLu and said that she is two months' pregnant.  So she'll be calving in the heat of summer in July 2026.  Summer is not the opportune time for calving and milking, but we'll take what we can get.

LuLu is two months pregnant

So we know that Nicky, the bull, is fertile and will continue putting him and Rosie and Elsie together when they go into heat in hopes that we can get them all bred.

The Dairy Daily Diary

Tonight I'll bring you up to date with what's going on with the milking operations at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We're milking one cow (LuLu) and two goats.  We drink all we can and sell the rest.  Despite the high heat LuLu, our Jersey cow, yields rich milk, high in butterfat.  Look at the cream line in that gallon jar of milk!  The cream rises to the top and almost a third of it is heavy cream - perfect for butter or whipped cream, excellent in coffee or for making ice cream.

I walked out in the pasture in the late afternoon.  Cows aren't super smart, but they aren't super dumb most of the time, either.  Notice how Rosie and Elsie are grazing in the shade.  They follow the shade out and wait until the shadows lengthen before they move on out.  Belle is guarding her charge, too.

LuLu is grazing by herself, but she's following the same protocol.  She'll move on out as the shadows lengthen.

Here is Rosie in the foreground.  She is 18 years old!  She is the first Jersey calf born on our property.  She was a champion show cow in her time and gave us many wonderful calves over the years.  Her time is getting short, however, and we'll have to make some hard decisions soon.

Here's Elsie.  She's a bossy beast, if there ever was one.  She is still a heifer.  She should have calved two years ago.  We had the veterinarian come and check her out when she never got pregnant.  He found a cyst on her ovary and got rid of it.  She was going into heat every cycle, but still never got pregnant.  She's a fat, good looking Jersey, but if she's only going to eat and not give us calves and milk, well... the clock is ticking for you Elsie, girl.  The pressure is on.

We'll see.  We haven't seen her go in heat for the last several cycles and Tricia seems to think her udder is showing some changes.  Is hope on the horizon for this heifer?  Funny, I pray every single morning that our cows get pregnant.  As I said, we'll see...

And this is LuLu.  I call her LuLu Boofaloo.  She has been in milk now for two years come July.  That's a long time to be milking a cow.  We need a break and she does too.  We plan on drying her off on July 4th.  Independence Day (in more ways than one.)  We've seen her milk production really fall off.  It could be the heat or the time in milk, but it could be that she's bred, too.  We will find out in due time.

Here is the bull.  Nicky.  He's a registered Jersey like Rosie, Elsie, and LuLu.  He, hopefully, has planted his fertile seed.  When the girls had not gotten pregnant, I had talked to a neighbor down the road.  He has a Holstein Jersey cross.  He wants to trade me his bull for Nicky.  That way we'd learn if Nicky is "hot" or fertile.  Introducing a bull with Holstein would make calves with more volume.  Holsteins give more milk, but Jerseys give richer milk.  I'm thinking we'll just keep Nicky, but if he's not going to be successful in his breeding endeavors, we'll make necessary adjustments.  We send our bulls to be processed to fill our freezer and it's pretty empty right now.

The pasture is holding up pretty good right now, thanks to the lime Dad and I broadcast in the early spring as well as the wonderful rains we have been getting.  Cows head down is something you like to see.  Later, when they sit, chewing their cud, you know they are happy creatures.

That's gonna be a wrap in the Dairy Daily Diary.  

I Can't See Me Lovin' Nobody But You...

"Imagine me and you, I do I think about you day and night, it's only right To think about the girl you love and hold her tight So happy together" -  The Turtles 1967

We've been talking a lot about the literal birds and the literal bees lately with us hatching out baby chicks and then putting out a swarm trap to catch a wild swarm of honeybees.  But today, we'll briefly talk about "the birds and the bees," if you know what I mean.

We have two cows and a heifer that need to get bred.  Nick, the Jersey bull, is just the guy to do it.  LuLu has been in milk for over a year and a half.  It is time to dry her off, but we want to get her, Rosie, and Elsie pregnant.  No dice, so far.  Elsie had a cyst on her ovary and the vet came and took care of that.  But up to this point, she's not been able to get pregnant.  We track the days, put the cows in heat with the bull, and...  They cycle again the following month.

Rosie had lots of mucus showing.  It was her time.  We put her in the bull pen with Nick.  He began courtship immediately.

Rosie was in standing heat.  It's a little embarrassing to photograph and show this, but we are 99% sure that Nick was successful in his endeavors.

We'll keep watching the calendar and for signs and we'll put Elsie and LuLu in the bull pen with Nick as the right time arises.  If they keep on coming in heat, we may have to assume that Nick is a defective bull with low sperm count.  If so, there's a neighbor down the road five miles or so away with a registered bull.  We may have to schedule a 'date night' and bring our three girls down there.

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you

For all my life

When you're with me, baby, the skies'll be blue

For all my life

Cold For the Cows

More cold weather came this week.  This time not in the single digits and no snow.  It was in the mid-20's for two days in a row, so we had ice.  The sun was out, and that was a plus, but both days it stayed below freezing for 12 hours in a row.  That means that there is no water for the cows, goats, and chickens.  All the water troughs are frozen over.  I know in the north they have heaters to keep them from freezing, but that makes no sense down here.  You can see how I have the pipes wrapped to hopefully avoid pipe breakage.  We will see if we were successful when we turn the water back on.

I have a pipe that I walk around to all the troughs and break the ice.  There are some tasks like popping the little air bubbles in packing wrap that no matter how old you get, it brings great joy to do.  Breaking ice is another one of those tasks.  For some reason it is cathartic.

See here's a big trough.  We had a game growing up called "Break the Ice."  You had hammers and you would try to knock out cubes taking turns with your opponent, without making the ice cubes fall.  Maybe that's what I'm thinking of that makes it so tempting to break.

The first hit breaks through...

And then it all shatters, allowing all the animals to drink water again.

For a special treat, we bring some root crops for the cows to eat.  Sometimes beets, sometimes turnips, but today Tricia had cut up some of our sweet potatoes that had bad spots.  Cows love them some sweet potatoes.

Here is LuLu begging for some sweet potatoes.  Cows have this super cool trick they do where they can stick their tongues in their nostrils.  Try it to see if you are that talented.  My tongue is not nearly long enough.

LuLu gobbled up many sweet potato chunks.  The other animals didn't get any.  Since LuLu is in milk, she gets special favors.

Now that the ice is broken and LuLu has eaten her fill of sweet potatoes, Mrs. Tricia and I will go inside and sit by the fire to warm up.

The Fat Cows

It hasn't rained since September 11 and even on that day, it only rained 3/10ths of an inch.  It's dry.  I water the garden every single day.  The rain barrels that I sequester rainwater from are all dry and have been dry for several weeks.  The grass in the yard is dead or dying.  The pasture, up to this point has held up nicely, but when I walked in the pasture today, the bermuda and bahai grass is thirsting for some rain.

There is a chance on Thursday and Friday of this week for precipitation.  We are watching that very closely and praying for Showers of Blessing.  With the grass in the pasture on its way out and the onset of cooler temps of winter coming, we begin to think of the cows.  How will they fare through the winter?  We do give them a little sweet feed and alfalfa, but mostly they're on grass throughout the spring and summer.

For the fall and winter, we've put up 75 bales of premium bermuda hay in the hay loft.  We actually still have four bales of last year's hay that we're giving them each day.  We also purchase round bales of hay that we roll out and allow the cows (and goats) to eat free choice on.  We've found that one round bale will last about a week.  We have an inventory of nine round bales covered in tarps and ready to roll out when needed.  The cows have some grass to clean up in the pasture.  In the next few weeks they'll eat that all up.

It's important that the cows are in good condition going into the winter, and I have to say that this year, the cows are well fit, perhaps in the best condition they've ever been in at this point.  I really couldn't tell you what the difference is.  Here's Rosie.  Rosie is 15 years and 8 months old!  That's OLD for a Jersey cow.  She just went into heat last week.  We put her with the bull and witnessed her in standing heat.  We think he bred her, but we'll check in a few weeks to see if she goes back into heat.  We have the date on the calendar.  The bull is still young and he's short.  We don't know if he was able to reach.  Only time will tell, but it sure would be nice to get another calf out of Rosie.  She's been such a good girl.

And here's Elsie.  I don't have a way to show perspective, but this heifer is huge.  She's big and fat!  And she is rambunctious.  She runs around like her tail's on fire.  It's actually dangerous to be around her.  You have to keep your head on a swivel.  She did not get bred last year.  The vet found a cyst on her ovary and took care of it.  We are trying to have Nicky the bull breed her this year.

We put them together and hopefully it took.  We've been watching for her to come back in heat, but so far nothing.  Hopefully, that means she's carrying a calf.  That's good for a number of reasons.  First, we need calves and we need more milk as we're about to dry up LuLu.  Second, if she calves, we're hoping that will mellow her out and she'll stop being crazy.  Finally, if she isn't able to get pregnant, she's going to go into our freezer.  I hate to be so harsh, but we just can't have an animal unable to calve or give milk continue to just eat grass.  Elsie, you're on the clock!

LuLu, on the other hand is a little skinny (I don't have a current photo of her), but she's been in milk for over a year and a half.  It's about time to dry her up and allow her to build up again.  We put her together with Nicky when she came in heat and we'll see if she comes back in heat.  It sure would be nice to have 3 spring calves!

Land Flowing With Milk and Honey

The lights are burning in the barn.  LuLu has been in milk for 14 months now.  We've finally weaned her bull calf, Nick, and he's in the back pasture that we call "the bull pen."  As the cows go into heat, we run them into the bull pen to be with Nick until after they've finished with standing heat.  Our goal is to get Rosie and LuLu bred and the big heifer, Elsie, bred for the first time.  

We're milking LuLu in the morning and at night.  She's not making a whole lot of milk, but we're trying to keep her cleaned out so that she doesn't get mastitis.  LuLu has been a pretty good milker.  Since Nick was weaned, she's making SO much cream.  Sometimes almost half of the bucket is heavy cream!

Here is our inventory in the fridge of LuLu milk.  It's all dated and we use the First in, First out method to make sure it doesn't go bad.  We get real creative with different things to do with milk when we have a good supply like this.

Cream rises to the top, so you can see what I mean about the rich Jersey milk from LuLu.  We skim the cream off the top and shake up the rest.  So delicious!

Lately, we've been making lots of butter and stockpiling it.  Butter freezes nicely, so we're building up stores of butter in the freezer.

We also have more fresh-churned butter in the fridge ready to slather on piping hot sourdough bread.

At some point here pretty soon, we'll dry off LuLu and that means we'll have a break from milking until the cows calve and freshen.  We're still milking Agnes, the goat.  Tricia plans on freezing some of her milk to make some goat milk soap.  We talked about milk tonight.  I've a story to tell you about honey, but I'll save that for another night.

Hay Day Part I

The day that I came home from the hospital, we got a call from our neighbor down the road that they were baling hay and asked if we could go pick up our order.  It's Bermuda hay and this year's price is $7 picked up in the field and $9 picked up in the barn.  Obviously, picking up 75 bales of hay was out of the question.  We normally pick it up in the field, but asked if they could stack it in the barn and we would pick it up once I was recuperated.

I got a call yesterday that they were cutting again and needed the space.  Our hay was in the way.  I'm not fully recuperated, but the hay had to be moved.  So, I called Russ and Benjamin to come by after work and we could tackle it together.  Russ said with me not being 100% and Benjamin not being fully healed from his accident, that we were like the "Island of misfit toys."  He called my Dad for assistance and Dad drove over from Kinder to pitch in.  What a sight we were!

We backed up the truck in their barn and began loading up the truck.  We had 75 bales to pick up and bring back to the house.  We're about a mile from their barn to our house and would have to make 6 to 7 trips.

In the first load, we stacked up 12 bales.  We quickly learned that by stacking the bales and interlocking them, we could fit 16 or 17 bales.  We had a little assembly line going and got better with each load.

It was hot and we worked hard.  So did the truck.  You can see it is squatted down pretty good.  I was hoping we wouldn't break the springs.  Russ and Benjamin rode up on top of the hay on the ride home where we backed up to the garage.

Normally, at this point, we back up to the barn and use a pulley to hoist the bales up into the loft.  We'll have to wait on that for another day when we have more help.  For now, so the hay doesn't get rained on, we stacked up the 75 bales in the garage.  

The car, for now, will sit outside.  It can get wet.  The hay cannot.  This is what will get the cows and goats through the winter.  I'm not convinced they realize the work and sacrifice that goes into feeding them!  Unloading the hay has Belle exhausted just watching the work!!  Can you see her in the bottom right corner?

Here is a side view of 75 square bales of bermuda hay.  Inflation has hit the hay field, too!

Ginger, our cat, doesn't seem to mind the hay in the garage.  It's given her a new place to nap.  Lazy cat!

Speaking of naps, I think I'll go take one myself.  Well show you Part II when we move all this up into the hayloft at the barn.

Clearing The Fencerow

In years past, I showed you how there is a little piece of woods that borders the south side of our property.  It is overgrown.  When the kids were younger, they made trails and forts back there.  There's a few acres of wilderness to run around on, letting your imagination run wild.  You could pretend it is the Amazon or the Mekong Delta.

One thing is for certain - unattended land wishes to revert to it's uncivilized form.  The privet and Chinese tallow and Chinaberry trees grow faster than our national debt and encroach on our fence line.  Usually, I break out my swing blade and machete and spend a full day reconquering the jungle.  It's hard work.  Work smarter, not harder is the motto, I believe.  

In some cases its better to let someone else do the work, subcontract the job out, you might say.  I'll introduce you to the crew:  LuLu, Rosie and Elsie seemed up for the task and after a job safety analysis and a planning meeting, I set up the equipment.  It consisted of a solar charger and a temporary fence using poly-rope and step-in fence posts.  Then I opened the back gate.

The clearing crew immediately sprang to action, heads down and eating the tender spring growth.  They had about a ten foot wide by 150 foot long area to clear.  The girls were trailblazing in earnest.  Yes, they are outside the perimeter fence and could get away, but I trust the electric fence primarily because I forgot to turn it off the other day and grabbed it and it shocked the stuffing out of me.  The cows have all tested the fence and learned to respect it.  Respect it, we all do.

I let them clean it up for a bit and then I went back out there with them and picked up fallen limbs and tree branches that had fallen in this buffer zone and threw them into the woods.  I like to think that by clearing the fence row and keeping it clean, it will discourage rat snakes, minks, possums, and other predators from crossing over to our property as they'll now be exposed to hawks and owls.  

I let them work in there for the better part of a day, until I saw them sitting down, chewing their cud.  Then I opened the gate and the fence clearing crew meandered back into their pasture.  I'll give the grass a chance to grow and then I'll rotate the girls back in there to keep it clean.  It's a win-win situation, for sure.

A Rotation Through the Yard

It's that time of year.  Spring doesn't last very long in the south.  We enjoy it before summer hits.  Trees are budding out and, after a season of dormancy, a lot of weeds are coming up in the yard.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "a weed is a plant whose virtues have never been discovered.  Our yard is primarily St. Augustine with a smattering of Bahia and Bermuda grass.  Right now, we're seeing a lot of White Dutch clover.  It's a lush beautiful plant and we see the honeybees flying to flower after flower.

When the White Dutch clover grows in patches in the yard, many people fire up their lawnmowers after a season of dormancy.  Not us.  It's time to get out the solar powered electric fence and portable step-in poles and reel of wire rope and put up temporary fencing in the yard.  We'll run the cows in the yard instead of the lawnmower and let them clean up all the weeds.

Here is LuLu excited about filling her belly with fresh grass.  In this instance, we can see what's on her menu.  In the foreground you can see that the first course is wild geranium, I think the Carolina geranium, to be specific.  

Here are all three cows, heads down, doing their best to obliterate the overgrowth of weeds.  I wish that I had taken an "after" photo to show you the before and after comparison.  The cows really did a good job knocking all this grass down.  To the right, you can see that I have a swarm trap up on top of a ladder.  I'll be baiting it probably tomorrow to try to catch a swarm.

Since I took this photo, I've moved the temporary fence and the cows to two additional areas in the yard.  By the time I cycle them back to this location in the yard, it will be grown all back up again.  Last year, due to the cows AND the drought, I only mowed the yard two times the entire year.  I'm hoping that if/when I need it this year, I'll be able to crank the lawnmower.  If not, the cows and goats are up to the task, I'm certain.

Farewell to August

We're wrapping up August with a bow and saying so long.  What a long, hot, dry 31 days?!  We're glad to be putting this one in our rear view mirror.  My son, Russ, was over visiting today and when we passed by the rain gauge mounted on a post in the garden, he remarked, "That's a lonely rain gauge, right there!"  He's right!  It has seed not precipitation in a very long time.

How long, you ask?  Well, let's look at the matrix that we chart daily rainfall.  It has been 47 days since we've had over an inch of rain.  We've had NO rain in the last 41 days.

We have 10 years of detailed rainfall records.  Normally, in a year we average 65.9 inches of rain.  Through August, we have usually had 49.14 inches of rain.  This year we are only at 29.8 inches.  That's about 20 inches short!  Normally, in August we get 9.08 inches of rain.  This year 0.0 inches.  The grass and landscaping is dying.  

The grass looks like it normally does after a heavy frost.  We turned the water sprinkler on and the grass greened up under the oak trees.  Today, we put the electric fence up and let the cows eat the new growth.  They were happy.

There is good news, however.  As I look at the forecast, we have a 37% chance of rain on Sunday, a 53% chance on Saturday, and a 55% chance of rain on Monday.  Those are the best chances we've seen in over a month.

The other good news is this.  LuLu and little Nicky are doing well.  I have had the water sprinkler going in her pasture.  The grass is green and growing.  That's helped her.  She is not back to normal.  The heat has her stressed and I spray her with water daily to cool her down.  But she is getting better.  We thought we might lose her for a while.  Nicky is growing and he kicks his legs in the air and runs around the pasture with energy!

We welcome September.  A month that promises better chances of rain and hopefully cooler temps.

Hot & Dry

Summer is always hot, but this summer we're hot AND dry.  Below I've taken a photo of the log that I track daily rainfall.  Tomorrow it will have been a month since it rained.  Everyday high temperatures have exceeded 100 and with no rainfall, well, it's getting serious.  We normally average almost 9 inches of rain in August.  We are at a serious deficit.

The grass is dying and the dirt is now dust.  Apparently there is a high pressure system sitting over the south that won't let up.  Normal afternoon thunderstorms are non-existent.  We have been praying for rain for weeks.  The forecast has not looked promising.

The cows and goats have eaten all of the remaining grass down to the ground.  We're supplementing with hay.  That hay is normally reserved for the fall, however.  Never had we begun haying the cows this early.  Now that I've gotten the chainsaw blade sharpened, I've been lopping off live oak branches that need pruning and tossing them over the fence for the animals to eat on.

Not only is the drought concerning for the pasture that the cows, goats, and chickens depend upon, but it is delaying getting the fall garden in.  We normally have fall Irish Potatoes planted by now as well as getting the cole crops planted by seed.  I haven't even begun any of that.  Afternoons are spent watering sweet potatoes, peppers, okra, butterbeans, etc. that are struggling in the garden.  Five of our Seven pumpkin plants waved a white flag and withered into the dust.

We'll continue to pray for showers of blessing that will bring a refreshing to the land.