Record-keeping on the Ranch

Tricia went to Corpus Christi last weekend to visit her mom and she came back with something really neat in addition to the Mexican pastries (Pan Dulce) that she always brings back for us to enjoy.  It was a grocery bag full of memories from her Dad.  Tricia's Dad had a ranch out in Woodsboro, Texas and kept cows out there.  He really enjoyed his livestock and Tricia probably inherited her love for cows from him.

I went out to the ranch with him several times.  There were lots of mesquite trees on the property and a type of tree called Huisache that has thorns that will flat tear you up if you are not careful.  Huisache require constant maintenance to keep from over-taking the land - similar to the chicken tree (Chinese tallow tree) in our area.  The Garcia Ranch was very remote and was populated by deer, turkeys, wild hogs, and scorpions! 

Tricia pulled out some pictures from the plastic bag she brought back that contained many pictures of cows!  Tricia said it was always a running joke at her house growing up that her Dad would have more photos of his cows than of the family.  They would joke when Mr. Garcia pulled out his cow pictures, "Put those away.  If you've seen one cow, you've seen them all."  We started thumbing through some of the pictures in the stack that was rubber-banded together.  The front part of the package contained photos of the bulls.

We looked through the stack, but it contained more than photos.

Mr. Garcia was very detail oriented and his records of his livestock were meticulous.  His organization skills were first rate.  He didn't need Excel spreadsheets to keep records.

He had sections of note cards for each cow he ever owned.  The first part of each cow's section was a photo of the animal.

Behind the photo was a really neat record-keeping idea that we are going to use.  I wish we had learned about this method and started this earlier.  As shown below, each cow had a card with its name, color, tag #, birth date, who it was bought from and the price paid.

Furthermore (like genealogy for cows), it listed the cow's offspring, its sex, when born, who the sire was, color, when sold, weight, price per lb., total price, commission, and net price.

We like to keep good records, but our record-keeping is woefully inadequate compared to this.  We were amazed by the detail and what a good system it is and we are going to implement this tool on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  Not only was it neat to learn this, but it brought up good memories of Tricia's Dad.  I think if Mr. Garcia was alive today, he'd be proud of his daughter carrying on his tradition of being a cattleman (cattlewoman)!

2017 Rainfall - By The Numbers

Yesterday we talked about tracking egg production in 2017 from our flock of happy hens.  Today we look at 2017 annual rainfall.  We have a rain gauge nailed to the top of a fence post right by the cows' water trough.  I check it each day after a rain event and I record the rainfall amount in a matrix we have printed and conveniently located on the deep freeze in the utility room so that we can keep it updated.

We like to do this just because we're curious.  It also is interesting to see trends by comparing previous years and being able to see typical dry months and typical wet, soggy months.  So let's take a look.  The information below merely represents the sum of each month's rainfall in 2017:

The above shows that you can't get much drier than September was.  But at the same time, it rained enough in August for both months!

The table below compiles rainfall amounts by month and year over the previous 5 year history since we've been recording the wet stuff.

According to the Internet, Jennings, Louisiana has an average rainfall total of 60.35 inches.  However, other than 2015, we have exceeded that figure.  2016 and 2017 rainfall totals were pretty close and rain totals seem to be trending upward.  Our actual rainfall total over the previous 5 years is 69.15 inches.  Also, according to our records August is our wettest month and September is our driest month.  This is all very good information and we find it useful in planning for the timing of gardening and also lets us know when we need to keep our rubber boots handy!

2017 Egg Production - By The Numbers

We try to keep accurate records around Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  Good record-keeping helps to spot trends, good management ideas (things that went well), bad management ideas (experiments that didn't work), and just gives us benchmarks so that we can compare year to year to see how we are doing.  It is kind of like a scoreboard.  Today we'll look at the scoreboard for the hens to see how they are doing.

In looking at the statistics above, you can immediately spot a trend from month to month.  The season peaks out in early spring when the weather is nice, sunshine is plentiful, and tender plants and insects to eat are in abundance.  The eggs dwindle to nothing in the gloomiest, coldest, darkest months.  There is also a dip in egg production in the hottest months of the summer, followed by a brief rebound in early fall.

We have about 100 hens.  According to our records, in 2017 they averaged almost 100 eggs per hen.  This is really not great production, average production for the breeds of hens we have is more like 200 eggs per bird per year.  This can easily be explained.  For most of the year we didn't feed them a high protein diet.  We fed them rough and milled rice.  If I remember correctly, that provides about 12% protein.  For part of the year (beginning in the fall and winter) we did incorporate hen scratch and laying pellets that provides 17% protein.  Additionally, our hens are getting old.  As they get old, their laying slows down.

Below is a comparison table that we compile that compares egg production year over year.  The variable is the number of hens.  That differs from year to year, but I would estimate that the number of hens doesn't fluctuate by more than 10% each year.

This table shows egg production by year, by month, in total and then converted to dozens.  You can see that 2014 was the best year!  In the 5 year trend you can spot that Dec-Jan are the lowest egg production month each year and that April is the best month for egg production.

There are several things we could do to increase egg production.  We could keep lights on them all the time.  We could consistently feed them a higher protein ration.  We could get rid of all of our older birds and start with a brand new, younger flock, keeping the hens for two years before rotating out.  We could get rid of the Aracaunas (hens that lay blue and green eggs) and replace with Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks or perhaps get some white leghorns.

While we could do some of the practices mentioned above to increase egg production, we probably won't.  Why?  We currently have plenty of fresh, farm eggs to eat, to sell, and to give away at church.  We love having free range chickens.  They provide delicious, healthy eggs for us to eat and they walk around and fertilize our pasture.  They are "eggstrodinary" creatures!

Looking Back at 2016 Rainfall Totals at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm

Now Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower." 1 Kings 18:41

Hmmm...  The roar of a heavy shower.  Like Elijah and Ahab, we experienced the roars of many heavy showers in 2016 as our area received an extraordinary amount of the wet stuff.  But we'll get back to discussing that in just a minute.  We began keeping detailed records back in 2013 and each year in early January, we compile our records from the year to give us historical data that we can compare to previous years. Click HERE to read last year's post showing our records from 2015.  Detailed data helps us to identify trends and better manage the garden and livestock.  In prior years we reported our records for several items, but this year we are going to split them up into their own individual posts, starting with rainfall.

If you look at rainfall totals for our zip code, you will find that our average annual rainfall for Jennings, Louisiana is 60.35 inches.  If you average 2013 and 2014, the average of 60.35 is right on the money.  However 2015 rainfall and especially 2016 rainfall totals have skewed the average so that our average from 2013 - 2016 is actually 67.21 inches of precipitation per year.  The record-setting 2016 rainfall total was 79.30 inches or 6 foot 6 inches of rainfall for the year!  That shattered the previous years' record by a whopping 10 inches.  Check out the table I put together below:

March continues to be our driest month on average and the monsoons that fell in August 2016 made August the new wettest average month.  The August rains actually had disastrous effects on the fall garden this year.  The fall garden wasn't in at the time that the deluge hit, but that much rain delayed the planting of the fall garden until about a month later than it should have been planted.  I think later this week, I will further explain.  The rainfall amounts convinced me of two things:  I need to raise the level of the garden higher by having some additional topsoil delivered, AND I need to construct better drainage on parts of our pasture and the barn area.