Horsing Around

With the heat and drought and my own little age-related aches and pains, I'd about quit riding the horses this summer.  Amy, Holly and Lawrence talked me into starting again and we've been riding the last hour or so of the day.  Sugarfoot hasn't forgotten any of her training, and is pleasant and calm.  The kids are riding Kitty Cat, the Evanson's big gentle paint, and she's doing well too.  We'll start taking some rides to the pastures again soon.

Another Good Football Weekend

Friday night we sat around the fire and listened to streaming audio on the internet to hear Derby play in the sub-state championships.  They eventually lost to Wichita Heights, who had had also won in the regular season matchup, but we're proud of the Panthers for getting that far.  You can't win it if you're not in it.

Saturday we went to Austin to watch KSU at Texas.  We stayed with Rob and Kathryn Daniel along with her parents who are big Longhorn fans too.  Rob brought BBQ from Mueller's.  Although it was an ugly win, the Wildcats prevailed to complete their domination of Texas teams this season.  The t-shirts Kathy and Amy are ordering look like this:

Our other favorite Big 12 team, Whoever's Playing Oklahoma, also won.  How 'bout them Bears!

On the way home we listened to another ugly win, but at least it was a win as the Cowboys outlasted the Redskins in overtime.  We pulled in to the driveway just in time to see the winning field goal.

We're looking forward to more games this Thanksgiving weekend, and wish you all a happy and peaceful holiday.

A Good Football Weekend

It's rare when you get all your wishes.  Last Friday we drove to Derby in time to see the Panthers beat undefeated Manhattan in regional competition.  Next Friday is sub-state against Heights.  Go Panthers!

Saturday to Manhattan for a 4-hour, 4-overtime heartstopper the Wildcats finally won against Texas A&M.  Next stop Austin.  Bring on the Longhorns!

Sunday driving home we listened to the Cowboys thump the Bills 44-7.  Next Sunday they'll be in Washington to scalp the Redskins.

Hay Dude

It’s being called the worst single-year drought in Texas history, although I know there have been some that lasted 5 or 7 years.  For a heart-breaking novel about one of those long ones read The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton.  I read another one a couple of years ago about the Dust Bowl that was about the most depressing book I’ve ever read.  But this has been plenty bad.

The pastures have looked like August since early June.  We weren’t overstocked so we’re not in as bad shape as some folks, but there’s precious little grass.  We had a 4-inch rain on Oct 8 and it has been amazing to see the land respond.  It’s a little too cool now for any actual grass growth, but it got quite green and I’m sure the plants produced some of the nutrients they store in their root systems to be ready for spring.  It was so dry when it was time to fertilize the Coastal in April that I didn’t do it.  Now that I see it can still rain, I’d like to spread some dry fertilizer but I think the growing season is over and will probably wait.  I’ve been feeding one or two bales of hay a week since the pasture grass is so short and will soon start feeding one every day. Altogether I have about 140 bales and that should get us through the winter if we get some rain.  We had some small square bales of Coastal left in the barn from last year and Kathy and I bought 30 bales of Brome on one of our Wichita trips, so that’s what the horses will eat this winter.

Our hay crops were really hammered by the drought.  We only cut a little bit of Coastal at the Gamblin place and none in the field above the house.  Our planted Sudan at the Sycamore, Ischy’s and Wesley’s made less than half what we made last year.  We weren’t alone, of course, and any trip you take up or down I-35 you’ll see truck after truck loaded with hay from Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas headed for Texas.  Larry and I bought 60 bales from Kansas and had it trucked down here, not an inexpensive proposition.  Our hay arrangement with Steve Ischy is working well.  We pay him $9 per bale of hay we produce on his fields and we plow, plant, fertilize and bale at our expense.  Don Opersteny, who owns Garlon Streater’s place, has about 60 acres of Klein grass and 10 of Coastal and we’re trying to get into some kind of similar long-term hay lease with him.  They’re nice fields and very close to home.  I never used to like farming, but I’m beginning to think it’s kind of fun.  I enjoy seeing the seasons set by the land and the weather, not a printed production schedule.  It’s good for my patience and humility.

Lawrence and I planted 13 acres of oats in the field above the house on Sept 10.  We planted into dry dusty ground, but we’ve had a little rain since and they’ve come up and are green.  If we can get a good stand there, we’ll be able to bring the cows up to graze them and let the pasture grass rest and recuperate.

We’re having a little shower now--nothing like what Kansas and Oklahoma are having, but enough to make it nice to go get a cup of coffee and sit in the porch swing and watch.  Life is good.

Where's The Beef

It’s been a while since I sent an update on the ranch.  I’ll just cover the cow and calf operations so I can give some detail without being too long-winded.  Just about everything has been affected by the drought.  I have to remind myself that “bad” years aren’t unusual here and that our average annual rainfall is not our typical annual rainfall, just the average of widely-varying extremes.  The marketing rep for Pacesetter Beef estimates that more than half of the grown cattle in our county have been sold due to ranches running out of grass.

Cows and calves

Out of 28 breeding-age cows we had 26 calves.  One who didn’t calve is the one who prolapsed after delivering her first calf last year, so she might have an excuse.  She tested pregnant Sept 13, and I’ll check her again soon to be sure she continues to carry the calf.  The other is one of Evansons’ that I’m “babysitting” while they’re in Angola.  I don’t know why she didn’t calve but I don’t really feel like I can sell her anyway.  My goal is a weaned calf from every cow but I realize everything isn’t under my control.  I guess 93% is still an A, and I’m happy that we had no calf losses of any kind.  I sold 2 cows and should sell more, but they’re healthy and efficient so I’ll keep what we have for a while.  The calving season was nice and short, Jan 27 through March 22 except for 2 who were later.  In fact, there were only 2 others born later than Feb 23.  I put the bulls in on April 25 which should have produced the first calf Feb 1, so I think all but those 4 bred on their first heat cycle and successfully delivered the calf--another reason to really like our cows.  We weaned them 60 days early this year, to take some stress off the mothers and the grass.  We used fenceline weaning again and I’m glad Lawrence was here to help because a couple were dedicated to unweaning themselves every day until we finally got the fence in decent shape.  Gotta work on that fence this winter.

Commercial calves

We sold 14 black and black baldie calves through Pacesetter Beef.  The 2 who were born after March weren’t quite big enough.   We sold at about 100 pounds lighter than last year due to the early weaning (everybody else did it too)--650 pounds for steers and 600 for heifers.  Input costs were staggering.  Medicine costs didn’t change much, and we had very little vet expense, but the weaning ration that cost $5.85 per bag in 2009 (and 2010 because I was able to contract for it early) was $8.85 per bag this year.  I think you can thank our administration’s subsidy of the ethanol industry, which drove corn prices sky high, for that.  If there were a corresponding decrease in gas prices maybe it would be easier to swallow.  Luckily we sold at the highest price per pound I’ve ever seen so payday was still a happy day.  Watching the auction on TV and comparing similar calves who didn’t have all our weaning, vaccinations, age and source verification and PI testing, I really felt we got paid for these value-added practices.  Next year I’ll send you all the auction information and you can watch if you’re interested.

Polled Hereford calves

We had 10 Polled Hereford calves (6 heifers and 4 bulls) from our registered cows this year, with a plan of starting to raise our own replacement heifers and sell a few bulls locally.  My original hope had been to use artificial insemination (AI) for this purpose, but I was not able to find an AI service interested in coming out to work just 10 cows so I wound up buying a bull and I’m very pleased with him.  I have ads in the paper for heifers and bulls and I’ve sold 2 bulls--a yearling and one 8 months old--and had a call about another so that’s working even better than I’d hoped.  The heifers look very good.  There are 3 that I plan to keep and 3 that I like, but think I might sell at the Cross Timbers Polled Hereford Association sale at West in March.

All in all life is good with no problems some rain wouldn’t help.  We had our first cold snap this week, so we had a fire in our newly-repaired fireplace and it works great.  We’re looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, and seeing all of you who can come visit.

A New Beginning

Greetings.  Since Holly blogged so effectively from Africa I’ve thought this might be a good format for keeping you all posted on the farm and ranch activities, rather than my once-in-a-blue-moon long e-mails.  Amy was kind enough to set it up for me.  I'll keep trying to improve it and I’d appreciate your comments.