January 5, 2015 by Head Farm Steward

10 Cows, 6 Heifers, 2 Steers, 60 Acres

So you read the title, right? OK. So. That’s my little herd. We are growing. We are adding to our numbers each year and things are moving along. Someone recently asked me to clarify that I really only have 13 animals out on pasture for my remaining 30 acres of stockpile. But let’s remove the numbers for just a second.

I have enough pasture remaining to enable my cows to make it to April if I supplement their grazing with hay.

Do the numbers matter?

1. It’s all about me.
What if I just went out and bought 40 cows? I have 60 acres, I live in Illinois. Shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Well, it is a big deal. Remember, I’m a transplant from the city. Yes, I own my family farm but the generation before me packed up and left. My dad worked at a coal mine, took me fishing and played catch with me in our ranch-style suburban home. I had a model train and a pile of legos. How many of those 40 cows would I kill? I would just be scrambling to keep up out there. So I started with two. (Actually I started with chickens but…) Each year I add to the numbers. Each year Julie and I increase our knowledge, our ability, our understanding, our eye and we move forward. Hopefully we will graduate from cow college in 20 years but right now we still have everything to learn.

Also, don’t overlook the costs involved in 40 cows, hay for 40 cows (cause our grass won’t cut it…more in a bit), and time for 40 cows. I have a job. I have a good job. But I don’t have that kind of cash just laying around.

2. It’s all about the grass.
My pastures are pretty poor, really. I have forests of goldenrod, forests of thorny things and pure stands of fescue. Not enough shade. Not enough water. Not what you want for 40 cows. 40 cows, supplemented with hay on pasture year round, would do a tremendous amount of work trampling my goldenrod and moving my pastures forward but that’s not leveraging our strengths. That’s ignoring…or foolishly running roughshod over our weaknesses. It was interesting to watch our pastures recover this year. I have a bare, compacted, south-facing slope by the house that was almost a pure stand of clover this year. What will it do next year? The east 40 was almost entirely devoid of clover except where dad planted it. What happens this coming year? Forages are changing on the farm, some of them intentionally so but it takes time. I could fill the farm with cows and may still be able to manage it with time but the base forage just isn’t here. The temptation would be to simplify feeding hay to my 40 cows by bringing them to the lot each day. Then I would be back where I started. Sigh.

3. Wrong cow, right job.
My genetics are not in place yet. I have a few prospects that we have high hopes for but we aren’t there. I need a small cow (nope) that does well on grass alone (nope). Ideally she would give milk for 90 days then dry up on her own. She would re-breed quickly and easily, fatten on nothing at all and would last 14-20 years leaving 12-18 calves in her wake. One of her sons would be retained as a sire for the next herd of the future. But that’s not what I have. I have cows that will probably come up open in a year or two and that will be that. Then what? Buy in more of the same? Breed to a devon bull?

As I learn more, as my soil health improves and pasture diversity increases and as my herd changes more toward our grazing ideal I won’t need 30 acres for 13 cows. But right now I do and mostly because of item #1. Grass grows. Cows eat. I’m the weak link. But I’m working on it. Let’s revisit that King Ranch quote from a few days ago because I think it’s appropriate here. Keep in mind, the numbers they list are for an organization that knows what they are doing, ranching on cheap land in a tropical paradise.

Unlike most manufacturing, the ranching business is a slow start-up. It takes years to bring raw land to a good grass yield and to breed up a herd to the point of turning off quality and quantity beef. Though the company operated seven years, it was only in the last six months that it generated its first net profit, $600.

I think this fits under the thinking that one should simply start…and start small. You don’t know what you don’t know and it takes years to find out. And I didn’t even touch on marketing. What would I do with 40 calves? At this point, my marketing reach is insufficient. So…grow as you go. But go. Don’t say no. I mean it, there so! Marvin K. Mooney.

BTW, this post is entirely academic. The cows are on deep bedding this week as it is particularly cold out. I have had to learn we can’t outwinter the jerseys and it really is easier to keep the team together than to split the jerseys off from the shorthorns and…ugh. Water. Freezes.

January 4, 2015 by Head Farm Steward

Reading Journal 2015 Week 1

This week started early. Not much early but last year early.

Anyway, the big goal is to log what I read, not just read. I tend to read and read and read but I don’t know how much of what I ingest I actually assimilate. This is both to help me assimilate more and to keep a record of when I read what. Books will be assimilated.

Click image for source. Come on. You know I like Star Trek.

But here’s the thing. I find it is difficult to cut through meaty books at this pace. I prefer to read things slowly…er…procrastinate. Maybe I read 6 or 7 books at once, finishing them all over the course of 4-6 weeks. Isolating one book each week doesn’t seem like it’s going to allow things to percolate through. But maybe that’s not all bad. I’m changing some reading habits here too, not just focusing on a single book and speed. I’m making notes in my books so I can re-focus on certain passages when I read the book again.

But this week was awful. I got distracted reading two other books just trying to run away from reading about the King Ranch. Not that I didn’t want to read about the King Ranch, I wanted to do other stuff too.

So that takes me to my review system. I just don’t have the time to share my chapter by chapter notes of each book in a series of blog posts. I have a job, man. So I’m going to attempt to answer a few simple questions about each book to help you determine if it’s the book for you. Let’s just dive in.

Bob Kleberg and the King Ranch

What’s it about?
This book seems to be two things at once. It’s kind of a biography of Bob Kleberg as well as a history of the King ranch. But it is also kind of an autobiography of Bob’s right hand man, John Cypher. Kind of. It details their decades of working together to grow the ranch into a global enterprise. Really, pretty fascinating stuff if you can wrap your head around the numbers involved. For example, they projected a property in Venezuela would finish 4,000 steers each year but they actually finished 19,000. Wow. There are numerous anecdotes that are instructional to the aspiring rancher as well as crazy stories of life with Bob.

Is it a classic?
On the initial reading I would say no. Good but not great.

Will you read it again?
Yes. I plan to read it again, skimming through and seeking out the portions of the book I highlighted.

Does it belong on your bookshelf?
Maybe for a little while. I do plan to flip through it once or twice more.

Can you relate a favorite passage or two?
Here the author is relating the experiences of establishing business in Cuba right up through when Castro seized power and stole the ranch. It’s hard to risk an investment if you don’t have secure property rights. Ultimately the ranch and investors lost $6 million. That’s a lot of money in 1959. Plus the cattle…many of which ended up in Russia. How about that? Anyway, I feel that this is personally applicable right now…and for the next 6 or 7 years.

Unlike most manufacturing, the ranching business is a slow start-up. It takes years to bring raw land to a good grass yield and to breed up a herd to the point of turning off quality and quantity beef. Though the company operated seven years, it was only in the last six months that it generated its first net profit, $600.

Next they were working in Brazil with one of the most successful businessman in the country at the time, Dr. Augusto T. A. Antunes. The following was asked of Dr. Antunes:

Doctor, how do you define social justice?

Without hesitation, Antunes replied, “Social justice is the process of giving everyone an equal opportunity to become unequal.”

Who should read this book?
This is a historical, biographical collection of tales mixed with details of efficient cattle operations, hunting and drinking. I don’t think they are tall tales and the author doesn’t seem to shy away from pointing out Bob’s weaknesses. There are also interesting global political notes as the world stood 50 or 60 years ago. So if you’re into that…

The Martian: A Novel

What’s the book about?
Group of astronauts go to Mars. Emergency situation comes up. One gets left behind. He wants to go home.

Is it a classic?
No. Well, maybe. There may be more here than I picked up on the initial reading. I don’t think so though.

Will you read it again?
Oh, maybe. It’s a fast read on a rainy day and it made me laugh.

Does it belong on your bookshelf?
Nope. It’s an ebook and should stay there. See if you can catch it on sale.

Can you relate a favorite passage or two?
Several. At one point the main character, who has been alone for more than a year, is focused on driving a vehicle to a rescue location. He can’t keep his mind on his work though. He interrupts himself in the middle of a narration and it made me giggle.

[Driving and going through a list of wants…]

It has been a long time since I’ve seen a woman. Just sayin’

Anyway, to ensure I don’t crash again I’ll – Seriously…no women in like, years. I don’t ask for much. Believe me, even back on earth a botanist/mechanical engineer doesn’t exactly have ladies lined up at the door. But still, c’mon.

Who should read this book?
First let me say to my Sunday School teachers out there: Skip this book. Potty. Mouth. Lots of worty dirds. Guy gets wounded and left for dead on Mars…of course he has some choice words. But he tends to have a sense of humor about things. Here’s a mild quote. Our hero is trying to build a vehicle to travel from A to B on Mars. He needs a place to sleep so he puts a tent on through an airlock on the vehicle to act as a bedroom.

The rover and trailer regulate their own temperatures just fine, but things weren’t hot enough in the bedroom.

Story of my life.

If you found any humor at all in those quotes, get the book. If you read that and thought, “I can’t believe Christopher would quote such a thing”, this isn’t the book for you. I laughed all the way through…though I did skim here and there. Narrations of driving across the surface of a frozen desert planet were…well…skimable.

Next week I plan to read Ten Acres Enough. I received that as a Christmas gift. It looks like a fast read so I may also tack on Cottage Economy.

Please give me some feedback on this post. I haven’t written a book report for 25 years and I find the results to be less than satisfactory. I read a lot. Like, a lot, lot. I like to share with my readers when I find a book that helps a farmer out. But I also like to be entertained so I include links to movies and music. Fun books too. Please let me know if there are questions I can answer for you. The current post format is just the Beta version. I’m not even sure this kind of thing belongs on this blog. Especially books about lovesick astronauts stranded on Mars.

January 3, 2015 by Head Farm Steward

Philosophy of Grass, Hay and Making Cows Happy

I love those big, flashy titles.

After my previous post on winter grazing I had a thought-provoking comment from a reader. In short, she pointed out that I’m not just grazing and I’m not just feeding hay. I’m doing both. Yup. And let’s talk about that. It’s philosophically different than other resources I pointed to in that post. Jim Gerrish wrote a book called “Kicking the Hay Habit” and Jim Elizondo has a DVD about Hayless winter grazing…and somehow, in spite of the fact that I’m feeding hay to my cattle, I pointed to those resources to support my routine.

Well. I stand by it. Here is another resource to further stack the cards against me. I ain’t skeered.

Mr. Elizondo avoids hay by offering flaxseed meal mixed with salt, allowing the cows to digest highly lignified forages. Mr. Gerrish, as I understand, just grazes like the fellas in the video. Let’s keep piling on counter-examples. Greg Judy, as I understand, only feeds hay if there’s a bad ice storm. Gabe Brown? Dunno. Somebody look it up and comment for me, will you?

So where do I get off stockpiling grass AND still feeding hay AND bragging about it on the internets? Just who do I think I am?

I’m me. I have my pastures. I deal with my problems. I listen to my cows. They tell me (by way of manure) they would not perform without hay. Some of this is because I have the wrong cows. Some of this is because I have the wrong pastures. But I’m honest and observant enough to assess livestock health and caring enough to address their needs. They need a little extra protein. But they certainly benefit from the standing forage. So I run a hybrid. Then the cows eat fresh plantain in the winter.

The idea, as spelled out to me by David Hall some time ago, is to feed one month’s worth of hay over 5 months and ask the animals to deliver the fertility across the farm over time. He further said he could normally buy a round bale of good quality hay for $20-$25 (little different here in the midwest, eh?) and gain $18 worth of fertilizer value…so he buys hay. Doesn’t make hay, different discussion for a different day.

So that’s the plan. We stockpiled basically the whole farm. We still have 30 acres to graze. To keep the cows healthy we need to give a little extra protein and I feed that in the form of hay. So here I am. Standing right in the middle. We may move toward the world of no hay but I’m not there yet. Some of that is my skill level. Some is my level of faith. Some is the genetics I currently own. Some because of the condition of my soil. But whatever the reason, that’s what I do. And it seems to be working out OK.

Some of this thinking would apply if I was feeding hay during a summer drought. Keep the cows on the move, add feed to help them over the hump, measure protein needs as they are grazing highly lignified summer stockpile. However, if we can recognize the drought early we can liquidate our least valuable stock early on and maintain a much smaller herd throughout. But that’s for another day too.

One last thing. I do need to improve my pastures. The density of animal impact and …erm…cow…erm…residue will build soil health. Plus we are working to spread compost, lime and run chickens over the farm, only helping things further. But wait there’s more. 5-6 pounds of red clover per acre to be applied in the next month. Should I apply that seed ahead of the cows so they can mash it into the soil with their hooves or should I follow behind the cows, letting freeze/thaw cycles plant the seeds for me? Dunno. Maybe a little of both? Cause that’s, apparently, how I roll.

January 2, 2015 by Head Farm Steward

Thoughts on Writing

I have tried – really tried – to publish every day. I just have too much going on (poor me). I often have nothing to write about but it just seems like I should. I do write almost every day but publishing is another thing entirely. You should see the backlog of unpublished drafts. Sometimes I don’t publish because forced writing comes across as bitter or venomous and I just keep those to myself.

Today I want to write about writing. I was speaking with someone recently and I said, “You know how you sit and write about 5,000 words then look back over it a couple of times and still miss mistakes? Drives me bananas.”

She looked at me like I was bananas. I guess writing 5,000 words is a big deal from her perspective. I try to break up lengthy essays into multiple posts on my blog because I think it’s impolite to ask you to spend all day reading my nonsense as you flip through the pretty pictures.

I have a couple of thoughts on this and since it’s my blog I’m going to write them down…even if you don’t read this. Our pastor often uses points that start with the same letter to make it seem catchy. I failed miserably at this but tried anyway. Especially since my points are Pot, Passion, Pants, Paint and Publish. Yikes. I don’t think I’ll be preaching any time soon.

A Watched Pot Never Boils
5,000 words is not a goal. It is not a destination. It’s just a part of the going there. No big whoop. I don’t know why professors and teachers in my past demanded X pages or X,000 word essays. I always found myself looking at the word count to see when I could finish typing.

You know that thing you can talk about for hours but you don’t because it’s rude? You know that thing you read every chance you get? That thing you love so much you feel like you’ll bust if you don’t let a little of it out from time to time? That thing you absolutely geek out about? If you were writing about that thing…well 5,000 would just get you started. Don’t look at the total number of words. That’s nothing. Get the ideas out of your head.

Passion is Required
You ask me a simple question about any of several topics and I’ll give you both barrels. Don’t get me started. I could corner you for hours to talk about cow poop or any of a number of topics. BTW, I expect you to be just as passionate as I am if we disagree because if I’m wrong I don’t want to remain wrong. Don’t give up on me. Convince me. Sway me with your words. You can’t succeed if you don’t care. It’s just not worth it.

But if you do care…if you love what you are writing about…there is no limit. There is no end. You’ll be upset that you have to cut out whole paragraphs to get you back to that ridiculous and arbitrary 5,000 word limit.

Put on your grown-up Pants
You know you want to do it. But something is stopping you. Why are you making excuses? You want to write? Write. Get yourself a blog and throw it out there for the world to see. Will you be rejected by some? Yes. Will some people say you’re an idiot? Yup. Will your opinions be challenged and will your best arguments be exposed as somewhat shakey? Yes. And that’s good. You will also help some of your readers to evolve their own opinions. I don’t want to continue living in ignorance. Please, enlighten and persuade me. Almost every blog post results in a conversation with dad. Sometimes it’s clarification, sometimes it’s correction, sometimes it’s just an exploration. How cool is that?

Paint (maybe Picture)
Show me the world. Use words. Use pictures if you want. Publishing costs are effectively zero so…go to town. I keep my phone with me at all times. If I see something interesting that creates a spark I snap a picture of it. Julie does the same. In fact, lots of times the pictures are the story. I just put words between pictures to chain them along. But you don’t need a phone. You have words. Write it up. Call me Ishmael. Make it happen on the page. Show me the world you see…or the world you want to see. I can’t see it if you don’t show it to me. And if a picture is worth 1,000 words…well, it’s easy.

Publish It
What aren’t you writing about? I know there is a lot of garbage out there that’s not worth reading. That should be encouragement enough to convince you that you need to start. The worst you can do is add to the pile like I do. But there is a chance, however small, that you will say something that will impact the world or even just one reader in a positive way…that you will infect someone with your passion. But if you sit and wring your hands and live in constant fear of rejection, refusing to publish what few scribbles you have made we will never hear your voice. And we may all continue to live on in ignorance because you are afraid…afraid of rejection. Afraid of the work. Afraid of 5,000 words.

My goodness! it has never been easier to get your words out there. Just start up a free blog (like this one), take some cat pictures (to build traffic from Facebook), write a few words and hit publish. That’s it. No big whoop. Just hit publish. Just do it. If it stinks (and I think most of my stuff does) try to do better tomorrow. And the next day. If you manage to publish every day or even every other day, before long you’ll have enough practice that you can sit down with a simple idea and build 5,000 words of passion and persuasion before you finish that first cup of coffee (or in this case, about 1000 words). It’s no big deal. You are writing about your favorite topic…even if it’s not cow poop.

What are you passionate about? I’ll never know if you don’t tell me.

Julie wrote a response already.

January 1, 2015 by Head Farm Steward

Straight Poop about Winter Grazing

I am using a highly sophisticated, scientific method for grazing our cattle this winter. This process will be hard for the average farmer to duplicate so I release this information with a measure of reluctance. I’m not sure how useful it really is. This post relies heavily on two expensive and precise scientific tools to measure feed quality and quantity…a pitchfork and size 11.5 feet. I should also alert the reader, based on recent conversations, that this post will show pictures of cow manure. Lots of cow manure. Further, it will have explicit descriptions of cow manure. In fact, I may even discuss the philosophy of cow manure. The Zen of cow manure. Don’t misunderstand, this is a post about what my cows eat…but you have to pay close attention to the other end of the cow too. Let’s look at a sample. Here we have a rare sight indeed! Cow manure covered in coyote poop. You have to walk through a lot of pasture before you see one like this…complete with persimmon seeds in the coyote poop.

Click for source

If you are really interested in seeing coyote poop on cow poop, complete with persimmon seeds you can click here. If you clicked on that you’re weird. I know because I’m an authority on weird. I took the picture. Here’s a bonus. Coyote tracks in cow manure. Believe me, you have to look at a lot of cow pies to find one of those. So…I look at a lot of cow manure. I take pictures of cow manure. I think cow manure is important. You down? Anyway, I have cows. Hooray for cows! I have cows because I need something to eat my grass. Hooray for grass! So I ask my cows to eat my grass. Have you read Coleman’s Winter Harvest Handbook? That’s what we are talking about here…except on acres and acres of farmland. The cows aren’t eating fresh forage that is actively growing…cause nothing is growing. They are eating forage we grew in August, September and October and stored in the field for later consumption. Winter harvest. And it’s mostly grass because the poor legumes just can’t take the cold…and other reasons I’ll get into in a minute. However, if my cows only eat grass this time of year they will get a bit constipated. There just isn’t a lot of protein in the grass that is out there. Fescue, apparently, does well in the cold but I have not done a formal forage analysis. I just turn the cows into a new area, make sure they are full, in condition and I look at their poop. Science! (Cue Thomas Dolby.) As I said above, if I expect the cows to ONLY eat the standing forage their stool tends to get a little dry. Their manure looks like a stack of cookies that fell over. There is some good forage out there that they seem to like but it’s not, I think, everything they need. Here’s some dry manure from last winter as an example. What we really want is pictured below. A nice, clean pile with a depression in the middle. A cow pie that looks like a pie. Perfect poop. I get this by supplementing the protein in their diet with high-protein hay. Others use a protein lick. Still others use grains. But the idea is the same. By offering a little supplementation you can not only fit more animals in the same area, you can utilize resources that would otherwise go wasted and you can concentrate fertility where it is needed most. So. Quiz time. What’s what here? OK, so that’s why I give them a little alfalfa hay. How much alfalfa? Oh, I don’t know. Some. (Science again.) I put out maybe 50 pounds of hay in the morning and another 50 pounds in the evening giving each cow around 7 pounds of alfalfa. I don’t carry a scale, man. Assuming the cows average about 1,000 pounds they are probably consuming another 13-15 pounds of dry matter by grazing. That’s about where we want it. I don’t want to provide more than about 30% of their dry matter from alfalfa…both because I have a limited supply and because it’s not good for them. We will measure “not good” in a minute. Before I go on I need to point out something. My pastures are brand new. Not new like freshly seeded to yummy things to eat. New like we aren’t even on a full year of managed grazing yet. The forages are just whatever came up. Whatever was left over after the tenant’s cows ate it down to the nubbins. So what is there is what is there. And what is there isn’t quite the balanced meal a cow needs. It just isn’t out there…not yet anyway. Not in terms of varieties, not in terms of soil health, not in terms of plant health, not in terms of cow health. So at this point I HAVE TO provide a little extra. We graze a strip that is measured in similarly scientific manner. Here’s the plan, I need to cover enough ground each day to keep my cows in top condition but only as much ground as I absolutely have to so my forage lasts until April or May. This recipe will change as my herd grows and as forage density varies but, for now, where we are grazing, I begin by laying out two parallel fences roughly 40 steps apart by aiming for points in the distance that I think are roughly 40 steps apart. So we’re 40-ish paces wide, right? Now I step off 20-ish paces for each day’s allotment and call it good. That packs the cows in tight enough that they are utilizing a high percentage of the available forage, they are full when I come back to see them in the morning and, just as important, their manure is distributed evenly – and heavily – throughout the pasture. Healthy cows like to lay in clean places. By growing into a new 20 steps each day the cows lounge in a new spot each day. What is the first thing a cow does when it stands up? But wait! There’s more. I need to see if the cows are full or not. Any cow will do but the shorthorns are super-shaggy. The Jerseys are not. I have one Jersey I can rely on as my fuel gauge. I can see when she is full. If she is full, everybody is full. And I want full cows. Full means that triangle on her left side is not sunken in…or not sunken in by much. And it shouldn’t be sunken in when you go to move the herd. Here is a pic of Mrs. White last winter when she ran empty due to poor management (me). She looks better this year. I feel like I’m doing a better job. As an aside, how do you keep a cow warm on a cold night? You keep her full. Keep that biology burning inside her. How do you keep a cow warm on a cold, wet night? Put her indoors. Saves your pasture too. By metering out my pasture like this I can make it last into spring. Further, I am not only budgeting my land, I’m leaving something in the account at each location. If needed, I could graze here again. I can also benefit from the even covering of manure all over my pasture. It’s like a war zone out there. First, it will boost fertility in the coming growing season, second I don’t have to haul it. Less work is more better. But the best thing of all is this: The cows eat everything. A little of this, a little of that, trample and manure on what’s left. They eat everything green. (Cows have not grazed on the right.) Now, our friend Kari asked if the cows would return to eating grass once they were given hay. I really don’t know how to answer that question…other than, “Yes?” But really I’m thinking, “What? Of course? I’m Ron Burgundy?” I don’t even know what that means. Our cows don’t go back and forth, they get both…unless I have to take them to the barn during a weather event. Then they seem to look forward to eating fresh greens again. So my answer is, “Yes?” Maybe I have magic pasture. Maybe I have magic cows. Maybe both? I’m telling you, Fescue is an unfair advantage in the winter. They dig through the snow to get to it. This helps offset the MAJOR disadvantages of fescue in the summer. But I think this is the real answer. Consistency. Cows like routines. My neighbor’s cows know silage is coming in the morning. They hear the tractor and they start to drool. My cows know I’m coming to open a fence in the morning. If you keep switching things up in their diet not only does their rumen have to adjust, the animal has to feel stressed to some degree. Like I do when Julie moves the furniture around…I’m a creature of habit. Forage slowly degrades over the season. By last March they were eating anything and everything. Brown grass? Brown leaves? Green tips of trees? You name it. We increased the amount of hay we offered each day as we got closer to grass growing again…as we got closer to running out of pasture…as we increased our confidence that our hay supply would last. As we continue grazing, as we continue building soil, as we continue building health and life we should see our supply of green stuff stretch. We may even reach a point where we don’t need hay anymore. But I’m not holding my breath. And even if the cows ignore the majority of the organic material out there (and they don’t), they still benefit from the little bit of fresh green and deliver the manure for me. So what if I take them a little hay? You know what the difference is between taking hay to a feed bunk and taking hay to the field is? Mud. And the good news is we have some excellent quality grass hay. Grass stems are thinner and easier to put up than alfalfa. The weaned calves seem to want a percentage of this in their diet…even though their stool is a little dry. I don’t keep my cows outside all the time. I could. Some do. But I don’t. When it’s raining and turning colder I think the cows are better off covered and warm. When it’s cold and muddy my pasture is better off without cattle. Sometimes it’s just easier to be a farmer if the cows are in the feedlot eating hay. My friend Matron prefers to keep them up close for all reasons above. But the same rules apply there. Keep the cows full. Look at the poop. If they sneeze and squirt their neighbor you might back off on the protein. You might also be concerned for their well-being. How do you feel when you get loose? Provided they aren’t sick (always give clean water), give just enough protein supplement to help them digest the rest of their feed. I use alfalfa hay to supplement protein. Jim Elizondo offers flaxseed meal. Guess what he says?

Then watch manure, gut fill and body condition to determine if they need protein…

Ta da! Then, check this out Kari:

I haven’t had success with moving cows to a high protein forage and then back to low-protein old forage on a daily basis, so I prefer to finish the higher quality forage first as it will lose quality the fastest.

In that quote Jim is explaining why we hit the alfalfa field early on. We got the high-quality forage out of the way because it would be the first and the fastest to lose quality. Now we work through the rest of the pasture. The remaining pasture needs a little help so we get proper rumen function. He supplements with flaxseed meal, I give high-legume hay grown right here in River City. And maybe that’s why your neighbors aren’t seeing success. Maybe they are trying to go back and forth on forage quality. I’m not going back and forth. I’m supplementing consistently. Heads are down in the pasture. I don’t know if this will work at your farm, with your forages, with your cattle, in your climate. I don’t know. Apparently the PNW isn’t the best place to try…which makes me want to try. It seems to work here but I have had neighbors tell me I’m wrong…that my cows may as well be eating straw. “If you think it will work or it won’t you’re probably right.” AMIRIGHT? If you want to know more, feel free to ask questions. I don’t know either but it’s fun to learn together. I think it’s also worth your time to check out Jim Elizondo’s DVD and Jim Gerrish’s books. Even if you can’t directly apply their work you can probably find inspiration and direction.

I want to add one more thing to this post. The cows have a wide variety of minerals available to them right now. They are hitting the phosphorus particularly hard right now. Because they have the minerals they need, they tend to utilize their forage better and they tend to eat less. But if you read the Jim Elizondo link above you know that already.

December 31, 2014 by Head Farm Steward

The 2014 Review…Awards

And now the CHF 2014 awards presented by Chris Jordan.

Best Dressed

This year I nominate myself and humbly accept the award for best dressed. The holes in the clothes, the hair that says, “I’m already married.”, the too much stuff being carried to show off for my wife. Oh yeah. Winner.

Of course I’m kidding. Julie wins any beauty pageant. Even if she doesn’t try. Here she is not trying at Aunt Marian’s birthday party. Isn’t she pretty?

Top post

What do pigs do on a farm? This one wins every year. Talk about SEO. Sheesh.

I’ll tell you what pigs do. They escape and come looking for me…the guy who brings the food.

My favorite post…and the top post we published this year…

The Way I See you, The Way I Love You. Read it for yourself.

Most Valuable Player

We love our new chicken house. I can’t say enough about it. We have lost ZERO chickens to predation, it kept the birds cool and comfy in the summer. Egg production stayed high all summer. We captured manure in the bedding on the floor we could redirect to specific locations on the farm. It’s easy to move on down the road. Just great. I would make two changes to it though. The next one will be a little taller and four feet longer. And the nest boxes will be on the other side so we don’t get dripped on. Other than that…great.

Most improved

With a minimum of effort and expense and against my wishes, dad single-handedly and somewhat magically converted a field of corn stubble into a magical land of clover (and weeds). We cut it for hay then, later, we grazed our way through.

Favorite Book

I must have read The Farming Ladder 10 times this year but, in spite of that, I think I liked Farmer’s Progress better. What a great book. Well, that and Carry On, Jeeves. But please, let’s don’t think I’m an anglophile.

Best Money Spent

We bought a truckload of oak odds and ends from the local sawmill really just for the price of the hauling. This isn’t all of it. This is a nice picture Julie snapped for ..like..art..stuff.

Livestock and Farm Animals

What a great year. We had a hen go broody and hatched chicks we weren’t expecting. 5 calves were born with no problems at all. We raised pigs, we raised chickens, we had fun.

But you know, sometimes things just don’t make it on the farm. It’s a hard place. We lost a calf this year. That was pretty hard. A mink killed 12 ducks one evening. My youngest’s favorite cat got hit by a car. That was rough. There were also whole litters of kittens that didn’t survive. We really thought Horatio was going to pull through but another, older kitten took his mama’s milk. My oldest daughter took it pretty hard. But that’s just how it is. Animals have a hard time. Especially the semi-feral barn cats. Most especially the semi-feral barn cats we name.

Lesson Learned Repeatedly

Julie doesn’t want to milk. Every. Stinking. Day.

Aunt Marian

Aunt Marian was suddenly gone. One day she was peeling grapes at her sink. The next day she was in the hospital. Within a month we were remembering her life. At a birthday party this year she looked at a plat map with me. The map was from 1893 but farms don’t change hands frequently. She told us what she remembered about each farm, where the house was, how folks were related. She knew everything. We miss her every day.

So that’s the year in review…awards for 2014. Some of that was pretty rough but we’re ready for more. Aunt Marian won’t fall asleep in a chair at the next birthday party but we move on. There are eggs to collect, cows to milk and calves to tag. There are children to raise. So here’s to 2015. We pray that God will enlarge our borders and keep us from harm.

One additional note, most of the pictures in this post were taken with Julie’s MotoX and are untouched. The old MotoX not the new one. That may be something we wonder about some day. I doubt a reader cares though. Indoor shots seem to suffer with that phone. The bearded Christmas selfie and the picture of Farmer’s Progress were both taken with my iPhone 5C…my employer’s iPhone 5C.

December 31, 2014 by Head Farm Steward

Should I Even Own a Small Tractor?

I have no idea. Are we clear on this? No. Idea. I am massively conflicted on this post. Not paralyzed to inaction, just conflicted.

Let’s start at the beginning. I bought an Oliver 550 on CL in May of 2010. Good rubber, soft clutch, weak brakes.

Then, a year later, I broke it. I was mowing under an evil sycamore tree and a limb just reached right out and grabbed the muffler, breaking the cast exhaust manifold. (I have since removed the offending limb and the other three growing at its height.)

I thought to myself, “Self, it would be nice if this tractor had a drawbar (Oliver didn’t ship many of these with drawbars). Since we’re buying parts anyway…”

SO I bought a new exhaust manifold and an aftermarket drawbar kit. And a new PTO shaft…because…why not?

Perfect. Just perfect. The tractor really comes in handy raking hay, pulling hay wagons or pulling a trailer full of firewood, chicken feed…whatever. It’s a perfect utility tractor.

But then it died. Dead. Wouldn’t start. Turns out it had a bad coil but it wasn’t just a bad coil. The tractor ended up at a reputable shop in town. Guy told me he couldn’t get it to show any oil pressure. The top end of the engine looks good but the bottom end needs rebuilt. I don’t know. Machine shop technobabble. Crankshaft. Bearings. Oil pump. Stuff. $1,400 worth of stuff.

Fast forward another year. We have used the tractor for several years now. I bought a blade I use for spreading rock, scraping up material or pushing snow. No big. But something goes wrong when I’m using it one day. Maybe I stopped, shut it off and was about to change implements but the battery was dead. No big whoop. We’ll just pull start it. “Julie, hop in the truck and pull the tractor. When you hear it start, stop the truck.”

Success!

I press down the clutch to stop behind the truck but nothing happens. Tractor keeps moving.

I frantically shove the tractor out of gear before something bad happens.

But something bad already happened. The clutch had blown apart.

The tractor then sat in a tractor cocoon in my machine shed for nearly a year. Should I just cut my losses and sell it for scrap? There is an Oliver scrapyard an hour south. Maybe they will give me something for it.

Whatever. I obviously don’t need this tractor since I haven’t used it in a year.

November rolls around. The tractor dealership shows up with dad’s loader tractor. The guy peeks in the shed and asks about the tractor. Dad explains, the guy offers to fix it and the tractor goes down the road.

How much does a new clutch cost? $1,800.

That makes my $3,500 antique tractor perilously close to a $7,500 tractor…minus the usage we have gotten out of it.

So let’s play a little game of “How else could Chris have spent that $8,000?”

A similar new tractor, though one with a loader, costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000. At 4.5% interest that’s $4,000 each year. So I could have had a small loader tractor for two years instead of this one for 5.

Point to the Oliver.

But the new tractor would have a loader.

Point to the new tractor.

And front wheel assist.

(No points given for showing off)

The Oliver is mechanically simple. No computers. All standard bolt sizes. Few wires.

Point Oliver.

New tractor comes with a warranty.

Point new tractor.

Yeah, but why do I need a tractor at all? I mean, really, why?

And that’s where it sits. I own an Oliver 550. It’s great at what it does. It’s not heavy enough to pull small trees out of the ground but perfect for pulling chicken houses, hay wagons, etc. I would like to have a new tractor but…I mean…if I keep replacing parts I will have a new tractor…lol!

I don’t know how to suggest you apply this. The antique tractor has needs but on an annualized basis it is cheaper to own…so far. And I’m not really sure I need to own it or any tractor since dad lives next door. I think I would rather have more cows. But if dad didn’t live here? If we didn’t trade work and help each other out? Fortunately…

So, to the fella who came by unexpectedly last week to look at the tractor, wanna trade for bred cows?

December 30, 2014 by Head Farm Steward

One Freezty, Frosty Morning

Was out working before sunrise and didn’t really notice the frost until the first rays of light revealed it to me. Frosted grass, frosted weeds, frosted cows. It has been rainy and wet for the last week and it made for a beautiful morning.

Turning back to look at the truck…

I turned the cows into a new grazing area as we do every morning. I think we still have 30 acres of standing forage to munch through. The shorthorns seem to like it. The Jerseys nibble a little but they know hay is coming.

I brought them a few forks of hay off of a round bale. I prefer to feed hay this way. I can sort the good from the bad (bales are pretty bad this year) and they don’t turn the whole bale into a bed. Very little waste this way. I just carry each forkful to a clean spot in the pasture as I cross over the perimeter fence. Maybe you can’t tell but the cows have grazed the pasture in the foreground pretty hard. I’m leaving a lot of brown forage behind to protect and feed the soil as well as a couple of standing weed skeletons.

What a beautiful morning. The sun will be up soon.

December 29, 2014 by Head Farm Steward

Dear 100 Years From Now

I have no idea who Susan A. Chism was. Only this bit of information I got from mom’s blog. Brace yourself.

Susan was the blind daughter of William and Sarrah W. Chism. The story is she was carrying scissors and fell.

Don’t run with scissors, kids. I guess I know a little more. Susan was the daughter of William and Sarrah. William and Sarrah were my grandpa’s great grandparents. And I guess they lived here..or near here. Uncle Jack said there was something of a rift torn between family members and between neighbors when Susan sold a portion of the farm. I’ll come back to that.

One reason I know so little about my great, great, great, great aunt is because there were no blogs. Ever wonder why I blog? Maybe part of the reason is because I don’t want to be forgotten.

What will my great, great, great, great nephew know about me in 100 years? Today I will write a letter to that generation…assuming the internet archive will still be available at that time. Who knows though. This may be the Betamax version of the internet, soon to be made obsolete. (I’ll include a link to explain what Betamax means. Kids today…) Back on point, what did I inherit from Susan A. Chism? What vision did she cast into my life? Heck, what vision did grandpa cast into my life? That’s hard to pin down. I live in my grandpa’s house but I lived 100 miles away from here until I was almost 17. Grandpa died when I was 21. How much did grandpa teach me about farming? Not much. How much vision did grandpa share with me? What legacy did he leave?

Grandpa was always pushing to recognize, learn and embrace new trends and opportunities in agriculture. He loved us unconditionally. I remember grandpa laughing and smiling. I remember the last conversation I had with him, across the room from where I sit as I type this. I asked him if I could name my first son after him. He said he hated the name Chester then laughed.

With that out of the way let’s begin casting vision into the generations to come. I have the chance to do something Susan A. Chism couldn’t.

My family,

I have so much to say to you I hardly know where to begin. I want to keep this letter focused on a main theme but I have to touch on one other thing. Never sell land. That was reinforced in a book I’m reading about the King ranch right now and also in the story uncle Jack told me about my great (x4) aunt Susan, (not his wife aunt Susan).

There are a good number of you children I have never met. Or if I have, I don’t remember it. Julie and I brought four children into the world. Our plan was to have six but…well, plans change. You, my children, are my treasure. The land, chickens, cattle, books? Worthless. They can all go. They don’t matter. You matter. You, children, are why we are here. Do I have land so I can have cattle or do I have cattle because I have land? I don’t know. I do know that the land and cattle are an enhancement to our lives together. I have them because I have you. However, I hope you make time to read the books. I know they are old-fashioned but they offer you a way to connect with your grandmother and me. I hope some of you own books that I owned, as I own books that aunt Marian owned. Julie and I along with our four children (currently aged 8-14) sat around the fire during a snowstorm reading on a Sunday at Thanksgiving. It was awesome but not unusual. We love books. But we love you more.

You may not believe it but I was once young and had a sense of humor. As we said then, “I know, right?” One favorite joke was writing under the pen name Head Farm Steward. As we said then, “LOL!” I’m not the head of anything…maybe the labor department. The farm doesn’t have a head. It has a team. That joke was originally sourced from a series of books about a cowdog named Hank, the head of ranch security. Within the next two years, my oldest son (your uncle, great-uncle, great-great-uncle, father, grandfather or great-grandfather) will have the opportunity to call himself by that joking title. Should he choose to accept I will relinquish the title and crown him the new Head Farm Steward and devote more of my time to composting animal manure or writing more on the blog…but I repeat myself. I hope one or more of you have continued that tradition. With luck, one of you has given the title meaning…you are actually the head of something. Maybe 20 of you have land of your own and work to coordinate your methods and marketing, expanding our vision into a vast family empire. We are counting on you or your spouses to do just that. To what extent have you succeeded? What is the next step? Somebody speak up. We are counting on you.

And why, you ask, do I want you to own land? Read Gone with the Wind. Let me spell it out. Land is worth owning. Land gives you a tie…a place to put down roots. A home. Sentimental attachment. There is a giant tree on the next hill over that my grandpa said was was big when he was a kid. That memory spans the years. Land spans the years. Land carries wealth through the years. Land gives you the option to produce something. You can plant. You can tend. You can harvest. You can eat. You can pay your taxes. But back to the theme, you can build memories with your children. You can shoot at targets, you can identify frogs and snakes and birds and spiders. You can learn and work together. If that’s not enough, there are any number of places we could put our money but land offers a measure of permanence. You can’t drink it. You can’t eat it. You can’t burn it. It remains. I hope you are all land owners, wherever you live. I hope you use your land to be productive, not simply for recreation. Not simply lawn space. I hope you are good stewards, working to multiply your blessings within your community.

Home schooling our children seemed, at the time, to be the best option. It gave each of our children the opportunity for self-directed learning and gave us time to enjoy having them around. We had our children because we wanted children. Turns out, we made the right choice. What choices have you made? I don’t care if you choose to teach your children yourselves, send them to grandma Julie’s house to learn or send them to public school. Don’t care. I care that we learn…all of us. I imagine a grandchild having a story like this to relate to the family:

I nearly lived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house as a child. Grandma Julie home schooled us all as much as she could. Sure, mom was involved but grandma was the driving force. Grandpa would stop in to see what we were learning. Sometimes he would argue with grandma and with us about what we were learning…even questioning the basis of arithmetic. He had these crazy ideas like “2+2 is a waste of everyone’s time. The assumption is that we are adding two groups of two identical units but what’s the fun in that? Try to add two cows and two horses. What do you get? Two cows and two horses. Turn them over. Try it again. No difference, just unhappy animals.” Or when we were studying the industrial revolution, “If employers were such jerks, why didn’t people leave the factories and just go back to the farms? Maybe because people always choose the best option available? Maybe farms were worse than factories at that time. What can we learn from that?”

At age 8 I really didn’t understand what grandpa was talking about. In fact, at age 90 I’m still not sure. But I remember his laughable efforts to say something profound each day.

Do you appreciate your children? Are children a burden or a blessing? What are you teaching them about themselves? It doesn’t matter who they go to for their three R’s, they learn more from you. Do you love them? Do you know them? Do you know how they want to be loved? Find the book The Five Love Languages on my bookshelf. My grandma left red lipstick on my face in trade for cookies. Grandma Chism was all about physical affection. My great aunt Marian was into giving gifts and found joy in making clothes and food every chance she got. My father was less into snuggling and more into helping. Acts of service define his caring. Julie is all about the quality time. But you know what means the most to me (today anyway)? Words of affirmation. I need to hear them. I don’t want to be left to assume I’m an idiot. I want to be told there is hope for me. That God has a plan for my life. That I was created for a purpose. Take a few minutes to learn how to love each other…to learn how to be understood.

Beyond that? I don’t know. The farm is home. Whatever else happens, wherever else we (you) go, this is home. We (you) are safe here. We (you) have purpose here. I am planting trees you will harvest from but that’s not the real harvest. You are the real harvest. I have cows for several reasons. First, I think I can get a better return on my investment in cattle than I can from a savings account. Second, it’s something to do with the kids. Third, I feel can make a small contribution to making the world a better place with cattle, both in terms of food quality and in terms of environmental quality. But look at #1 and #3 again. Those are about you kids. Why do I want money? To further our family’s intellectual and emotional development. Why do I want a better environment? Did you really just ask me that question? What kind of world do you live in 100 years from now? I live in a world of muddy rivers and dead zones in the gulf of Mexico. I live in a world that punishes people who save money…who accumulate wealth. We look down on intelligence. We scoff at people with more than two children and “support” our kids by watching them play soccer. Heavens! we certainly don’t play soccer with them. No. We stand around with the other parents while our kids stand with the kids. One must respect the class system. Kids go to school, adults go to work. That’s the way.

That may be the norm in the outer world but it is not the norm in our world. You are our world. You are with us. You want to play legos? I want to play legos. You want to finger paint? I want to finger paint. You want to build a go-kart? You want to build a robot? You want to build a robot that builds go-karts? I’m game. Let’s go now because in about an hour I have to move the herd. Want to come with me in the helicopter? We are a family. We are united but we are not the same. We are not all interested in the same things. But we share a common goal: family. We do different things but we share resources. Your kids want to go to college? Ask the family counsel for financial assistance. You need to take a few weeks off to heal up or to write that book you’ve been meaning to write? Let us invest in you. Turn to us for help…then help when it is your turn.

I’m not really planting trees. I’m planting you. I’m cultivating your lives. The cows just keep the wheels turning as we explore the world together. As we find out who we are. As we struggle against division.

And I hope that is what I have left you. Unity. Family. Vision. Maybe some measure of finance but you are the real wealth. Julie and I treasure you. Each of you. All of you. We love you.

Since I have the floor I’m going to say it all again. If I had nothing else I would have family. If I had my family and could have one more thing it would be a book. If I could add to that it would be a warm place to read a book. Growing from there I want a garden. But the garden isn’t big enough. I need an acre. Or two. Or twenty. But only if I can share it with you kids.

One more thing.

I don’t know anything about my great, great, great, great aunt Susan but I will. Just as I am fully known. We are eternal beings and I hope to see you all soon.

December 28, 2014 by Head Farm Steward

Weaning Revisited

I recently shared that we decided to wean our calves. I have mixed feelings about this even now but it’s where we are. In short, May was having trouble maintaining condition with a calf at her side. So we separated the calf and all her siblings.

I outlined this recently by sharing that we were attempting to use weaning clips and now it’s time for the rest of the story. Six days have passed since we put the clips on the calf noses.

It worked. Wonderfully. The end.

The clip was clearly a source of frustration to the calves but they stuck by mama’s side and dealt with it. Now the small amount of bawling we hear is just that they miss mom.

We did notice one limitation to using the weaning clips. The calves couldn’t lick their noses. Snot. Lots of snot. I had Julie remove the clips.

So now the calves are in jail. They are under shelter on warm, dry bedding with plenty of fresh water, kelp, salt, hay and a southern exposure. They seem to be doing well. Once in a while one of them (I haven’t paid much attention which) will call out to mom. More frequently moms will call out to calves. I suspect they want to be indoors with all they can eat hay too.

So that’s the sorting barn. It needs a little maintenance but I think it is older than me and works great. Here is a relevant quote from the Bob Kleberg book I am currently reading. (BTW, Yes, I know. I shouldn’t feed through a gate. I’ll get a feeder panel in there tomorrow.)

The fences, gates, the watering places, the sets of pens he had built were all the best, the most durable – sometimes overbuilt – to cut repair costs and maintenance time.

That certainly applies here. What an asset that building is. More than half of the panels are gates. The chute below leads to a loading chute or gives access to two different lots…or, of course, the head gate. There is even a hydrant behind a wooden panel at the end of the chute.

I would prefer, as others have suggested, to wean across a fence but in December with rain and cold weather in the forecast I feel better with the calves under a roof. There is enough stress as it is.

Chism Heritage Farm

A Stewardship Chronicle

Author: Head Farm Steward