FGP Cattle

     For the last 24 hours, the weatherman has been predicting a Colorado low moving in and dumping a quarter of the snow that we would normally see in the winter.  Or aboiut 20 centimeters.  Wind and blwing snow are supposed to come to, creating the first major blizzard of the season.  People are hauling in the provisions and preparing to settle in for the weekend. 

     The snow was supposed to start at 9 pm tonight (or so the last reports we heard said - but that time moved a few times over the last day or so so who knows!)  A look out the window shows nothing.  Just black.  With no sun (or moon) out, that's not much of a surprise.

     Hopefully it doesn't snow too much.  The cows all need to be vaccinated, ivomeced and weighed for the winter.  We have been waiting for the rains to stop and the pens to dry up a little before we brought the cows in and mucked everything up.  We didn't want to make ruts through all the pens and then have the ground freeze on us before we could get everything smoothed out again.  One winter of fighting with uneven ground was enough!  The surface is still a little soft but a dumping of snow should help to provide a layer of insulation to keep the ground cold and firmer.  Too much won't be fun trudging through though! 

     We'll have to dig out the big winter jackets and mitts so that we can fill everything up with needles to keep them warm so the vaccines go through easier.  Some time this evening may have to be spent sharpening the pencils too so we can right tags and weights down without having to take off mitts or worry about frozen ink.

     Ahh... the joys of an early winter...

Well, first the month started with snow.  And now the turn of the calendar has brought rain.  And more rain.  And more rain.  It has rained for 2 days straight now.  (or at least it seems like that!).  It's been a nice gentle rain - the perfect summer rain.  It would have been really great if it had come in July or August.  Not that we want to turn away any moisture, especially with how dry the summer and fall (to date) has been.  But after slogging through mud to sort calves, a little bit of dryness would be nice.  We won't say that too loud though as our neighbours to the south are still in dire need of water.  Let's just hope that the top layer of dirt has time to dry out before it freezes.  Otherwise there will be a nice layer of ice over everything all winter long. 

Well, we needed the moisture. Not sure if we needed it in the form of snow. But at least there's lots of moisture in it. And the good part is is that it shouldn't stay around for too long. The sun still has enough warmth in it to melt what is still on the ground. Of course that means that the fall work will still need to get done. No excuse for sitting back on the couch with the feet up and the football game watching us. (well, maybe we could do that today to let the mud dry up a little bit but tomorrow it will be back to the grindstone!)

     The Fall Season – the time when panic starts to set in. The days get shorter and cooler. That To Do list that you thought you had all summer to get done suddenly seems longer. Will you get everything done before the first snow flies or the ground freezes?

     Fall also brings the weaning of calves and all the decisions related to it. We have a pen full of calves. Now what do we do with them? How many heifers should we keep? How many bulls do we want to develop? When should we sell the steers? Did the breeding match ups work, producing the calf that we are striving to raise (we cross our fingers on this one because we have another one coming in a few months)? So many questions – now to find the answers to them!

     And the To Do list just got a little longer...

          It has been a tough few years on trees around the farm. Between the wind, water, age and chainsaw, we have lost a quite a few. A couple of rows of trees didn’t survive the wet spring and summer of the past two years – their feet stayed wet for too long and they did not come back. A wind storm in June took out a few trees in the middle of the bush up by the yard and wind throughout the summer uprooted a few trees out in the sow pen. The chainsaw has cleaned up a row of trees between the house yard and barn yard.

          It is amazing how sight lines change once a few trees are gone. You see things that you didn’t notice before. And usually that just means more work! Plans are already being made to replace some of the trees lost but it will be a long time before they become the shade trees that they are replacing.