We let the cows out on pasture for the first time this year. They always skip and jump around the first timeout and that is pretty remarkable based on the age of some of our cows. This mama was so excited she had her calf. This is its first steps, the chief, Owen and I were out there to see it, the cows always look better when out on grass.
Completed corn today. What was planted the 11th is already starting to spike. Large number of planters moving the last two days, every color in every direction you look, first real mass planting I have seen this year. We will probably wait a week or so before moving on bean. A little machine prep to do. It would be great to get the rye chopped too but that maybe wishful thinking.
Well I went to look for a few mushrooms. I brought the skid loader to haul them all. Didn't fill the bucket all the way. Many of them had frost damage, tells you how our weather has been here. Actually I was clearing some fence rows when I found these, which distracted me for much too long as I searched with the chief for about an hour with no more success.
Over half done with corn. Soil has worked up very nicely. Great to have a supper break with the family. Should be close to done in the next couple days if weather is good.
Kids have been busy. They all enjoy tractor time. They are great help when grinding feed to feed all the new chicks (over 200 @ this time). Owen shows why autosteer was created, he can sleep through some pretty rough bumps.
Pouring a new bin foundation with Paul Masonry (plug). Concrete provided by Manatts. Owen watched closely and then I subcontracted a patch job out to him. He is a quick learner.
Well Roger got stopped by the DOT a few weeks back after taking some cattle to Manchester, I wish he would not have had to go though that. The DOT officer said "it was the perfect stop" aka lots of ticket potential . It wasn't pretty for the over 20 year old stock trailer we have.... The inspection led to the purchase of a new trailer from S & S Duraline in Elma, Ia(plug). Did you know you can buy 2 steel trailers, put some money into repairing them over the years and still not achieve the price of a new aluminum trailer? Well we started experimenting to see what this trailer can haul... Lawn mower, feed, seed corn, and guess what? Gilts! Yup, we had to try some hogs to we went up to Marland Farms(plug) and bought a few bred gilts just to make sure. So our local DOT officer made us back into hog farmers, funny how things happen. And I would be real surprised if we don't have piglet pics on here by the end of the week. I wonder if the DOT man eats bacon?
Doing a little spring burning. It was a bit windy and the fire started to migrate out into the corn stalks. Roger brought the red "firetruck" over and took care of the issue.
We also seeded a few new water ways. Erosion control is an important conservation practise. In the bottom pic we are tilling an area before seeding. This piece of ground we rent from my grandma. The previous tenant used a different land management style than we do so we took some time to seed some areas that needed it. This does take a little land out of production but is a better for the long term soil conservation. You could always think of it as us doing our part to reduce an amazingly high predicted corn and bean planting acres, just trying to keep the price up.
