When I was a kid my farm was the hardwood floor of my bedroom floor in town. The boards made the perfect rows for my tractors and harvesting equipment and the bottom track for the closet door always became the cattle feed trough. It was a ready made farm and I think I was a pretty good bedroom farmer. I’m pretty sure that I spent countless hours with the rug rolled up in my bedroom farming and dreaming! But, now that I’m a grown up farmer the reality of the farm isn’t quite as romantic as that farm on my bedroom floor … for one thing I don’t have box full of tractors and implements!
When things got tough on my bedroom farm I could just box everything up and call it a day. On my grown up farm I’m not able to pack up and move on to the next game … and sometimes I dwell on that. So tonight I’m forcing myself to come up with three positive things on the farm right now. Three things that I can look at and feel good about … hopefully I’m not up all night thinking!
- Even though the days are going to get colder and I’m pretty sure there will be more snow there is one positive that I can hold onto. Since it is now officially winter the days will begin growing instead of shrinking! According to this calendar I should gain 45 minutes of daylight between the January 1st and 31st. Despite the cold and snow that I know will come over the next month the extra daylight is something I can get excited about! If I’m wrong about this … well just don’t tell me and let me live in my dream …
- Despite the rogue sheep that keep getting out (although with some extra posts they seem to be staying closer to home) I’m pretty pleased with the way they have been adjusting to the farm and handling the winter weather. There haven’t been any super snow storms yet or week long cold snaps, but the wind has blown and it has gotten pretty frigid. It just seems like they sheep flock up and hang-out when the weather gets bad … and they are doing well. I’m hoping this apparent hardiness is something that sticks with them throughout the winter and carries on into the lambing season. That would be just very nice thank you very much …
- I have hay and straw and I think maybe … possibly … hopefully I have enough. I know that I have enough straw on the farm now to last the winter (although I’m not really set-up to use it yet) and with 47 plus bales of hay on the farm I’m thinking it might be enough. Honestly I’m not quite sure how much hay I will need, but I have enough hay for the initial bales I purchased to get through December and then the 47 bales I just purchased to make it until grass shows up. They’re heavy and tightly wrapped bales and I think they will be enough, but with the sheep now and the uncertainties of winter weather I guess I’ll just have to see how it lasts. On the whole though I’m glad to have it and relieved. Last winter it was a constant search and battle for hay … hopefully that will not be the case this year.
There … I did it … three positives from the farm! Now I just need to keep those in the front of my mind and just tackle everything else as it comes …
Estimating hay needs
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/ag/issues/drought2003/estimating_winter_hay_needs.pdf
Estimating hay needs
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/ag/issues/drought2003/estimating_winter_hay_needs.pdf
Our round bales of native grass are a little over 5×5 (at least that is what the baler says they are supposed to be), and they weigh about 1200 lbs.
If I feed them in a good bale ring, it takes about 1 bale per cow per month when they aren’t out on wheat pasture (although I have the cows on some grain sorghum stubble right now and they seem to be doing better than when they are on wheat pasture). Although, when they are only getting hay, they usually get cubes every other day so they get enough protein (especially when they are about to calve).
Our cows probably average about 1200 lbs, so that works out to about 3.3% of live weight of hay needed per day, which is awful close to the 2.5-3.0% typically recommended.
What do you mean “…I have enough straw on the farm now to last the winter (although I’m not really set-up to use it yet)…”? What kind of setup are you planning?
If the picture on the header of your site is from your farm, I can’t imagine why you would have to force yourself to have positive thoughts. Just imagine all those people who have to live in a city to make their living – those are the people I feel sorry for.
It’s interesting how you mentioned the days getting longer. I think we gain around a minute a day. My grandfather, who was a farmer most of his life, was excited about this as well, even though he no longer farms. It must be instinct. Thanks for you blog. It’s really great.
And you have your family behind you, even though some may be too little yet to understand the hard work you two do, you are building character in them each day as they WATCH YOU. Hang in there. Farm “success” is far more than a positive bottom line.