The Dry Side
August 7th, 2007 by Northern FarmerThings are moving along around here even with the drought hammering down hard. We moved over sixty cattle home today from a pasture a couple of miles away and were done with that by noon. I couldn’t believe it that it went that fast! And no problems except for one wild calf that didn’t want to go into our trap corral. Needless to say, after much fooling around trying to get him to go in, he got pushed in at high speed with the old half ton pickup. I think there’s a lot of people who wouldn’t believe the methods used to make things work on the farm. And I know there’s no textbook on earth that could ever teach folks the how too’s in situations like this. But it works out, one way or another!
So now half the herd is in the yard, this being the second major pasture abandoned. There is absolutely no grazing in this area, there is absolutely no grass, alfalfa, etc. Nuthin! The creek is a memory with a couple of swill holes with dying minnows and crayfish in them. So what’s a farmer supposed to do in a situation like this? A few hundred cattle and no grass, very little hay, burned out corn. Well, I figure a get together and some visiting would do the trick! Every ag paper around here is calling this a major disaster, but I figure it’s good to get rattled up once in a while or a person might figure they are something special. In this lifestyle it don’t take long to realize you have very little control over anything. Sure we plant and harvest and all the rest, but we have nothing to do with the important stuff, like rain and sunshine. You can have the best fertilizers in the world, the best seed, the best land and it don’t mean squat without rain.
You can take every text book on rotational grazing and use them in the outhouse, cause at least there they’ll have some meaning and importance. Cause when the grass don’t grow, and the grass that there was shrinks down and crumbles away, well, there ain’t much said about that in all those how to books. They always have those covers with lush grass on them and a few content cows grazing away. They don’t have chapters on the noise a hungry herd makes when they’re waiting to get fed in temperatures in the nineties with the sun beating down and the wind blowing. Using up winter hay in July and August to boot.
But I didn’t just fall off the turnip wagon, been through this before, and we’ll make it through one way or another. The bright side being my mileage made every day has gone down to almost nothing. No more remote pasture checks, no more calves out on the road or in neighbor’s yards every day. Now life will at least have order and control. We had to haul out all their hay to them anyhow, might as well just do it at home. Plus those smart alack calves that were out every day causing trouble all over the neighborhood won’t have any electric fence to prance through, now they have white oak plank!
So Tom, just writing gloom and doom? No way! Just writing down what’s going on around here. Other than the drought things couldn’t be going better! Eating better than the richest folks on earth, roof don’t leak, although all we’d need is a screen up there this summer to keep the bugs and bats out, got enough firewood for a couple of years laying around. I figure the Lord has something pretty good figured for us, just roughing us up a little to test our faith. Seeing if we’re just sunny day Christians. But we just Praise away! And you can bet I’ll be singing praise after praise tomorrow morning when I go and see all them evil calves looking at me from behind the oak plank corral. I got the most evil ones recorded for judgment day around here. The daughter said, “we gonna raise them up for butchering?†I though about it a bit, remembering all the grief some of those caused us and said I figure on selling them so they never see a blade of grass again their whole life! The judgment will more than likely be a sentence for life in some big feedlot, hormoned up, antibioticed up, trucked around the whole country, stressed out to the hilt, and sent to some beautiful super market so someone can enjoy all those pharmaceuticals on their plate. We’ll keep the calves that were always good to us.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
No wonder those cattle hurried home! I can just see those cows for the first time in their lives, wanting to get back to the barn, just so they can get something to eat. Those aren’t western ranch cattle though. Out West were I grew up, your pasture would look positively appetizing to the average hereford cow. They dine nicely on widely spaced clumps of dry grass, prickly pears, mesquite beans, and other such appetizing fare. The wonder isn’t that they actually gain weight on such unrewarding food, but that they still make great steaks. When you consider most breeds like black angus and Herefords come from the green and well watered British Isles, and Europe, it a wonder they do so well in such an un-cowlike environment. Hope you get some rain before you look like Arizona does!
August 8th, 2007 at 5:48 am
Hey Mark!
Well, I sure wish we had us some dry grass, prickly pear, mesquite beans and other such stuff. I’d call that paradise! Trust me, herefords wouldn’t call our pastures appetizing, there is absolutly nothing left. But our herefords did come home off them pastures fat. I always say you can raise hereford cows in a gravel pit and they’ll gain weight! As the percentage of direct sales increase here so will the herefords. the old horned herefords. On the regular market there’s such a price cut on herefords verses angus, but direct sales would make hereford king once again on this farm. There ain’t no better beef animal anywhere. I’m not about to start a breed war here, but I’ll stand firm on this, hereford is king in my book! The angus are so bred for industrial ag that they’ve lost most of those traits that made them famous. Meanwhile hereford kinda got swept to the wayside over the decades, not getting improved for industrial ag and those oldtimer ranchers just kept breeding the horned herefords the way the always were, (thank God), and because of that we still have a good base of real cattle around. A cattle that are second to none in all the important traits.
Well, cracking daylight to the east, time to get out there to them critters!
August 8th, 2007 at 7:44 am
“But I didn’t just fall off the turnip wagon, been through this before, and we’ll make it through one way or another. ”
I’m still brushing the turnip dust off me, and this ain’t no fun :). I guess gettin broke in this way will make it easier down the road…..right???……right?????
August 8th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Brad,
Tied a rope around my neck so if’n I fell off I wouldn’t be lost in the dust, now I’m just being drug through it!
Well, I didn’t just fall off the turnip wagon, I’m being drug behind it at high speed
And yup, a farmer trick, keep staying broke in all these disasters so it becomes the normal way of life! Then a person can blog how good things are going when it looks like a war zone, brag about the good times we’re still having and all that! Yup…….
August 8th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Hi Tom,
We’ll start praying for rain up your way. We need it too (just north of the Twin Cities!)
You said the Angus had lost what made it special after being bred for big ag - are there any “heritage” Anguses around that would still have those special qualities? And, if there were, would you still go for Herefords, or for “Old Fashioned” Angus?
Just curious,
Matt
August 8th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Hey Matt!
There’s still some around as far as good angus cattle. A person has to know what to look for, smaller frame, high udders, etc. One of the best sources is Pharo Cattle Company in preserving the old fashion quality angus. I’ll always have an angus base as far as I can see because they are really good cattle but will have a healthy percentage of hereford around too.
Here’s the link for those angus.
http://www.pharocattle.com/
Here’s hoping for some minnesota rain!
August 8th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Tom,
I see a flash flood watch just to my southeast. So close, but yet so far away. I too am feeding hay. I hoping that we all can get some rain. I like your comment about there not being a textbook that can teach us how to deal with a situation like this. Guess that forces us to go to the ultimate textbook, the Bible, and to ask God for wisdom.
Jim V
August 8th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Jim,
You got it about the right text book!! Cause I ain’t found nobody yet that can answer the answers needed except the Bible!
Today’s one of them days, I come in every once in a while and look, (I don’t know why), at the radar. Looks like there’s rain all over the place except the central Minnesota desert, durn! Just was out taking fencers and other equipment off the pasture we abandoned yesterday, got one more load to go. You wouldn’t believe the grasshoppers out there! It seems like the whole earth moves a few feet in front of a person! At least it’s hazy today so the sun has lost some affect for the day.
August 9th, 2007 at 4:36 am
Boy Tom, I know what your feeling. I still have the our last drought fresh in my mind. We had to start feeding the last part of June and used every last bit feed we had before the darn snow started to fly. Sold off part of the herd (near half) to feed the ones we kept through the winter. Man things were pretty lean around here for a spell. Still feeling the pinch, and its been a couple years. Of course you and I both know that the Lord has somethin’ planned out in advance, so there ain’t much use worrying. He see’s us through, one way or the other. We’re praying you folks get some rain, and praying that the Lord preserves you all and strengthens your faith.
August 9th, 2007 at 5:42 am
I remember Scott when you were going through all of that. We were in a medium drought then and were just getting by. I was thinking, hoping, that I sure don’t want what they got over your way. But, we got er this year! There will be without a doubt some changes made here, how much is yet to be seen. The good news is that it’s not over a huge region so not all that far in different directions there could be hay to be bought.
And from the rumblings I hear I get a funny feeling that life as everyone has know it for a generation or two is gonna come to a screeching halt, maybe sooner than most think. Time to tighten the belts a notch or two yet, hunker down, and keep on keeping on!
I’m having a little trouble finding meadow hay for the cows. The horse people are buying up anything and everything with their borrowed money from China. I heard China was threatening to call in some loans, was just hoping it would be some of these hugely in debt four flushers around here so it would free up some hay for those of us that ain’t in debt
I thank you and your family for the prayers and support. I know without the shadow of a doubt that God has something much better planned cause His plans are perfect! What’s a dry spell or two compared to an eternity of His Glory! Yee Haw!! Yup, gonna get out there in a bit with some zip to the step! The neighbors might think I’m nuts, but then again they probably think that anyhow!
Thanks and God Bless!
August 9th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I feel for you Tom! We’ve had a 1/2 inch of rain in the past month but it wasn’t near enough. We have been green chopping the 2nd crop (what little there is) for the cows to save hay. Our late (June 1) planted OP corn is still looking pretty good, a little rain now would help. Not much satisfaction in knowing that others are worse off then us but it is stressful to know that 40 miles away they’ve been having regular rains! We are struggling with rebuilding our barn that burned, seems like all the folks who we thought were our “true Christian friends” have disappeared into the woodwork! Oh well, like you we just keep plugging away, trusting that God will show us the way!
August 9th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Hey Brent!
Wow, a half an inch! That’s a rain forest climate compared to here
I started green chopping some Wapsie Valley OP corn two days ago and I gotta admit it held up better than all the roundup corn around the area here. That roundup stuff is just burning away! The Wapsie Valley is burning down to the ground on the light lands but holding on somewhat, considering the year, on the heavy ground. The MN 13 is trying! Got some burned down, but a lot that’s gonna be reasonable. My favorite field is along side of a roundup field. In the beginning the roundup field put mine to shame, now I’m prouder than a peacock at my battle scarred MN 13! They won’t have nothing and we’ll at least have something! But any moment now the race will begin, when we have to pull the pin and start chopping before the final burndown. I just pray that the temperatures ease back a bit cause I’m not in the mood to chop in extreme heat. Might shorten a person’s life a tad bit.
Too bad about your “true Christian friends”. I know how that was. I’ll admit that nowadays we are so blessed with friends at out little bible believing church, real friends, that it’s better than an insurance policy. I’m serious, they’d do anything to help, and I believe long term too!
I tell you, one of these days all this weather will turn around and things will get a whole lot better. Was doing chores this morning and a thought came into me. Said, check out Genesis, OK I did. Was reading about Abraham, that father of faith and you know, he had drought disasters too and he did whatever it took to make it through. Didn’t complain to God, just hunkered down and had at it. Had to even move the herds to Egypt when times were really tough. Jim V was right. The answers ain’t in man’s how to books, they’re in the bible! That strengthens my faith, knowing Abraham had the same problems as modern day farmers and he went on to thrive!
Thanks and God Bless!