It's the weekend again. I had hoped to get out into the yard and get to work on lawn and garden, but it's barely above freezing this morning. I think it looks like another inside kind of day.
Our main calving season is over for the year. There are still cows to calve but it will be later in the summer. If a farmer has a choice, he would rather have it all done within one month but there are always the stragglers. It's much more efficient to have the whole calf crop all the same size and weight when you go to sell them in the fall. This year we have four or five smaller ones from last year we have to keep separate from the older ones, and next year it will be the same. A major factor in why we have the late cows is that they are old and should have been culled from the herd, but with BSE they are in kind of limbo.
We have had all kinds of moisture in the past week - some of it in snow. The grass is growing now, at least, and the weeds are taking over my garden. Twice in the past two weeks Glen has said he will work it up and both times it has been too wet by the time he got to it. Last year it never did dry up until June and I should have just skipped the year; it was a disaster. I don't grow the huge "family feeding" garden anymore, but we still love to have the fresh vegetables when they're in season.
Some of the neighbours managed to get some crop in before the weather turned sour on us, but Glen has only just pulled his seeder up to the quonset to get it ready to go. We only have 480 acres to sow so it doesn't take long - if the weatherman co-operates. As soon as seeding is done we'll be busy fencing again. We plan to have at least another two pastures enclosed by fall.
All in all, we have a busy summer ahead of us - we have family weddings in June, July, and August, and our son and his wife are expecting twins in early summer. This morning I'd just be happy if it would just warm up enough to make it feel like summer was even going to come at all.
2 comments:
So sorry to hear that the weather up there in Redvers hasn't been up to snuff.
Is the weather bad enough that you think you might have a bad crop year altogether because of the moisture? I know you mentioned that you and your husband have scaled back crop production and are raising more cattle...does that help much on your end when you DO have a bad crop year? (Of course, bad crop years are a problem for cattle, too. Their feed has to come from somewhere.
You always mention your children and their families...have any of them also decided to make agriculture a career?
Dave : The weather isn't behaving itself right now and there's another moisture-laden disturbance headed our way for the weekend. There is still time to get our acres planted, but we would rather they were in sooner than later. The other problem this spring had been the lack of heat but this week the temperature has really shot up. Glen was out checking pasture growth this afternoon and says it will be a while before we can put the cattle out on it - the grass is only a few inches high.
Yes, having both cattle and grain does help us. It's the old trick of not having all our eggs in one basket. Of course, in poor years we have to be careful about how many animals we keep; we'd rather have 40 well fed cattle than 80 starving.
Our kids? The oldest has chosen the health field - she's a lab-tech. The next, a son, is taking environmental studies and dreams of making the world a better place some day. He hasn't chosen to farm, but I'm sure that having a rural childhood has had an impact on his career choice. Third child - she will be our farmer if she can manage it, and she will be a natural. She inherited her father's passion for the land, and especially the animals. The youngest just graduated from high school last spring and has yet to pick a path but he seems interested in firefighting and emergency services.
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