Sometimes living this close to Nature has its draw-backs. While we get to be first hand witnesses of Mother Nature in her bounty - the birth and renewal of the land each spring, and the new generation of babies, be they calves, colts, puppies or kittens - we are also on hand at the other end of life when things are not so sweet and wonderful. I think it gives us balance, and makes us a more thoughtful people.
Friday afternoon our neighbour phoned me at work to say we had a cow in trouble out on the pasture. They had driven past and at first thought she was already dead, but then had seen her move and had gone in to see what could be done. The problem was a labour gone wrong, a calf half born and dead, and the mother not far behind. He had been unequipped to help her and had tried to find Glen to tell him of the problem, but there was no one around.
I knew where Glen was - running CAT building an oil lease a dozen miles away - but with no cell phone reception there was no way to ask him what he wanted done. We've talked about lots of other scenarios that might come up, but never this one. What was the right thing to do?
As work was really slow, I was able to drive out to where Glen was working, thinking he could probably spare the hour that was needed to do what ever was needed, but when I got there the big trucks were just starting to roll in. They were about to tow an oil rig in through the mud and would need all four CATs to accomplish to job. He couldn't leave. His advice was, if she was that far gone, put her out of her misery. "Go home and shoot her" he said.
I grew up on a farm but never had any interest in guns. Dad had one, of course, to use against skunks trying to set up house under his grain bins, or raccoons destroying Mom's garden, and for times like this when an animal needed to be put down, but I had never had anything to do with it. I couldn't spare any more time off work so I went back to town and hoped that she was already gone. Having the vet come out to take a look at her was going to cost more than she was worth. With what BSE has done to cattle prices, a guy just can't afford a vet call unless he's sure that the animal can be saved and go on to be profitable. The neighbour's evaluation hadn't even hinted at that being the case.
I came straight home from work and went directly to the pasture to see what I could see. My heart sunk when I saw she was still moving - poor girl! The boys went up to assess the situation and soon it was all over. Glen had spent the rest of the day trying to figure out which cow it was. I hadn't thought we had anybody up there that hadn't already had her calf, but he said there was one. As far as he was concerned though, she was a long way from being ready and should have been big enough not to have any problems. As it turned out, it was a young heifer who we didn't even know was pregnant. Glen went up last night to bury the dead one and take a good long look at the rest to see if there were any other surprises to watch for. He thinks we're safe with the rest, but he'll keep an eye on them anyway.
It's never easy when something dies. You try to take care of your animals as best you can, but sometimes "taking care of them" means taking care that they don't suffer.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Water ! Water ! Everywhere ...
I think most people's idea of the prairies is barren and dry grasslands. If they were airlifted into our neighbourhood this month they would have a hard time orienting themselves. Oh, we have grass - that much is true - but at the moment it's lush green grass, and it harbours a mosquito population that is right off the charts.
It's much closer to the mark to describe the prairies as a place of extremes. We can have bitter, bitter cold in the winter and blazing heat in the summer. Likewise, dry in any season is not uncommon, but we can also get tons of snow in the winter and plentiful rains in the summer. Then there's this year - I think we passed "plentiful" a couple weeks ago, and are now well past "soggy".
We travelled to Dauphin, Manitoba last weekend for a family wedding. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive northeast of here and the whole trip showed us water laying in the fields and ditches. There was crop under water and fields too wet to seed or spray. Due to family circumstances (our daughter-in-law went into labour) our trip took us into Winnepeg the next day to see a gorgeous set of twin boys born seven weeks early but doing very well. As we travelled east it was hard to believe that the land just kept getting wetter and wetter. There was field after field where the farmers had driven through the mud trying to create a run-off path for the water with the tracks of their tractors. If it had worked I'd hate to think of how much water had been there when they started. There was still water laying everywhere, but now it had a double set of ruts every 100 feet or so.
And the mosquitos! Public Health agencies have been educating us for years about the dangers of having stagnant water laying around for mosquitos to incubate in. With West Nile Virus a proven threat on the prairies we've heard even more about it lately. I wonder what they think we're going to be able to do about it - if there was a way of getting rid of the excess water, the farmers would have done it long ago.
The other aspect to prairie weather is the force it's delivered with. In the winter it's blizzards - cold, howling winds, and blinding snow that can go on for days, and in the summer this is the place to see thunderstorms second to none. I'd never given this much thought until, a few years ago, I was talking to a girl I went to school with who now lives in B.C. She was home to visit her parents and was so happy that her teenaged daughter had had the chance to witness a thunderstorm the night before. She said it was something she really missed, living where there was lots of rain, but seldom any storms. I'm sure I would too - I love the noise and the light show of a big storm. I guess prairie poeple are of the extreme nature too.
It's much closer to the mark to describe the prairies as a place of extremes. We can have bitter, bitter cold in the winter and blazing heat in the summer. Likewise, dry in any season is not uncommon, but we can also get tons of snow in the winter and plentiful rains in the summer. Then there's this year - I think we passed "plentiful" a couple weeks ago, and are now well past "soggy".
We travelled to Dauphin, Manitoba last weekend for a family wedding. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive northeast of here and the whole trip showed us water laying in the fields and ditches. There was crop under water and fields too wet to seed or spray. Due to family circumstances (our daughter-in-law went into labour) our trip took us into Winnepeg the next day to see a gorgeous set of twin boys born seven weeks early but doing very well. As we travelled east it was hard to believe that the land just kept getting wetter and wetter. There was field after field where the farmers had driven through the mud trying to create a run-off path for the water with the tracks of their tractors. If it had worked I'd hate to think of how much water had been there when they started. There was still water laying everywhere, but now it had a double set of ruts every 100 feet or so.
And the mosquitos! Public Health agencies have been educating us for years about the dangers of having stagnant water laying around for mosquitos to incubate in. With West Nile Virus a proven threat on the prairies we've heard even more about it lately. I wonder what they think we're going to be able to do about it - if there was a way of getting rid of the excess water, the farmers would have done it long ago.
The other aspect to prairie weather is the force it's delivered with. In the winter it's blizzards - cold, howling winds, and blinding snow that can go on for days, and in the summer this is the place to see thunderstorms second to none. I'd never given this much thought until, a few years ago, I was talking to a girl I went to school with who now lives in B.C. She was home to visit her parents and was so happy that her teenaged daughter had had the chance to witness a thunderstorm the night before. She said it was something she really missed, living where there was lots of rain, but seldom any storms. I'm sure I would too - I love the noise and the light show of a big storm. I guess prairie poeple are of the extreme nature too.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Plans For An Ark?
We saw the sun today - it's been like forever since it's shown its face. We are just 50 miles northeast of Melita, Manitoba where they got from 5 to 12 inches of rain in one day and small tornados touched down last week, and only 12 miles southeast of a 7 inch rainfall happened last Saturday afternoon. Compared to these places, we would have to consider ourselves high and dry, but if this is dry I'd sure hate to be them.
Most of our yard is under at least a few inches of water. I have cut grass up around the house a couple of times this spring, but the lower area where my garden is, (this year it looks more like a duck pond) is nothing but over long grass and mosquito habitat. The sump pump in the basement has been running steady for weeks, and the creek which normally only runs in the early spring with snow-melt runoff is flowing again.
The gravel roads are a mess of potholes and slippery mud and huge places in the fields are under water. Glen had just finished fertilizing 80 acres to plant flax in when this flood started, but if (or when) it ever dries up enough to be able to seed that ground he'll be implementing "Plan B" which is to plant a much faster maturing crop like oats, or something he can cut for cattle feed. If it goes that far "Plan C" is a fall seeded crop like fall rye or winter wheat. If he didn't have all that expensive fertilizer in already he'd probably go with summerfallow.
We gave up watching the Weather Channel because it was never good news so i don't know what we can expect this coming week. I know that I have bedding plants that are going to rot in their trays if I don't get them out soon. I did get some in the ground on Monday night. For some reason that night the mosquitos left me alone and I worked as long as I could before it got too dark. I don't look forward to the next go round; with all this water and a few warm days the bug population is exploding with every passing minute.
At least the cattle have been moved out to pasture now, and Glen has spent two days trying to track down the drain on his electric fencer. He's got it up to 3/4 strength now - not that it matters - the cows have all tried it when it was really putting out and they remember it's not something they want to touch again. By Sunday night our new bull will be delivered and cattle duties will be done, except for the odd check, until late in the fall.
Most of our yard is under at least a few inches of water. I have cut grass up around the house a couple of times this spring, but the lower area where my garden is, (this year it looks more like a duck pond) is nothing but over long grass and mosquito habitat. The sump pump in the basement has been running steady for weeks, and the creek which normally only runs in the early spring with snow-melt runoff is flowing again.
The gravel roads are a mess of potholes and slippery mud and huge places in the fields are under water. Glen had just finished fertilizing 80 acres to plant flax in when this flood started, but if (or when) it ever dries up enough to be able to seed that ground he'll be implementing "Plan B" which is to plant a much faster maturing crop like oats, or something he can cut for cattle feed. If it goes that far "Plan C" is a fall seeded crop like fall rye or winter wheat. If he didn't have all that expensive fertilizer in already he'd probably go with summerfallow.
We gave up watching the Weather Channel because it was never good news so i don't know what we can expect this coming week. I know that I have bedding plants that are going to rot in their trays if I don't get them out soon. I did get some in the ground on Monday night. For some reason that night the mosquitos left me alone and I worked as long as I could before it got too dark. I don't look forward to the next go round; with all this water and a few warm days the bug population is exploding with every passing minute.
At least the cattle have been moved out to pasture now, and Glen has spent two days trying to track down the drain on his electric fencer. He's got it up to 3/4 strength now - not that it matters - the cows have all tried it when it was really putting out and they remember it's not something they want to touch again. By Sunday night our new bull will be delivered and cattle duties will be done, except for the odd check, until late in the fall.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
And the Rain Comes Down
Once it's "farming time" in the spring, when Glen can actually get out and work in the fields, the daily schedule of chores and meals becomes a thing of guesswork. During the winter our evening meal is usually around the 6:00 mark, but the rest of the year it can be anywhere from 5:30 when I get home from work, to 8:30 when he gets done whatever he was doing. It makes planning meals a bit of a challenge, but we survive.
Tonight it was decided that supper would be best at 7:00. Glen had some temporary fenceline he wanted to move so he went off to roll wire for an hour or two. This left me to figure out which of the jobs I had to do would best fit into the same time frame. Two weeks ago I visited my sister's greenhouse and came home with a trunk full of bedding plants which have been waiting on the deck for their place in the sun ever since. Monday evening had been an absolutely perfect night to work outside and I had weeded for two hours before supper and at least an hour afterward. All I needed was another day like that and I would be ready to put the plants in, so I decided that's where my time was best spent.
It didn't take long for me to rethink that one! All it took was a walk across the lawn to pick asparagas and my evening plans were modified to something I could do inside - away from the hordes of mosquitoes that weren't there two days ago. I bee-lined it right back to the house and started cooking. The plants would have to wait.
As it happens, the Weather Channel's prediction of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall rolling up from North Dakota was right on the mark, so even without the bugs I wouldn't have lasted long. Although most people are done seeding, there are still a few acres left to be sowed. Glen has about 80 acres of flax to put in, and then maybe 60 of grass for pasture land. It sure would have been nice to get this rain on the land after the seed was in the ground, but we'll get done eventually.
I'm told that this weekend we will be "working cattle". This means bringing them all into the big corral and sorting the herd. That sounds pretty tame to what really takes place ... we have two bulls now and since the youngers cows and heifers are daughters of the older bull, they have to be sorted out to go with the new bull, so first we cram them all together and then split them into groups in different pens. There's anxious cows calling for their calves, calves bawling for the mamas, yearlings bucking and kicking up their heels in the confusion, and a farmer who expects me to be able to read his mind. The whole preformance is very upsetting for the cattle - and it usually takes our marriage a while to recover, as well.
To make things a little more tricky this year one of our pens is full of feeder steers. These are last year's calves that we ended up keeping too long thinking the border was going to open. Now we won't get our money out of them unless they are up to butcher weight when we sell them. Glen has heard about a small packing plant which only buys unmedicated animals and is trying to find where it is and if they are looking for a supplier. We aren't registered as organic farmers but there are only two animals in our herd which have been treated with drugs. If there's a market out there that will pay a premium for that kind of meat, we can certainly supply it.
Tonight it was decided that supper would be best at 7:00. Glen had some temporary fenceline he wanted to move so he went off to roll wire for an hour or two. This left me to figure out which of the jobs I had to do would best fit into the same time frame. Two weeks ago I visited my sister's greenhouse and came home with a trunk full of bedding plants which have been waiting on the deck for their place in the sun ever since. Monday evening had been an absolutely perfect night to work outside and I had weeded for two hours before supper and at least an hour afterward. All I needed was another day like that and I would be ready to put the plants in, so I decided that's where my time was best spent.
It didn't take long for me to rethink that one! All it took was a walk across the lawn to pick asparagas and my evening plans were modified to something I could do inside - away from the hordes of mosquitoes that weren't there two days ago. I bee-lined it right back to the house and started cooking. The plants would have to wait.
As it happens, the Weather Channel's prediction of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall rolling up from North Dakota was right on the mark, so even without the bugs I wouldn't have lasted long. Although most people are done seeding, there are still a few acres left to be sowed. Glen has about 80 acres of flax to put in, and then maybe 60 of grass for pasture land. It sure would have been nice to get this rain on the land after the seed was in the ground, but we'll get done eventually.
I'm told that this weekend we will be "working cattle". This means bringing them all into the big corral and sorting the herd. That sounds pretty tame to what really takes place ... we have two bulls now and since the youngers cows and heifers are daughters of the older bull, they have to be sorted out to go with the new bull, so first we cram them all together and then split them into groups in different pens. There's anxious cows calling for their calves, calves bawling for the mamas, yearlings bucking and kicking up their heels in the confusion, and a farmer who expects me to be able to read his mind. The whole preformance is very upsetting for the cattle - and it usually takes our marriage a while to recover, as well.
To make things a little more tricky this year one of our pens is full of feeder steers. These are last year's calves that we ended up keeping too long thinking the border was going to open. Now we won't get our money out of them unless they are up to butcher weight when we sell them. Glen has heard about a small packing plant which only buys unmedicated animals and is trying to find where it is and if they are looking for a supplier. We aren't registered as organic farmers but there are only two animals in our herd which have been treated with drugs. If there's a market out there that will pay a premium for that kind of meat, we can certainly supply it.
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