There's always a silver lining to any misfortune. Up in Northern Saskatchewan people are being forced out of their villages because of forest fires, certainly a terrifying experience for them and not something I make light of. It always amazes me that the smoke can travel so far, but we're only forty miles from the USA border and the air has been blue for most of the week. We can't smell that it's smoke, but the colour tells us that's what it is. It was very hot here on the prairies today, but the smokey haze seemed to make it feel a little cooler - I guess it was just that the sun wasn't quite so glaringly hot. But, it's the evenings that really work magic with the smoke in the sky. The lower the sun sinks in the west the more smoke the light has to travel through. the sunsets are fabulous, firey reds and the western skies are pink or orange or a dozen colours in between. I guess lots of people would say "all she's doing is describing the effects of air polution." and they would be right. On the other hand, forest fires happen and if their smoke at sunset gives us a spectacular view, we may as well sit back and admire the show.
I've been trying to stay ahead on the lawn mowing. It's been a few weeks since we've had substantial rainfall so the grass has slowed considerably. Yard-wise that's a good thing. On the other hand, we have all those cattle (self-propelled grass cutters) out on the pasture that will run out of food way too soon this summer if the rain doesn't come and replenish the plants that they're eating. The news is full of the troubles farmers a few hundred miles north of here are having - it's so wet there that maybe only 20% of the crop even got planted. We understand all too well how that feels; that was the year we had in 1999. What a crazy counrty we live in! Every year is a crap shoot.
We only have about ten more calves to come this summer. This has certainly been our worst for losing babies - I think we're up to 8 now. It's so discouraging to see them die - it has all been for different reasons, but with the big pure-bred Charlais there seems to be an underlying failure to thrive tendency. Glen says he's read that they've spent too much effort in larger cattle and some just don't seem to have a will to live. With three that we've lost this spring, that seems to be the only answer. We worked with them, we treated them, we hand fed them, but they just didn't have the gumption they needed to fight to live. Those cows are out with Angus bulls this year - we'll see if there's a little more fight in the calves next spring.
We were out checking calves last night and found a new mom and baby - this one had lots of life and the mom looked like she was going to be a problem to even let us near him. Glen tries to get their ear tags in them in the first 12 hours before they're too sure on their feet, but this guy looked like he was more than a day old and had too much fight for one farmer at the end of a long hard day. The main concern to do it right away is so that you can keep the cow-calf pairs straight, but there was no worry about remembering which calf this was - I nick named him Panda because of his black and white markings. He'll get his ear tag in the fall.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Schooling Sam
We have a new project on the go these days - or rather, Glen does. Ever since we started back into cattle a few years ago he has been talking about getting a cattle dog and as of last week we have a six month old collie/blue healer cross puppy called Sam calling the place home. What these dogs can do is amazing; I've seen them on TV and it's almost like they can read the mind of the cattle and the farmer at the same time.
This talent doesn't happen by accident, of course. The dogs are born with powerful insticts to herd, but without the proper training the instinct goes to waste. Glen has asked someone who has trained other dogs to help him with Sam. She told him that the dog will only take a short while to train, it's always the human part of the equation that takes the most time. At the moment we're just getting Sam used to where his boundries are and being around the cows. I don't know when the formal training will take place.
I think Glen said the other night that we only had 15 more calves to go. While we like to have the cows calve after the really cold weather is past, it would be better if this calf crop didn't stretch all the way from March to August. Part of the problem is that we've bought cattle at two different sales over the winter months and therefore had no control over when they were due to calve (the auction barn does try to pinpiont how far along their pregnancies are with testing, but it's not always the most accurate science there is). Another factor in trying to syncronize the birthing part of the year is to make sure the bull hasn't got too many cows to service at the same time. With this in mind, we bought our third bull this spring - we're now at a ratio of three males to 75 females. We're kind of worried about this new bull, though, when they delivered him he had a swollen leg - probably an injury from young bulls pushing each other around. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it at the moment but the potential for arthritis is very real. Bulls are not cheap and we want at least four years out of him. Thank goodness we bought insurance on him! There are other ways of arranging that the cows all cycle at the same time, but we try to stay away from using chemicals and hormones with our cattle.
We're hoping that by this time next week we'll be the owners of a house in Winnipeg. With the girls both headed to university there in the fall, we've decided that it makes the most sense to purchase housing for them. To rent is to just throw money away. At least this way, when they're done school, we will be able to sell the house again and still have the principal of our investment and they won't be saddled with a huge debt to start out with. Obviously, we're not looking at anything fancy, and even that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't won some money in a local lottery this winter, but it just seems like the money showed up just at the right time for this so it's just the right thing to do with the $50,000.00 prize. There are two different properties we're looking at and the bids have to be in by the end of this week - maybe we'll be running back into the city to sign papers next weekend. We don't need it until late August, but it sure would be nice if it was all taken care of, the sooner the better.
It looks like I'm spending Father's day all by myself. Glen is off to build an oil lease, Jesse and Mitchell are working, and Wayne and family are in Winnipeg. I think Sandy may come out for supper so I''l make a big meal with Glen's favourite dessert to mark the day.
This talent doesn't happen by accident, of course. The dogs are born with powerful insticts to herd, but without the proper training the instinct goes to waste. Glen has asked someone who has trained other dogs to help him with Sam. She told him that the dog will only take a short while to train, it's always the human part of the equation that takes the most time. At the moment we're just getting Sam used to where his boundries are and being around the cows. I don't know when the formal training will take place.
I think Glen said the other night that we only had 15 more calves to go. While we like to have the cows calve after the really cold weather is past, it would be better if this calf crop didn't stretch all the way from March to August. Part of the problem is that we've bought cattle at two different sales over the winter months and therefore had no control over when they were due to calve (the auction barn does try to pinpiont how far along their pregnancies are with testing, but it's not always the most accurate science there is). Another factor in trying to syncronize the birthing part of the year is to make sure the bull hasn't got too many cows to service at the same time. With this in mind, we bought our third bull this spring - we're now at a ratio of three males to 75 females. We're kind of worried about this new bull, though, when they delivered him he had a swollen leg - probably an injury from young bulls pushing each other around. He doesn't seem to be bothered by it at the moment but the potential for arthritis is very real. Bulls are not cheap and we want at least four years out of him. Thank goodness we bought insurance on him! There are other ways of arranging that the cows all cycle at the same time, but we try to stay away from using chemicals and hormones with our cattle.
We're hoping that by this time next week we'll be the owners of a house in Winnipeg. With the girls both headed to university there in the fall, we've decided that it makes the most sense to purchase housing for them. To rent is to just throw money away. At least this way, when they're done school, we will be able to sell the house again and still have the principal of our investment and they won't be saddled with a huge debt to start out with. Obviously, we're not looking at anything fancy, and even that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't won some money in a local lottery this winter, but it just seems like the money showed up just at the right time for this so it's just the right thing to do with the $50,000.00 prize. There are two different properties we're looking at and the bids have to be in by the end of this week - maybe we'll be running back into the city to sign papers next weekend. We don't need it until late August, but it sure would be nice if it was all taken care of, the sooner the better.
It looks like I'm spending Father's day all by myself. Glen is off to build an oil lease, Jesse and Mitchell are working, and Wayne and family are in Winnipeg. I think Sandy may come out for supper so I''l make a big meal with Glen's favourite dessert to mark the day.
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