I have never added it up but it seems to me that all the management advise given to us producers adds more costs than it is possible to recover. A favorite of mine is to test my hay, I am not going to buy different hay or supplement anyway so there is no need to spend money on a feed test. Typically I feed the cows only half of what is said to be required, there are many days when I feed only one 900 lb bale of hay and a cornstalk bale. If there were 60 cows that comes to fifteen lbs of hay per cow, and there are more than that. It takes gut capacity to digest rank hay and cornstalks, it is claimed a cow can starve with a full belly. My cows live on a diet that most could not because we have selected for that ability, instead of supplementing with extra feed to keep them fat all winter long.

~ Words to ponder from Nick Wagner

Moving back to the farm

DSC_0007Jeri and I moved back to the farm this summer to be more active in farming and to learn. I’m enjoying living in the country and living on the farm. The mornings are peaceful and the evenings are quiet. Watching the cows move through the pastures is a wonderful thing. I enjoying getting up in the morning and seeing the cows move to water and then later as they move to cooler pastures for the afternoon and evening. The picture is one of the days we moved the cows into the front pasture for mob grazing to make it easier to move the chickens.

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We spend our days working our day job during the week. Jeri and I take care of our small flock of chickens in the afternoons. We have 3 roosters and 9 hens from this year and 4 hens from last year. We have been learning how to raise them on the pasture in chicken tractors. The chickens get our table scraps. We will probably butcher some of them this fall so we don’t have as many to winter. We will winter the chickens in the barn. The picture is of the new flock in the newest chicken tractor.

Nathan

Spring, are you here to stay?

This week we had the first few glimpses of spring. The snow has started to melt making the ditches around the area full of water and ice chunks. We have been looking forward to the start of spring and all that it brings with it. More sunshine, longer days, warmer weather, pastures that begin to grow again, new calves running around those pastures, and most likely a few new kittens.