No photos today…8/20/2013. just a brief progress report on Pete….

Monday evening he saw me pick up the buckets with the soaked beet pulp and greeted me with a loud whinny…..

That whinny got Star Babies attention and she galloped to the stable….Perkins trotted along behind.

The brush abatement crew is a serious challenge to Pete in competition for his groceries…..they gobble theirs down and then try to steal his….So last night I let him out into the yard and pulled his feed pan out as well….

He followed me around until I put feed in his pan….after eating he walked around the yard a little bit….he is walking much better but is still lame in the off front….He even ran a bit very briefly playing with the dogs.

I thought he would graze as there is an abundance of grass in the yard and it needs mowing again already but is too wet to mow….he grazed a little but mostly just investigated and looked things over…..

he could not have been too hungry as he had consumed a half bale of hay yesterday, leaving little waste….and Pete is not a big horse….

I lef thim out and went to feed the bull calves….when I came back and was in the stable hanging more hay for him …here he comes walking into the front side of the stable….he had figured out where the feed comes from…..I went ahead and let him back inot the stall that he has run in access to.

I have ordered his vaccines and a round of fall wormer for everybody from Jeffers….should be here today….

Was tickled to see that the brush abatement crew was still in the lot where they had been placed….the panel additions worked and better news is that they have not challenged the electric fence on the back side of that lot….there is hope…

also moved the cows to the next summer cover grazing strip….they had really cleaned up the first one more than I had anticipated….but they did tread down a lot of stalks and residue….when they finish that field I will resow it with fall cover crops…..our fall seed shipment should be here within a week.

REMINDER …CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO SEE IT LARGER…..USE YOUR BROWER BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO THE BLOG. As Marie said,,,,I guess we have another new neighbor !!!!! On Saturday a new denizen to what Jack use to call my menagerie arrived.  This is a little quarter horse who needed some help…he has been in a pasture with one other horse for quite some time and has been neglected.  He is as sweet as he can be and nearly that lame.Jim and Colleen Leahy found a home for the mare and Stewart and I said we would take care of this little gelding. I have started calling him Pete….which is short for Palladin Perkins Pal Peter Pinto.  With a few treats and a couple of feedings he is already starting to look to me when I call Pete.  And he has figured out that if I hold my hand out I have a treat.

PALLADIN PERKINS PAL PETER PINTO “PETE”

 This is a pretty good side view.  He is not a bad little horse If we can get him sound and get some weight on him.  Jim Leahey had thrown the two of them a salt block and they had really worked on it in the last two days.  I started him on beet pulp and mineral last night….he has figured out what a bucket is for….

A GOOD SIDE VIEW OF PETE

 It is going to take a few trips to the grocery store to get him in shape….with him and Perkins it will be like feeding two teenagers…..I will spend the nesxt couple of weeks working him up onto some real groceries….last night he got soaked beet pulp and mineral and 4 ounces of vegetable oil.  HE has free choice orchardgrass and timothy hay in front of him 24 7.  He has pooped so he is not colicy.  When they moved the other horse away he did some running and sored his bad feet. 

  His feet are pretty bad….at first I htought he was foundered….but now not so much….he is really lame on the off front and sore on all four

There are scars from previous abcesses.  Where they were is somewhat swampy and wet and I think he probably has another abcess brewing….we will get it taken care of…..I have already called my farrier….

He does not mind the goats and so I put them back into the small pen with him…..I thought Star Baby and the donkeys were okay with the goats but when Pete arrived she became boss mare and started chasing everybody and kicked one of the goats.  no damage apparent ….but I put them in with Pete to be on the safe side.

I have made some progress with the goats….for now they are staying in the pen with Pete….this is in no small part to my cutting and attaching cattle panels to the bottom of the corral panels in all ht eplaces the goats like to crawl under and come into the yard.  They have doen a number on the grape vines and my azaleas at the stable.   They were still in with Pete this morning instead of standing under the cow barn where I have found them the last six days…. also walked them up into the woods and some of the places i actually want them and they stayed out there for about an hour and looked around….they were barn raised goats and it will take a while for them to adjust.

Apache and Dee Dee are upset because In goat proofing I also eliminated their access to the pastures on the horse side because those places the goats used were the same places the dogs used to go our there…..

left to right….Nimrod, Nellie and Nancy

they managed to regraze the summer cover crop buckets again….the same ones the cows got to last week……oh well….it is raining today and they got a good rain last night and they will come back out….

speakeing of buckets…..these are the cool season cover crops I planted last week….they are coming along nicely…..they were not far enough along to draw the attention of the goats, thank goodness….

And we started grazing the big lot with the summer cover on Friday morning.  I took the bush hog and cut two paths and put up two hot wires…..I took two ten foot tall PVC pipes and stood them up to see where I was aiming to as I cut the path fo rthe fences…..cows went into it and I did not see them for 24 hours.  this morning it looks like this…..it looks like they have stripped it but I know they have walked a lot of it down and there should be a lot of residue on the ground.  I will evaluate this evening and determine when to open th enext strip.

Two mature cows and two heifers….mine is a yearling heifer and the red is Courts and she is just a weanling…..four animals and they went through that stuff like Sherman went thru Georgia….

I have not planted any grass or cover crops this weekend….the lot the horses just came out of got a lot of residue stomped down and it really does not need a cover….nor does the one the cows just came out of…..the patch I planted up by the road is starting to show good growth and the buckwheat is blooming nicely.  I probably should go out and scatter some seed but we had 9/10 of an inch last night and it is drizzling now and I don’t want to tear up any fields and the cover needs to be gotten to the soil and or covered…..

BELOW ARE A FEW SHOTS TAKEN THIS MORNING AROUND THE FARM….

BELOW ARE 12 NEW COVER CROP BUCKETS PLANTED FOR DISPAY AT THE VIRGINIA STATE FAIR……I WILL BE THERE ON THE AFTERNOON OF OCT 2 I BELIEVE, TO TALK ABOUT COVER CROPS WITH ANYONE WHO CARES TO STOP BY….WILL HAVE THESE 12 AND THE TWO SUMMER COVER CROP BUCKETS IN THE BACKGROUND AS WELL….THEY ARE RECOVERING AFTER BEING GRAZED ONE DAY LAST WEEK….MY CATTLE MANAGER HAD LEFT THE GATE OPEN AND THE COWS WERE MUNCHING OUT ON THE BUCKETS ONE DAY WHEN i GOT HOME FROM WORK….

12 NEW FALL COVER CROP MIXES PLANTED FOR DISPLAY AT THE VIRGINIA STATE FAIR

BELOW IS THE NEW BRUSH ABATEMENT CREW….THEY JUST CAME IN TODAY FROM LOUISA….MOTHER NANCY WITH TWO OFFSPRING NELLY AND NIMROD….SPOTTED NUBIANS….PRETTY CALM AND 1600 LB STAR BABY IS RUNNING AND SNORTING LIKE THEY ARE LIONS….LOL

COVER PLANTED TWO WEEKS AGO…BUCKWHEAT VERY VISIBLE AND SORGHUM AND MILLET JUST COMING UP….CLOVER IS SPROUTING BUT TOO SMALL TO SEE IN PHOTO.

THE PEARL MILLET IS CATCHING THE SORGHUM SUDAN IN HEIGHT….GOING TO BEGIN TO GRAZ IT NEST WEEKEND…

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE NEW BRUSH ABATEMENT CREW….I AM GOING TO LEAVE THEM ALONE UNTIL THEY GET ACCLIMATED AND THE DONKEYS AND HORSES GET USED TO THEM….THEN THEY WILL ALL GO TOGETHER. ALSO HAVE TO GET A VET TO MAKE NIMROD WETHER TIGHT.

SECOND SHOT OF THE NEW COVER BUCKETS AND THE TWO SUMMER BUCKETS. BY THE WAY….SOIL IS FROM A VDOT PILE OF ROAD DITCH CLEANINGS AMENDED WITH A LITTLE HORSE MANURE….SEEDS SPREAD ON TOP AND HAY MULCH TO COVER THE SEED.

THESE ARE THE NEWLY PLANTED ROOT BOXES….I CUT DOWN THE SUMMER COVER AND FILLED THE BOXES LEVEL FULL AND SCATTERED SEED AND MULCHED….THE ROOT BOXES HAVE REMOVABLE PANELS TO SHOW ROOT PENETRATION INTO THE SOIL….
THESE MAY GO TO THE FAIR AS WELL BUT WERE PLANTED FOR AN NRCS CLASS.

BELOW ARE A FEW OF THE SHOTS I TOOK AT THE SOUTHERN PIEDMEONT AG RESEARCH STATION FIELD DAY ON AUG 7 2013.
JUST A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH PHOTO AS i HAVE MORE TO DOWNLOAD AND ANOTHER POST TO MAKE YET TODAY.

THIS WAS A SHOT OF DR. BRIAN CAMPBELL JUST AFTER THE BULL HAD ENCOURAGED HIM TO GET OUT OF HIS SPACE.

THIS WAS A SHOT FROM THE TRAM AS WE GOT CLOSER TO THE NEW FACILITY

THIS WAS A HOT OF A MIXED SPECIES FORAGE PLOT. BMR SORGHUM PLANTED WITH SOY BEANS AND COW PEAS AND SUNFLOWERS

ANOTHER SHOT OF COWPEAS AND SORGHUM

THE CROWD LOOKS AT THE NEW FACILITIES

THESE WERE A PAIR OF HEIFERS FROM VA DOC USED FOR BODY CONDITION SACORING

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE HEIFERS

YET ANOTHER SHOT OF THE HEIFERS….THESE ARE TWO YEAR OLD HEIFERS DUE TO CALVE THIS FALL

dR bRIAN cAMPBELL

DR CHRIS TEUTSCH SHOQING A SUNFLOWER IN THE bmr FORAGE MIX AND DISCUSSING WHY THE MIX

S AHOT OF THE CROWD STUDYING THE FORAGE MIX

THERE WAS A GOOD CROWD ON HAND FOR THE EVENT AND THE NICE BARBECUE LUNCH

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE WORKING FACILITIES

THIS IS A VIEW DOWN THE ROW….THIS FORAGE WAS PLANTED IN 30 INCH ROWS BUT IT LOOKED THICKER….PEOPLE WERE WALKING DOWN AND INTENTIONALLY UNPLANTED ROW

THIS WAS MY FIRST SHOT OF THE DWARF BMR SORGHUM…i LIKE IT….NEXT YEAR…..

THIS WAS A SHOT FROM THE TROLLEY OF MY FIRST SIGHT OF THE NEW FACILITY

THIS IS A PENDLETON BRED BULL BELONGING TO VA DOC….LOOKS LIKE HE CAME FROM QUAKER HILL FARM…

A PRETTY VIEW FROM THE BARN

THERE WERE SOY BEANS GROWING IN THIS SORGHUM THAT WERE AS TALL AS ME….

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE THE DWAFR BMR SORGHUM

A BIG SUNFLOWER DROOPED INTO THE SORGHUM

VIEWING THE SORGHUM

ONE OF SEVERAL CATTLE FROST FREE WATER TROUGHS INSTALLED TO FACILITATE ROTATIONAL GRAZING

Part of a world weather system project run by the university

sometimes I woud rather be lucky than good….

This might be one of those times….

Back in the late winter I went to visit these folks and they had four horses and some dirt lots….

I preached my standard sermon on what it takes to grow grass and I could tell they were listening….(you can also tell when folks are not listening…)

They asked a lot of questions and we had several e-mail exchanges and this spring they even came to my house to see how I was doing some of the things I had discussed with them….

This past week I passed by their house and had to stop to take these photos…..I have not talked to them lately and cannot say exactly what they have done….and we have had mnarvelous rain all this summer and with this being the 11th of August we should be good into the fall….

But just look at the marvelous grass they have……they have even had to mow it…..

these were basicly dirt lots at the beginning of the year….

GREAT JOB !!!!!!

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted an update on my cover crops here at home.

There have been a few changes. I have grazed and mown and reseeded the little paddock in front of my front yard. The horses and the donkeys grazed in it for nearly two weeks. I took down the division fence and mowed it on Friday and yesterday I broadcast more cover crop seed and then ran over it with my spike tooth aerator…..We had a nice little shower last night…..

I did something different with this one…. Because it is almost too late for summer cover crops and a bit early for fall cover crops…..I planted both…… I broadcast half summer cover crop seed and half fall cover crop seed from a bucket of fall mix I had left over from last year…… Too early for any photos. Should have some buckwheat up soon.

Since I last posted, I have seeded two grazing paddocks after grazing. Both were with the summer mix. The first is nearly a foot tall and it is probably four weeks since seeding. The other is right out front near the road and it is up and just becoming noticeable.

Okay….here are this weeks photos with comment.

below is the most recent shot of the test row in my garden….recall that I just scratched a row in the grass in the garden and distributed some seed and covered it up. My garden maintenance is to mow between the rows…Dee Dee inspecting….

below is one of a series of shots of the cover crop in the bull field….this one highlights a sunflower…they have just begun to make themselves evident….the sorghum sudan has been dominanting lately,

below is a shot of buckwheat, soybean, fescue and rape

My assistants have become camera hogs and showmen and are now showing off in front of the cover crop

The fence post in the photo is five feet tall….some of the sorghum must be nearly eight feet tall….

front and center is a pearl millet head….could not distinguish sorghum from millet until it headed….the sorghum sudan is the taller more open heads.

all in all I would call this field a sucess…mowed, seed broadcast and aerated with a spike tooth aerator.

this is an attempt at a shot of the whole field….I can no longer hold the camera high enough to get a shot beyond the first phalanx of plants

I planted this crape myrtle five or six years ago after losing a dogwood tree in the same spot….it has been slow growing but it gets prettier every year….really enjoying it this year. does not smell as sweet as the magnolia in the back yard in the early summer but it is even prettier.

This is a shot of the cover crop buckets…they have pretty much stopped growing….I have to water them daily…the stuff is so thick in the buckets that I am sure they are really pot bound….there is a corn plant in one of them that is only two feet tall…and tasseling.

center of this photo is an ear of corn in the cover crop….now that it is tasseling and silking I can find the corn in all the sorghum sudan….

This is just my weekly post of cover crops at the farm and other shots becasue I had a camera in my hand.

this first one is in a neighbors corn field….what this shows is depression of the corn crop in a low area by too much water….at least it was not flooded out and drowned as has been the case in many low spots….both corn and beans

The multispecies cover crop in buckets….getting crowed in those buckets and even with all the rain we have had it is hot between rains and I am haivng to water these buckets….the buckets do have drain holes in the bottom so they do not hold water….

This is the cover crop in the bull field….the white fence spacer in the photo is five feet tall…so the cover is jumping….this spot is near where we fed hay two winter ago so there are probably some residual nutrients there but the rest of the field isn early as tall.

Day Lillies planted last year at Po Devils Grave….Po Devil was a blind old hound that Marie took in a few years ago…someone had dropped her because she was blind and old….she had a couple of good years in the house with us….

This is a shot of a small area near the cow barn….for years it was part of the yard and was mown weekly…finally I got smart enough to put up a little hot wire and let the livestock mow it…There never was much in grass…and I had to mow it after they grazed it….this winter I broadcast a clover mix over it…about five or six kinds of clover….the horse have grazed it twice this year and it has been mown once….it has not been touched in about a month and now there is bermuda and clover about 18 inches tall….

another shot of the bermuda and clover patch.

planted galdiolas around the dog graves last year and everyone told me they would not over winter…most of them have come back this year and Monte has the first ones to bloom.

I planted some zinna seed in the flower border in front of the stable

this is another shot form th ewet area in my neighbors corn field….the corn stair steps up form two feet to six feet.

just a shot of the sweet yellow clover in the bucket….I have a good bit blooming in another field where I had planted some cover last fall….hopefully it seeds easily.

this is the standard weekly shot of the summer multi specis cover crop swon in two parts in the bull field….about 4 feet tall and some sunflowers are beginning to show up….soybeans and cowpeas cannot be seen for the buckwheat….

this is the MSCC row planted in the garden…did not have time to mow the garden this weekend because I worked Friday and went riding Saturday…

another shot of the zinnias

Hopefully I am going to make a visit to some of our producers summer cover crops and get some photos this week.

As usual click on any photo to make it larger…..
click on follow to get an e-mail when there is a new post.

This photo is the third of my Kiowa blackberries to ripen…..I put it in the same place that I put the two the day before……in my mouth……yummy……hoping to get enough ripe at one time to make a cobbler…plants were only planted last year. The Chesters and the Ebonys have lots of berries but they are insignificant compared to these….

These are fescue and orchardgrass from one of my lots and have been in these buckets for two years….
Fescue left…OG right.

Orchardgrass and bermudagrass mix also from one of my lots…..look like this will be a year for prodigious Bermudagrass growth…..hot and wet is what it loves….

This berry is compared to my thumb to show the size of these berries….I love them….

This photo is of the first field I sowed with the summer cover crop mix….this is the one I sowed in two stages using the lawn spike tooth aerator…..now noticeable is the lack of sunflowers…..where I have put sunflowers in the soil they have done well…..these summer cover crops need to be drilled….

These are the two summer cover crop buckets….that growthier one is about 10 days older and it is the one where the seed were scattered in the bucket and then mulched and watered. The other is the younger where the seeds were just scattered and watered in. Both are doing well and are very crowded….fortunately we have had plenty of rain….

Here is my cover crop row planted into my garden….naturally, my lawn mower has died so I have not mown between the rows….

Finally got the mower fixed and did some trimming.

Here is a shot of Yellow Sweet Clover….this plant is more difficult to grow than most clovers….I have some in the lot where I had an unsuccessful broadcasting of summer cover….The Yellow Sweet Clover is a carry over from the fall cover as there was no yellow sweet clover in the summer mix planted there….Yellow sweet clover is a biannual and its value is in its deep rooted nature to open the soil and bring nutrients to the surface….not a particularly desirable forage plant….my guess is it is another plant that will do much better drilled than broadcast.

It will have to compete hard where it is as there is Crimson, Red and Ladino clover in a good stand where it is….also a good smattering of buckwheat and the rape seems to have reseeded as well as a few stems of wheat….photo of this lot….hard to see the sweet yellow clover in the photo

I brought my cows and weanling calves home this weekend. Two cows who are half sisters by the 6D bull
this one is Utah looking for a handout….

and a heifer and two weanling bulls…also have a red heifer that belongs To my neighbor. He has sold all his other weaned calves and we did not want to put her in a lot by herself. The three calves weaned off at eight months age at 800 and 724 for the bulls and the heifer was 692.

All on grass and hay and mamas milk…not the prettiest calves I have ever raised but they have done a good job of growing….my theory is that they are from stock that is adapted to the environment they are raised in….We have run a closed herd since Jack bought the draft of ten heifers from Walnut Hill in the early nineties. These two cows go back to my first cows bought from Lynn Brae in 1986. I am thinking of breeding back up to five or six cows…. These girls are like the horses in that they like to spend the day lying in the barn to get away from the bugs….then they go out and graze in the evening…

We took one of last years bulls to slaughter for the freezer a few weeks ago….hung up an 880 lb hot carcass and yielded some pretty good beef….started this years bulls on light feed Friday and one of them will have a similar purpose. The other will probably make a saleable bull about a year from now…

Dee Dee and Apache eating peaches that have fallen off the peach tree….They are not ripe and hard as rocks but they love them….

Bale beans are growing well now….may do more of this in the future…….they are doing better than the row planted in the garden.