Just Another Week

It’s never dull here.  Darling Husband was building a fire this morning so I thought I would walk Dakota and feed the cattle at the same time.  This is what greeted me when I got to the cattle.  

I ran to the house, put Dakota in, asked a kid for my camera, then asked Darling Husband to come help me.  He had no idea what he was coming out too- he hadn’t moved from the fire. 

We moved the sheep again today.  They are along the top of the property.  We moved them on Sunday and I realized right away they were not going to last long eating the area we had them in so they have been getting a lot of hay lately.   Teen Son and I had planned on moving the sheep when he got home today.  A neighbor called today to see if his grandkids could come over and give them some grass.  I was embarrassed that they were in such a stripped out area, but I knew the sheep would be happy so had them come over.

Teen Son came home with several other FFA (Future Farmer of America) boys.  So I had 4 teen boys helping move the fencing, nice!  Stick Boy watched the sheep while we moved the fencing.  Then we all herded the sheep into their new area. 

 I read a lot of blogs and enjoy “Life on a Kansas Cattle Ranch”.  Earlier this week she posted a recipe:   http://kansascattleranch.blogspot.com/2013/01/meaty-monday-best-bbq-meatballs-ever.html, we tried it tonight and it was wonderful.  

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 

Usually I make a New Year’s Resolution to stop procrastinating.  This year I decided not to even bother trying.  I’m accepting me.    

Ruby is looking at me instead of the hay.      DH trying to coax the cattle into the trailer.

Finally the steers wanted to eat and everyone else followed them.

Not a lot new has been happening here. 

We have moved the sheep a few times and moved the cattle back to the side pasture.  The pasture they were in is at the bottom of our property and often gets ice down there.  I am always amazed at the difference in temperature from our house to the bottom of the driveway.  I do not have to walk on frost most mornings now and the cattle are a lot closer.  I like that! 

The cattle are happy to be back in a pasture with grass.

The person we are getting the cargo container from keeps putting off our purchase date.  She is moving and needs to clean it out before we buy it – so the fodder is still in the shower and we producing 1 tray a day.  It is enough to keep them trying the fodder but not enough to cut down on our hay purchases.  

Learning Fodder and a Chicken Coop

Three days into the fodder experiment I forgot to water the seeds and left the soaking seeds soaking for 48 hours not 24.  Since then I have been very good about getting enough water on the seeds and we bought a grow light to help the fodder turn green. The night we fed the tray of fodder with the seeds that soaked an extra day; it was slimy and not all the seeds sprouted so the animals got some pretty yucky fodder.  So soaking 48 hours is not advised!  I also think I may be keeping the trays too wet.  When I put the holes in the trays I put them in the bottom of the trays it is more difficult because the bottom of the trays have little channels in them, Darling Husband pokes the holes into the side as close to the bottom as possible but the channels never empty – it seems the trays with the holes on the sides do not sprout as well.  We are learning.

This Christmas we made a chicken coop for our oldest daughter and gave her 5 chickens and a miniature rooster.  Maybe in spring she will have enough eggs to share with us.  The person who gave us the chickens has offered to give us more.  He knows a lot of local poultry people, I am hoping he may be a connection for getting some Red Bourbon Turkeys in the spring.  

Fodder Part 3

The yellow is from when I had them stacked on top of each other.    

We bought a plastic shelf and a grow lamp to put in the shower until we get the cargo container for the fodder.  In the reading I have done light isn’t supposed to be a big deal for the fodder BUT since adding the light everything seems to be growing faster.  

The seeds and roots seem to be a little thick using 3 cups of seeds so we have cut it down to  2 ½ cups in each tray – I have trouble getting the seeds even with just 2 ½ cups of seed but I will get better.  Also growing for 9 days instead of 8 seems to work better for us but we will see how having the light changes things. 

Christmas Eve we gave the animals the fodder for the first time.  3 of the sheep just turned their noses at it but Blackwell wolfed it down as fast as she could.  Magic was not interested in it but our neighbor’s horse who shares a pasture with Magic LOVED it, the second day we gave it to Magic he ate it after his hay was gone.  

  The cattle prefer their hay but when the hay is gone they eat the fodder.  We only are doing 1, 11 x 20 inch tray every day so the sheep are getting a handful, Magic gets a handful, and the cattle get most of it.  As soon as we have the cargo container and shelving in it I will start doing 3 trays a day and see how it goes.  

Truck VS Fence: We All Win!

The driveway my girls park their cars on is next to one of the pastures we put the new High Tinsel Fencing on.  We had a lot of rain last weekend.  During one of the heaviest rains Oldest Daughter’s truck slid off of the driveway and hit the wire fence with the side of her truck.  She was able to drive away without any damage done to her truck or the fence.  How many fences can you drive into without causing damage?  I guess Darling Husband over built it for a reason.  

Fodder Part 2

The day Darling Husband picked up the seeds and on his way home a friend called saying we may have a great opportunity to get a cargo container.  So instead of making shelving we had to figure out where we would put the cargo container, try to find a shipping company to move it at a reasonable price….

The next day the trays from Greenhousemegtastore.com arrived! Normal people would not start growing the seed until they are ready.  We started growing them in the shower!  Just one tray a day to see how it would grow.  It is surprising how fast a few trays of seeds fills up a shower.  

Yes, it is an ice cream tub I am soaking the seeds in!

Saturday doesn’t count we started 3 cups of barley seeds soaking.  Sunday is the first day we started seeds in their tray.  Tuesday I forgot all about the seeds and didn’t even water them.  Wednesday the first seed tray sprouted – Yay I didn’t kill them when I forgot to water them.  Friday the first sprouts are starting to turn green.  Our first tray of fodder will be ready to feed the cattle on Monday but how am I going to keep them stacked and watered nicely until then?  

The first sprouts.  I will take more pictures later.

Fodder Part 1

The cattle are eating everything much faster than we thought they would and had read that they would.  So far every pasture we have put them in is cleaned out in 1-2 weeks AND pasture rotation doesn’t work if new grass has not grown in the pasture that is resting.  I imagine rainfall has a lot to do with how many acres a cow need to live, and our lack of rainfall = no grass growth so we would need more acres per cattle.  Bummer!  I have been searching for a way to feed our cattle and sheep and not have a $350 or more feed bill per month. 

In my internet searches and looking through farming catalogs I keep reading about fodder systems.  They are expensive but seem to be a great way to give the animals the nutrition they need.  Then we started looking into making our own fodder system.  Quartz Ridge Ranch  http://quartzridgeranch.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/our-daily-fodder-routine/ has done an incredible job of showing how they made their fodder system.  Darling Husband and I decided to put shelves next to his shop that way they would be easy to cover if we decide we need to but temporarily we can just protect the area with a tarp.  We ordered trays to put the seeds in.  Then we started searching for Barley Seed.  Our local stores didn’t carry any but I could order it.  In internet stores many were out, many who had barley seeds at reasonable prices it wanted to charge insane amounts for shipping, others had the seed but higher prices than I wanted to pay.  I spent hours searching then I thought to put California in the search for barley seed. WALLAAAAA! On the top of the second page I searched was an organic seed company near my husband’s work!