After I finished planting all the strawberries this afternoon, I looked at a few apple trees, really for the first time since they went in the ground.
Some leaves have spots, perhaps with rust or some other bad-for-apple-trees thing. Bugs chomped some leaves.
Hmm. Now that fruit planting is ended, fruit maintenance begins.
I soaked some kelp granules, and sprayed half the trees with the water. I hope that foliar feeding will help; we'll see. Until I have a spare moment to research more in depth, the trees will have to survive with prayer and seaweed.
Really, most trees look great. Some have grown over my head already. I have one cherry that I think drowned; one pear that never leafed out; one apple that looks very bad, almost like bugs and deer both attacked it; and one apple that the sheep chewed (we'll see if it lives). And the other 400+ trees are doing well. Thanks be to God.
Phil did yeoman's work today, putting up fence around the lower pasture. He looks to be more than halfway done, so by later this week, we hope the cows will get to start rotational grazing.
I thought today about our needed bull, and considered anew that we should probably just artificially inseminate. I mean, we could spend a couple thousand to get a bull here for our one cow, and he could impregnate her. Our vague idea was that we woud then put him on the other side of the creek (maybe with the two babydoll rams for company?) until we need him again at the end of the year.
But then the logistics expert in me wondered how will we get him to the other side of the creek? We have no ford (yet). And I doubt we could put a 1200 pound ball of testosterone on a leash and lead him merrily away from his harem. That doesn't sound practical at all. Maybe tie him to the back of the truck and let the truck do the heavy pulling? (That's a trick our hay guy mentioned. Let the livestock fight the vehicle, not the man.) But then we're at the unfordable creek, into a nonexistent paddock, with, um, what to eat?
Yes, please, let's try to artificially inseminate! We are motivated to watch for signs of heat! And I am on the hunt for the best bull genetics I can find. Stay tuned.
The one female guinea had gone broody on us, and sat on eggs for the last week. Today she wandered off, and Isaiah collected 38 eggs from the hen house. (Fifteen or 20 would be a normal gathering, so you can imagine what a hoard she had collected!) I have separated those eggs from our for sale eggs—nothing like cracking an egg to find a dead chick inside. That would sour me from local farm food pretty quickly! (I have no idea if that would actually happen, but what a horrific thought!)
I renewed my dedication to cook like Nourishing Traditions. I am soaking grains, soaking beans, using the garden vegetables we have, planning what garden vegetables to put in now that fruit planting is done.
And that makes me feel like I'm at home. Not so harried that dinner is a package of rice noodles with a can of tuna and some garlic for "tuna noodle casserole," thrown together at the end of an eight hour planting session, but a thoughtfully prepared lentil salad with leftover ham after a couple of pleasant hours of planting and spraying. Hopefully no more quick-rise yeast breads, but in a week or so, delicious sourdough.
The latter I can do long-term. The former—that was an exhausting season.
What else makes me feel at home? Having a sink with running hot water (in the motor home).
And having Phil home. That's very good.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
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How about this as an alternative to AI. Get a bull calf, cheap almost everywhere, raise him on milk replacer and grass, breed him to the girls, by the time they freshen, he ought to be big enough to feed you guys well, but not so big as to be unmanageable. This may be much cheaper and easier than AI, not to mention that he would get the timing of the girls' heat much more accurately than we do. I use this method for my goats.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea, and one recommended to me. That is our fall-back option.
ReplyDeleteI think, though, we are hoping for better milk production and improved genetics from the cows we have, we'll do our best with AI first. (Since we went all the way to Vermont to buy these specific cows from a specific breeder, it almost seems a shame to "waste" even one breeding opportunity on any-old-bull, but we'll do it if need be, if that makes sense.)
BTW, thanks for your comments about our Alpine. We are still trying to get the guts to off the bucklings, but when we do kill them, I will certainly try the 24 hour wait period, and hope for good milk production then.