We Become Graziers

Our book on calving recommended watching the cows for a half hour at dawn, to have the best chance to observe heat.

At 5:45 this morning, I woke to a cockroach crawling on my arm and was so completely disgusted, I decided I would watch the cows.

The cows weren’t even up yet. And when they did start to rouse themselves, Fern showed no signs of heat. (We know she did show signs while I was out of town, so about 21 days after the first ten days of May, she should come into heat. Meaning, any day, if we didn’t already miss it.)

A hummingbird whizzed by, so I didn’t entirely rue the early rising. And it was certainly cooler that early in the morning.

The heat soared to about 90, and with the humidity, it felt like 95, with a bright sun overhead. I have heard that “horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow,” but I’m pretty sure I was sweating today. Phil filled our stock tank/outdoor bathtub and plopped right in. A little later, I did the same thing.

Phil finished penning the meadow, and at 3pm, he opened the gate to let the cows in to their first taste of growing grass on our farm. (You can see the bare paddock, the swatch he scythed to put up the fence, and the tall forbs in the photo.)

Although the goats came right over, the cows refused. Finally Isaiah had to bribe one of the babies, and slowly, hesitantly, three others followed.

Bethany, though, resisted the appeal of fresh forage for FOUR HOURS. For four hours she paced on the wrong side of the fence, sour grapes style.

Phil finally pushed her into the new paddock, and she grazed with good will.

What a delicious sight, to see all those shiny red coats among the tall green forbs. (In the photo below, you can see the classic outline of a cow from behind, with one side a pear shape and the other side an apple.)

Tyson brought hay, and we rolled it out along the ground in their new paddock. Now they will have both the growing forage, and the extra hay, for them to eat, and trample the seeds into the ground, to fertilize with their manure, and enjoy.

Since the last big bales they’ve devoured in two days each (with probably a third of it sinking into the mire that has been their paddock), I’m interested to see how long the bales take them now.

I hope a lot longer.

I called the vet, and the AI tech will call me back tomorrow.

I pulled up the chicken netting around the cow paddock, which will now allow the chickens more free access to roam. Since many can and do escape each day, Phil and I were surprised to see that on the paddock side of the net, the chickens had scratched the ground bare. On the other side, lush growth covered the ground.

That netting was more effective than we realized!

I put the netting around my garden. Now the chickens will not scratch up all my seeds. (I lost all my turnips and radishes to chicken scratching.) I still need to surround the chickens with netting, though, I think; they will need protection from raccoons and weasels. I think.

I planted some herb seeds. I have a lot more planting to do in the next few days; June 1 is a big cutoff date here in the mid-Atlantic for things like corn, squash, melons, and direct-seeded tomatoes.

The spectacular sunset made Jadon comment, “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight.” Phil had just spent a good bit of time covering equipment and bringing tools inside, because a thunderstorm was in the forecast. He was feeling a bit bemused, when a thunderstorm hit. And what a thunderstorm! Lightning directly overhead, pouring rain, incredible force. I’m glad I mulched my little herb seeds, but how can they withstand the onslaught of driving rain?

We shall see.

There is much to do, and it is mostly fun. Though I must say, there were moments today when I dreamed about taking a long drive in the air conditioned car. Phew!