Friday, May 3, 2013

Cold Weather in May

Hey everyone,

It seems that Mother Nature wanted to show everyone who's boss one last time. The last week or so it's been 75 degrees plus, and now a nasty front has moved in. The bottom has dropped out of the warm temperatures and it's now in the low 30's. It's actually snowing right now and it's May 3rd! I heard on the news that Springfield, MO has been keeping record of the weather since the 1880's and this is the latest snowfall date on record. 

The perfect opportunity to get you all caught up on what's been going on around here. 

When I last wrote, I told you about Tipsy and informed you that I had planted some Doc's Wildlife Blends. Well, I'm sorry to say that Tipsy didn't make it. Although he was showing signs of improvement, it became obvious after another week or so that he had neurological damage and that he would never be the same. We continued to pick him up and get him to his feet, but his balance was not there and the slightest hill would make him fall over.  I found him dead in a pond one morning.  He had drowned. 

On a positive note, the Doc's Sandy Bottom Blend as well as the Doc's Premium Clover I planted has emerged and is doing well. I will include a picture when it gets a little bigger, right now it's just too small to see.


It won't be long and I'll have beans and corn in the ground as well, then I can keep you updated on how our forage soybean competition progresses. 

As I'm sure you all can imagine, there's hardly a boring day around here.  Right now, when the weather cooperates, I have several big projects going with the most important being the welding on the corral.  Our corral system is big and bad, made to contain the biggest, meanest bull bison on earth. We are in the process of building the catwalk that goes around the perimeter of the working facilities.  The catwalk enables us to walk above the animals and guide them along using their natural instincts to our advantage.  I think 3 or 4 more good days of welding and I will be done with the catwalk, and ready to install the chute and the load out.  When the chute and load out are installed, we will be ready to start working the animals. This is where we will give them shots, ear tags, and separate the older, bigger calves from the younger ones so that they can be sent off to Overton, NE where they will be finished on grain.  Quite a few of the bison calves we have are getting old enough to breed, which also means that the bulls are starting to fight and establish dominance.  It's time for them to go North.

Another huge project this time of year is spraying pastures.  If we don't stay on top of the weed problem, it will seriously damage our pastures by decreasing the grasses that the animals graze on.  This occurs because the weeds are in direct competition with the grass for nutrients and sunlight.  It is extremely important to kill weeds when they are young and growing as opposed to later when they are mature because not only are they harder to kill, but they will also produce seeds that will germinate and make the problem much worse next year.

Hopefully soon Mother Nature will quit with the cold weather and give us a nice, warm spring to enjoy. As all my farmer friends in the Midwest know, it's time to plant some corn! 

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