Macro Monday 18 Jun 2012

I found a blog that promotes Macro Photography (close-ups).  It has "Macro Monday" when folks share their macro shots.  Okay, OK, I know it is Tuesday, but I did not have computer time yesterday.  So, I will still participate just a little late!!

This flower was at our son's home.  There are many flowers there and I was shooting a few one afternoon.

Ants on a Lily

Sharing with:  Macro Monday

Branding 2012

We have been busy working cattle since the crop got planted.  We have over 200 cows so have about that many calves to work.  We give various vaccinations and brand all of them.  The vaccinations are done for the same reason humans have them.  The branding is for ranch identification.  We have this brand registered with the State of North Dakota and any cattle with this brand in our registered location all belong to us.  Each calf was identified at birth with the ear tag. 

Most of the time when you see photos of branding you see lots of horses & cowboys.  Not at our place.  We use 4-wheeler and motorcycles to chase cows (as well as a pickup or Jeep or whatever else is handy!).  Our method requires fewer workers and no open fire.  We need electricity and the four of us.

I have a few photos to share how we brand & vaccinate.

  

The calves are sorted from the cows.  It is much easier to work with the calves with out the big cattle in the way.

Brett's job was to bring one calf at a time down the alley way.  Pandora (the dog) and Sammie (another dog) like to think they are helping him by running alongside!

Brett then pushed the calf into the "calf table".  This is a very helpful tool for us.  Christopher would catch the head in the headgate and gently snug the calf onto the table.  Then he & Mark would tip the table.

 Once the calf is laying down it is much easier to do the necessary work.  The calf is laying on a solid piece of steel so he/she is well supported.  The bars can be moved so they are out of the way to do any necessary work.

Mark & Christopher gave the shots.  We give shots in the neck area since there is the least damage done to any future cuts of meat.  By doing this our animals are BQA certified.  Some of the shots go just under the skin and others go into the muscle.

  

This is our branding iron.  We have an electric iron.  So the part that you see glowing red is the part that actually does the work.  Our brand is a 7 lazy Y.  Mark sets it in this bucket with a brick to keep from starting fires.  These photos show us branding inside of our big barn.  Some of the calves are branded out in the pasture where we set up a big pen to gather them and still use the calf table.  We then use a generator to provide electricity for this iron.



The above two photos show Mark doing the branding.  First the hair burns off (man does that stink) then the hide is "tanned" with the hot iron. 

From the time the animal gets into the "calf table" to the time it is released is about 2 minutes.

Here is our brand on one of the calves from this day's work.  Our 7 lazy Y on the left rib area of the calf.  This brand will "grow" as the animal grows.  After they get their vaccinations and brand they are released and return to Mom for comforting.

It is a hard day's work even for the dogs!  (This is Lori.)  We humans come in exhausted as well.  It is better now that we do the calves in smaller groups as they go to or are at each of their summer pastures. 

If the cattle are not at the proper pasture we haul them out in our stock trailer.  We make sure every cow in the trailer has her calf in there with her.  If they are not paired up, we could have a cow running all over the countryside looking for her calf.  It is worse then the calf is running around as they are much more difficult to catch!  Our bulls have also been turned out to the pastures so we should start getting new calves around the 20th of March, 2013.

Do you have any questions?  I will do my best to help answer them.

Done

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that the crop is all planted.  This year the crops are:  canola, barley, Hard Red Spring Wheat, Corn (probably all silage corn) and sweet clover (which we won't be able to hay until next year). 

The alfalfa is getting close to blooming so it will be time to get the haying equipment ready.  Most of the cattle are out to pasture, but we still have to work the calves (brand and vaccinate them).

There is always plenty to do.  Today, Mark & I are off on a road trip to deliver some recycled plastic fence posts to Kulm, ND.  We will be back home tonight.  In the meantime, the "boys" will take care of the livestock!   It is supposed to rain for a few days now so I hope that we can all get a little rest!

Rural North Dakota sights

Lately I have been doing lots of driving around.  I am the "go-fer" for our farm.  I go for parts. I go for Anhydrous Ammonia.  You get the idea.  So, I have started to take my camera along.  If I have a little extra time I will stop to take photos.  They are usually taken of water birds in sloughs along the roads that I travel.

I thought I would share a few of the birds I have seen.

American Coot preening

Canada Goose family

Red Heads

Northern Shovelers

Top:  American Coot

2 on left:  Wilson's Phalarope

pair on right:  Blue-winged Teals

I have seen a few other water birds such as Mallards, Grebes, SeaGulls and more.  If I get more photographed I might even share them with you!

We have 2-3 days left of planting so I will have many more miles to drive!!  Always a breakdown, meal to haul or someone getting stuck so we will see what it all brings.

Be sure to share a comment so I know someone actually stops by to see what is going on at NoDak Herefords.

Another day, another rain

As stated in my last post, not much seeding is getting done thanks to the rain.  Since the last rain (last post), Brett covered the tillable acres on one quarter.  It was planted to Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW or just "wheat").  Now, early Sunday morning we got another 1.1 inches of rain.  Mark wonders if the rain gauge drain hole is just above the 1.1 inch mark since that is the amount of the last two rains!

The rain has allowed us the time needed to tend to the cattle.  The A.I.ing (Artificially Inseminating) is done for this season.  Christopher must have artificially bred nearly 100 head.  This process takes working with each female three times.  We do a lot of our breeding this way to help improve the genetics of our herd.  It is much cheaper than buying expensive bulls to do the same job, but is labor intensive compared to letting the bull just do his own business.  We hope to see many healthy AI calves next spring.

Spring seeding

We are at the half way mark with seeding/planting here.  Brett does the seeding.  He has all of our canola and barley done.  He started the wheat today.  He has also fertilized the corn ground.  We still have all of our wheat (& possibly flax) to seed.  Also, we have corn to plant.

Here the guys are filling the air seeder cart with barley seed (one is watching the grain cart and one is on the ground to shut things down when it is full).  The semi has the barley seed which is augered up into the cart (yellow thing).  This cart has two compartments - one for seed and one for dry fertilizer.  The white tank here has Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3).  NH3 is nitrogen (fertilizer) for the soil .  I take these tanks into town to have them filled many times a season!  The John Deere (green) tractor runs the jump auger.  We use the jump auger to move the grain from the semi trailer to the auger that fills the grain cart. 

Brett is turning on the NH3 (Anhydrous Ammonia) tank as he prepares to start seeding.

Here he goes!  The implement in front of the grain cart is the part that actually puts the seed and fertilizer into the ground.  There are many hoses and tubes used to move the seed & fert to their proper locations in the soil.  We have had our soil tested so we know how much dry fertilizer and NH3 to add to it so it should be able to produce the best crop yield possible.

The above photos were taken a few days ago.  I just have not had time to post until this evening.  Here is why I now have time:

This evening around 6 pm the rain started.  Around 6:30 it started to hail.  Here is a sampling of what we got.  There is a teaspoon there to help see the size of the hail.  This could wreck havoc with the crops that  have started to grow.  We don't think it will hurt any of our crops, but our neighbors have some really nice winter wheat that could be damaged.   We also received a little over 1 inch of rain in about 1 hour.  So, we will not be in the field for a few days.  However, our neighbors who live about 2 miles south of us only got .25 inch of rain.  So, we hope we can seed our land near their place quicker than the stuff here at home.

Linking to Farm Photo Friday

it's been awhile

It has been quite a while since I have posted.  Part of my trouble is that I think I should always have a photo to share, since that was my original reason to start a blog!  I have been bad about taking photos lately - lack of subject ideas, rainy weather, and so on. 

SO, you get an update on the ranch.  We still have a few cows left to calve.  No seeding has been done yet as the men are still working on that machine AND it is still too wet in the fields.  They tested the seeder today so can fine tune it now!  Today we started the process to A.I. (artificial insemination) some of our cattle. 

The forecast sounds rainy for the next few days so perhaps there will be some time for my guys to rest.

Along with 11 other ladies, I was in a "reader's theatre" production this past Sunday.  We performed, "The Other Twelve Disciples".  It was interesting to hear about some of the events in Jesus' life through the eyes of women.  Quite a nice little show, if I say so myself!

Well, til next time, enjoy your spring.