Ninja Cow Farm LLC

September 5, 2013

Another foggy morning

The cows are just barely visible through the mist this morning. It was pretty neat watching them appear.

Here they are a minute later as we moved paddocks.

And now moving back down the new paddock grazing. Note the nice sunrise in the background. As usual, the picture doesn’t do it justice. Mornings like this make the other days worthwhile.

The grass still looks very good. Its not growing as crazily as it was, but I think we still have plenty of growth coming. We cut out 6 acres for winter forage so this will be our first experiment with winter grazing. The grazing pressure looks just right and the cows continue to perform. Tomorrow the new fence charger should show up and we should be back in business.

September 4, 2013

More fence charger woes

This is what met me this morning when I moved the cows. The fence, with the 3rd string emergency backup charger was dead as a hammer. No voltage. Luckily the cows had not noticed yet.

Spork and I proceeded to redo all the jumper wires and ride all the fence in search of the short. After about 20 minutes we had disconnected everything from the main wire which is only about 20 feet long. After all that work we had this result.

Sigh.

Get out the tester and start testing what was left. Another few minutes and I found this.

Arghh! Deer again. Every time we loose the fence its deer as the cause. I believe venison will be in the freezer this winter.

So after that quick fix.

Yeah! Now that will light those critters up.

After all of that. We were rewarded with this sunrise. All is good.

September 3, 2013

Fence charger woes

It doesn’t take long for the cows to figure out that a fence charger is down. They must have a special sense for when you aren’t prepared.

We are running with the old 6 joule Stayfix charger since the new Kencove charger has given up the ghost. Right now we have 1.3 Kv on the line and the cows have chosen to just walk right through it. Luckily they only went through their back fence and there was no cattle wrangling this morning. Unluckily they broke the back fence wire so there’s that to fix. The interns are jumping in an even older box but isolating the paddock so its only running a couple of paddocks. That should get the voltage back up until I can get the 24 joule going again. Gotta go find the receipt for this Kencove charger in my shoebox of receipts.

September 2, 2013

Yesterday’s haul

16 watermelons yesterday with more coming today. I LOVE watermelon. Remind me of that on the processing of about the 13th one.

This batch will be some watermelon wine, I hope. There’s no more room in the freezer and I can only feed the kids so much.

September 1, 2013

Ready for winter

Last winter I had some frozen fruit in the freezer. I wasn’t really sure what to do with it. I stumbled across fruit smoothies in my Vitamix blender as a way to use up the fruit. I mixed it with the kefir we make from our cow and tried it out. The kids were wildly enthusiastic so this year I decided to prepare for winter. I think I am done.

August 31, 2013

A merry chase

Today, while moving and watering the cows, I made a mistake. I thought we had back fenced the cows into their new paddock. Thinking the cows were safely in their new paddock I went to work on their waterer which was leaking, which required me opening the pasture gate.

Then, Brian pointed out that the hot wire had no juice, none. So off we went to discover the source of the problem. After 15 minutes of fencing checks, we came back to the paddock where the cows were. Were, as in used to be, is the key word as they had disappeared. Off we went to discover their whereabouts and shortly we discovered the cows in the woods behind the wood boiler. The cows were having a merry time, crashing through the trees, eating anything that looked good, etc. They very much looked like a group of sailors just hitting port.

Brian took the gator and I went on foot with a stick I found to use to herd the cows. We chased until reaching the neighbors house, where we were able to turn the cows around and herd them back to the barn. 15 minutes and a few bad words later we had them at least in the barn yard. Phew! Crisis averted.

Just another day on the farm.

August 31, 2013August 30, 2013

Home schooling

Every morning I get up, get Spork up, move the cows, move the waterer, move the mineral feeder, get the chicken feed, take the feeder from the chicken tractor, move the chicken tractor, refill the feeder, put the chicken food back in the barn, collect the eggs, and then go back home to get ready for my day. I leave my beautiful wife and wonderful kids behind where they spend a good part of the day homeschooling.

A few days ago the kids had taken a bunch of chairs and bar stools and blankets and had made a fort. It was a nice fort, quality construction. They were so excited and asked me to come inside for a tour. I looked at the cramped space and 3 foot tall ceiling and politely declined and let them show me around from outside. A few days later after my morning ritual with the farm critters, I witnessed what you see pictured on my way out of the house. School teacher SWMBO was on her belly, reading them their history lesson in their fort. Everyone was still in their PJs and the kids were having a large time. That’s the coolest day of school I’ve ever seen. Made me want to stay home and repeat 3rd grade.

August 30, 2013August 29, 2013

Raw milk

I don’t really get into the raw milk debate. Until recently I had never had raw milk and frankly thought it was kind of odd to drink it. I certainly thought anyone picketing to get milk was part of the tinfoil hat brigade. Of course, it had never occurred to me that plain old cows milk was illegal and that people with guns would come and take it and you away. I was completely detached from the whole thing.

Then we bought a Jersey milk cow and I figured I would give it a try. Not because raw milk caused hair regrowth (which I could use) but because having lots if milk meant I could have lots of cheese and yogurt and whatnot. I have to say, I had some trepidation drinking that first milk. Would it kill me? Would I get sick? I certainly didn’t give any to the kids. How scary. I was still a product of the USDA.

After a year of drinking unadulterated milk, I can truly say that raw milk is hands down better than store bought milk. It’s been better for us and it tastes SO much better. Think tomatoes warm from the garden sun vs grocery store tomatoes. It’s that big if a difference. After real milk, store bought milk tastes like liquid chalk powder. It’s nasty.

Dr. Mercola and raw milk

For those on either side of the debate, I thought this was a good talk on raw milk. It’s long and far ranging but enjoyable.

August 29, 2013

Grazing update

Todays paddock on the right, yesterday’s on the left.

With the 90 degree days, the fescue has begun to peter out again, not a lot, just compared to how it did when it was 75 and rainy for a few months there. The good news is there is still plenty of it. Its supposed to be in the low 90s for the next 6 days so the Bermuda should have a chance for one last hurrah before fall weather sets in.

This is the last rotation in the front pasture and the last set of paddocks at 22 yards wide seems about perfect. 90% of the grass has been clipped of the first 1/3, 10% is uneaten and the best bites like certain types of grass and clover are mowed to the ground. The cows seem to be performing well and are carrying pretty good weight. There are still hints of red in some of their coats from the worms and some of them never slicked off. We aren’t in a position yet to cull again but soon it will be time to look at who hasn’t calves recently, who has a shaggy coat all year, and who can’t shake the worms even with treatment. Then it will be time to cull.

I think I am going to go ahead and now the rest of the dog fennel. The pastures look so much better with it knocked down. I will leave a small comparison area but not much of one.

August 28, 2013August 26, 2013

Pigs demanding food

If you’ve ever wondered what your mom means when she says you sound like a bunch of squealing pigs, now you know.

The pigs were most displeased that I had chosen to feed the adult pigs before I fed them. Every meal they act as if they have never had anything to eat and are starving to death.