Every year SWMBO takes Cotton and has her shaved down for summer. After seeing her so shaggy and furry for so long it’s always a little shocking and quite funny to see the dog underneath all the fur.
Sabbath update
Everyone was quietly and peacefully grazing. Cotton was loyally at my side and I thought this would make a nice serene picture for the blog. A cool calm summer morning. As I pressed the camera button cotton took off and I ended up with an action shot of Cotton chasing calves which ended up with a calf almost jumping the hot wire to get back to mom. Almost because she didn’t quite make it and caught the wire (it was off) and drug it half way across the paddock. Sigh.
So Benjamin doesn’t like trees for some reason. All the other cows get excited for trees and like to eat the leaves. Big Ben has another reaction. It’s something I’ve never seen.
Yesterday’s paddock on the right, todays on the left. The clumps of grass you see left over are all clipped by the cows but not eaten down past the first grazing. That’s perfect.
The fescue is growing strong and the cows simply cannot keep up. This is good because its about time to sequester some pastures for winter grazing. The fescue should go dormant again with the last of this heat and then its time for the fall flush of growth. That should time nicely with this last rotation.
Yesterday’s paddock on the left, day before yesterday on the right.
The pastures are noticeable in how they look after the full treatment. The super long paddocks were hard to tell where the cows had been and where they had not. These smaller paddocks are much different before and after but still are not overgrazed. It looks like we have the paddock sizes dialed in for the amount of grass we have right now.
The new fence charger has a nice remote that let’s me turn the fence on and off from anywhere there is a hot wire. It also has a nice belt clip so I can carry it around. Well this morning the belt clip came unsnapped and unknowingly to me it dropped to the ground while I was working. I just happened to stumble across it by accident laying out in the pasture. That’s 150 dollars and the way I control the fence. Rule #1 of moving cows is don’t forget to turn the hot wire back on before you finish. Rule #2 is the remote stays in the locker on the gator, period.
The mobile waterer needs some TLC. When its on any kind of grade, water leaks out the top and it runs continuously. This sets the ground in a high traffic area so it ends up being pugged. It’s only for one day so its not really bad but it wastes water. Looks like its time to take it apart and adjust the float.
Calf 1. Cotton 0.
Cotton takes on one of the calves. And looses.