Blasted Kentucky Weather

Soggy Bottom Outdoors · Feb 21, 2015

Farmer2009, It's good to here from you. I have both a spring and a fall calving bunch to make better use of my bulls and rotate cows back and forth if the breed back late. My old cows haven't started yet but will about mid March. A heifer that has a calf and just walks off and leaves it upsets me a good bit. Weather wise, right now, everything is just wet and slushy. No wind to speak of, which is a blessing. Temp about 35 and raining.

farmer2009 · Feb 21, 2015

I hate to hear that about those heifers. I had a group once that stomped their calves to death at about 3-5 days old. Sometimes they can do odd things.
One of the people that has lost calves do the same as you. They have two herds.
I fall calf and dad spring calfs. We just split the cost of the bull. For better use. Good luck with the rest of season. It's 35 here now and and rain has stopped. We have a slushy snow on the ground makes getting around rough.

Ken · Feb 21, 2015

RSKY said:
Woke up at 4AM. Temp is 34 degrees. I looked out and it was sleeting with a few large snowflakes floating down. Fixed my coffee and looked out and it is absolutely pouring rain. Guess I'll wait a few minutes and see if it starts snowing again.

Did you fail to get the potato's planted on the 22nd
Having the same weather here and ground is soggy .

it was interesting to watch it sleet then rain and build up the ice thicker. today we are getting ice sickles from ice melting off the roof. But will take this instead of tornados we have had in the past several years.

RSKY · Feb 21, 2015

So far today it has rained, sleeted, snowed, then rained, sleeted, and snowed again. So much ice off the roof we had to shut down the little heat pump. I am ready for summer.

Talking about cattle.

When I was in my early teens we had somewhere between forty and sixty head. Mom and I had gone to town for the weekly grocery run. Dad was at work and intended to spend the night if the weather got bad. By the time we managed to get home it was a day about like today. Ice and snow in the ground and a freezing rain coming down. We hauled the groceries in and heard one cow bawling. All the cattle were crowded in the stables except for one. She was at the fence as close as she could get to the house. So out we went and Mom started talking to the biggest cow we had. It was one she had hand raised on a bucket. The cow let her scratch her ears for a second, then took off running as hard as she could. She stopped and turned back toward us and started bawling again. Over the fence we went. The cow would run away then about half way back to us and stand looking at us. She led us to the back of the farm to her newly born calf that was frozen solid. The cow would nuzzle the calf then look at Mom and make the most pitiful sounds. I guess she thought Mom could bring it back to life. I can't remember the details but Mom managed to get the huge cow back to the stables while I got the tractor and got rid of the calf. That is the only time I have seen a cow display what had to be emotions of grief, hope, and sorrow.

QRTRHRS · Feb 21, 2015

Wife and I picked up some supplies on Thursday for our elderly neighbor. When we got to her farm to drop them off we noticed alot of vultures and as we figured, the farmer who leases her land had one calf and lost it. Shame.

When I went to the barn to feed our (lucky but spoiled) horses this am, the first thing I noticed was water leaking in from the roofs on the side sheds that are on our barn. Both sides had a twelve foot deep by sixty foot long extention for more room but the pitch is only about 1 in 12. So, no coffee or breakfast yet I had to climb up and shovel both sides off before the weight caved everything in.

After changing my soaken wet clothes, eating, warming up and all, I had to run to the basement. While in the basement I happened to look at the drain for our outside basement stairs and the water was backing up but not yet in our finished basement. So, back to the barn for a pump. Got the water pumped out then got to thinking about it. Even with the cold temps the ground should have kept the drain from freezing so the outlet must be blocked. I really never knew where the outlet was in the one field but went out and found the wet spot. I dug around with my boot and found what I figured was the outlet then went for a shovel and cleaned it up. Come better weather I will get back to that issue.

Hot shower and a warm bed will feel good tonight, lol!