| April 03 - more calves, photo page updated |
| Our last spurt of calves for Spring of 1999 are hitting the ground a bit
earlier than expected with a really nice GAR Precision 1680 bull calf by a New trend 315
first calf heifer being born about 10 days early on the 29th of March and then a thick and
beefy GDAR Dutch 5226 bull calf out of the #329 cow by DHD Traveler 6807 being born
sometime during the early hours on the top lot this morning. We are expecting 10 more in
the next seven days. I updated the photo page with a few new pictures from around the farm as well. I am not meting my goal of new ones at each update yet but I will work on it. |
| April 04 - New Bull page |
| It is 32º F ( 0º C) today at 9am with a
little snow squall making everything white. It seems so strange to see the snow with the
pastures and yard so green and tall. I will be finishing overseeding a mix of Alice white
clover and our own medium red clover on the all pastures in the next few days.The Alice is
a large leafed variety with great performance and also really boosts the grass growth. I
believe in adding clovers to pastures to fertilize the grasses as opposed to using
straight nitrogen. I then fertilize the clovers with P&K and let them provide the N.
Clovers are better nitrogen and cows love it too. I put up a new page on the site today listing the herb sire offering and giving EPDs for weights, milk and carcass traits. This Bull EPD List will let everyone compare all the bulls traits on one page in addition to the individual pages for each page which also add pedigrees, photos and some additional info. As soon as I get the latest Ultrasound data back from the Association, I will be reporting it here as well as adding it to the bull pages. |
| April 06 - finally some heifers |
| It is extremely windy today but warmer.. about 52º F (
11º C) currently at 11am. We have had three calves in the past 12 hours and
my luck with getting bulls finally changed some. Last night our #302 Dr Spock cow had an
excellent heifer calf by GDAR Dutch in the North Top
Pasture for me. a few hours later the #329 Sleep Easy
first calf heifer from our Prompter cow delivered a small and lively GAR Precision 1680 heifer calf as well. The #329 is
probably the best bred heifer we had and has a tremendous udder and maintained a large
volume even after calving. My bull streak did come back this morning though as an early
hour walk of the pasture found the Tag #277, R&J Express daughter was nursing
her super thick bull calf by GDAR Dutch 5226. The grass is really growing like crazy and I am expecting to turn out early next week making this year one of the earliest for going to grass that I ever remember. Now if it will just keep raining for the rest of the Spring & Summer to keep everything this green. |
| April 13 - Lucy heifer |
| I am a really happy camper as the last embryo recipient for the Spring
was up on the top lot nursing a frisky heifer when I went to the barn early this morning.
This is a VDAR Vision 243 daughter from the famous
VDAR Lucy cow family. Her dam, VDAR Lucy 5156 is a tremendous daughter of a maternal
sister to VDAR Lucys Boy, but sired by New Trend 315 instead of the Traveler 1148 bull. We did the final batch of ultrasound work for the Spring today at Premier Ultrasound when we took 9 March & April yearling bulls to be scanned by Bonnie Bradford near St. Marys. Hopefully we will have the final results back from the American Angus Association on both groups soon. The backfat looked low with good marbling on the preliminary info that was sent off to Iowa for the official Association records. |
| April 15 - Pasture Grass in Spring time. |
| It is absolutely gorgeous here today 58º F ( 14.4º C)
currently at 9am and is to get up to 72º F ( 22.2º C)
and stay in the 70's the rest of the week. We turned the cattle out to grass yesterday
afternoon and it was so enjoyable to watch 110 tails go straight up over their backs as
the cows and calves frolicked and played in the Spring grass. I took the golf cart out for
a drive in the pasture at dusk last night and spoke with Rachel on the phone while
watching the calves roam around me. Fred Koenig of St.Marys took a golf cart tour of the cattle at daybreak this morning when he stopped by to pick up our tag #508 son of GDAR Dutch for use in his young herd. The golf cart is a 1964 Harley Davidson electric three wheel landscape model and is perfect for quiet drives with up to 4 people on board. The cattle are used to me weaving in and out among them as I usually check for heats three times throughout the day with it as well as using it for pasture tours. The only sound it makes is the hum of the tires and the low center of gravity allows for a great view of the cattle. I am already becoming severely addicted to bouncing through the pastures in this warm weather with it again. |
| April 24 - Warming, hoping for some dry. |
| Hope everyone had a pleasant Easter & Passover Sader. After a week of
chilly temperatures and lots of rain it has warmed to 64º F ( 17.7º C)
currently at 2pm today. The pasture is saturated from the showers and thunderstorms
leaving some ponding of water in the low areas. The calves are taking it all in stride and
loving every inch of pasture though. I will have to say that although the 216 Ltd calves are my favourites, the GDAR Dutch calves are really something to see. These Dutch
calves seem to put on 5 pounds everytime I turn my back and they are really so attractive
to look at. Dave Long of Kiata Farms telephoned me this weekend saying that his GDAR Dutch
calves |
| April 27 - Planting begins |
We began planting corn in earnest today. The fields were in excellent
condition with super tilth and we were able to put in 100 acres ( 40.47
hectare). We are 100% no-till  on our wheat and soy beans but still use reduced tillage on the corn due
to our including clovers and alfalfa in the rotation of crops here. It just fits our
program to rip the soil every few years and allows us to add manure and the clovers to
build up our fertility. I was able to grab some nice photos of the cattle with my digital
camera as I bopped the pasture this morning checking heats. I hope to add more to
the photo pages in the coming days. click the photos to see
larger images |
