Sidey Angus Farm Diary - April 1997

April 06 - Pastures finally reseeded

Dry, warm temps finally allowed us to strengthen the pastures with an overseeding of Huia, Pitau and Southern Cross White clovers. Also overseeded a mixture of Wana Orchardgrass, Wrangler Turf Fescue and Zero Nui Ryegrass in the #4, 5, & 6 pastures along with white clovers.

Winter Wheat has been top dressed with Ammonium Nitrate & Urea. A Red clover seeding was also applied to all of the Wheat fields in a separate pass.

April 10 - Lots & Barn Cleaned

It's Cold but dry! Hauled 14 loads of manure from dry cow lots and barn pens Tuesday. We have a 10 ton New Idea Spreader, so you know there was a lot of material. We were able to get it all turned over and the ground worked up yesterday morning. The last group of cows are all due in the upcoming week. Keep checking the calf page for updates, this is a big group and clustered together date wise! Main pasture (#1) will be able to receive cattle in the next week. Grass is strong and clover is coming along nice.

April 16 - Cows turned to Grass

Drizzling, warmer, very light rain! Turned cow herd to pasture #1 yesterday morning. A wet Winter took a toll on the creek bank and washed out a section of high tensile fence. We moved the entire section of fence to the South side of the creek to prevent cows from walking along the stream bank. This will prevent erosion caused by the cows hooves. We also entered 300 feet of ground around all of our creeks, rivers and streams into the new 10 year filter strip program with our local soil conservation district. We will be putting in a 300 foot grass and clover filter strip along all of these areas and take them out of general production. This looks to be a smart program, and should cut down on erosion, clean up sediment in the water and give more wildlife sanctuary. The program pay is good and its the right thing to do.

April 22 - Corn Planting in Full Swing

one tenth inch of rain last night, just perfect, enough to activate the herbicide but not keep us out of the fields today. Started planting corn last Saturday, putting in 60 acres. Planted another 60 acres yesterday (Monday). We No-till 100% of Wheat and Soybeans but mulch-till all of the Corn. The new John Deere 24 foot high residue field cultivator has been a wise purchase. We can now keep ahead of our 24' Deere cultipacker and cover about 16-17 acres an hour. The ground is working beautifully.

Newly seeded Grass is really starting to grow! The main pasture is also actually outpacing the cows. We will probably have to increase the number of head on it. A little warm weather sure does go a long way.

Hope to have a new page dedicated to our three Embryo Transplant daughters of JR Juice and Summitcrest Heiress 0R01 in the next day or so. I am only working after getting in from the fields at night so its a little slow. keep checking back.

April 24 - Finished Corn Planting

Finished up at 3:00 PM. We cut down on the amount of corn planted this year, only about 260 acres. We intend to increase soybeans to 460 acres. Probably will not start on them until May 1. We will start work on the new grass filter strips tomorrow.

Finished the new page dedicated to our Embryo Transplant daughters of JR Juice and Summitcrest Heiress 0R01. Just found out that 0R01 passed away this past Monday after having a natural heifer calf. The great ones always seem to pass on after leaving a replacement. She was fourteen in February.

April 28 - Finished Filter Strips, Sale Catalogs

Finished grass filter strips today. Had 2 tenths inch rain yesterday and the pastures and new grass seedings look great! Calves are really taking off. It is expected to be 70-74 degree F in the next few days. Since we drill our beans no-till we want the weeds to really start to grow before we burn them down and plant. Hopefully the warm weather will start the process.

Have been doing several sale catalogs for Spring sales these past weeks including the BBIF Genetic Merit Bull Sale with a new style layout that went over quite well. I also will now be offering the option of hosting agribusiness web sites as well as designing them. I had had a lot of interest expressed to me about this and just decided the time was right. Check the new rate card page for more information.

April 30 - Good Spring Cow Sales

This Spring has been very good for private treaty cow and heifer sales. We have been really knocking down the herd numbers, but my great grandfather always said to sell when the price is right. We have a fantastic group of replacement females in the pipeline so I don't think the lower inventory numbers will hurt too much at all. Our 6807 daughters in production are downright fantastic young cows. Very Beautiful udders and fat, growthy calves! I can really understand why he was so in demand as a semen sire! Both EXT and 315 have crossed Very well with his daughters. The bull inquiries are just starting to pick up as more cattle are going to grass.

We are finishing up a lot of the rebreeding for the Winter calves. I ordered more semen on EXT and 315. The Bon View EXT 473 calves are ok, but are not in the same class as those by his sire, the original EXT . Right now, I don't think we will be keeping any 473 calves as bulls. Maybe his daughters will be better.