Sidey Angus - July 1998 diary

July 01 - fair to pleasant

Kind of pleasant the past couple days. Temps at about 80° F (27° C) with nice breezes. Had a nice drive yesterday to deliver three bulls to breeders near South Vienna, Ohio and Walton, Kentucky. Not quite 500 miles (805 Km) for the total trip. It was drizzling a bit before 8am when I got to South Vienna but was absolutely gorgeous for the trip through Kentucky. I fell in love with the rolling pastures and white picket fences down there. Looked like straight out of a movie or oil painting yesterday.

We hope to begin combining Wheat in earnest later tomorrow. The sun and wind today should help us a lot. The alfalfa will be ready for second cutting within a week as well.

Congratulations to Lee, Keith, Clarence and the rest of the Van Dyke family. Their web site at http://www.vdar.com was selected as the Grand Prize winner in the Angus Journals web site contest this year. I was pleased to have been able to help them out with their site design and maintenance.

July 02 - suprise

We were suprised to say the least this afternoon as we started to harvest our hard red winter Wheat crop. I had felt that the yields would be down and the test weight very low due to the colder than normal and much damper weather this Spring and again in early summer as the heads were filling.

Our first 20 acre (8.1 hectare) field yielded in the 65 bu./acre (9.3 hectoliter per hectare) range and the test weight at the terminal was an even 60 and 15.5% moisture. Not too shabby at all for dryland Winter Wheat in this area. We were suprised but smiling greatly. I was very happy with the test weight. We have about 160 acres (64.75 hectare) to go. Now if the prices were just a bit higher. Make that a lot higher (he he). Tomorrow starts the straw baling. What fun! At least it is much cooler this week!

July 04 - Happy 4th! use caution :-)

Remember these two very important steps while celebrating today: (Step 1) Light fireworks. (Step 2) Throw fireworks.

So often we Americans get that last step screwed up, standing there admiring the fireworks while the darn thing detonates in our hand. Remember that two step process and you may just be lucky enough to end the day with all of your digits.

Have a great 4th of July!!!

July 06 - still damp

We had got an inch and a tenth (2.8 cm) of rain Saturday morning. The pasture was under water for a few hours and still has ponding in places today. We won't be able to finish the wheat for a while. The Test weight actually had risen to 61 and the yields are approaching 70 bu/acre (10 hectoliter per hectare). Wow. Problem is that it is almost not worth harvesting with the prices being so low.

It was an ok 4th here. Worked cattle in the morning and then unloaded straw into the barns. My niece and nephew were home and had friends over. They ranged from age 5 to 12 so it was noisy out by the pool. I watched "ID4" with them all since a lot of them had not seen it before. Big screams when the aliens attack and the boys all loved the U.S. fighters shooting down the mother ships at the end. Later I grabbed a novel and headed to bed as they headed out to the fireworks show.

July 13 - slow week

Had some problems with my HTML software last week so didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I have a software patch now and hope things will get back on track. It was bad as we were not able to work in the fields much and would have been prime design time. Made things very boring as a friend always tells me :-)

Did finish the Wheat on Saturday. Finally! Also baled about 500 more bales of straw and should be finished with that as well. The Wheat yields ranged from 53 to 71 bushel per acre (7.6 to 10.1 hectoliter per hectare) and averaged close to the 65 bu. (9.26 hectoliter per hectare) mark overall. This was very, very good for us. Of course I would lose my membership as an American farmer if I didn't complain how bad the prices for it is this year (he he). But it really is! We have a lot more yield and yet less total income than last year.

Want to try to bale second cutting alfalfa & red clover hay this week. It is ready and looks to yield very well again too. I'd like to be able to take off next week to visit the American Angus National Junior Show for a day or so to watch a couple friends show if I can make it work. It's fairly close by this year, being in Indianapolis, IN.

July 30 - Hay & Fair time

Have not had a lot to post in the past several weeks. I did hear of an interesting group of embryos and pregnancies that are now available out of SVF GDAR 216 LTD and Circle A Western Lady, (the champion heifer at Louisville and Denver). I will be trying to add that line of genetics to my cow families with this Falls breeding.

Did finish the second cutting of hay. About 1200 more square bales and another 100 more round bales these past two weeks will now leave us with a great inventory for Winter. The Alfalfa is coming back strong for a third cutting and the red clover that was overseeded in the wheat back in February is coming on very well to be made into stubble hay or green chopped this Fall.

I finished clipping my show string for our county fair today. We set up the stalls tomorrow and then take the cattle in on Sunday afternoon. I have eight head for the string this year. I can live with that as we usually have 15-17. I am trying to finish up web sites for the Ohio Cattlemen Assn. before I take off. The Ohio State Fair is coming fast as well.

Sidey Angus Farm Diary - July 1998