September 01 - Calves & more calves

The weather must be changing as the cows are all starting to calve at about one time. Some are early and some are right on time, some overdue. This morning we had three heifer calves born. A Summitcrest Scotch Cap out of our EXT/Tonto first calf heifer Tag# 319; a Finks 5522-6148 out of our Independence/Patriot fourteen year old Tag# 22A; and a VDAR New Trend 315 out of our Tonto/Briarhill JJ four year old Tag # 262. This afternoon we had an overdue embryo bull calf sired by Addison of Wye. He is straight Wye bred out of a daughter of Bolton of Wye from the Blackbird of Wye line with every female in his maternal line a Pathfinder. There are two more cows that are off by themselves and I would not be suprised if they came overnight.

September 03 - Greenchop Sudax

Cooler temperatures today. Started to greenchop the Sudax that was planted in late July. This has not been a good year for it. It supposedly takes hot and dryer Augusts better than most forages. We had a cool and damp August this year. It was definitely worth putting out and we will use it again. It looks and smells very palatable and the cows seem to love it.

September 06 - Nice Calves

We had another Finks 5522-6148 heifer last evening. She is out of my 14 year old foundation Sapphire cow by a bull known as "Extender", Columbus Adventure 2057. The second dam is by Ankonian Dynamo and the third, Contact of Wye. This is a super calf. The heifer by Summitcrest Scotch Cap 0B45 born on September 1st is really a meaty girl with a lot of style as well.

We had twin bull calves yesterday by PSA Rolling Thunder 448 as well. They weighed in at 72 lb. ea (32.6 Kg). Long goosey necks and good loin and rumps. Their dam by PSA MacPherson has plenty of milk to go around. This cow is part of a unit that was originally my cousins 4-H heifers and are kept at our Anderson Farm pastures.

September 08 - Customer Appreciation

We had beautiful weather yesterday for our Annual Customer Appreciation Picnic and Pasture Walk. The crowd was smaller than in past years, but everyone seemed to really enjoy the day. I don't think anyone went away hungry, or at least they shouldn't have.

We are preparing for the Miami Valley Angus Association carry-in Picnic & Field day this coming Sunday afternoon. It isn't too bad as we are pretty much set up for everything from yesterday.

September 12 - Damp & Cool

It has been damp & cool this week, about 10-15º cooler than usual, about 60-65º (17º C). We have a large flock of Canadian Geese taking up residence in the main pasture. The calves are enjoying chasing after them. Our regional Pioneer Seeds agronomist was on a radio program this past week and stated that we are probably about a month off on the corn and maybe 38 days off on soybeans around the area. She mentioned that some corn fields are just starting to dent. There are very few soybean fields even starting to show any yellow in the leaves as well. This is in contrast to a report on this mornings Ag-tv program that stated that some fields are coming off near Ames, Iowa already.

Had a Summitcrest Scotch Cap bull calf out of a first calf heifer by TC Foundation this morning. He really has some gumption. His mother is in super milk but I wish her teats were not so long. She is out of a Prompter daughter. I just don't like some of the little things that I see with TC Ranch breeding. Probably my dairy background showing through. I get picky about longevity traits in my cows.

September 16 - Making Hay/Field day

We are baling hay this afternoon. We have about 40 acres (16.2 hectare) ready to go. Half will be round baled with the other squared. It is really nice today weather wise. It is sunny with the temperature about 80º (26.6º C) and there is a nice breeze blowing.

We had a really nice crowd for the Miami Valley Angus Association Picnic and Field day this past Sunday Afternoon. Most of the people had to come an average of 110 miles (200 Km) which made the number that came more impressive. The weather was great, the steaks were super and I was as pleased as can be about how everything worked out. We are about as far North from the main heart of the Association as our membership gets. Most members live just North of Cincinnati with some as far South as Louisville, KY and quite a few in Eastern Indiana. It might be far to travel to some events for me, but it is home and the people are great.

September 19 - Picked corn

We picked corn yesterday. We were very suprised that it was so dry. We had a Terra brand 103 day variety out just for this purpose. It is black layered (mature) and under 30% moisture. We ground a batch for feed last evening and it ground and unloaded easily. The heifers went crazy after it. Ears are filled to ends and have good length and girth. Yield looks very decent for this maturity variety. The soybeans are really starting to turn yellow as well. The bulk of our corn is 112-114 day varieties and still in the 1/2 milk stage needing some more time.

Todays temperature is again about 80º (26.6º C). It is to drop tonight. Highs in the next few days expected to be only 50-55º (10º C), Lows into the upper 30ºs (3º C) New Calves are growing well and traveling together in a group in the top pasture.

September 25 - Everything at once

Last week was a very slow week and now this week I can't get anything done because of all of the visitors, clients, and projects that keep popping up. When you don't have a designated sale date you have to follow a basic rule. Every day becomes sale day and you need to stop what you are doing and take care of your visitors. I might complain a little, but I really enjoy showing off the cattle or my web designs. I wouldn't know what to do if we didn't have a steady stream of visitors through the week. I was, after all,able to find time to update this page.

It's been cooler but starting to warm up. We have a large field of clover down and hope to get to it on Saturday. I have to do some photography at a large eastern regional Santa Gertrudis Show & Sale, Satuday as well. It is really close by, at the fairgrounds in Sidney, Ohio just one county South, and the Gert breeders are a super bunch. Sorry to say, but they seem to have much more exciting stories and jokes than Angus breeders.

September 30 - Cattlemen building

I had a meeting today with the folks at the Ohio Cattlemens' Association/Ohio Beef Council at the new office near Marysville and Plain City. It is next door to the main Select Sires complex on Rt 42 and just off of Rt. 33 West of Columbus. I hadn't been there since it has been completed and I must say it is a fantastic building to host our industry! Everyone should take time to stop by and check it out. I joked that the small meeting room is larger than the main conference room at the old site. I also like the fact that it is a lot closer for me to drive to now, even if I don't make the number of visits that I did when I was a fieldman for the Angus Association.

We are starting to put together a web site for the Ohio Beef Council and eventually the Ohio Cattlemens Association. We want to provide a showcase for beef information for our consumers to start with and then move on to producer oriented information as the site grows.