Branding Time

[woodland]

Yesterday we had the quickest spring working of cows that we've ever had. Last summer we bought a portable tub, alley, squeeze system and I thought we should use it in the spring as well. It was bought for fall processing out on pasture without this intention but it worked great. Normally every bunch we do we switch the squeeze for the tipping table and that's a pain. This time we had enough people to have some branding and the others sorted and worked the cows after. Brought in the cows at 8:30 am and finished at 1 pm for lunch with 170 pairs. Usually it's 3-4 people all bloody day and you're beat at the end vs today with 8 people at a leisurely pace and nobody was wore out. It was kinda nice to have something go right after quite the frustrating spring so far. Part of the reason for the big crew was no one has started seeding since it's been too wet. Finished combining swathes today and the fun continues with 200 acres of flattened wheat next and hopefully seeding next week. Almost looking forward to the next bunch of 120 pairs next week....
Just waiting for the grass to grow now. Moisture is ideal but way too cold. Still need a toque in the morning and night here.

[woodland]

Got 230 pairs moved out today. Moved two miles and nice to see them grazing. Was fun moving them since the cows all ran out the gate and left us to herd the calves. We set up a pen out of freestanding panels in the pasture to allow everyone to pair up before releasing them. Worked slick. Just doing some fieldwork before the monsoon hits tomorrow. Calling for 1-3 inches and 60 mph winds. Definitely going to stall seeding for may.

[perfecho]

Nice to see....I have feed left over that I really want used up....so my poor girls are looking over the fence just dreaming....

[woodland]

Perfecho we still have bales we wanted to use up but we find things like scours and such really get ugly for us now. Last year we had fall rye that we turned them into may 1 and it worked slick. We weren't able to seed any last year due to the monsoon season. It's been so cool here the grass is half of what it should be considering it's got perfect moisture. Currently 4*, rain, and windy. If the sun ever shows up the grass should rub their bellys.

[perfecho]

Knock on wood...but scours haven't been a problem since calving on grass...their paddocks are about 15 acres with 30 cows on each.....other than the earlier snow storms, I really cant complain. It is tempting, but they have to finish up a bag of silage that was supposed to be spring grazing, but since we got the rains last spring, I didn't need it. Just trying to figure out if I should go corn for winter grazing or green feed....the $200 per acre scares me if the weather doesn't do-operate, but not having to cut and bale is tempting.....trying to make life real simple.

[woodland]

.....trying to make life real simple.

Total agreement....... and cost effective.

Our rye last year with yearlings on may 4

[sofa.king]

You guys may want to keep your hay to here in sask our grass looks real sick and getting worse everyday if we don't get rain soon I won't cut any tame hay maybe just some sloughs.