Calling the Cows...

One thing that I have really appreciated about the new perimeter fence is the ease of moving the cows to new grass. We are not yet to once a day rotations yet, but we are getting there as I figure out how much grass they need each day and how to handle them with the tall warm season grasses that we have right now. I'm trying to use the cows as part of my pasture renovation by getting them to eat down as much as I can before I come back in with the anthill buster and the brush hog (to get rid of all the bushes).

All that being said, one of my favorite things to do is call the cows to some new grass ... it always amazes me that they will come (even from the other side of the farm) and it surprises people when the see it. I can't say that I've done anything special to train my cows, so I just think it is in their genes (kind of joking there).

But, Saturday evening a they were in a far corner of a large open area and I wanted to get them into some fresh grass. I walked out into the field and started calling out, "Come on now cows!" Slowly but surely they started bawling out and starting to move towards me. I kept calling and walking towards the opening in the electric fence I wanted them to go to. Once the lead cows came over the hill and saw what was going on they took off running!

In a matter of minutes they were all in the new area and grazing away. I stood there for quite a while (with some friends) watching them fill their mouths with fresh grass and see the calves bound around and upset their mothers by walking under the fence to the good stuff (there is clover in the areas where I have mowed). I'm not saying that I know why it works to call them like I do ... I'm just saying it works and it is enjoyable!

(I'll try and get a picture up this afternoon or evening)

New Life

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Well, that is the case today because this picture tells it all. The first little Dexter calf was born on Stoneyfield farm sometime late Saturday night and everyone is doing wonderful.

When I went out to do chores Sunday morning before church I found all the cows up waiting for some water ... all the cows except for one that is. On Friday I had noticed that our newest cow (that came with the bull from Nebraska) was really starting to bag up and she looked like she would be calving soon. I'm glad to say that I was correct in my assumption, because I found them down in the valley just hanging out and enjoying some nice mother/son time.

If all went well last year we should be coming up on some more calves in the near future, but I sometimes wonder how many cows our previous bull settled. We will see for sure in the next month or two. Not exactly the schedule I wanted to keep, but we will get things back on track over time.

Tomorrow I'll share an update on the hog hut, and I bet I'll have some pig news soon as well!

I Fought the Mud...

...And I Won! Yesterday you might remember that the Expedition and the stock trailer were stuck in the mud. But, it was more than just that because inside the stock trailer were three new Dexters for Stoneyfield Farm. It was getting late and we were too far from where they were supposed to be to rig something up, so I just threw a bunch of hay in the trailer and bedded them down for the night. But, today I finally scored a point against the mud!

When I came home from work today I decided I was just going to try and get the truck and trailer on the gravel. I figured if I could do that I could figure something out. So, after a little slow going I was on firmish ground and I thought maybe I could make it to the pen if I took a run at it driving towards it instead of backing up to it. My plan worked and with the help of a cattle panel and a 16 foot gate all three of the new Dexters are in place.

So, you may be wondering why three new Dexters and why now? Well, we are going to need a bull this summer and if I have learned anything over the past couple of years I have learned that it is somewhat difficult to find a decent bull when you need one. So, when I saw this group for sale at a good price I jumped at the opportunity. I figured it was best to at least have something.

This was a package deal though, so I came home Monday (after about 7 hours of driving) with an almost three-year-old bull and cow along with their 7-month old heifer. While he isn't the greatest Dexter bull ever he is a decent looking bull and will work for our herd. The cow and the heifer also have added something to the herd.

I am beginning to think that I want to focus mostly on the dun or red cows mostly for heat resistance and the way they look. So, this summer (maybe after calving) I'm going to sell two black cows and keep these two dun cows. This will help with the money we just spent and will also bring us closer to the dun/red herd I'm looking for.

One more thing ... none of these three are registered yet. That means they don't have names! Do you have any good suggestions?

A Couple of Pictures...

Since our Dexter's were the first piece of the puzzle that we began putting together a few years ago I just wanted to take a second today and let you admire them! This whole thing, which is now Stoneyfield Farm, began because I had high cholesterol and we heard that grassfed beef was a good option. From there I began researching and came across Dexters (good forage converters) and we decided to take the plunge.

At that time taking the plunge included buying one bred heifer and a steer calf. It is also important to point out that at that exact moment we were living in town (a town that doesn't allow chickens) with no real prospect to move to the country, but we knew that it was the direction that we felt like we were being led so we jumped out on the limb. Now, as you can see from the picture above we have gone a little deeper into the Dexter world ... and that is only about 1/3rd of our herd!

Below is a picture of RAD's Victoria. She is the little heifer that started it all for us and I must admit that she is still one of my favorite cows (there is a dun heifer that is my favorite, you can check out a picture of her at my Epi-Log. Victoria also happens to be one of our most photogenic cows, thus the picture of her. I hope to get up some better pictures of Hershey this week, but you have to sneak up on him or he will be right beside you mooing!

Playing Farm...

"It looks like I'm playing farm again, just like when I was a kid ... except this time everything is way more expensive!"

That (or something like that) was my quote to my dad today as we gazed out across seven of our Dexter cows and our herd bull ... on our farm for the first time. What started out as, "We are just going to get a bred heifer and a steer and do a one year experiment", has in a short time (about a year and a half) become a herd that will take three trips to bring here and another trip to bring the equipment. Sometimes I sit back and think it is cool, other times I'm a bit amazed, and sometimes I think about admitting myself to the crazy house... But, all in all I'm very excited that we are beginning the big move and bringing our herd home.

Thanks to a lot of help from my dad we were able to put up the fence we needed (in used cattle panels and old posts that we got from Becca's uncle) earlier this week and then finish up a little today. On Tuesday we pounded posts into wet and mushy snow. Today we pounded a few more posts into dry and blowing snow, but thankfully the snow has acted as insulation and the ground was still very soft underneath.

It was nice watching them all come out of the trailer and check out their new digs ... even though they are a little small. It will be a good area to feed them over the winter and a nice sacrificial area that we can allow to get torn up a bit in all of the freezing and thawing of a Southern Iowa winter.

Now my son and I will have a few more chores to do in the morning, but I think he is just as excited as I am!

RED!

Dexters are either going to be black, dun, or red (in order from most common to least common). On our farm we have both black and dun and we absolutely love them... But, why not have all the colors? That is the question I asked myself when we got into Dexters, so even though I said that I was done buying cows I ended up getting a nice little red heifer this weekend. Her name is Grandma's Jasmine and she is from Grandma's Dexter Farm near Toddville, IA (north of Cedar Rapids). We picked her up on Saturday and she is already settling in to her new environment as the first Dexter on our new farm.

One of the reasons that we decided to purchase her is because our herd bull, Hershey, carries a red gene (he is dun). Now that we have a red heifer on the property we will have a chance to have some red calves most likely beginning in 2010. Of course I doubt we are going the seed-stock route, but is nice to see the various colors in the herd and if we did want to sell some heifers at some point we could have a nice variety ... maybe

Also, we were able to put a halter on her at Dan's farm so I plan on working with her this fall and training her to lead. Hopefully we can show her next summer at the ADCA annual meeting that will be in Fort Dodge, if nothing else it will give me an excuse to go out and mess with the cows a little bit more.

So... we have pigs, chickens, and now a Dexter on our new farm. This week we will begin moving in and need to be totally in by the 14th. After that fencing and preparing for the baby will be our priorities. Hopefully we can find time for it all!

Updates from Stoneyfield...

There have been a few developments around the Stoneyfield farm lately so I thought I would take a few moments in the middle of the week to update everyone.

• First of all is an exciting piece of news. I was hoping to make this a post of it's own, but with the snowy weather and busy happenings at work I don't know when I will able to dedicate some space and pictures to this little tidbit of good news (I eventually will make this it's own post). This past Sunday afternoon our first Dexter heifer, RAD's Victoria, had her first calf. And, it was a heifer! Victoria just went off by herself in the early afternoon and had her calf under a thick stand of cedar trees ... as it was snowing! It wasn't a perfect birth because my family did have to bring the calf inside to help her warm up and gain some strength, but after a short time inside they were able to take her back out to her mom (who was under cover by now) and she started nursing. Now a couple of days later the little girl is bouncing around and doing pretty well. As soon as I'm able to get down and take pictures I will post them for everyone to see.



• I mentioned in an earlier post about the current hay situation on the farm. If we continue to have a full cover of snow like we have now we will probably be able to make our hay last until the end of February. If the snow cover were to melt away we would probably be able to stretch it a little further. With the ground completely covered in deep snow our nine cows and four steers go through about four small square bales each day. But, if it is mostly open ground we can get by with between one or two bales. In fact yesterday (before the snow came) they only ate one bale. The good news in the whole deal is that we probably have hay available to buy from my uncle. He has some big round bales from this past summer or some year old square bales. We will probably go and check it out and get a little of both. Next year we plan on making three cuttings of hay if the weather allows so hay shouldn't be a problem.



• As I just wrote our first calf was born on Stoneyfield, but I think it won't be too long until the second calf comes along. The next cow we expect to calve is A.A. Mandy who is ten years old and dun. She is also breed to a dun bull so in the best case we would have a dun heifer born! Along with Mandy there is a chance that three other cows could cave later in the spring. We bought them as pasture exposed to a bull so hopefully they are bred. If all goes well the Stoneyfield herd will have five new faces in the pasture this summer.



• The last little bit of news is kind of something that I don't want to totally unveil at the moment. But, if you are inclined to pray we would appreciate your prayers for discernment and guidance!

Odds and Ends on the Farm...

We had to go to the farm today to do some odds and ends. As you can see from the pictures there isn't too much snow on the ground, but there was snow in the air while we were there. It is a blessing that the snow has melted off. Until the snow cover left we were having to feed four square bales a day to the Dexters, but now that they can graze a bit on the stockpiled forage we are down to one-and-a-half or two bales a day. Hopefully the Southern portion of the state will stay fairly free of the white stuff for the rest of winter.

While we were down there my dad and I discussed the idea of moving the steers out onto some tall fescue. We have probably 10-15 acres of fescue that hasn't been mowed since last winter so there is plenty sticking up above any snow that comes. By moving the four steers out there we could save a bit on hay which would mean that we may not have to buy in any ... or as much. Now, we just have to wait for a bit of a thaw so we can go put up a electric fence for them. In the future we are going to be stockpiling other areas of the farm with different grasses for winter use, but this is the first winter so we are really just starting to get the plans together.

One thing that I really wanted to do when we were down there is take a picture of our cow, Breagha. She was the only cow in our small herd that didn't have a picture up on the on-line pedigree site. If you haven't checked out our herd yet I encourage you to check out the link in the right column for the Stoneyfield herd. If you are interested in Dexters at all it is neat to read through the different pedigree's ... at least it is something I enjoy!

I must admit that every time I have a chance to spend some time working with the Dexters I become more and more impressed with them as a breed. They are just so easy to work with and so docile. Our herd doesn't really have any interaction with people now other than when they are feed hay in the morning and watered ... and that isn't exactly a personal touch kind of thing. Despite the lack of daily handling they are very calm when we are out there working amongst them and I can usually entice them to come up and eat hay out of my hand. I am looking forward to being able to have daily interaction with them and handling them more often. If you haven't already I encourage you to check out the Dexter breed!

An Afternoon of Work at Stoneyfield

Well, since our town decided that I shouldn't have five chickens on my property I decided to make a quick trip down to the farm yesterday. I had to dismantle the the nest boxes (buckets), grab the feed/oyster shell/grit, gather up the hens, and load everything up into the back of the Expedition. You can scroll down to yesterdays post to see a picture of the chickens new digs. They are just fine, but I don't think they will be as warm (and it is going to be very cold for the next couple days). Since I had a reason to go down I planned on doing a few other things that also needed to be done.

First of all I met my dad in town at the farm store to pick up 6 cattle panels to upgrade a little section of fence with the impending arrival of our bull, Hershey. The entire front lot (about 2 acres) is surrounded by cattle panels except for this one little section that just had the very old worn down woven wire/barbed wire fence. Considering our heifer Vicki can jump that fence at will we didn't want to see what would happen when there was a bull on one side and cows in heat on the other side! So, I dropped a bit of money and we headed to the farm (with a short interlude to pull the mailman out of the ditch).

At the farm I set up the new chicken pen (corner of a shed that had been used for puppies) and mixed up a bunch of feed for my dad. They should be good to go for awhile and I don't feel so bad about bringing the chickens down because at least they will get some eggs! In fact I think everyone (Dad, Stepmom, and brother) are excited about them ... except for my sister.

Despite the cold air and the wind it was pretty easy to put up the panels. In fact we were able to drive in a few t-posts with no problem. After we had the panels set up we set about cutting out the bull calves from the herd in order to wean them. Now, I have heard lots of great things about Dexters ... but, on Thursday I really experienced one. In the morning my dad put out the hay in a small pen we have in the corner of the front lot and then called the cows up (they do come when you call). They all walked in and started eating while my dad broke open the water tanks ... then, six of the girls must have received the memo because they just decided to walk out! So, when I showed up there were just three cows/heifers in there with the four boys. Showing our cattle sorting prowess we both walked into the little pen and I announced that I was going to sort the bull calves over to one side. Just as I said that the bull calves did exactly that! Dad opened the gate ... the girls walked out ... we were done and we were speechless!

This weekend is going to be very cold and while they have some good wind breaks out in the pasture the bull calves in the small pen for the time being had none. With that in mind we build a barricade of hay bales around one corner and put up some old panels around it to keep them from eating all of the hay. I think the boys will be as snug as a bug in a rug ... or at least as Dexters in a corner of hay.

It was nice to get out there and do some work that I had been meaning to do. It is just more difficult because it is such a long drive. After the afternoon of work and being informed that we couldn't keep our chickens we are all the more ready to make a move ... hopefully soon!

**I hope you enjoy the pictures of our cattle. From top to bottom: 1.) Ginger with her face all up in the camera; 2.) Vicki, who is staring to look very pregnant; 3.) Ginger looking longingly at her calf in the pen; 4.) The boys eating by their hay wall**

Winter at Stoneyfield

As I mentioned yesterday I needed to make a trip down to the farm yesterday to do a couple of things for my dad. I was more than excited to have a reason to go down, even if it meant getting behind on my work, because it had been so long since I had a chance to see the herd. As you can see from this picture there is plenty of snow in Southern Iowa right now and even though we had grass stockpiled it is under snow and ice at the moment. So, it seems they spend much of their time up in the front lot where we feed them and where they have water.

Speaking of water ... along with lots of snow it has been really cold lately and we don't have any tank heaters in the cattle pen. So, when I arrived the tanks were solid ice from top to bottom (guess you can't always trust the Amish to do your chores the way you would do them). I spent a while hacking out the ice with an axe, and constantly pushing my cows out of the way so I had room to swing the axe! They were rather friendly today and I was able to get my hands all over them. As you can see from the picture they were also rather thirsty.

The picture on the left is of one of our heifers, Billie of K&K. She came to us from the Anderson farm in Missouri and I think she is shaping up rather nicely under that heavy winter coat. This coming year she will be bred to our incoming herd sire, SGF SANT Hershey, who is also dun. Of course we are hoping that she will throw us a nice little dun heifer calf in 2009, but we will just have to wait and see!

Now, this last picture is ... well, it is of my confusion bull! I call him that because I'm just not sure what to do with this little guy. He is around six or seven months right now and is smaller than everyone else that is younger than him. Because of his lineage there is a possibility that he carries the chondrodysplasia gene, which isn't the best thing if you would like to use him as a sie. So, he will probably end up in someone's freezer. Unless... someone has some non-carrier cows and they would like to use him to bring down their size? I think he has a good look to him for his size and age, but he is just so darn small. Either way, I'm not sure he will be ready to finish next fall!

So, there are some shots of the Stoneyfield herd in the snow. I was very pleased with the way the are looking this winter and I can't wait to see them in the coming spring!

Make sure you check out the blog on Monday because I'm having another farmer question and answer series...