My how time flies when we’re having fun! Seems like just a few weeks ago (was it really May?) my sister and I raised a little horse barn on the knoll behind the Big Pond, and here it is the end of August already, with days getting short and the list of projects to complete before the seasons turn again getting longer.
Yes, the horses made it here, and they are wonderful. They are getting along just fine in their new little herd and eating like elephants, like starving, ravenous elephants. I am already planning to set up another auxiliary paddock to add a week’s recovery to their grazing rotation schedule. My goodness.
We’ve had plenty of rain, so the pastures have grown well following the cowherd’s grazing. I failed to document specific paddock rotation dates so I’ve quite lost track of how many times we’ve been around the pastures. Seems like at least 4 times already. (Seriously, I do keep track. Four times at about 45 day intervals, starting beginning of May, although some sections got skipped.) Judging by how everything is recovering, we might make it all the way around twice again before the sward goes dormant. I’d like to say I’m seeing radical improvement after all the fertilization and hoof impact. Hesitant to call it that since I’ve never seen these pastures grow through a season, much less grazed, but I am pleased by the density and vigor of what springs back up following a paddock shift.
The closest alligator to the boat these days is getting the cows bred. Sans a bull, that means AI, and we are closing in on pulling the trigger on the very first Bear and Thistle fertility clinic – a wee bit later than I’d have liked, but I’d rather get it done right and be a little late than dork the whole evolution up completely.
It’s worth an entire blog post to describe the strategy I’ve undertaken, but here’s the very very short version: 1) find an AI technician (check), 2) get quality semen shipped (check), 3) upgrade corral area to add adjacent working alleys, squeeze chute, palpation cage, and crowd pen (nearly done, check), and 4) procure the meds and assorted materials required to undertake a forced fertility regimen, to trigger estrus on all 10 candidates at the same time (check).
Wish me luck. The AI guy is an old hand at this, and I’ve got my vet’s ear for any technical assistance needed. I hope to start the 7-day protocol no later than Thursday, which means we’ll be inserting semen on the 5th of September; so if all goes well we should have calves hitting green grass mid-June next year. I’d have rather have had them born end of May, but I’m not going to beat myself up about getting two weeks behind. Mid June is just fine, and we can edge the dates up each year until we hit the mark, so it’s all good.
After we get the cow herd bred, focus shifts to laying in hay for both horses and cattle. Then there’s the Fall frost seeding for all pastures, along with the 1.6 acre finishing pasture that has been cultivated clean all summer and will get sown to a high-sugar grass/clover mix for the slaughter beeves’ last 4 weeks. Yum.
And now the garden is covering me with produce that needs to be put up, though I’m not complaining! Was supposed to make pickles, can green beans, and roast tomatoes tonight, but only got the tomatoes roasted. Wish there were more hours in the day…
Thistledog's Farm 