Yesterday I moved the cow and calf over to the big pen, but because hay and poop had accumulated up, the calf was able to walk right up into the manger, so we had to separate them back to the small pen yesterday. Today I went up to the farm and checked on the cows. Dad worked on mom's truck in the shop for a bit of the day. I fed the cows their hay and then I got the 584 started and brought it up to the house. I got hooked up to the manure spreader and pulled it out of the barn and brought it up to the farm. I parked it in the driveway and then I hung up hoses from yesterday that were lying in the barnyard. I used the 784 to move the sap wagon and a rack out of the way. Paige helped me get the cows out to the dirt area and we fenced them off with some panels. She and I began to take apart the other panels in the barnyard, and then I went and opened up barn doors for air circulation. We came home and made lunch and when dad came up, he brought with him a load of manure in the spreader. Later I went out and spreaded it on the garden here at the house. I drove it up to the farm and dad used the 784 tractor to load the spreader up. All together I would spread 3 loads on the garden and 3 on the field.
After we had it all cleaned out, we used two fence panels and strapped them together; one raised and one on the ground to make a "safe zone" for the calf. It is so if the calf feels overwhelmed by the other cows, it can get away and take a break without them. After we got that all strapped in, Paige and I threw down a bunch of straw and I spreaded it out in the pen. We brought over the cow and calf and had the gate closed so they could not go outside yet. While they got used to pen, dad, Paige, and I began to put the fence back together, so we could let the cows back up into the barnyard. After getting everything hooked back up, we let the cows into the barnyard. I brought the 584 and spreader up to the house and unhooked it in the barn and came back and put away the tractor. I opened the gate now and let the cows interact with the calf. I watched for a while to make sure they wouldn't do anything to hurt it or be mean. I put some fence panels across the barnyard separating the concrete from the dirt area. I am going to keep them off the dirt for a while because I don't want the calf to get stuck in the mud. I cleaned up the barn a little bit and then later my sister helped me walk through the field and spread out any huge clumps of poop that didn't disperse. Later at night I fed them and made sure everything was good. I went and fixed the fire with 44 pieces of wood which sounds like a lot, but the wood was only 20 inches long and split smaller than what we normally were burning. This is the wood we used to burn in our basement, and now we are using it up.
He is a cutie!
ReplyDelete