It was another great weekend in the Rainy River District. The wind was a bit strong, but it really helped to dry things up. It is still sticky on top and where the animals congregate but over all not that bad. I will be happy when I can get my calves out of the corral this weekend. I think one week away from their moms isn’t enough to trust them to not run through fences to get back to them so I will wait another week. I ran all my calves through the chute and dewormed and boostered their vaccines. It went well and the sunny day made it that much more enjoyable. I decided to get the bulls in and process them as well and moved them over to their winter yard. I have been taking old hay to my cows at the back of the property on the power line hoping to change up some of the grass species by feeding them there. The cows are enjoying this weather. They don’t come rushing for the hay because they are still finding some grass around, but they are nosey enough to always come and see what I am up to. There have been a lot of wolves and coyote action around so that always concerns me but hopefully they are finding food other than my livestock.
At the Research Station we are nearing the end of seed processing. We have someone working on our combine currently as since we got it, we have had issues with starting. We tried replacing the battery and ended up purchasing a booster pack just so we could get it going. We also had the straw chopper removed so we will be able to do a better job of collecting straw data going forward. Once we have the combine work completed, we will put it away and get our remaining equipment inside. I am hoping that the weather will still allow the land work to be completed. I am still working on data. I have a pile on my desk to get through and likely one of the most complicated files to input is our Three Sister project! We have multiple notes, and they are maybe a little unorganized. This week is our provincial meeting regarding the barley, wheat and oat variety data and soon after that you will be able to access that data on gocrops.ca website.
I am hoping to head to Brandon on Thursday. We have two young producers taking animals to Ag Ex in Brandon and I want to go and cheer them on. Aaron Bujold is taking some of his best Herefords and Rustin Chartiers is taking some of their best Charolais. I am very excited and proud of both guys and their cattle. There are a few of us planning to attend and support them. We must get up early and make our way back to the Rainy River District on Saturday so we can attend and participate in the Abattoir Fundraising Dinner. The committee had a great evening planned with all kinds of fun games and ways to make it a great night out while supporting local food and community-owned abattoir!
