Our Expo week has arrived! We have multiple tasks to accomplish this week before all our guests arrive. Some travel plans have already changed due to personal issues. This just means we have a bit more time to prepare. We are still tackling a few things on our list that we planned to have completed by the end of the day Friday, but the time ran out. We are hoping that cutting the grass could be off the list but with the wet, humid weather it is growing like crazy. Time has been spent in our plots to ensure that we don’t have off-type species in them. Our plots have been planted with more spacings because of the new combine. It will be great for combining but it also allows for more space for weeds to encroach. There is an herbicide that we use in the barley and wheat that cleans up both broadleaves and grass weeds but, in the oats, there is nothing that we can use to clean up grasses, so we have been running the whipper snipper in these plots. It is tricky as you don’t want to take out the crop!
At home we are still trying to make hay. We were very thankful to have things baled up on Friday night. Our plans were to still go cutting at least some on Saturday but before we got going the rain blew in. I knew it was going to rain but was hoping it wouldn’t be much. I don’t trust the weather stations with their prediction amounts and we had more than what my channel was predicting. 2024 has been a very frustrating year. Weather, disease and insect pressure have made it very challenging. Like we all suggested, we are paying the price for an easy winter.
Sunday night I was trying to get my grass cut since I was rained out on Saturday morning. I saw my cows had come up for salt, mineral and water. I went up to see how they were doing and noticed a cow missing. (I wouldn’t have noticed but a calf kept bawling off and on, so I looked for the cow.) I was off to find her but of course got stuck in a wet hole first. She wasn’t too far from home or really that sore, but her front foot was bothering her. I ended up treating her in the bush and by then the rest of the cows came to see what I was doing, and I treated another cow that had a sore eye. I don’t know if she had pink eye, or she had poked it. I also treated my old bull on Saturday because the bulls were fighting, and he obviously had the short end of the stick and hurt his back leg. I hope he recovers; bulls are very expensive right now.
I am trying to wrap my head around training some animals to take to the Fair. I really don’t know how I am going to fit that it. I have some sorted off but think I might change my mind. The last thing you want to do after working all day, haying for the evening is start fighting with animals. I guess when it rains, I can do it, but it is like my mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time.
The Musical Ride was a huge success last week at the Fair Grounds. It was a perfect night and attendance was awesome. Thanks to all who made this event happen!
Lucy Wilson celebrated her 65th birthday and retirement from Tompkins Hardware. Wishing her all the best. Ted Zimmerman celebrated his 70th.
Thinking of the family of Aaron Calder and the untimely loss. I must pinch myself when I get complaining about the weather as others are going through much tougher times.
Sure, hope I see you all this week at our North West International Ag Expo.
