I was lucky enough to head off to the Dryden Fair on Friday with a great group of Rainy River District people and our cattle. We had three trailers and we were feeling so excited as we drove through Fort Frances making our way to the 502. The weather was hit and miss but we had a lot of fun and many laughs. The kids and cattle performed really well and many ribbons were brought home. The 4-H members in Dryden had a record breaking steer auction with one member nearly bringing home $20,000. It was amazing and I am thinking there are some pretty happy kids. Unfortunately one member didn’t have the fortune of selling in the auction. In Dryden they haul their steers to a farm to get weighed before bringing them into the Fair Grounds. For some reason the set up was poor and the scale was set up in the middle of the pasture and his steer got spooked and he got away. He crashed through many fences and they only found him on Sunday. He has himself really worked up so they are hoping that he will join a herd of cattle that are close by and they will be able to get him out of there. This member is hard working and dedicated so he is crushed. I had to head home on Saturday night to get unloaded and laundry caught up so I could head to Guelph on Sunday. It will be a quick trip but I am getting excited to be home for a stretch.
This is my last week with my summer students so I am already stressing about that. If the weather cooperates we could finish in a good spot but we will see how that goes. We did combine our barley trial last week and a smaller wheat trial. The barley seemed to be decent yielding but the wheat will not be setting any records. I then stress about that because I wonder if it is something that I am doing incorrectly or is it something that I am not doing properly on the combine. The hops are really slow this year. I don’t think they will be ready for a couple more weeks. We have some forages to work on as well but I don’t think time will permit this week with the girls planning to be finished work on Wednesday.
FINALLY, we finished our first cut of hay last week. That was a heck of a long season. We now have to work on some second cut small square bales. It is hard to get secondnd cut hay to dry these days with the cooler temperatures and shorter days.
We decided to cancel our Cattle Sale on September 6, the #’s just didn’t warrant running a sale. Please book your cattle for the scheduled sale on September 27, 2025, with Katie at 807-275-6273. The construction is near complete and the work of getting things back in place has begun. I haven’t seen the place for a bit but I understand it is looking top-notch. Check it out!
