Farm Update!

By popular demand.

So, the late summer heat and drought nearly killed the pasture season. The cows were in at night, being fed valuable winter feed. It was a low point. But then came hurricane Katrina, bringing rain to the northeast, and the pastures recovered to a surprising degree. I've been able to keep the cows out on pasture during the day, and should be able to continue doing so until the end of the month.
But it has been difficult to maintain production at a comfortable level due to the changing of the diet between hay and pasture. When it was so dry it looked as if good hay would be hard to find this winter. So I put a together a concentrate that included heavy amounts of high fiber by-product feeds such as citrus pulp and soy hulls, the idea being that these ingredients function more as a forage than a grain, thus stretching the hay supply. Turns out that very nice hay is readily available. So I am removing some of these high-fiber ingredients and replacing them with starches and sugars. I expect to see a production boost this weekend when I start the new concentrate.
Haven't had any babies born in a month, and we're still at 99 Jerseys on the farm. Bazooms, Java and Toot are due in a week. You may (might?) submit names for heifer calves anytime. Bull calves don't get a name. Blossom and Buffy are due in Novemeber.
I have purposefully not bred any cows or heifers for the last 5 weeks and won't until November 1 for a variety of reasons. One, to give us a vacation from calving next june and July. Two, to reduce our dependence on a successful pasture season (i.e., enough rain at the right time). Three, to take advantage of higher fall milk prices. We'll see how it works out.
We had some fun a couple of weeks ago when Mom and I went four-wheeling, she on my ATV and me on Jeremy's. We went down on the nature trail and up through the woods with Panda running along with us. You have not beheld beauty until you've seen Mom driving an ATV. What fun!