Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

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Thursday, April 17. 2008

Beat Up

For the past couple of days I have had the joy of sitting on a tractor renovating the alfalfa. I think I would feel better if My Darling Wife beat me with a stick. I don't know what it is about farming but it cripples me up ever time I have to sit on a tractor for a long time. I could barely walk last night. How farmers sit on tractors for days on end is beyond me. I still have about a half day to go to finish the job but I'm not doing it today. I think I will move some cows around instead. Anything to get away from the damn tractor.

One lady wrote me and told me how she wants to see me get beat up and near death and that kind of stuff. George Eads
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Sarpy Sam
in The Ranch at 06:20 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Friday, September 14. 2007

Wheat

I have been following the price of wheat with interest noticing that it has been shooting up and now I see a story in the Gazette about it. Nine dollars a bushel for wheat. That's a lot of money. Is it enough? That I'm not to sure about.

My dad raised wheat for a lot of years out here and he would be real excited to see these kinds of prices. The prices have been so low lately i got out of wheat and even with these prices i am not tempted to get back into it. Hell, the cost of the equipment itself to try to get back into it efficiently would preclude me from doing it let alone trying to get the fields ready.

All the fields my dad farmed were leased. I tried to come to arrangements with the owners about planting the fields down to grass or something but they never would let me so all they are now is weed patches that haven'
t been tilled or taken care of in years. In fact, I have leases on all of them again but as grazing leases for a lot less money than farm leases are worth. The cows really seem to enjoy the weed patches and it gives me extra grazing which is always useful.

The owners of one of the chunks have been shopping it around trying to find someone, anyone willing to farm it and pay farm ground rates for it. They have been unsuccessful. One guy contacted me about it but when I told him the state the land was in with weeds and all he was not interested.

Some of the ground I just finished planting down to grass could be suitable for wheat but I don't want to go there. I've heard more than one guy recently talking about plowing up hay ground or other ground they have to plant wheat with prices the way they are. I personally bet by this time next year wheat prices will be under 5 dollars per bushel. It is way to easy for people to switch to wheat production from other crops they might have and to really grow a bumper crop. I think that is what is going to happen.

Here in Montana, for instances, there has been a lot of growers trying different things like canola or peas, trying to make money while wheat was cheap. Now that wheat has spiked up I bet that the majority of those producers that have been trying alternative crops jump back into wheat because of the price spike. These kinds of decisions are going to be happening all over the US and the world so wheat prices will be driven back down fairly quickly. This is what happened in the early 70's and its what is going to happen now, at least in my opinion.

The present price isn't high enough for it to be worth it to me to get in. Kudos though to those guys who are still growing wheat and reaping the prices. They deserve it. They have been struggling with low prices for a lot of years and deserve this spike in price to help them out. I don't think it will be as high next year but it will be interesting to see.

On a grassroots level we say that man can touch more than he can grasp. Gabriel Marcel
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Sarpy Sam
in Agriculture at 06:58 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)
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Saturday, May 5. 2007

Timing

Timing seems to be everything in life but sometimes you can't take the credit for it. It finally got dry enough that I was able to get all my renovating and farming done. I finished putting the seed in the ground on Wednesday afternoon and finish up the farming I was really pushing on. Guess what happened then? On Thursday afternoon and evening we got one inch of rain. Talk about a great deal. This almost guarantees that I will get a stand.

I planted a mixture of Alfalfa, Crested wheatgrass, Pubescent wheatgrass and Intermediate wheatgrass. I'm hoping the grasses in the mixture will help the hay stand last longer and outgrow the bindweed in the field. I've some indication from other plantings that I have done that the grass helps shade out the bindweed and keeps it from growing as much so it's worth a try. Bindweed will really kill straight alfalfa so I had to try something different in this field.

They, the National Weather Service, is talking about another inch of rain over the next 36 hours. I won't complain too much. With the farming caught up I am looking fairly good. Plenty of work to do but I can wait the rain out. All I know is I couldn't have managed my farming any better if I tried. Hell, if I would have tried to manage it better I would have screwed it up I'm sure. I guess Mother Nature is on my side on a rare occasion.

Life is about timing. Carl Lewis
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in The Ranch at 06:34 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Monday, April 30. 2007

Farming

I know posting has been lacking here of late but I have been fairly busy and not had much time to post. I finally got all the cattle where I wanted them this week and got some farming done.

I finished the renovating Saturday, covered almost 800 acres in 4 days, and am now working on the field I want to plant. Should finish getting seed in the ground, 120 acres, by Wednesday at the latest. I have hated putting some of the cow work on the back burner to finish this farming but long term, the farming is just as important and needs done. Hell, if the cattle want something other than a snowball to eat next winter it's vital to get done.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I have hired a new guy to work here and he should be coming in later in the week to start. It's so hard telling if a guy is worth it but what am I to do? I need a hand so I hired him. He has a large number of kids and the bunkhouse is a little small for the family but he says that it is just fine with him. Normally in a situation like this with a wife and kids, its the wife that doesn't like it out here and they leave because of that in the long run. We will see.

As soon as I get the farming done I have to get ready to brand all the calves I turned out. Not a lot of work to do but I will stay very busy. I won't say I am behind this spring but I am just on the edge of slipping behind on my work. Going like mad I am able stay on top but the extra hands will sure help start pulling it ahead around here.

One last thought, why is it that when some people are behind on their work, all they can do is stand around and complain how they are behind instead of trying to fix the problem? If they would just get busy and do something maybe they would catch up. I know its not easy to do, but a little initiative goes a long way to getting things done instead of whining about the problems all the time. I just can't figure people sometimes.

Never complain and never explain. Benjamin Disraeli
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in The Ranch at 06:32 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
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Wednesday, April 25. 2007

When it Rains, It Pours

On Monday we got over an inch of rain. Last year I would have given anything for moisture, so far this spring I am getting more than enough. I rode across my plowed field that I want to seed to grass and my horse was sinking in about a foot and there was water standing in the field. You never see water standing in a plowed field around here. When I will get the seeding done is beyond me.

I've about got the cows straightened out finally. All the cows with calves hopefully will be in the hills after today and everything without a calf, at this point I call them all drys but it is not true, will be in a separate pasture gaining weight so I can sell them. Some of the "drys" will still calve yet and make the cut to stay on the place but it is nice to get them sorted out. Between the dry year last year and the late snow storm I have more critters in the "dry" pasture than I would like. That means fewer calves to sell come fall especially since I will have to keep more replacement heifers to try to build my herd up.

If it isn't one thing it is another. Damn the luck.

Most of us regard good luck as our right, and bad luck as a betrayal of that right. William Feather
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in The Ranch at 06:44 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)
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Friday, August 18. 2006

Combine



An old combine my Grandpa used many, many moons ago. He always said the thing he missed most when he bought the place in Livingston was the farming. Sounds pretty nutty to me. I don't like the farming. Taken 8/14/2006.
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in Pictures at 07:01 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)
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Wednesday, June 28. 2006

Another Time



Another piece of old equipment that sits over at the Williams Place. I am not sure what it is. maybe somebody could tell me. Taken 6/12/2006.
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in Pictures at 07:32 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)
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Monday, June 5. 2006

New Baler



The new baler arrived the other day. Boy is it a massive and complicated piece of machinery. I've spent two days setting it up and getting myself familiar with how it works. The dealer is supposed to send somebody out to help get it running when some hay is ready to bale. I have everything set up to hook up the computer system that comes with it but I decided to let the dealer's man do that. If he blows it up, the dealer can pay for it then, not me. It will be interesting learning how to run this monster. Taken 6/2/2006.
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in The Ranch at 07:32 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)
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Thursday, April 27. 2006

Busy, Busy

Busy, Busy, Busy. Busy getting spring work done. It's finally getting dry enough to farm a little so I am trying to get some of that done. I might have been able to get some done earlier but everything I want to plant this year, around 200 acres, has alfalfa with it and you want to wait when planting it until the chances of frost are a little lower. Don't get me wrong, we can have frost into the first part of June but it's getting late enough now to chance it.

There are other things to do besides farming though. Tuesday we gathered up a few more pairs to take up to where the two-year olds are so we can brand "the little bunch" today.

Getting a few more pairs to take up to where the Two-year olds are at so we have enough to brand there. Taken 4/25/2006.


After we were done moving the cattle I jumped in the tractor and got some farming done. Normally I would have had the hired man do this but with him leaving there is no need to spend the time teaching him how to farm only to see him leave in a few days. Easier to do it myself and get it done. I hate sitting in the tractor farming but it needs done.

Yesterday I thought I could get a big day of farming in and finish getting the fields ready to plant. No such luck. Out checking water in the morning and a bunch of the drys are out in the wrong pasture wandering around. Everything that didn't have a calf on it when I finished kicking pairs out I put in a different pasture to sell later. Since I don't preg check there are drys in there along with stuff that has lost a calf and a very few left to calve. A bunch of these were in the wrong pasture and there was no water there so a good part of my day was shot getting them back in.

Getting the drys back in from their unauthorized excursion. It always shoots my plans to hell when critters decide to go exploring and need to be gathered back up. Taken 4/26/2006.


I still got some farming done but not what I wanted to get done. I hate it when my plans get shot. Today is the little branding. Just a couple of neighbors to help and get some branded. No big deal. I'm more worried about getting the farming done. On to that tomorrow. I will try to get a picture or two of branding today. No promises though.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. Thomas A. Edison
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in The Ranch at 06:41 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)
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Tuesday, April 11. 2006

To The Hills



It's that time of year again. Feeding is over and the cows get to go into the hills. Yesterday we took the two-year old heifers out to the hills. It was a long, tiring trek, 8 miles or so, for them. I didn't know if we were going to get them the last mile or so but we won in the long run. I have them in a little pasture we will brand them out of come the end of the month before we kick them out into their summer pasture.

Today we will start mothering up and kicking the cows out. It's a little easier with them since we only have to gather some to the corner, mother them up, and kick them out the gate. They know where water is at so we don't have to take them to it or worry about them once their out. We will work at the cows a couple of days and then wait a day or two while they scatter out in the new pasture before we kick anymore out. If everything goes well we should have them all out by this time next week and off the fields. Then it's time to start farming.

Oh how I hate farming. It's one of those necessary evils though that it's time to do.

The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. Robert M. Pirsig
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in The Ranch at 06:38 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)
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(Page 1 of 1, totaling 10 entries)

Random Photo from The Gallery

I got the tank installed at the new well I drilled. It's a 25 foot steel tank with a cement bottom in it. It supposed to hold 6000 gallons of water. I can remember as a little boy my dad having trouble with water at this place and to this day water is a fight here. It shouldn't be a problem any longer with this monster tank and a new well here. The problem should be solved. Taken 6/21/2006.
I got the tank installed at the new well I drilled. It's a 25 foot steel tank with a cement bottom in it. It supposed to hold 6000 gallons of water. I can remember as a little boy my dad having trouble with water at this place and to this day water is a fight here. It shouldn't be a problem any longer with this monster tank and a new well here. The problem should be solved. Taken 6/21/2006.
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