Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Well, the calves are sold. I heard a couple of weeks ago that the guy that bought my calves the last two years, was out buying calves. I called up his representative and wanted to know if they were interested in the calves this year. He said they were but just hadn't got around to calling me yet. I priced them out to them higher than the market was, you have to give yourself negotiating room. They got back to me and said that the price was a little high and that while they might have to pay it in the end, they were going to wait for now, but let them know if anybody else come around showing interest. Fine, I know they wanted the calves but were just playing coy.

A couple of nights ago the representative for the guy that bought my calves 3 years ago called and was interested in the calves. I gave him the same price as the first guys and told him, "I have the calves priced out to another guy at the same price I just gave you. Whoever comes up with the money first, gets them." He said fair enough.

I called the first guy and told him somebody else was interested and whoever come up with the money first, got them. Well, the guy that bought them the last two years came up with the money so he bought them.

Details. I always get upset at guys that complain that the packers don't reveal the prices they pay for cattle and that they need to report the price so that the market is open, but won't tell you what they got for thier calves. That's hypocritical. So the details.

I sold over two big loads of steer calves, bawling off the cow with no pre-conditioning weighing 550 lbs for $1.25 per pound with a 8 cent slide both ways. I sold over 1 load of heifer calves, bawling off the cow with no pre-conditioning weighing 520 lbs $1.19 per pound with a 8 cent slide both ways. Deliver is on or before Oct. 4th.

From my studies this is top of the market for calves like this with no pre-conditioning from this area so I am happy. With the price of fuel and insurance so damned high I wish it was more but it's a good price. Now I'm looking forward to shipping.

The market controls everything, but the market has no heart. Anita Roddick

The heifer calves being brand inspected as they come off the scale. They were really spooked by it for some reason where the steers were a lot calmer. Taken 9/29/2006.

Boy, the calf weights sure showed it was dry this summer. The steers averaged 527 lbs. and the heifers averaged 478 lbs. Quite a bit under what I had contracted for. That's the breaks and it's what happens in a dry year. I could whine and cry about it or accept it and go on and hope for a better year next year. You do relize it's Next Year Country around here, it will be better Next Year.

Hopefully, next year if we can get everything sorted out and together. Melanie Brown

No, nothing to do with the cattle. They are looking great. I am all ready to ship and looking forward to getting the job done.

No, the problem is the company that hosts this website is having quite a few problems and they are screwing me all up. I called in right away yesterday morning when I couldn't access the site. They started by telling me it was my problem and not theirs. I politely pointed out that the problem was root@localhost could not connect to the database and that made it their problem since the root account is theirs. The guy I was talking to was not very happy with this and told me their was nothing he could do about the situation and he would have to send it to the tier 2 team for resolution.

I asked him how long that would take. Two to three days. I got a little upset at that but told My Darling Wife that they would figure it out before then since this problem would be affecting everyone on the host so they would do something about it pretty quick. It was kind of working by the time I got home so we will see. I am looking into self hosting the site if I can work out a deal for a land based hi speed Internet line. At least that way I will be in control of my own destiny. We will see.

Preparations for shipping took up the bulk of yesterday. All the big stuff was done it was just a matter of the little odds and ends that were left. The weather is supposed to be very warm and dry. It's funny, two weeks ago I was worrying about the dust in the corral and now after all the rain I am worried about the mud in the corral. What a change.

The steer calves were contracted at 575 pounds. I am anxious to see what they will weigh. I don't think they will be that high but they will be close. The Vet thinks they will make weight. I will know this evening.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. John F. Kennedy

Unbelievable. It doesn't rain all summer and now it seems like it can't stop. When I went to bed last night we had 3/4" of rain and it rained most of the night so I don't know how much we had. I know it's getting ridiculous though. I noted last evening that the water is running off instead of soaking in. The ground at this time is so saturated it can't handle anymore.

I have been noticing some of the cool season grasses are starting to green up. A little warm, sunny weather and the green will really start showing up. I just wonder if it will get warm again. What a change.

I am also beginning to get worried about shipping on Friday. Right now the forecast looks......okay, but the have some warnings in it.

HOWEVER THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT NEED TO BE WATCHED. 12Z
ECMWF/GFS RUNS EACH SHOW THE UPPER FLOW REMAINING A BIT MORE
AMPLIFIED AND KEEP THE RIDGE AXIS A BIT FURTHER WEST...AND THIS
COULD POTENTIALLY LEAVE US PRONE TO ADDITIONAL BACKDOOR FRONTING
BY FRIDAY. A POTENTIAL PLAYER IN OUR WEATHER APPEARS TO BE WHAT IS
NOW TYPHOON YAGI OFF OF THE SOUTHEAST COAST OF JAPAN...AS THIS
WILL TRACK TOWARD THE BERING SEA AND GULF OF ALASKA OVER THE NEXT
SEVERAL DAYS. IF THIS FEATURE AIDS IN AMPLIFYING THE RIDGE FURTHER
WEST OVER THE EASTERN PACIFIC...WHICH IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE...THAT
WOULD POTENTIALLY LEAVE US IN A COOLER NORTHWEST FLOW FOR DAYS 6
AND 7. WITH SUCH UNCERTAINTY IN HOW WELL THE MODELS WILL HANDLE
YAGI SEE NO REASON TO STRAY FROM GUIDANCE/ENSEMBLE MEAN TEMPS
WHICH ARE NEAR CLIMATOLOGY. DRY FORECAST STILL LOOKS GOOD FOR NOW.

So, of the many things I can worry about for shipping, I get to worry about Typhoon Yagi and how it will affect the weather here come about Friday. If it isn't one thing, it's another.

We've been going like mad gathering cattle and getting ready for shipping. We had the fences and corrals and stuff ready but getting the cattle in and sorted takes a while. So, here I am at one of my busiest times of the year and what do I receive in the mail? A summons to report for jury duty on Tuesday.

Where I am at you are called for jury duty for a whole year and then they summon you when they need a jury for a trial. For the past three years I have been called for jury duty for one court or another. It's usually not a big deal that I am on jury duty since it is very rare they call.

I received the summons and just shook my head. The only thing I could do was request to be dismissed. That meant of course a fast run into town yesterday afternoon to sign an affidavit requesting to be let out of this trial and the reason why. I wasn't too concerned, I figured the Judge would let me off since shipping was so close and sure enough, by the time I got home the clerk of court had called and informed me the Judge had approved my request to not be there. I was relieved.

In the previous two years that I have had jury duty I was called one other time for a trail. Two years ago I was called. Guess when I was supposed to report for the trial? You got it, a few days before I was going to ship cattle. I got out of it that time too for the same reason. Quite a coincidence if you ask me.

Otherwise getting the cattle in and getting ready to ship is going good. Today we will move all the cattle from the upper fields to the lower alfalfa fields so we can start sexing the calves. It really helps the day of shipping if we all ready have the calves sorted into steer and heifer bunches so for the next few days we will be busy doing that.

One note of consequence, we had to doctor a calf two days ago. Just a general respiratory problem that you see this time of year but very odd for me to have to do. It's rare I have to doctor anything so I'm concerned. I have noticed while the storm was nice for moisture, it sure knocked the cattle down. Going from nice warm temperatures to 3 days of very cold rain really caused them to take a hit. My weaning weights will be down a little from it but I think the loss is well worth the good the rain is going to do. It sure seems like nothing good can ever happen without something bad happening also. Oh well, that's the way things work.

When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. Norm Crosby

Not much going on around here. Watching the calves grow fatter every day. We spent the last couple of days getting the corral ready for shipping. Don't have a firm shipping date yet, but the corral is now ready. I am still working at confirming the 29th of this month as shipping. The vet/brand inspector can't make it that day I found out yesterday. He said he could come the afternoon before and give us the health papers so that's the way it will have to be. I will have to round up a different brand inspector though. I will check with the local guy and see if he is free.

In his spare time the hire hand is looking at all the fences down in the area where we ship from. He is really going through a lot of steel posts and fence staples so it appears he is doing a thorough job. He kind of moves at a slower pace than I am used to but he seems to get the job done so that works out really well.

Like I said, pretty slow around here at the moment. I was in town yesterday getting my filling replaced in my teeth and everybody I met and talked to said what a nice day it was. I told them all, "It would be a nice day if rain was pouring from the sky. We've had enough of this warm dry weather, rain would be nice." They really didn't know what to say to me after that and changed the track of the conversation. City folk just don't understand I guess.

I do not understand! I understand nothing! I cannot understand nor do I want to understand! I want to believe! To Believe! Jean-Paul Sartre

Well that little dirty job is done. We worked the yearling replacement heifers and had the vet preg check them. Right at ninety percent of the replacements were pregnant. Some people would consider that a little low for yearling replacement heifers but for the way I raise and run them I am happy. It turned out just like I thought it should. Ninety six replacements to calve out come spring. That's too many if it don't get to raining but the weather is a little goofy so I will just have to wait and see.

The ones that were dry plus the bunch of older cows I had cut off are going to market this week sometime. Three trailer loads worth. What a pain, there are too few to justify the expense of a semi but to get them all up to market in good order will take two days of driving back and forth. I'm not looking forward to it.

The new hired hand appears to know his way around a cow at least. I expected as much but it's nice to see confirmation of it.

I need to talk to the buyer but I am leaning towards shipping on the 29th of September. That way my oldest can help me work cows afterwords on the weekend. [sarcasm]She is so thrilled at the prospect[/sarcasm].

It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand him until you have learnt how he understands himself. F. H. Bradley