Lip-Smacking Good

It is no longer politically-correct for restaurants to call their food, "Finger-licking good!" (Sorry KFC.) Honestly, when I did a Google search, I learned that the old KFC ad campaign was revised in 2011 - not as a response to Covid-19. That was when the fast food chain decided it was time the slogan kicked the proverbial red and white bucket. The phrase's greasy connotations didn't gel with a healthy makeover KFC was undergoing, and it was dumped for the virtuous “so good."

Bovines are unable to anatomically perform "finger-licking" anyway. So maybe Purina's Range Cattle Mineral is lip-smacking good - at least, if you ask the consumers on The County Line. 

 I went along for the ride as Randy made the latest to-go deliveries to the cows.

 He refilled mineral tubs at all the cattle's locations.

It doesn't look that appetizing to we mere humans. But, evidently, it's gourmet fare among the bovine set.

It didn't take long for the cattle to congregate at the refilled "salad bar."

Beef cattle require a number of minerals for optimal growth and reproduction. Just like some humans supplement their diets with additional vitamins and minerals, we offer a mix that includes calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and several other additives.

At this point, our cows are still getting silage and hay for feed. Early next month, they'll be going to summer pastures. But until that time, we provide the additional nutrition that the bagged supplement can provide.

They could be the spokes-ladies for a Purina campaign.

Minerals are important building blocks of functional life. When the body in question is a 1,200-pound beef cow whose purpose is to produce income, she may need supplemental minerals during several crucial periods throughout the year. Proper mineral and vitamin nutrition contributes to strong immune systems, reproductive performance, and calf weight gain. Diets with mineral imbalances may cause poor animal performance, resulting in reduced profitability.

 Here are just some of the reasons we supplement with minerals:

• Calcium and phosphorus are the major mineral components of the skeleton. Long-term deficiencies of either can cause bones to weaken and even break. In addition, a decrease in one or both can reduce the amount of milk produced by a lactating mother. A phosphorus deficiency can delay puberty in heifers and can delay mature beef cows from returning to heat. Cattle also need correct amounts of calcium for the nervous and muscular systems to function properly.
• Sodium and chlorine (salt) provide for the proper function of the nervous and muscular systems. They help regulate body pH and the amount of water retained in the body.  
• Magnesium is essential for proper enzyme and nervous system function and for efficient carbohydrate metabolism. A magnesium deficiency is uncommon except for cows grazing lush-growth fescue or small grain pastures during the late winter and early spring, which may cause grass tetany, a serious and sometimes fatal metabolic disorder. 
• Beef cattle require 10 microminerals. Seven of the 10 have established requirements, including iron, manganese, copper, zinc, selenium, cobalt and iodine. 

We also provide salt blocks in the cattle lots.

I may have clicked the camera shutter "a few times" trying to capture the action that signifies its lip-smacking good. (Mental note: Add this to my "things I did during a pandemic" list.)

Randy patiently waited. But he also said he was glad I was using digital photography and not film. He couldn't afford me.

"Hay!" Inquiring Minds Want to Know

 

Inquiring minds want to know: Does Randy really want to be the poster child for my blogging efforts? Admittedly, he ends up being the "face" of Kim's County Line. Once in awhile, he's relieved from his duties by our cute granddaughters or an adorable baby calf. But he definitely is my most consistent model. Once in awhile, my Facebook friends ask me, "Is he really OK with that?"

I've had more than one person say:

• "My husband wouldn't be that patient."
• "Mine wouldn't cooperate like that!"
• "It would be a cold day in July to get my hubby to stand there and take pictures when he has other things to do."

And, yes, Randy is patient ... as long as we're not talking about broken-down equipment, uncooperative cattle or not getting his cell phone to work in the never-never-land we call home.

I think he kind of likes having the farm featured in my blog and on my Facebook page (which, by the way, he reads Facebook on his tablet faithfully). In fact, he often suggests blog topics or photo ideas. For one, he sees it as a way to keep landlords in the loop about what's going on at the farm. Plus, it makes me more attentive to the whys and wherefores of this operation.

One of those things he really wanted a photo of was the long row of big, round hay bales generated from the oats he planted in an old alfalfa field.

As we rounded the corner from taking pictures in a corn field, I saw the long row of bales and remembered his request.

Randy was happy to get 176 bales of hay off the 47-acre field. And I'll tell you something else: It's not easy to get all those bales in one frame.

Sometimes, he doesn't get a choice in whether a photo is taken or not. I doubt he even knows I took this one yesterday morning as it appeared he was getting eaten alive while working on the combine straw chopper.

I paid him his "modeling fees" by serving as his assistant. As I told my family, if I am the assistant for any mechanical project, you know he's desperate. Mechanical ability is not one of my attributes.

But we got it done!

Randy started swathing the second cutting of alfalfa on Monday. Case has had our baling/loading tractor and has been working on it for awhile now, so Randy has been hesitant to put a lot of hay down.

We still have wheat to cut, but it's on ground really impacted by underflow. So we'll give it some more time this week when we have four days of projected 100 degree days. Oh, and did I mention it's county fair week? That's pretty much a guarantee for hot weather. 

Top Secret Mission

"I'm sorry, Ma'am! But you can't take pictures."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm sorry, but this is a prototype, and you can't take pictures."

"At all?"

"No, ma'am. I'm sorry."

OK. I'm up for a challenge. I can take pictures and not reveal your super secret MacDon draper header, Mr. MacDon Salesguy. (For the record, I asked our local harvester, and he said it was OK if I didn't show details of the header itself.)

It personally think it was more of a challenge to get the silage in the truck. The wind was blowing 90 mph from the north. (Well, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it sure seemed like it!) Naturally, that's the day the silage-cutting crew showed up to cut of 25 acres of silage.

The silage wasn't standing tall either. While we waited for our turn from the custom-cutting crew, the tall stalks succumbed to gravity. It was definitely a different scene than last year, when the stalks towered over Randy's 6-foot, 1-inch frame.

By the time the harvesters reached the second field, the sun was on its way down. Even though the lighting wasn't ideal on the photo below, I still liked the image of the four silage trucks waiting in their own mini version of a silage traffic jam.

Opening the field was challenging, since the silage was down and the wind was howling.

But, eventually, they were rolling, though the pace was slower than is sometimes the case.

Silage cutting is another one of those choreographed farm "dances." The silage feeds into the cutter and is chopped. An auger carries the chopped silage into the truck.

All this happens "on the go," with the truck and the cutter continuing in sync through the field until they get to the end of the rows. They then move into position for the next swath down the field.

As they cut, another truck follows behind, ready to move into position when the first truck is full.

By design, Randy plants the silage in fields fairly close to the silo so that it doesn't have to be trucked so far.

Once it's full, the trucker takes it to the silo.

I give the truckers an A+ for their backing skills.

The silage trucker backs into the trench silo, dumps his load and takes off for another load-on-the-go.

Between trucks, the tractor driver packs the silage into our own "Green Mountain."

Once in the silo, the silage goes through an "ensiling" process. The silage goes through chemical changes and heat builds up. It raises the pH of the silage so that it doesn't spoil or ferment any more. About the top 6 inches of it will rot, but then it forms an airtight seal, protecting the silage underneath.

After we brought the cows and calves off the summer pastures, the guys started feeding the silage to the feeder calves. For them Randy adds about 3 to 4 pounds of vitamin- and mineral-enriched grain per head, since they need the additional energy to grow to get ready for market. After the mama cows are done dining on milo stubble and volunteer wheat, they, too, will get the silage.

It's good to see the cattle's "pantry" full and ready for Old Man Winter.

On the Sudan

August 16, 2017

The Central Kansas weather this summer hasn't quite been like the desert of the African Sudan.

We did miss the rain that made for this beautiful sky in the middle of August. Those storm clouds were to the east of us and didn't bring any rain to our farm.

We don't have the "Sudan" with a capital "S." But on The County Line, we do have sudan - with a small "s."(Now I sound like our favorite kindergartener.) In our case, it's a crop - not a desert.

After a small rain shower in mid-August, Randy planted some after-harvest sudan. 

Though we're not a desert, drought conditions this year haven't made for a particularly favorable growing environment. As of the September 5 Kansas Drought Monitor, we are in the moderate drought category.

Sudan is a fast-growing hybrid that goes from seed to feed source in approximately 60 days. But it still needs some rain to get it from seed to harvest. We got 1/2 inch of rain on it a week ago, which helped a little. Sudan can be grazed or it can be put up for hay. We'll likely do some of both.

It's higher in TDN - total digestible nutrients - than alfalfa. However, it is lower in protein. So it's a cheaper ration for maintaining weight in cows, but it's not desirable as a growing ration for feeder cattle.

By August 21 - less than a week after planting - the sudan was starting to emerge.

It looks bigger than it was at this close-up angle. But I did tell you that it's a fast grower!

My farmer is out standing in his field. (I can't resist the pun.)

Not quite a month later, the sudan is making some progress.

But the lack of rain is definitely showing.

While our sudan still has some growing to do, the guys did a custom job of swathing, raking and baling some sudan for a neighbor. He planted his sudan in June.

I missed the swathing and raking photos, but I did snap a few photos of baling on a meal delivery to the field.

They got 110 bales off that field. We hope ours will do as well. We shall see!