Middle Beaver Field

Today I moved the small flock of replacement ewe lambs and senior ewes that needed better body condition into the middle beaver field.   They had been in bulldozer annex area with access to the cowpeas in the north beaver field, but they were not staying out in the cowpeas.  They kept coming back closer to the other main flock, not taking advantage of the cowpea nutrition.

In the middle beaver field there is a dense stand of cowpeas, the test plot of eastern gammagrass  (which is doing nicely relative to my hat), and some tall growths of crabgrass and other weeds.  I will continue supplemental feeding of 25 lbs of 14% soybean hull-pellets, which will be easier with a separate feeding area setup.  

Anneika is staying with this flock quite nicely.

Grazing Cowpeas

A few photos showing the ewes going after the cowpeas.

Hay Making Photos

We recently cut hay in the SE blueberry field and orphan pen.  Yield 15 bales.  Here are photos from that work.  Possum dog provides guidance to Jeffrey during the baling.

Cutting Hay

This weekend, after a lot of heavy rain a high is building in from Texas and for a couple of days there is a zero percent chance of rain and high, near record breaking heat.  Brief, but perfect conditions for making hay.  On Friday I cut the SE blueberry field.   Saturday and most of Sunday it dried.   Today, Sunday,  starting around 3:00 I will start raking and Jeffrey will follow with the round baler.

The lambs in the foreground are going to market Monday morning.

Red Berry Vaccinium

Jackie and Jeffrey were clearing out old fence along the west side of their 40 acres and found a Vaccinium plant (blueberry like plant) that had firm red berries.   They are a deep red when ripe,  we could see some of them on the ground.

Planted Bahia Grass

It finally stopped raining and dried out enough for Jeffrey to do the second disking and incorporation of the lime into the soil of the middle pinelands field.   In these pictures Jeffrey is running the harrow around to settle,  smooth and firm up the seed bed after the disking.   I am getting ready to spread the UF-RIATA variety bahia grass seed.   I  found setting 3 to work best.   It allowed cross pass overlap, or driving in circles with 1 or a bit less tractor width separation between passes.

Cowpeas Eaten

The sheep like the cowpeas.  We gave them a little test strip for a couple days.   It will be interesting to see to what extent they grow back from this stubble.  Unfortunately, it looks like some of the plants were pulled out of the ground by the sheep in their eagerness to eat the cowpeas.  However,  on these I could see some nitrogen fixing nodules.

The cowpeas in the south field are looking very nice. Next will be figuring out the best way to feed them to the sheep.   Using the net fence to control their access in some way will probably be best.  However,  net fence is mostly deployed in other areas.

Hay Purchase

This weekend, last weekend and next weekend we are hauling hay from a hay farm over near Lucedale,  about a 1.5-hr drive from here.   It's been a bit dodgy with the afternoon thunderstorms, but we've hauled 80 bales so far.   Plan to get 100 total, so 2 trips next weekend should do it.   Rain is building in for this afternoon and tomorrow.

Last weekend the air conditioning went out on my truck.  One trip hauling haying in 96 degree heat about near killed me off.  This past week we got Jeffrey's truck configured with a gooseneck hitch, trips were much more pleasant yesterday and this morning.

Cat on the hay bale is Striker.  He is still quite spry.  Joy saw him jump from the ground to halfway up the face of a bale and crawl the rest of the way to the top.

Cowpeas

Cowpeas in south field.

I've seen deer enjoying the cowpeas in the cogongrass field. 

Storm Damage

Last week we moved the ewe flock from the far western oak tree pasture back across the Schommer crossing to the east bahia field.  They need to start working on the grass on the eastern side of the farm.  Left behind were their hay feeders that were not needed in the new pasture.   But now I need hay for some of the lambs, so I set up with the Fiat to bring back the feeders and the hay in them.

A couple of days ago we had a fierce thunderstorm with some high winds.  We lost some tree limbs up near the house and barns, and as I was to discover trying to bring the hay back at the Cajun Corner.   There is a huge oak tree at the corner and a large limb broke off, falling onto the gates and fence at the corner.  I tried lifting the limb with the tractor forklift, but it was too heavy.

To get back with the hay feeders, I ended up going through the muddy Schommer crossing.