An Almanac of Farming – A Series
Spending time with your animals and out in the wild is invaluable experience. Today’s youth are too caught up with swiping their tablets or blowing out their eardrums to loud music. Even their parents have trapped themselves indoors and rely on directed information instead of gathering their own first hand knowledge. My recommendation and hope is to have some of these bon mots be an inspiration to a person or two to get out and see and understand real living for themselves.
- When you are herding cattle out to pasture, plan for frequent stops for the animals to catch their breath. Cattle that have been in pens all winter will have low stamina and their calves will tire easily. You also need to keep ahead of the lead cows to slow down the herd. Quite often they are so excited, the animals will run themselves to exhaustion. Also, once they are in the destination pasture, hold the herd for a bit just so the calves do not lose their mothers.
- Cattle are not smart enough to keep moving through a pasture from new to old grass. They will tend to keep eating the new growth and overgraze an area. They need to be periodically shifted from spot to spot.
- Animals can have all sorts of ailments affecting their internal organs. If they have stomach issues, the catch all phrase is colic. Symptoms include confusion, agitation, distention of the abdomen, throwing themselves to the ground, random kicking at their midsection with their hide legs, listlessness, and death. Treatment includes tubing with Bloat-Eze, mineral oil and other medicines. But unfortunately, if the animal has bloated for too long or there is a serious issue with their stomach, often they will die within hours. Bloat In Young Calves & Other Pre-ruminant Livestock
- Bulls will act like jerks to other bulls to exert dominance. They will even attempt to drown their opponent if that means winning the fight. A much smaller bull pushed a rival with a sore leg into a dugout and kept pushing him back in and under until his opponent made it to the far end and made his way out.
- Be careful when feeding corn, stalks and all to horses. If they get too much they can get grain overload which can cause stomach bloating and death. You do not have to be as careful with cattle because they’ are too stupid to know they should be eating it. They are just as liable to play or trample the feed instead of eating it. Cows are dumb!
- It is unfortunate and somewhat stupid that when an animal has to be destroyed for an illness such as a bad foot, that the carcass cannot be used for any purpose including cat or dog food. It seems the height of idiocy that a literal ton of meat must be buried instead of being put to good use.
- The neonicotinoids used on seeds such as canola are only effective for about three weeks once the seed is in the ground. Therefore, bees cannot be affected by gathering pollen off of treated canola plants.
- Porcupines always spin their back to you. They are slow moving and easily killed with a stick. Be careful of the quills and skin them from the belly out.
- Ok, stop believing Disney and thinking animals are all cute and friendly. Everything eats everything in the wild. Chickadees and squirrels eat beaver meat, Fishers love the taste of cat, coyotes will eat each other and Martins hunt squirrels. One animal can be dead in a conibear trap and its buddy will push it aside to finish eating the bait. Plenty of times if the animal is dead for a time, other animals will chow down on it.
- When you are out checking the cattle, look for groupings of magpies or crows. They are probably eating something like a stillborn calf that a cow has slipped.
- During winter, frozen cow turds can turn into knee-high missiles when a tractor tire occasionally squirts them out sideways. Beware!
- Deer are mean to each other. If there is a supply of feed, a senior doe will chase calves and other does away even when she is finished eating. During rutting season, bucks will herd a doe into a small bush area and will keep her penned in until he breeds her. If you see calves that seem to be wandering aimlessly, their mother was probably chased off by an amorous buck.
- If you need to put down a cow by shooting it, there’s a sweet spot in the middle of the forehead. Make an ‘X’ from the base of the ears to the eyes and try to shoot straight in from about a foot away. It should kill the animal quickly as you have hit the brain. Even a small calibre .22 will kill a large cow this way.
- If you have put an larger animal down and intend to just use it for coyote bait, partially skin the underbelly so animals can get to the innards easier. If an animal freezes without the skinning, it is too difficult for a coyote to break it open.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.