As the days begin to lengthen etc.

As the days begin to lengthen, the cold begins to strengthen - so goes an old saying. And as old sayings go, this one always seems to be true!   Winter has roared in on its appointed day and seems determined to stay awhile.  The Old Farmers Almanac (www.almanac.com) and Success Farming magazine both predict a colder and wetter winter than average for our part of the country.

Zeke among the 800 pound round bales.

Snow, ice and strong winds have made life outdoors pretty miserable - or so my cows are telling me.  They are rapidly eating through my hay supplies trying frantically to produce enough body heat to keep warm.  Hay is very scarce this year and I've been parceling out the round bales on a strict schedule.  The Angus herd of 8 pregnant cows and heifers has been getting an 800 pound bale every four and a half to five days.  My Limousin herd of nine pregnant cows and heifers, two bulls and four calves has been cleaning up a 500 pound bale every two to two and a half days.  They are also sharing a 50 pound bag of crimped corn every three days.

This week the Limi's have eaten a round bale in a day and a half. The Angus however, went through two 800 pound bales in six days! By yesterday evening they had eaten the last of the second bale. My plan was to put a third out this morning. But by 5:00 pm they were lined up along the fence, staring at the house and hollering.  I was running the vacuum cleaner around in the living room and they could see me through the windows.

Happy cows with their big round bale of hay.

Finally about 5:30 I gave in.  It was a beautiful evening with a gorgeous big gold moon low on the eastern horizon, very Halloween like with a ribbon of cloud under it just so.  The temperature was just at freezing and the wind had died down. It was a lovely evening to be out doors.

I picked up a round bale with the tractor (I have a huge spear attached to the front of the tractor operated by an hydraulic lift mechanism).  The bale was sitting on a wooden pallet meant to keep it from absorbing moisture out of the ground.  With all the rain, then snow, then sleet, the bale was topped with a thick layer of ice topped snow and the pallet was frozen to the bottom.

The bales are wrapped in a fine plastic hexagonal mesh, which I usually easily unwrap from the bale just before I place it in the round bale feeder ring. This time however, I needed my big sharp knife to cut through the mesh in several places as it was frozen to the bale. The wooden pallet also frozen to the mesh so I had to cut both sides at the bottom and stomp on the pallet to free it from the bale.  The hardest part was pulling the mesh from the top of the bale, as the bale is taller than I and the snow was about five inches thick on the top.

I checked out the living room windows several times during the evening and out the bedroom window through the night and still again this morning. The feeder has never not been surrounded by cows all that time.  Of the 30 round bales the vet bought for his Angus herd and had delivered in late October and early November, 15 are left counting the one I put out last night.