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Rye Grass is Growing!!

Last week, I so enjoyed sharing with you the blessing of rain on our newly planted winter grass seed.  Since then, I put out one more bag of seed in the smaller pens used to finish our grass fed beef calves.  Even though there was no chance of rain in the forecast, it rained that night giving us an additional 1/10 of an inch.  Early Tuesday morning, it rained again a little.  My husband and I are now in the process of watching the grass sprout and grow.  It is an exciting time for us.  Apparently we are easily entertained!

It just goes to show how important grass is for us.  Many people don’t seem to understand the implications of a drought like the one we are experiencing.  To them they just have to water their yard more often.  Grass in any form is life-sustaining for our herd, our horses, and the wild animals.   Of course, grass directly affects our livelihood of raising and selling grass fed beef.  We have to have grass.

Another form of grass that we needed was hay.  We had some already put up in the barn, but we did not have enough to make it through the winter.  We still needed to acquire over 200 round bales.

Prices on hay have gone through the roof.  Every day that passed, as my husband spent hours on the phone and internet trying to find hay, the prices kept going up.  In fact, one of the last people my husband spoke with wanted $145.00 a bale.   Yes, $145.00 a bale!  That is obscene.

Last week I asked for any tips that would allow us to find the amount of hay we needed for a reasonable price.  We had been praying about this source of grass for our herd as well.  I am happy to announce that we secured a source for all of our hay needs.  Already an 18-wheeler has brought us the first load.  The great news is that the price quoted to us before they brought out the hay was about less than half what the last person wanted.

When Lane asked for the amount owed, the driver shaved off some of the delivery fee.  Needless to say, we were thrilled with the decrease in price.  Most of all we are thrilled and thankful with God’s provision for us as winter is soon to be approaching.  After the summer we have had, it feels like nothing short of a miracle.  And, I just wanted to share this true story with you.

In addition, the first cold front of the season blew in this week.  We put on light jackets and stayed outdoors just to relish in the cold wind.  After a record-breaking summer with day after day temperatures soaring to well over 100 degrees, the gusty wind and cool temperature is completely refreshing.  Everyone was feeling good.  The horses frolicked, the dogs acted like puppies, and the calves played in the pastures.  Everything seemed to feel younger.

God is sending rain at the perfect times.  The rye grass is growing in the pastures.  Our hay needs are secured for a good price in today’s market.  We are finally getting relief from the heat.  All just in the nick of time as the first cold front blew through our area.  Praise God, who gives exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20)!

It is calving season on Cross Creek Cattle Company.  Through many years of experience, we prefer to have our calves born in the winter.  First of all in our area, winters are generally mild.  Even this year with its many nights of hard freezes and two days of snow, it is still a relatively mild winter compared with other regions of the United States.

When a calf is born in the coolness of our winter weather, its mother cleans it up quickly.  The calf is very anxious to warm itself; therefore, it nurses vigorously.  One of the most important things for a calf to do is nurse within the first four hours of its birth.  The first milk is not milk just like in humans.  It is colostrum; however, a calf will die quickly of illness if it does not receive enough colostrum at the onset of its life.

Colostrum is full of antibodies that prove critical to the calf’s health and well-being.  Unfortunately without it, the calf will die.  In humans, colostrum is important, but it is not a matter of life and death.

Temperatures soar in the summer to well above 100 degrees.  When a calf is born in the summer, the temperature is usually very similar to the temperature in the womb.  On extremely hot days, newborn calves grow listless.  They do not feel the urge to get up and begin nursing.  It is just too hot.  When this happens, we try to intervene.  We tube the calf with store-bought colostrum.  If possible, we milk its mother and tube it that colostrum.  We do what we can, but we prefer the winter when less intervention is needed.

Another reason that we prefer to have calving season in the winter is because fire ants are not a problem.  In the heat of the summer, fire ants build mounds along the surface of the ground.  The tunnels underground reach far and wide under the soil housing millions of ants.  Usually the summer is our driest season.  Therefore, ants will be searching for water and food all along the ground.

When fire ants bite you, it hurts.  A tiny amount of poison irritates your skin.  If you are allergic, it can be life-threatening.  If you are not allergic, too many bites can make you sick or kill you without proper medical attention.  Unfortunately, fire ants have been known to kill calves.  We have not lost a calf to fire ants, but neighboring ranches have.

Soon, I will tell you about the one time we almost lost a calf to fire ants.  Today, I thought I would leave you with pictures of some of our calves.  So far we have had more heifers than bulls.  I just love how cute baby calves are.

A cow and her calf sunning on a warm, February day.

Another cow and calf pair.

A small group of calves.

In a typical year, we try to not put out bales of hay until after the Thanksgiving holiday.  This is a personal goal of Cross Creek Cattle Company.  With good rain throughout the summer months, our pastures can supply grasses for our cattle until then.  Unfortunately this year we had drought conditions.  For months we had no rainfall.

We prayed for fat cows and green grass, and we were blessed accordingly.  Some of our less fortunate neighbors were having to put out hay during the summer.  It was incredible.  Just yesterday, I was driving in the northern part of our county.  I was amazed at how bad all the pastures looked.  They had their herds on completely bare and brown pastures.  You have no choice as a rancher, but to give hay in this situation.

As the grass season comes to an end and autumn is in full swing, we stop rotating our pastures.  Instead, we open all the interior gates and allow the cattle to forge for themselves.  They can find the best grasses on their own.  They have that innate ability.

Now as winter time approaches, we are preparing to put out hay a few weeks early.  My dad is disappointed, but considering the year we have had I think we are doing well.  In fact we are doing better than most in our area.  The way I look at it, we made it to November.