The snow storm "Atlas"

The last week has been unprecedented to say the least. Last Thursday with a reported storm coming I moved lots of hay stacks to get them moved before it got too wet to drive on the fields.  That evening it was starting to rain.  We went out and got the sheep brought into the corral just in case it was a bad storm.  Most storms this early in the year are just rain events with a few inches of snow that comes at night when it gets cold.  The cows and calves are still out in the summer range as we are three weeks away from selling calves.  The grass is green from all the fall moisture and weather is mild.

It rained all that night.  In the morning we had 1.50" of rain.  Every thing was soaking wet.  It started to snow about eight in the morning. It snowed all day and accumulated maybe 3-4 inches.  The Black Hills were getting more snow, but they always do.  The electricity went out about 10 AM that Friday.  The wind was picking up.   Tammy went out to look at her sheep.  They were a little wet , but not too uncomfortable.  The temperature stayed at 32 degrees all day and into the night.

That night the storm "Atlas" raised its ugly head and bore down on western South Dakota.  When it was over on Saturday over four feet of snow had fallen in the Black Hills and several feet on the plains were we live.  There were snow banks over six feet deep just in our yard.  We put the sheep in the barn to get them dried out.  As it continued to have snow flurries in the morning.

We started to pick our way around the snow banks.  We had not gone very far when we saw our first dead cow.  It wasn't ours so we felt lucky.  We continued our journey north and started seeing isolated bunches of cattle in the distance.  A lot of them we couldn't get to, the snow was simply too deep.  The sun came out and the temperature rose to the mid- 50's.

We got to the north ridge and started seeing some of our cows.  We broke a track to them and started them down to the creek by the house.  Then we went back up north and found some more and headed them down to the creek by the house.  All day Sunday we collected cows and calves and yearlings.  We started seeing more and more dead ones, some of ours and some of the neighbors.

Here is a bunch of cattle that we gathered.  There are at least four owners and maybe five represented in this bunch.  When we got them down to the creek and the alfalfa bottoms they went to grazing.  We tried to feed them hay but the grazing was too good and they just passed up the hay.  We will sort out the cattle to the different owners when the weather and conditions have improved.

I will spare the readers of this blog the gruesome pictures of dead cattle.  Anyone who has traveled the roads in western South Dakota has seen the sight many times over.  Facebook post are full of pictures.  We lost our share of cows and calves.  One bunch of cows had really no loss.  Our yearling heifers have survived the storm for the most part.  The way things are mixed up it is hard to get a good count.  The bulls over at Ryan's had not much shelter from the storm and all come through, although they were scattered.

The snow was deep in the corrals close to the barn.  We started cleaning out the snow so that the ground could dry.  We still have lambs to sell and calves to sell and cattle to sort.

The REA got the electricity turned on late Thursday afternoon.  We had gone almost a full week without electricity.  What we missed the most was news and weather on the television.  We also missed our internet.
Also you get tired of camp food after a while.  Beans and spam. Actually we eat better than that.  We have three Coleman lanterns so we have good light.  After a while you have read everything you care to read.

Now today it has decided to rain and the wind blow sixty mile an hour.  So the creek was flowing bank full the last few days and now with the rain it is flooding.

This is the lilacs next to the house to the west.  The creek has flooded all the way across the alfalfa field.

The guy from Black Hills Power and Light was on the noon news on TV and said that this storm was the biggest most costly event in their 134 year history.  Some neighbors of ours will not get electricity till into next week.

Tammy and I went on a fly-in to Washington DC sponsored by South Dakota Farmers Union.  There were about thirty people from South Dakota and around three hundred Farmers Union members from across the country on the fly-in.  We attended briefings on the current status of the Farm Bill.  Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed our group one morning.  We broke up into small groups and went around visiting the offices of many Senators and Congressmen.

As we flew home Wednesday evening through Denver we got a view of the flooding east of Denver.  We flew through a rain storm on the way to Rapid City.  It was a rough ride for a bit, but we made it safely.  The next morning I went out and started baling sorghum.  The bales were really thick.  Four bales an acre.

All the haying we had done this summer we got about one bale an acre.  Once the sorghum was baled I moved to the millet and baled that field. Then I went up and stacked the bales into hay stacks to be moved with the stackmover.  I started moving stacks from Ryan's to over here.  A fifteen mile trip one way that take about two hours to complete.

Last April I got seven baby chicks.  I have taken care of them all summer.  They have just started laying eggs.  I had been checking the nests every day thinking there would be a surprise one morning and about two weeks ago I got my first surprise.

Now there are about five hens laying eggs every day.  It is kind of fun to gather eggs, but we need to find someone to help us eat all these eggs.  Tammy and I can only eat so many eggs.

Here is what was waiting one morning after we had gathered early one day and later the next day.  So more than 24 hours had elapsed.

Yesterday we started vaccinating the calves with their fall shots.  We brought the cows home from up north and sorted off the calves to give the shots.  We then sorted off the bulls and hauled them to Ryan's.

Here the calves await their turn at getting a shot.  We purchased some cows last year so that is where we got the Charlois calves. These calve for the most part are April and May born.  With the late summer rains and the pastures greening up they are sure doing good.

After we were done working the calves we headed back to the pasture.  They stopped for a cool drink of water on the way back.  The wind was blowing forty miles and hour making the ripples in the water.  The water was a nice clear blue color making a nice picture.

We spent  the last of the week in Huron at the South Dakota State Fair.  It was over 100 degrees on Thursday.  I watched the Red Angus show that afternoon.  It was hot for the animals but the fans in the beef barn kept the air moving.  Tammy went to help serve lamb spread on a cracker.   The Governor of South Dakota Dennis Daugard stopped by to eat lamb on a cracker and liked it.

Saturday I helped the South Dakota Farmers Union serve a noon meal in a tent on the fair grounds.  We served around 1300 people, for a free will offering going to Make A Wish.  Tammy helped with the beef cook-off. We got home Saturday night and discovered that Peaches our dog had gotten into a porcupine.  She had about fifteen quills in her muzzle.  We tried to hold her down and managed to get 9 quills out, but couldn't get the rest out.  So we took her to a vet on Sunday.

I started cutting sorghum on Monday.  It has grown up quite tall.

The cutting was kind of slow going.  I did get all forty acres done in one day.

Amazing growth

I have been wanting to get these two pictures on the same page.  The rain we have had in the last three weeks has been phenomenal.  The end of July we were thinking about calling the crop adjuster.  This was my forage sorghum before the rains.

Then we had five inches of rain over a three week period.  It has made haying a little difficult.  The hay won't dry out so it can be baled.  We now get a look at what eastern South Dakota producers put up with for their haying.  The high humidity and dewy mornings.  This is my sorghum field now.

Pretty amazing.  The growth in three weeks.

We have been pulling bulls out of the pastures.  This way we have an end date for calving next spring.

I cut some second crop alfalfa here on the creek last week.  It was some of the best alfalfa I have ever cut.  I am still waiting for the hay to dry out.  I turned it over with the rake this afternoon to help it dry out some.

We will be going to the State Fair this coming week.  Hope to get the alfalfa square baled and in the barn before we go.

It has been nine days since the last blog and we have had over two inches of rain.  This unsettled weather pattern just keeps us cloudy and foggy in the mornings.  It doesn't get  but about 80 degrees during the day and rains somewhere in the afternoon or evening.

The Sturgis motorcycle rally is over.  I guess they had a big crowd.  I haven't been to Sturgis in three weeks, so I don't know much what goes on.  The stop signs and traffic lights in Sturgis every block is too much for me to handle.  Tammy went to help the Cattlewomen promote beef west of Belle Fouche on the Wednesday of the Rally and went through Sturgis early and it took her 30 minutes to get through.

This is me standing in my field of sorghum before the rains started.  This is about as good as it was anywhere in the field.  I was thinking of calling the insurance adjuster to come and look before I turned the sheep in,
Now the sorghum has grown to about waist high and is a lush green.

I did manage to cut some hay and bale some little square bales.  Then the next day we loaded the bales on Ryan's trailer and unloaded the bales in the barn so they will be dry and ready to feed next calving season when we have cows in the barn.

This is me picking up little square bales with the hay head on the loader to gather them and bring them to the trailer where Ryan and Tammy stack them. The video is running at fast speed.  I don't go this fast.  Here I dump the bales on the load.

We ended up with about 180 bales in the barn.  This is Ryan holding his bale hook at the ready for the next load of bales coming in.

What a little rain won't do.

At the last blog we were worrying about starting a fire when we were haying.  A sickle section or guard striking a rock could cause a spark and ignite a fire.  With a strong wind blowing this could devastate the prairie in a few minutes.  A neighbor had this happen next to our pasture.  The fire burnt about fifteen posts.

Since this photo it has started to rain.  It is an unusual time for us to have a rainy spell, but we welcome rain at any time.  In the last ten days we have had 4.81' of rain.  The first rain ten days ago was 2.36".  It filled the cracks in the ground and softened the soil in the bottoms of the dry creek beds.  According to radar more rain fell just north of us by the second day the creek had risen.  

Tammy and I went out to check the cows that were enjoying the softened grass and the cooler temperatures.

On the way back we crossed Softwater creek and saw that it was running.  Kind of strange for this time of year.

During the cooler weather Ryan came over and we got the bulls out of the pasture with the yearling heifers.  That way the heifers will calve for only sixty days and be done.  The bulls were not impressed that they had to leave their heifers.  With a little trouble we finally got them out.

The cooler damp weather had put a stop to our hay making.  We have been stacking bales.  Then we took apart our square baler to fix the plunger and adjust the clearances.  We had to order some bushings so it is down for a few days.  With the additional rain at this time we could get a lot of second crop alfalfa.  We like to put this second crop up in little square bales for ease of handling in the barns.

I wanted to include a picture of how much my sorghum field has improved with the recent  rain, but with another 1.53" of rain last night this is what is greeting us this morning.

This is how the creek looked from our front yard of the house.  The creek was bone dry two weeks ago and now it has been bank full twice in the last ten days.  I may make it up to the sorghum field and get a picture this afternoon.

Busy haying

We have been busy haying since the 20th of June.  It has been pretty steady.  The hay crop is pretty short, but better than last year.  I run the hydroswing that cuts and windrows the hay in one pass.

Tammy has been raking most everything together.  She rolls two windrows together to make one.  Then the baler has to make only on trip down the field to bale two windrows.

I figured up the bale counts for the last three years over here at Fairpoint.  2011 was an exceptional year for hay.  We baled 619 bales in 2011.  Last year 2012 was one of the poorest hay years and we baled 61 bales.  This year we have baled 139 with a chance at baling some sorghum later.

My sorghum crop looked pretty bleak a day ago.  Here I am out admiring it.

But last night we had 2.30" of rain.  So hopefully this rain will perk it up.

Earlier in the month the yucca plants were really pretty.  They were in full bloom on the hillside up by the mail box.

For those of you who haven't seen a yucca plant up close here is a picture.  The leaves are actually spines, like a long knitting needle.

We will keep you posted on the progress of our sorghum crop with the recent rain.  We should be about done haying by early next week.