parks and fossils

 This past week Paul Phillips and Arden toured 4 national parks in the Black Hills with Abdul from Afghanistan.  Abdul is preparing to head up 2  national parks that are set to open up in his country in the near future.  We not only toured the parks over 3 days, but had an inside look of park programs and discussions on park operations and management.  I have visited all 4 parks in the past, but this time I learned many things that the typical tourist doesn't.
One of our more interesting discussions was had with the paleontologists that were salvaging a 30 million year old turtle fossil in the Badlands national park. This was of interest since the Agate fossil quarry is 20 miles from our ranch and occasionally we come across a fossil on the ranch.  

bigger tractor

The JX65 Case IH tractor that has been at the ranch for the past 6 years was a great tractor. but often it was just a little light for the tasks that we asked it to do so it was traded in on a new Case IH 95C that is also a 4 wheel drive with a loader.  It is still a mid size tractor but being heavier and 30 more horse power it should be more suitable for the work we request from it.  A pull blade was also purchased so we can do some work like grading the roads and leveling prairie rat mounds.  The tractor has a sun roof but much to Blake's disappointment it does not have a cab with ac, heater, stereo, TV or computer drive.

creep feeding

What a difference a year makes, last year due to the drought we were running out of grass for the cows and needed to wean the calves on Sept. 4.  By placing the calves in a separate pasture on extra feed the cows were able to have enough to eat in their pasture.  This year there is a lot of grass, so we plan on waiting until December to wean, but the calves need extra protein in the ration so  we are adding an alfalfa pellet to creep feeders that the calves can enter but the cows can't thus allowing the calves to get the extra feed and vitamins that they need to grow.  We have 2 old green feeders and 2 new red feeders that we will put feed in about once per week and the calves will self regulate what they need for a proper

diet to go with the available grass.  The goal will be for the calves to gain 1 1/2 pounds per day until the grass is green next spring then they should gain about 2 pounds per day on pasture until time to be marketed to a feedyard where they will gain about 4 pounds daily until they are marketed for beef.  On our ranch calves gain their first 900 pounds (about 450 days) grazing pastures that are unsuitable for growing anything other than grass.Then they go to a feedyard where they eat crop residues and corn for about 100 days.

Resting

Isaac, Joe and Blake decided to rest after a hard day of ranch work.  There could not be a better place to rest than setting on a toadstool at toadstool park 30 miles north of the ranch.  Of course they didn't rest that much with the climbing and running during the 1 mile hike through the park.

Becoming ranch hands

Isaac has joined Joe in becoming cowboys on the Wohlers Ranch as they get experience in horse back riding on Blondie and Blackie.  They made many circles of the corral and are learning how to control these untrained broncos.  Hopefully they will soon be helping in cattle roundups.

Gravel Pit

The ranch uses gravel to fill in holes around water tanks, on roads and other places that become mud spots when it rains.  Fortunately we have a gravel pit where we can access our own gravel for this purpose.  Blake spent many hours hauling gravel where needed to finish this annual task.

Haying is completed

We produced 451 bales weighing 1200 lbs giving us 270 ton of hay to get us cow feed for when there is snow cover limiting grazing. Additional protein supplements will still need to be added to the cow diet as our hay (with adequate energy) is short on protein due to putting it up about 3 weeks too late to get optimum value.  Now we need to haul all the bales into a hay yard and be ready to feed it to the cows during the winter when grass does not grow.