My favourite moma cow Squiggy came through again with her fourth calf today. He seems to be a healthy bull calf who was born without any assistance (from me anyway).

First Calf for 2010

After running out of patience for nature I eventually helped him stand up and before long he was enjoying his first meal.

Squiggy's 2010 Calf having his first meal

This first drink is so important because the colostrum has all the antibodies that get the immune system of the calf off and running. Once I’ve seen this happen I’m a lot more confident that everything will work out for the best.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving. Last night was our first real hard frost of the fall. Fitting perhaps that the wild turkeys were out in the field when I went to take a picture this morning.

Frosty Field & Wild Turkeys on Thanksgiving

Labour Day lived up to it’s name for our fourth moma cow “Charlotte” (because she’s a Charolais breed) as she gave birth for the second year. Last year, for her first time around, Charlotte had twins, which is quite rare for cows. This year she had a solid little heifer calf.

Charlotte & her 2009 heifer calf

She gave birth completely unattended, perhaps as much because I was a bit late getting down to check on the state of things.

Charlotte & 2009 Calf, early feeding

I can start to breath easier once I’ve seen a new calf have a good feed. The first milk is critical as the colostrum contains anti-bodies to get the new calf’s immune system jump started. One last picture:

Charlotte & Calf settled in

Back June 3rd, Marigold had her second calf:

Marigold's newborn 2009 heifer calf

And later in the day as very much a going concern.

Marigolds 2009 Calf, 8 hours old

Along with Ella and Squiggy’s calves these girls are growing up fast.

4 Moma's & 3 Spring Calves (June 13, 2009)

All of this years calves have been female, after a run that started with 5 male calves.The herd is now up to 13 right now (4 mothers, 4 2008 calves, 4 2009 calves and one bull) and we’ve had 10 successful births.  I’ll have to decide whether to keep any of these calves as future mothers.

All in all, it’s still a little surprising for a guy who’d never been next to a calf in his life until 4 years ago. But as boatbuilder Pete Culler said “Experience starts when you begin”. We decided we would have a small beef farm, so we got started and learned as we went.

Making hay is always a challenge. Do you trust the weather forecast? How much should you cut? Is everything going to hang together?

I figure I need about 1400 bales to make sure I can get through the winter. The rule of thumb around here is that you need to have your first cutting done by June 21st to ensure maximum nutrition. With all the rain this spring and the cooler weather I think things are a bit behind this year (perhaps as much as two weeks).

My first field cut June 2nd yielded only 60 bales, less than half what it normally would. The good news is that it’s growing back nicely now so I hope to get a good second cut.

First hayfield cut for 2009. June 2nd.

The next spell of good weather wasn’t until June 22-25 I cut about 8 acres and got another 350 bales. These fields are a bit lower, and are still very wet. The tractor tires were showing water about 75% of the time. The good news is that the long, hot days with a good breeze dried out the grass just fine. Here’s a few pictures taken during the past few days.

"Drivers Eye" view Raking Hay

While I was re-raking one field just before baling I looked back and thought the rake looked a little “wrong”

Cracked frame on my hay rake

I managed to get the rake back to the workshop without breaking completely in half. My friend came over to help bale the first field. He drove and I stacked (as it should be). Here we are heading home with a wagon load of hay and the broken rake on the forks.

Wagon Load of Hay & Broken Rake heading home

I welded up the rake, with a good bead all the way around the joint. It was clear that it was very close to a complete failure which could have been a real pain. Once again happy that I taught myself how to weld many, many years ago!

My New Holland 254 hay rake welded back up

With the rake operational, I could rake the hay ready for baling. I must say that I love the windrows that this rake produces. They look just like the ones in the brochure, even. Susan came out to drive the tractor (on her day off from the Cafe). Stacked another 158 bales onto the wagon. Here’s a birds eye view from near the end.

Susan driving the tractor

And the fruits of our labours

Fruit of our labours: 158 Bales of Hay

Not long after I took this picture we started baling the last field left, the main drive chain came apart on the baler and it stopped un-gracefully. I think the joiner link broke, which is frustrating as it was new last year.

Yesterday was a win-win. Our friend John had been having trouble with his baler. He brought it over and I managed to sort out the problem with his knotter and then we tested the baler by baling the remaining hay.

There were thunderstorms forecast so I made sure all the wagon’s were under cover. The forecast today has changed and it’s looking like there may be another three day window starting tomorrow. So time to fix the baler, get the wagon’s empty and be ready to go again.

UPDATE: added rake repair pic, and I should have kept my mouth shut about the forecast. The rain is back.

This year we’re going to try growing a lot more of the produce that we use at the cafe (www.YellowCanoeCafe.ca). I’m trying to aim smaller if anything so things don’t get away from us. The primary crops will be mixed salad greens, tomatoes, beans, and herbs. We’re also putting in pie pumpkins, cukes, eggplant, corn, and more.

I got a good start in mid April tilling up the plots.

First till of the vegetable garden beds

The tractor mounted tiller makes quick work of producing a nice looking bed. The near end of this bed is destined to be covered with our 24×48 foot greenhouse which I’m planning on using as a field-house to extend the growing season. It’s taking longer to get the foundation up, so it’s looking like we’ll be testing extending things in the fall more.

I paid for not getting the field-house up last night when there was a surprise frost warning. We have about 40 tomatoes, a dozen brussels sprouts, and a few cukes in so I was scrambling to come up with row covers. I ended up using a combination of floating row cover I got at Lee Valley Tools, and a bunch of recycled lumber tarps.

Plants covered up for frost protection

As it turned out I don’t think we got a frost, although it was close. Here’s a picture from inside the “caged garden” after I got the covers off.

The view from inside the "Caged Garden"

I used this configuration last year and had no problems with the deer. In a few weeks I’ll plant the beans around the outside to climb up the fences. It was one of those “blinding flashes of the obvious” when I realized that the beans didn’t need to be in rows and I could use these fence panels to provide crop protection too.

More info as things progress, I’d better get back to welding up the last section of the field-house base.

This year is turning out to be the year of both surprise calf births, and heifers. As I was driving the tractor around to move the hay feeder there was Squiggy standing near the fence with a new calf alongside!

Squiggy's third calf, born May 15, 2009

From the looks of things she must have been born early this morning.

Squiggy is my friendliest cow and this new calf seems to share her mother’s temperament. The calf is also darned heavy as I was panting hard after carrying it around to the front field (with Squiggy following).

They are now enjoying being in the “Maternity Field” that has fresh grass and is in view from the house.

Squiggy & her calf in the "Maternity Pasture"

One of the joys of farming is you never know what each day is going to bring. Some days like today you really luck out.

Here’s a couple of phone pictures of the new calf, tentatively named “E2″.

Ella's 2009 calf, 5 days old & outside for first time

Yesterday, likely during the afternoon while I was having a late lunch at the cafe, Ella took care of business on herself and delivered a heifer calf.

Heifer calf born May 7, 2009

We didn’t get home till after supper but Ella seemed to have everything in hand. I was concerned that I hadn’t seen the calf suck, and Ella’s teats still looked a bit dirty. It’s important for the calf to get the colostrum in the “first milk” as it contains the anti-bodies to kick start the immune system. I lured Ella into the headlock with some grain, tied one of her hind legs off, and had a go at getting some milk from her. I got a cup or so and tried bottle feeding it, but the calf wasn’t interested. At 1am I gave up.

This morning all seemed well, and I was relieved to see the calf get up and have a feed. So all should be well. The first three days are the most critical.

Ella and her calf born May 7, 2009

Here’s another picture taken this morning. Couldn’t find the digicam last night and the cell phone camera wasn’t up to the job.

I haven’t decided on a name yet. This is our first heifer calf (after 5 males, & 1 female twin who won’t be fertile) so it remains to be determined if her destiny is motherhood or steaks. It will depend on her nature as she develops and the gender of the remaining three (hopefully) calves yet to come.