Friday Farm Fun- Winter Feeding

This week we started feeding hay. The cows and calves had eaten down all the pastures and were bawling for more to eat.

Last winter toward the end of feeding season, I was feeding by myself, heading out through the juniper trees with the strings cut and hoping the sway of the worn-out wagon would dump hay off either side. A wheel went over a rock and the next thing I knew the trailer was at a strange tilt and the bed rubbing on a wheel. Luckily there was only on bale on it, so I unhooked the wagon leaving it for the cows to feast on, and drove the tractor back to the house. Hubby looked at the wagon when he returned and said it needed an overhaul.

And he did. The only thing left of the old wagon is the tongue, axles and wheels. He rebuilt the rest and it is a sturdier better feeding vehicle. And so two days ago the wagon was christened. Hubby loaded a layer of 800 lb bales on it and I pulled it from the barn to where we are feeding the cattle and it didn't wobble or scare me when I had to pull it over the rockiest piece of road on the place.

The factor that really told me it was made well, was when BB(Black Bull) rubbed his head on the hay bale and the trailer didn't list to the side, nearly sliding hubby off. Before its makeover the wagon was very tipsy.

The only part of winter feeding I don't like is the fact it's dark when hubby gets home from his day job and even though I have lights on the tractor, all those black little calves are sometimes hard to see and I fear running over one.

Off to kick up the hay and give pellets to the five heifers Hubby brought home from the sale. They are getting tamer and have some fun personalities.