Our hay lady called. I think I've mentioned that out here in CO, we get three cuttings of hay. Some people can eek out a fourth cutting if they have good irrigation and we don't get a killing frost.
Well, we got a heck of a hail storm about two weeks ago and it completely demolished her second cutting hay. She hadn't cut it yet cuz of the County Fair and her children were showing animals and her husband was out of town and all of a sudden - BLAM-O! A hail storm wiped out the hay leaving a few measly sticks with no leafy greens sticking up outta the soil. We were supposed to get 225 bales from her second cutting. Not anymore! She baled it anyway to get it out of the field and will sell it as cow hay.
Cows have all these little microscopic bugs that live in their gut... when the bugs eat the food the cow chews and swallows, they poo (cuz everybody poos)...and the microscopic poo is filled with nutrients and protiens for the cow to digest. Yeah, that is over simplification but this is a blog and not a lecture.
Interesting eh? This means cows can eat lower quality feed cuz as long as the bugs in their gut will chow down and poo, the cows get the nutrition they need. Sometimes people will feed them a grain or pelleted feed with high protien but they have to special coat it so the bugs can't get it and it gets absorbed by the cow further on down the digestive tract.
Dairy animals are a little different. You still feed them high quality food cuz whatever they eat comes through the milk and you want animals making clean, sweet tasting milk.
Cows, goats, deer and antelope are ruminants...meaning they have 4 chambers to their stomach and not just one like us. Tho' it's been a loooooong time since I've attended an animal nutrition or anatomy class.
In one of my Animal Science classes, we walked into a building in summer for a lab and there was a cow digestive tract laying on the concrete floor. Complete with flies and stench. I don't gross out easily at all. I am proud to say I have been known to gross out grown men that say they are IMPOSSIBLE to gross out. I see it as a challenge and happily rise to the occasion.
However, on that day, I was grossed out. It was hot in the building, there were many people crowded around me, people were sweating, there were lots o' flies, there were digestive enzymes, there was poo, there was a lot of STANK. Maybe I was hung-over that day...I don't know.
The digestive tract in any creature is full of food being turned into either nutrients or into poo. So given that it was hot, and all "meat" rots, and who knows how many other classes had been through before I got there... and I'm sayin the WHOLE tract was there from tongue to a perfectly cut-out asshole.
Anyway - I digress. Alls I really wanted to say was that we ain't gettin' our second cutting hay from our hay lady. She will supply us half of what we need for the year with her third cutting (if nothing happens to it) and she gave us the number of another hay guy. I called him and put my name on his list IF he has any third cutting to give us. His second cutting got wet with rain - it was baled but not covered. Wet bales = mold. Lots o' mold. Not good for our horses or dairy goats.
Keep your fingers crossed for third cutting!
Our small animal vet called. I called her a month ago to let her know we were getting low on a perscription for one of our dogs. He gets propalin to help his bladder muscles stay strong. Some dogs have a weak bladder once they are neutered or spayed. If Sammy gets his "pee pill" every other day, we don't have problems. If not, well occasionally he has accidents...nothing deliberate but the pee sorta drips out and he doesn't notice... like a leaky faucet. Not fun for anyone.
We hadn't heard hide nor hair from her in forever and started thinking maybe we made her mad some how. She said naw, she had been busy campaigning her steers and bulls at the local fairs and hadn't had a chance to catch up on calls. She has one bull that is placing Grand Champion in any fair they enter him in so they are thinking about taking him to MT and seeing how he does up there. It will be good for her cattle sales if he can keep winning Grand Champion.
I'm gonna have to find a back-up veterinarian cuz if something serious happens to one of our dogs or cats while it's fair season, they won't stand a chance!
3 comments:
Someone posted that I should send those pix to The Mercian, our h.s. paper... I tried to publish the comment but it disappeared.
I'm not sure Sister Jaworski would appreciate Mercy girls breasteses in other girl's husband's hands. Or in each others for that matter!
Jealousy?
Nope. I showed a dairy cow for extra credit in a class at college. Damn thing near kicked my fool head off. Took my goats to some shows... that didn't flip my switch either. Happy to be on the OUTSIDE o' the ring come Fair time.
Post a Comment