Weather: Very warm both days. Continued smokey conditions from fires in Canada.
Where: Cows in WG-7. Bulls in WG-1. Travis bulls (5) in corral lot. Daily splits for cows of 20 and 27 acres. One 5 acre split for bulls. Soil conditions drying quickly with rapid plant growth. Some crested wheat leaves starting to curl. Best outcome for this grass year is not to retard growth for at least 3 more weeks. Most of our biomass is generated in 45 to 60 days, and we are now about 20 to 30 days into our rapid growth phase.
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Weather: Sunny 75 degree high and 37 low and still a bit cloudy.
Where: WG-7 for cows got a 21-ac split in the morning. Two more dead calves. The bulls got a 1.4 ac split in the afternoon. Lewis’ woodpecker spotted in WG-7, and one fox spotted near EG-7. Weather: The smoke is still around, overcast in the morning but opened up in the afternoon to clear sunny skies.
Where: WG-7 for cows moved themselves to this morning to a 42-ac split. One Coyote spotted near the back of the cows. A pair and two heifers where all the way back at the winter facility. Half of the cows and most of the yearlings were back in EG-7. All where back in the WG-7 by late morning. Weather: 63 degrees, overcast and .097 of precipitation. The smoke from Canada arrived on the ranch.
Where: WG-7 for cows no moves left over feed between sage brush and crested wheatgrass. The bull got a 2.7 ac split. Weather: Warm enough to bring on mosquitos and bees.
Where: WG-7 for cows 23 ac split in the pm. WG-1 bulls 2.7 ac split. One move for the cows. Bulls stay put and new bulls are still in the corrals. We seem to have lost our 6 sheep for the moment. First apple tree in full bloom and the second on its way. Thankfully the bees are back in good numbers to pollinate the apple blossoms and set seed for the 2023 crop. Weather: Foggy morning breaks open to sun and warmer temperatures by afternoon
Where: WG-7 for cows 38 ac split: No move for bulls. Pretty strong feed even if it is crested wheat. Received 5 yearling bulls from Travis. Ryan’s well goes down due to pressure tank rusting out and flooding well. Ryan had it back up by nightfall-all on his own. Resilience. Weather: Foggy morning breaks open to sun and warmer temperatures by afternoon
Where: WG-7 for cows: WG-1 for bulls. One split for both the cow mob and bulls. A few heifers break out again into Kilby Butte. I pushed them all the way back to main group. Three calves either born dead or died soon after, as they never got up to suck. Hard to take. On the plus side Dana is making great progress in the yard and garden. I picked a bouquet of Golden Peas for Mother’s Day. The peas are having a stellar bloom this year. And, finally, in the last 8 days of on and off moisture the ranch has received about .5 inches of moisture. Moisture levels (4” to 36”) measured with the Mesonet are camping out between 15 to 19%. Great green up, yet at present, not great soil moisture to support more than a week of continued growth. Tyler as a new border collie pup called Sage!! Weather: Misty moisture falls all day finally turning to mud.
Where: WG-7 for cows; WG-1 for bulls. Second split in WG-7. Forgot bulls and will tend to them tomorrow. Weather: More cloudy cool weather with miniscule moments of moisture.
Where: WG-7 for cows; WG-1 for bulls. Float into WG-7 Not everyone follows. A group of yearlings jump the cattleguard at SE corner of EG-7 into the Kilby Butte Colony. Not too hard to fix-cattleguard needs to be dug out. Daily moves with cow mob continue. No move with bulls. Piles of zoom calls with diverse players to lock in our Range Monitoring Group spring meeting on June 16th. Weather: Light overcast and showers. Nothing measurable.
Where: EG7 for cows; WG-1 for bulls. One more split for cows. Lost 2 more calves. Likely same ongoing cause. One worked over by coyotes before found. I suspect but not sure, the coyote(s) came in after the calf died. We will continue to monitor closely. Visited by Shane, Rebecca, and Nate from BLM to revies the EA on our proposed permit change. If approved our annual TNR aum request will be converted to actual increased permitted aums over the next ten years. Also, BLM will co-invest in converting our open storage pit to a closed storage system. Opportunities for Beaver analogs construction and wildlife friendly fencing, and riparian work are also in the mix. |
Bill Milton
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Milton Ranch LLC | Daily Ranch Journal |