Continued unseasonably warm weather. I was again on the road with ranch succession facilitation work. I also attended the back half of a sesshin (3 day sit) in Bozeman. I left without even a coat. How crazy is that for mid-October. Cows are still using North Big Wall Paddock 10 and 11. We are still feeding alfalfa every three days (about 10 pounds per pair). Livingston antelope hunters came this weekend but left empty handed.
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Finally home from California. I got a very good feel for the water challenges in that part of the world. I included some photos of some old hiking haunts in the coast range. Dana and I came home to a good green-up from last weekend’s rain. While gone, Ryan moved the pairs through North Big Wall 8, 7, 14a, 14, 9, and 10. A strong all day wind on the 11th scattered cows all over, but they are back in NBW10 today. Both cocklebur and Canada thistle seems to be increasing in the wetland areas, and I will need to keep watching the trend. Canada thistle has a way of expanding in dry years when there is less competition from the grasses and sedges. I also included a photo of some dry holes in NBW 9 with encrusted alkali salt. Before we had well water piped to this paddock, watering from these ponds during dry years could trigger alkali sickness, causing animals to go blind. Many of the water holes on NBW9 are a result of small check dams built before we bought the ranch. At some point the ranch needs to test the merits of taking some of the check dams out to reverse the trend of saline seep in the area.
Attended an inspiring Savory Institute Conference 10/2-10/4 in the Bay Area. The new climate change narrative is managing/building soil to sequester and re-balance the planetary carbon cycle. While gone, over 2” moisture graced the ranch. Ryan continues to move pairs through the North Big Wall unit. We are starting to feed alfalfa every three days to break calves to feeding hay. We may trigger an early mid-October weaning to better ration our remaining dormant feed to support the cows into next April.
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Bill Milton
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