Blue Balls

Blue Balls

Frost-free cattle waterer

Colonel’s Blog, Earth-date 21 Dec 2022…

Hey Ya’ll! Good morning again from the Ponderosa!

As we continued preparing for the impending frigid temperatures, we had to do some work with our frost-free cattle waterers. One of the things that we really loved about this property was that there was water piped throughout the property and there were multiple cattle waterers. For a rotational grazing program to work, you must have water available in all of the locations you may want your livestock. This is a key feature for regenerating our land. Over the summer, we removed one of the balls from the waterers to make it easier for new calves to access the water. Nevertheless, that open area will freeze solid and move throughout the waterer rendering it ineffectual. So, we went around the farm yesterday replacing the blue balls.

Speaking of blue balls, the ewe and ram move yesterday was a complete success! Ram-tastic and Ram-ster joined the ewe flock before lunch and immediately commenced their duties. We will be looking for lambs around 20 May 2023.

Today is reason for at least a small celebration on the farm as it is the winter solstice and is the shortest day of the year. From today, the days will start getting longer. Reduced daylight is a blessing and a curse for us. We get less done on the farm each day, but it forces us inside for some much needed physical rest. We will be distributing the straw today. We wanted to wait until after the snow tomorrow, but the temps are dropping so quickly during and after the storm that I am concerned that it will be too cold for us to work outside, so we will get it done today. We are still anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Jersey calves. We certainly hope and pray they don’t decide on tomorrow night in the -30 degree windchills to join us.

Try to stay warm! Merry Christmas.

Rich and Shelley