Me and My Kubota RTV

Macree wasn't the only one who gave me a present for my birthday.  Herb completely overwhelmed me by announcing that since I couldn't think of anything I wanted, he was taking me shopping for my present . . . at Buddy Boykin's Kubota dealership in Rainsville, Alabama to get me . . . an RTV!

An RTV is Kubota's version of a UTV (think John Deere Gator or Kawasaki Mule) but better!  Don't ask me why Kubota thought up a hard-to-remember name like "RTV"--unless they were thinking it stood for "Really Terrific Vehicle!  Since I have a hard time remembering "RTV," I call it my "Doodad."  I haven't heard it complain.

My particular Doodad happens to be a Kubota RTV900 Worksite model.  Just to show that girls can talk "tractor," too, it has a 3-cylinder diesel engine with 898 cc displacement (enough to haul our loaded ABI manure spreader) and 21.6 HP.  It has a 7.4 gal. fuel capacity, a VHT Plus (Variable Hydrostatic Transmission--no shifting), has 4WD and 3 gears plus reverse, and a hydraulic dump cargo bed with a capacity of over 1100 lbs.  Its top speed is 25 miles per hour, but that actually feels like flying on our gravel roads!  This is a WORK HORSE, not a "play pretty" as our Alabama neighbor called his bright yellow ATV that tops out at 67 mph.

Herb was in class all day on the 9th when Boykin had the optional top ready, so I hauled the trailer all the way to Rainsville to pick up my Doodad and bring it home.  Herb did hitch the trailer to the truck for me, and Bronson Lee backed it for me at the dealership.  We gals gotta make sure the guys still feel useful!  :)

Driving my Doodad on its first sortie, I had to laugh at the guinea fowl scattering in front of it and the turkeys running alongside in the pasture.  This is what's been running through my head:

"Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry,
When I take you out in my surrey,
When I take you out in my surrey with no fringe on top.
Watch those birds and see how they flutter
When I drive my high-rollin' strutter;
All those horses make it more than putter--
Yeah, your eyes will pop!
The wheels are rugged, the upholstery's smooth,
It feels like genuine leather.
It doesn't have a windshield but I don't care,
The top will keep out the weather!
Two bright headlights winkin' and blinkin';
Ain't no finer rig I'm a thinkin';
You can keep yer rig if yer thinking that I'd keer to swap
Fer my shiny little surrey with no fringe on the top!



Our first errand was to go check on Sara and Tundra.

I told Herb we could have used my Doodad instead of the Toyota Tundra for our whole secret op to get Tundra and Sara to a safer pasture.  On second thought, I'm glad we didn't have it yet because I don't think either "RTV" or "Doodad" would be a very nice name for a calf!

Later that day Herb and I used the Doodad to take a new water tank out to the Back Pasture and fill it up for Cash and family.  Feed bowls full of feed, a new heavy-duty hose, plumbers' tape, a pliers, and the large water tank all fit comfortably in back of the Doodad and made the job easy.

This morning Herb told me he hadn't seen Cash, Siobhan or Macree out in the Back Pasture and would I mind checking on them.  Doodad and I were up for the job!  I found out that the cattle had gotten through the electric fence (which someone forgot to turn on!) into the back part of the pasture, but they came running when they heard the Doodad coming.  It's taken about two days for them to figure out that nice rumbling Kubota means FOOD!

I took the opportunity to tie everyone one up and get some photos, as well as get in some time working with Macree. While everyone was tied up, I grabbed some fly spray out of my Doodad Kit (more on that below) and gave everyone a good dose of fly prevention.

When I first suggested the idea of getting a UTV to Herb several years ago, I said it would be useful around the farm.  It can do a lot of jobs that we usually use the larger tractor or truck for, and it would cause less damage to the pastures, besides being more convenient.

Lately Herb has seen that sometimes it's difficult for me to get around with my bad leg, and that's why he decided to get me the RTV.  But I still wanted him to know that it's USEFUL, not just a toy, and that's how I thought of my Doodad Kit.  That's it above, held in with Kubota-orange bungie cords.

The Doodad Kit is a Steri-lite box that I bought at WalMart for about $20.  It has a latching lid that will keep water out, although I don't plan to leave the Doodad out in the weather.

Inside the Doodad Kit are all the things I could think of that might be useful when we're out and about.  You know, those "Darn! if I only had such-and-such with me I could do this-or-that" moments.

I tried to think of as many scenarios as I could and proceeded to outfit my kit:

• Plastic container of horse treats
• Cow fly spray
• Horse fly spray
• Wasp spray
• Weed killer spray (NOT Round-up!)
• Extra spray bottle in case one of the others quits working
• Orange hay twine rolled up in a baggie
• Two sizes of calf halters
• A red lead rope (so I remember it belongs in the Doodad)
• A red first aid kit with iodine, tape, sunscreen and insect repellant
• Vinyl-palmed gloves in a baggie
• Ladies' work gloves in a baggie
• 12 pairs of disposable plastic gloves in a baggie
• A DNA test kit in a stackable plastic box with alcohol, pliers for pulling tail hairs, plastic baggies, a Sharpie for putting cows' name on baggie, and a roll of tape for adhering pulled hairs to.
• A tattoo kit for ears in a stackable plastic box with the tattoo clamp, letters, numbers, and ink.  Note to self:  Add some disposable gloves!
• A tool kit in a stackable plastic box with pliers, 4-way screwdriver, wire cutter, a pocket knife and a few handy hooks and O-rings.  A fencing pliers that is too big for the box has a spot nearby.

A Kubota baseball cap in the front seat, a grocery bag bungied to the Doodad's frame to hold garbage, and a walking stick/snake stick in the back complete my Doodad Kit.

There might be some eventuality my Doodad and I aren't ready for, but I'd be surprised!  Herb and I were out in the pasture the other day when we noticed that Sara had taken Tundra into the (open) round pen in their pasture.  "Hey," I said, "let's take advantage of Sara being in there and get her in the head gate."

It took a lot of patience along with several whacks from a rotten branch on Sara's nose when she charged Herb, plus a lot of sweat waiting in the hot sun for Sara to relax and take the food bait . . . but once Herb hid out of sight and I backed away far enough, she stuck her head out for the food, and I nabbed her.  We wiggled Tundra along Sara's side and out the back of the chute, got a halter out of the Doodad to help hold her, pulled out the DNA kit and got tail hairs from both girls, pulled out the tattoo kit and tattooed Tundra, then loaded everything back in the Doodad along with the empty food bowl. Who knows when we would have gotten this job done if we hadn't happened to have everything we needed right in the Doodad?

I don't think I needed to worry too much, though, about convincing Herb that my Doodad really is useful.  A few minutes ago he came and asked me if he could use it to go get a load of his books from storage in Kara's house.  Of course he could!  There's enough Doodad for all of us to enjoy!

Seek and Ye Shall Find . . . But What?

I'm sure you've had the experience of searching for something on the internet.  A page comes up with various sites and you click on the most interesting ones.  If you're like me, you were just glad to get whatever you were looking for and you didn't stop to think about the mechanics of how your search results appeared on your computer screen.

A short time ago I discovered that Blogger keeps stats on each blog.  I can see which are my most popular posts, which servers people use to get on my blog, what countries they are from, and probably most interesting of all, the keywords people were searching for that led them to my blog.

I can see a list of search keywords for Right Now, Today, The Past Week, The Past Month, and All Time.  So what brings people to Zephyr Hill Farm?  Here goes:

zephyr hill farm-28

zephyrhillfarm.blogspot.com-25

medial patellar ligament
splitting-24 (That's the surgery about to be performed on Brandy in the photo at left.)

cellulitis in horses-20  (That's the complication Brandy had after the surgery.  I'll spare you a repeat of the gross photos!)

medial patellar ligament in animal-5  (More of the same.)

patella tractors-4  (Hmm, what's that?)

cattle headgates-15

cattle headgate plans-13

head gate-11

homemade cattle head gate-4

cattle head locking gate-2

t bone the steer-2

california bander-14  (That's the rubber band thing-y that Herb used to turn T-bone into a steer.)

potato condo-12

abi spreader-16

used abi manure spreader-1

And then there were the less popular topics, but still searched for often enough to appear on my blog stats:

molting chickens in winter-2

dexter cattle in snow-2

house with pasture filled with cows-2  (I hope they found the pastoral scene above.)

pasture poultry tractor-2

pig crate pickup truck-2

temple ladies-2  (Whaaat?)

"pickled tink" translation  (Whaaat, again?  How on earth did that search bring someone to Zephyr Hill Farm?  I don't have a clue, but if they found what they're looking for, I'm tickled pink!)

One recent search that has now disappeared from my stats was "shemar moore and wife."  I know how that person got sent to my blog, but I have to laugh at their disappointment upon discovering that my Shemar Moore is a black rooster, albeit one with a Criminal Mind!  Yes, sad to say, my Shemar is the bad guy, and he's been sentenced to capital punishment for attacking the hand that feeds him!

So if you found us by accident, welcome, and I hope you find what you're looking for!  And if you're a regular visitor to Zephyr Hill Farm, we're glad you came back!  You never know what you might find here.  After all, there's a reason I didn't call this blog "Dull Days on Zephyr Hill Farm."

Siobhan is AI'd, Part II

Siobhan, our Dexter heifer, 19 months old

Wednesday morning about 10 a.m., Mitch came from Bickett Genetics to give Siobhan her shot of Lutalyse (prostaglandin) to bring her into heat.  We had to wait at least 48 hours for him to do the AI, unless we saw good evidence of "standing heat," such as her standing still for T-Bone to mount her.  So I spent the morning sitting on the tailgate in the shade, observing Siobhan's and T-Bone's behavior for signs that Siobhan had come in heat.

They did a lot of head rubbing and butting.  That's one indication.

Siobhan put herself into the cattle chute several times, and although T-Bone didn't mount her, he sure glued his head next to her tail while they both stood there.  That could be another indication.

They were quite companionable.  Siobhan had mucus secretions from the vulva and dirt smeared on her rear end which could be a sign that she has been mounted.  Yet another indication.

The end of Siobhan's back, just in front of her tail, seemed sunken in with the tail head elevated.  This happens during a cow's heat because of pelvic rotation.  One more good indication.

About noon I decided that just as    "a watched pot never boils," perhaps a watched heifer never heats!  So I got the tractor and bush-hogged the field adjoining the round pen, peering in at the cattle every time I passed.  Nothing much changed.

Finally about 6:30 p.m., Mitch came to do the AI.  He said it's not unusual in weather like this (our thermometer said 98° but it was predicted to be 100°) for mounting behavior not to occur and for signs of heat to be suppressed.  We had the wrong kind of heat!

I put a lead rope on Siobhan and she followed me into the head gate, neat as can be.  Mitch commented on how docile she is.  (That's my Dexter girl!)

So Siobhan has been bred to Taco, and next month will tell if it took.  Hopefully we won't see T-Bone mounting her because that would mean she isn't bred and is coming back in heat.

With any luck, we now have two pregnant cows on the farm!

Setting Up Siobhan for AI

This morning we had scheduled Mitch from Bickett Genetics to come set Siobhan up for AI.  To be sure we'd be ready for him, Herb put all the cows in the Lower Pasture last night and put Siobhan up in the round pen with water and plenty of grass.  The plan was to get Siobhan into the head gate just before Mitch arrived.

Of course this blog wouldn't be about Adventures on Zephyr Hill Farm if things went according to plan around here!  Herb got home from breakfast with a friend, went out to feed and found the round pen empty.  Siobhan was off by herself in Kara's Pasture.  Here's the hole she made getting out of the barbed wire part of the round pen.  I told Herb that Siobhan thinks F. E. N. C. E. stands for "Free Egress: Nice Cow Exit!"

Herb's first task was to get Siobhan back in the Lower Pasture.  Next was to patch the round pen with a cattle panel.  I arrived on the scene, wobbly and sweating from having been sick since Sunday, carrying a feed pan filled with feed, halters, lead, and cellphone.

Luckily, Siobhan loves apples.  While Herb mended fence, she followed me across the pasture and into the round pen, flicking her tongue for the apple in my hand.  Herb went out the far gate, came around and followed Siobhan in, shutting the gate behind her.

Of course, Sara wanted apples, too, so she followed Siobhan in, but she kept her distance.  (She was probably thinking, "Yeah, they got me in there seven months ago, and here I am, pregnant again!")

Herb tempted Siobhan into the far end of the chute while I operated our high-tech swing gate--a cattle panel.  It's not fancy, but it works fine.  So does the fence post Herb put behind Siobhan to keep her from backing up.  (As quiet as she was, we probably could have just walked up and haltered her and led her in, but we went with the tried and true method.)

By the time Mitch arrived, Siobhan was in the head gate happily munching apples.  I distracted her from from her tail end by putting on a new halter.

After Mitch left, we made sure Siobhan got plenty of apples and lots of loving.  She was happy to get a good head scratch and an all-over rub.  Misty came into the round pen to say hi.

I'm glad she and Siobhan get along so well; that's part of Misty's job.  (Although Herb told me that when he was trying to empty the other tank in the Lower Pasture today, Sara was quite close to him and Misty kept growling at Sara.  She didn't stop until Herb moved away.  Sara does not like dogs, so she hasn't made friends with Misty, so apparently Misty doesn't trust her.)

Siobhan and I practiced a bit of leading.  I was thrilled to find that, despite the several month hiatus in working with her, she was ready to go where I led her.  This is where we really see the docile Dexter temperament in action!  It's one of the main reasons we decided to go with Dexters and one of the main qualities we look for in a bull.  (Stay tuned to meet Siobhan's "significant other.")

Siobhan may see the F. E. N. C. E. as a challenge, but the halter and lead rope seem to spell B. U. S. I. N. E. S. S.  What a good girl!

Sara made sure the extra feed didn't go to waste.  T-Bone didn't even try to come get any.  The poor guy knows his place in the pecking order!

I know this is not a cow!  It's just that Hammy Faye Bakker is so darn cute, I couldn't resist taking her picture on the way up to the house.  I was ready to crash, but who can resist a cute pig, especially when it runs up to the fence to greet you?

Looking Back: Things We've Done Right

Things we’ve done right in our three years here:

1)  Getting chickens.  That includes having our own layers and learning to butcher our own meat chickens.

2)  Getting Dexters.  While Sara is not the best representative of the breed, she has given us a marvelous heifer, and Siobhan has convinced us that we love cows, particularly Dexters.  The very helpful and friendly Dexter breeders we’ve met have also contributed to our enthusiasm.

3)  Getting pigs.  Herb getting to meet the Large Blacks at Nature’s Harmony Farm changed his perspective on pigs, and he caved in to my pleading for a pig when I found some on craigslist.  Now we’re both pig fans!

4)  Getting Muscovy ducks to eat flies in the barnyard.  Besides doing exactly what we raised them to do, they are beautiful and fun to watch.

5)  Finding Jeff McBryar, our butcher, and Jim Gifford, the breeder of our Berkshire crosses.  It’s so helpful to have local contacts that we can trust for their expertise in their particular area.

6)  Getting a smoker and vacuum sealer.  We are hooked after smoking our own bacon and ham, and Herb will probably smoke anything that lies still, including fresh salmon at Christmas.  The vacuum sealer will prevent freezer burn in our meat and produce.   It has even been useful in packaging bubble-wrapped bottles of homemade liqueur for air travel.

7)  Reading blogs.  I have learned so much from reading blogs, particularly Farming in France, Hope Refuge Farm, Sugar Mountain Farm, and Throwback at Trapper Creek.  I used to follow Nature Harmony’s Farm blog when they still had one, and this led us to their summer Farm School which was a tremendous help in giving us insight and direction—and leading us to pigs!

8)  Getting a generator.  It could have been a serious mistake not to get one sooner, but Herb managed to find one in time to save our meat last time the power went out.

9)  Making improvements over the past three years.  These include:

• Getting our Kubota L-series tractor, one of the best decisions we've ever made.
• Fencing our 20 x 30’ garden.
• Fencing the barnyard.
• Fencing the Home Pasture with no-climb horse fence so our tiny Dexter calves can be safe.
• Hiring a crew to link all our fences and give us the large new pasture we call Kara’s Pasture.  They came with ideas that saved hundreds of feet of fencing, made our pastures more functional, and got the job done in a fraction of the time that Herb could have done it alone.
• Converting half of a surplus shed into a brooder house.
• Building a large chicken coop and moving it to the safety of the barnyard with water and electricity handy.
• Piping water to the barnyard—it has saved us carrying countless buckets in freezing weather.
• Running electricity to the barn—enabling us to have motion-detector security lights, unfrozen water in the winter, and a barn ceiling fan for hot weather.  A future project is to connect it up to the brooder house so we won’t need to run multiple extension cords.
• Getting a head gate set up with a chute, small round pen and simple sweep gate.

10)  Doing this!  We love what we are doing for ourselves, for our children and grandchildren, for our animals, for this bit of creation God has given us to steward, and for friends and acquaintances we can share these blessings with.

T-Bone Gets Justice

Yesterday's post ended with T-Bone escaping without his injections.  Herb put some feed in the round pen and left both the gates open overnight so the cattle would be able to go in and eat, thus getting the idea that the round pen is a nice place.

This afternoon we went down armed with feed, raw sweet potato peels, cooked sweet potato discards, injections, halters, and camera to attempt to raise our score to 4 out of 4.

There really wasn't much for us to do.  We used our cattle-panel-sweep-gate to cut down the size of the round pen.  T-Bone is afraid of Sara and a little afraid of us, so he took the route that was farthest from all of us . . . right down the chute toward the head gate!

When he got to the end, he reared up on his hind legs and tried to jump through the higher, wider part.  Of course, all that went through was his head.  When his shoulders hit the closed gate, he dropped down to all fours--right where we wanted him!  All we had to do was put a large fence post behind him to keep him from moving so much.

First, I put one of our great halters from Mini Cattle Supply on him so Herb could try to hold his head still.

Then I pulled out the shots and set to work.  T-Bone has no extra flesh at the base of his neck, so I had to pinch some up.  I got the first shot for free.  Then T-Bone realized that a pinch meant an "owie," and he began struggling every time I tried to get some skin.

Some of the second shot ran down his skin so I had to try a new stick.  More bucking and struggling, and I got a hit . . . on me!  Fortunately, I didn't really inject anything.  The same thing happened on the third shot, too.  I got some nice little veins (on me) because the blood was really pouring out.

I figure I'm dewormed and immunized to blackleg and brucellosis now!  I just hope T-Bone doesn't have mad cow disease!

Speaking of which, here's a tool to check and see if your cow has mad cow disease.  Moo-hoo-hoo!

Holy Cow! The Head Gate Works Fine for Dexters!

When we put up our head gate in July as part of our plan to breed Sara again, a reader asked how it worked.  I posted about an attempt to breed Sara in August, an attempt which failed--not through any fault of the head gate, but because of things we didn't know.

Since then, Herb has made the pen around the head gate smaller so Sara has less room to get away.  He also fastened a 16' cattle panel to the end of the chute as a sweep gate to move her where she's supposed to go.  Our last problem was that in August's heat we were less likely to get Sara successfully in season.  October weather has taken care of that problem without us having to do a thing!

So this morning, Mitch came from Bickett Genetics.  We enticed Sara into the round pen with pears, and I led her down the chute with a pear in front of her nose.  I must confess that as soon as Herb and Mitch had a bar in place behind Sara, I scrambled up the side of the chute and left her to the pears.  That chute is too narrow and her horns too long for me to stay in there any longer than I had to!

We asked Mitch to operate the head gate since we have absolutely NO experience, and we didn't want to miss Sara and waste his time.  He opened the gate, Sara moved forward, and . . .

Voila!  The head gate worked like a charm (at least under Mitch's expert touch).  We were surprised that Sara seemed so calm, but Mitch explained that once she's caught, the head gate feels safe and secure to the cow.

We wanted this to be a pleasant experience, so I fed Sara pears at one end while Mitch did his thing at the other end and Herb took pictures.  (I bet Mitch has never had a client take pictures of him work!  I'd love to know what he was thinking!)

Mitch put a vaginal implant in Sara and gave her an injection to stimulate her estrus (heat cycle).  He will come back in a week to repeat the injection and then 24-48 hours later to actually do the AI.

Since we need Sara to be willing to go into the head gate several more times, she got lots of pears!

She also got one thing she didn't like at all:  a halter!  We found great halters that fit Dexters perfectly at Mini Cattle Supply.

Sara was very angry at having me try to put something on her head.  She tossed her horns and repeatedly tried to catch my arm against the head gate.  Unfortunately for Sara, I was more determined than I was scared of her horns (barely!).  Also, thanks to the great halters, I was able to tighten both sides behind her ears, which enabled me to put on a slightly bigger halter than she really needs.  A bigger loop to aim around a thrashing head is definitely a good thing!  Even though she didn't deserve them after her tantrum, Sara got more pears.  We're really working on the message that the head gate is a good, pear-filled place!

Siobhan, bless her heart, doesn't have a horn complex!  She also remembers being handled, even though she's been out in the pasture all spring and summer.  When we let her into the round pen, she willingly came up behind Sara and let me approach her.  I was able to remove her old foal halter that was half off
and put on a new one with no trouble.  She even stood still for some hugging and scratching.

After we let Sara loose, she and Siobhan put their heads together to see what they thought of each others' halters.

Siobhan came over to me for some chin scratching.  She rolled her eye in ecstasy while I snapped a one-handed picture.

Everyone settled down for a snack.

Herb and I decided to pick up acorns for the pigs from the abundance under the big oak tree.  Finding these violets was an unexpected delight.

Sara and Siobhan came to see what we had in the bucket.  Sara decided the guy wire has potential as a scratching post/halter-remover.  And she reminded us that she really hates dogs when she suddenly lunged at poor little Zephyr and pinned her to the ground with a horn.  Fortunately, Zephyr's thick fur protected her.

Siobhan showed her mama what nice behavior looks like by coming up for another good chin scratch.

We sure do love this little heifer!