One of those days

Ever have one of those days on the farm where you say, “You just can’t make this stuff up.” Or another way to put it is, “If you can think of it, it will happen.” We had a couple of those days this past week. Around 7:00 a.m. an Amish buggy pulled into the yard and the driver said he saw eight of our heifers near his farm, but not in our pasture. I don’t think the Amish fellow was out of the yard before those heifers were cited coming across our hayfield. Tuesday is our hoof trimming day. Buff, the magic hoof trimmer, arrives at 7:45, which meant he was right in time help put the eight heifers in a pen in the barn near the dry cows. We still had to sort cows for trimming and check any sick ones.

Later in the morning, Peter and Nick started to investigate the fence in the pasture; they did find a spot amongst the multi-flora rose bushes where the heifers had escaped. In the meantime, Dane and I went to the far west side of the pasture and started to check that area. This pasture is very hilly. It crosses three streams and some very good wildlife habitat. The outside fence is five miles long and goes up some hills that are very difficult to walk up. The only way to check the fence is to walk and carry a pliers and a small roll of used barb wire. If a tree is down or a major breech has happened, then we get more people to help. We like having pregnant heifers on grass because they usually calve easier than freestall-raised ones. They also utilize the nutrients in grass to make muscle and grow a calf. The cost to pasture a heifer in our area is 10 dollars a month – a lot cheaper than custom raising. And it gives our horse-loving friends a chance to use their skills to roundup our heifers in the fall and walk them home. But there is always the risk of getting out, as these heifers have never seen a fence with grass on both sides.

As we were checking and fixing fences, another Amish neighbor called to tell us he had corralled four more heifers. While I was walking through a forested area, I found the remaining animals. At least we now knew where they all were. Some summers we never see all the heifers together. A thunderstorm was forecasted to arrive shortly; when it rains the truck and trailer like to slide to the valley. As we were finishing the fence repairs, Jacqui called Peter to ask if it was normal for manure to come out the door of the pump room. Dane and I loaded both loads of animals and returned them to grass just before a heavy storm hit us.

Meanwhile Peter was able to get a septic pumper out and they started the job of cleaning the pump room. It is 10 feet deep, 10 feet wide, and 10 feet long and the manure had actually rose two feet higher before an electric hydraulic motor stopped because it was covered. This room contains a pump that transfers manure to a concrete storage structure. An aluminum fitting on a two-inch air hose had broken and created a path of least resistance for the manure to travel, instead of down the 700 foot pipe to the concrete tank. It was one of those times we wished the automatic sensor hadn’t been on. After about three hours the majority of the manure had been sucked out and the equipment was sprayed clean.

Wednesday was a new day. I thought things can’t be as bad as yesterday. Wrong! At 6:30 a.m. I get a text from Peter as he was feeding cows that the heifers were back. Shoot! At least they came to the farm and didn’t stop at the really nice house with the manicured lawn and swimming pool that’s located between the pasture and the farm. Our cows usually get out after a rain so their hooves make big holes in our lawns.

Then I got another text from Peter at 7:15; he said there was no power in the parlor. One leg of our three-phase power quit working. Some lights were on, but no motors. If you aren’t familiar with single-phase or three-phase electrical systems, I can explain a little. Most homes and small farms are single-phase. A typical five-horsepower single-phase motor would use 30 amperes of electrical power at 120 volts. In a three-phase system, that five-horsepower motor would use only seven amperes with the voltage at 480 volts. The three-phase motor is also much cheaper and usually starts easier. Additionally, the wires needed are different, with single-phase needing a No. 6 wire (very larger diameter) and three-phase needing a No. 12 (much smaller).

Since this line is between our generator and the parlor, the generator was not able to help. A couple of years ago we lost a big shed to a fire. In the rebuilding of it, a contractor hit a very big electrical wire that was part of the three-phase system.His auger became very hot and luckily no one was injured. The lines were repaired with expensive water tight connectors and worked for two years until something caused them to short out. Maybe all the recent rain?

So with the help of our trusty electrician, temporary lines circumvented that shed. The guys dug up the good section (we hoped) and hooked them together and we were back to milking. But the delay was seven hours and it was painful to listen to cows waiting to be milked. Cows are creatures of habit. When they are usually milked every eight hours and suddenly they aren’t, they bellow constantly. The whole pen was standing by the gates. We did hot wire a water pump and kept all waterers full from our emergency water tanker. It makes me consider what farmers with parlor fires have had to go through. We had a whole lot of cows with swollen mammary glands. They ran to the parlor to get relief.

Oh, and the majority of the heifers are still in the pasture and we are waiting for a normal day.