The beginning of June gave us quite a bit of moisture, much more than we have had in the last few years. It made it a little interesting at times and slowed seeding down, but the pastures greatly appreciated it.
On the second, we took the kids to go ride and check the cows. We discovered our new yearling bull was in with the cows. He had jumped over one fence, then walked around the end of another fence that goes into the slough.
Hopefully, he finished his job before he put in his job application to a new pasture. We didn’t think that he would stay if we took him back to the heifer pasture, so we left him alone and instead brought the heifers over to the cow pasture. Thanks to the rain, the grass is very good and appears to be growing enough to keep up to them for now.
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We had our sixth foal for the year, a nice sorrel colt, a day later. This really nice mare is very well bred but has given us trouble in the pasture to get her to settle to our stallion. I’ve bred her to an outside stallion for three years and she never had any problems settling or carrying to term, so we decided it was time to try her with our stallion again. We are not disappointed! This colt is her nicest foal yet.
On the 15th, our last foal of the year was born in the morning, a nice buckskin filly. We ended up with only two fillies this year and five colts. The last filly is by an outside stallion and so we are really looking forward to how she develops and are excited about her possible future in the broodmare band.
We were also able to finish seeding on the 15th and I was able to plant the last of the garden with the help of the boys and little Anna.
It was Gregory’s birthday and Father’s Day on the 16th. It was a beautiful day of rest knowing the crop was seeded and the garden was in. The cherry on top was that it also rained over an inch and a half that day.
With the crop seeded, attention turned to the summerfallow. It too liked the rain and much of it has turned into a sort of plow-down crop. Before being worked with the cultivator, most of the fields needed to be mowed first, so progress has been slow but steady.
It suddenly turned quite hot and humid in July. Gregory and John did not have all the summerfallow worked for the first time, but it was time to try to get the ditch hay cut. The ditches have also enjoyed the spring rain and are so nice this year! John continued mowing and cultivating what he could, while Gregory cut ditches. Gregory cuts ditches with the open tractor, so he got quite warm some days.
