The hailed-out hay and crop will make fall and winter feed
The end of September brought rain and then snow. Gregory and John managed to get all but two fields swathed before the snow. We had about five inches or more of snow, which Joseph loved. As it slowly started melting over the next few days, he was quite disappointed and was always wanting to go […] Read more
Eppich News: It was a multitasking month with harvest, hay and cattle
September started with about half an inch of rain Sept. 2. There was service work to be done on the combines before we could start harvest however, so it didn’t hold up work. By Sept. 4 Gregory and John slowly started cutting ditches and swathing crop again. On mid-afternoon Sept. 6 we started combining. There […] Read more
Hail and dry conditions tool their toll
August was a crazy month of summerfallowing, cutting ditches for hay, baling, working on equipment, swathing the crop, and working in the garden. On August 4 my very good friends from the States came to visit: Lacey from Wyoming and Michelle from Tennessee. Michelle is Joseph’s Godmother, but they are both well-loved “aunties.” They had […] Read more
Eppich News: Storms and predators affected crops and livestock
By the end of June, we finally made some time to rebuild a quarter mile of fence on our home native pasture. Half of our cow herd was still at home being supplemented with hay due to the late grass and the crazy spring. On June 28 John had his second cataract surgery done. On July 2 we moved the rest […] Read more
Eppich News: Some great days and sad days were all part of June
We finished seeding our crop May 28th and the next day Gregory was out seeding oats in the sloughs for feed. It has been so dry that we will need everything we can get. Hopefully, we won’t have to cut too much of the crop for feed. While Gregory was still seeding, John was starting […] Read more
Eppich News: Seeding has started, but need moisture to make it grow
April was dry. There was almost no moisture the entire month. In the middle of April the guys were madly dashing about working summerfallow and I got L J — the four-year-old colt I started last year — going again. On April 19 there was a fire in a yard a few miles north of […] Read more
Eppich News: Though for different reasons, problems just seem to work out
On March 23 we had another mishap — a four-day-old heifer calf got stepped on and we lost her. Later that same day we went over to Lee and Erica Redlich’s, neighbours by Landis, to pick up the pig they butchered for us. We had a very nice visit with them and Lee’s father Terry. […] Read more
Telephone poles and damaged grain bins turned into sturdy calf shelter
Due to the ever-increasing prices of building materials, we try to always keep our eyes and our minds open to anything that can be repurposed. Our small herd of cows is growing and as it grows, we have to keep our facilities growing as well. One thing we encountered this year, thanks to the lingering […] Read more
Eppich News: Extra attention was needed to get cattle through a cold February
February was cold! Temperatures were frigid and the wind was terrible. On Feb. 17 we bedded our corrals and sorted off our heifers to keep them up front where we could keep an eye on them. It was a good thing but for a different reason than we had in mind. On Feb.19 we doctored […] Read more
Used parts here, sucker rod there, and a bit of welding
Building new fence can be a big job and can require different tools that a rancher or farmer doesn’t always own. For example, new fence requires a system to unroll the wire. Rather than purchase an unroller, we decided to try to make one. My father-in-law, John, built a very simple unroller that we could […] Read more
