firming up

The working yard and livestock areas are beginning to firm up.  Soon we will be able to clean the hog barns.  Already the market herd of cattle are being fed the last of the hay on a pasture paddock and the cow herd is getting through the last days before pasture greenup, we hope, by May first.

Meanwhile, the farrowing house is clean and waiting for the next sows and the last born piglets are thriving in their straw and cornstalk beds. 

Ice jam

Ice jam cleared on the drainage ditch and the water covering half the north pasture dropped overnight.  We don't get overly concerned about flooding when the plants are still dormant, but they are beginning to green and the receding of the waters is welcome here.  The thaw has been slow which is probably the best to be hoped for in terms of reducing damage. 

thaw

Spring thaw started yesterday and today it includes rain.  The snow is shrinking, the threat of flooding in the river towns grows.  For a livestock farmer it is an ongoing effort to think ahead, to achieve a position from which, when it is possible to do a necessary thing-cleaning the sow housing for instance-the ducks are in a row to actually do it.
In consequence, three days ago, I dug out and warmed up the tractor hooked to the manure hauling wagon so that it would start.  I jacked up the box, propped the hoist for safety and added oil to the system, remembering as I did that it failed to rise completely at last use last fall.
Then I got the big snowbucket on the skidloader and used it to clear as much of the snow as I could off a small hill adjacent to the sow housing.  I very well knew that we would not be able to haul heavy loads to the crop land for several weeks and we shouldn't wait that long for the barn cleaning.  The hill I cleared is surrounded by well established pasture sod, making it the best bet for holding a manure stockpile in place and keeping runoff from the drainage.
That done, I parked the manure box on the cleared hill so that the raised box would face the south sun at a good angle and began to wait for the sun to work its magic on both the machine and the hilltop.

Today's concern, while we wait to start the sow barn cleaning, has to do with moving some of the hay bales to higher ground to keep them from soaking up too much moisture as our excessive snow pile melts, not usually a concern with an ordinary winter.  And so it goes.  Thinking to stay ahead of the work is called everyday management.

soil health

I have been studying everything I can get my hands on regarding soil health for more than five years now and it keeps getting more and more interesting.  I go tomorrow to SFA's annual soil health conference and am wondering about the speaker.  This year I have heard and seen the idea argued that soil life and plants cooperate together to do what they need to do, moving nutrients around to where they are needed and more of that sort. 
It may be that I am surprised by this only because we as Americans, myself included, have become so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as independent individuals, each responsible for his/her success or failure.  I am faced with the need to admit that microbes can accomplish what seems beyond us humans!