Today is the third day of challenging heat. Tomorrow promises somewhat cooler temps and we will need to see what the humidity will be. Yesterday was butcher day and Andrew needed to get the hogs to the butcher in Belgrade. There are risks in moving hogs in this weather. Most livestock trailers do not cool as well as they should, and even if they do, any air moving is very hot, mid nineties yesterday. Andy generally has a good supply of ice frozen for these kinds of situations. The hogs will play with the ice chunks, which helps them to cool down around the head and neck. We also wet them down as regularly as needed, both in their hoop living quarters and in the livestock trailer. Hogs do not sweat and wet skin is helpful for them to survive extreme temps. Andy moved the delivery into the morning.
The cattle were grazed out in the sun on Tuesday in the regular pastures. On Wednesday, I held them on the yard in their lot and fed them hay. I put a bale in late last night and spent two hours early this morning finishing the fence around the grazing in the hay field that Andy had topped the day before to reduce the risk of alfalfa bloat. By eight o'clock I had the charge in the fence up to 2000 around the thirty acres. Not really enough, I thought but it will have to do. Due to the rain on Tuesday and the high humidity, the grass stays really wet, pulling the charge down in the fence.
I let them out into the new grazing at about 8:30 this morning and they grazed out there, staying close to the shade available north of the farmstead grove. When I checked them after the noon, they had found their way back to their customary trees to pass the heat of the day. Things are going to be easier after that first trip out and back in!
We are due for some R and R now tomorrow. We better not let the pile of work here bully us out of a bit of easy time after the three day emergency we have just farmed through!
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