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Post by dickel on Dec 28, 2015 1:31:19 GMT
I have no idea how much total rain we have had this month (December) the ground is as soft as early spring. It rained from noon yesterday (Saturday) until mid morning today (Sunday) Standing water on the top of the hills and the mud was slick to walk on when I did chores this morning in a mist. The ground is saturated to where it just can't soak away fast. No standing water except for the road ditches but the mud wanted to pull my boots off in places. The four little horses in the new shelter had been chasing each other and playing making their lot a mud pit. Christmas eve I set two more wood posts to enlarge that lot. I bought more tee posts a week ago and run out of energy to put up more fence. I wanted to give them more area with grass. I sure a glad now that I didn't as their playing has removed any chance of grass in the lot they are in now. The lawn mower made brown tracks thru the grass this morning. The other lots were not chewed up except where the grass was non existent. The horses in those areas didn't find the need to see how much they could tromp the whole area. They had not rolled in the slick mud like the four little ones.
Dixie and I went up to the farm for a pickup load of hay this afternoon and there was ponding in the fields where rain collects in heavy rain but not near as bad as I would have guessed. One road was closed because of high water. We have it better than so many others in the path of this system that came thru and still on its way East.
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Post by horselady on Dec 28, 2015 20:22:02 GMT
I hate the mud.. instead of making the area larger make it smaller for a while until it freezes up. their little feet just make the holding pens mud cups and hold the water. and feed them less. that way they will not founder or have all that energy. they will look at you with sorrowful eyes but they at least will have pasture in the spring .. and glad you are planning ahead for bad weather.
be safe.
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mingiz
Junior Member
Los Lunas, NM
Posts: 3,320 
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Post by mingiz on Dec 29, 2015 23:51:58 GMT
I hear ya Dickel. My new barn looks like a big mud hole. So does the rest of the place. Walking across the front yard all you hear is squish squish. It's mud city here. There has been a lot of flooding and parts of interstate 44 are closed. Some local low lying areas are closed. We are ok here except for the mud. May take us till summer to dry out. We have had over 60inches of rain this year. Heard that on the news. Now it's cold!!! But next week is suppose to be better. I can't even get the tractor out to the field to put a round bale out. So will have to push it out there with the atv. Or use squares..  |
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Post by dickel on Dec 30, 2015 11:47:05 GMT
Your area is way worse than ours. Never the less it has been different and a challenge to keep the shelters dried out. We have been staying above freezing so I can't use the loader without tearing the ground up and getting stuck. Ohio passed a manure law that it can not be spread from the first of December until April. Next year the yuppies will be in the air about the manure mountain piles. If it freezes the ground this weekend I should be able to stay on top enough to dung out the shelters and re bed. They are calling for the high 20ยบ's F for highs with lower winds so a person can hope.
You folks down in Missery need a break for sure.
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mingiz
Junior Member
Los Lunas, NM
Posts: 3,320
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Post by mingiz on Dec 30, 2015 13:18:31 GMT
Well that is a dumb law. We know it's best to spread it and let it get back into the ground. It's called recycle. I guess the yuppie types just think Oh it's shit. But I would rather have that shit than the chemicals that they use on everything else. Yea your right, they will complain about the law they made. They don't realize that it is already naturally spread on the ground.  It's suppose to be a tad warmer here also. I just want sun and wind to dry this mess up! |
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Post by dickel on Dec 30, 2015 14:35:49 GMT
The Toledo people was successful in convincing law makers that the farmers were causing the algae bloom in lake Erie. The TV close pictures showed solid grass clippings collecting on the shores at the mouth of the Maumee river with the algae. The thousands of yuppie subdivisions around Toledo put ten times per acre of chemicals and grass clippings than the farmers could ever afford and make a profit. That is what we all get for electing yuppies as law makers regardless of party. Same people that say we shouldn't kill cows for meat that we should all just go to the meat markets to get the beef we eat.
I know that is not the norm and probably only one or two dummies made those statements but there is an overall screwed up thinking process blaming someone else so they can have the most beautiful lawns in their subdivisions. |
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hugs
Junior Member
Posts: 2,647
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Post by hugs on Dec 31, 2015 22:37:47 GMT
As someone whose life's work is in one way or another related to "brown gold" lol I can see the point of the law. If you spread manure on frozen ground it is more likely to get washed off with  melt in the spring and go directly into surface waters. HOWEVER, there are definitely practices that could have been recommended to avoid or at least minimize the that. Obviously nuance is not their strong suit. I suppose the next law is to forbid livestock from pooping in the winter? Peanut butter and cheese sales would skyrocket, so still good for agriculture! |
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Post by dickel on Jan 1, 2016 13:37:54 GMT
Ohio already had the large dairys and feed lots covered with the frozen ground law. I have a large dairy close to my farm and they had to build storage. My grandson had to build manure pits on the end of the new feed lot barns. They also have to till the manure in. The new law for this year is the government creep into each and every farm. OSHA was in my factory nit picking and I told the inspector that if they kept up with the nonsense type rules that I would sell the machines and put in hogs. He told me they had plans to cover family farms the same as the corporate farms. That was 25 or more years ago. The next thing you know the farmer will need a portapotty built into as part of the tractor. And then people charge extra for organic produce. (organic produce food raised in manure) If the people that buy the organic produce do not wash the manure residue off and get E.coli they want to fine and blame the farmers. Every time they put in burdensome laws it reduces the amount of producers which means the supply is less than the demand and the price goes up. To fill the needs and take advantage of the increased price the large corporate farms with the means to stay within the law will enlarge to fill those needs. That will in turn tic off the yuppies that have no idea how the food gets to the stores push for stronger control that will only make sense to the yuppie law makers that also have no idea how their food gets to the stores. How many law makers can be named that have had any real working knowledge of what it takes to put food on the table. Those of us that have loved the farm all our lives have one choice and that is to suck it up and deal with it the best we can. Way off topic but I am like Flip Wilson, The Devil made me do it.  I lost control of my fingers. |
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hugs
Junior Member
Posts: 2,647
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Post by hugs on Jan 1, 2016 16:16:54 GMT
The reason "government gets into it" is because one of the roles of government is to protect us from polluters. If people aka industry would voluntarily keep their sewage/garbage/pollutants from i.e., surface water aka public water then there wouldn't need to be a law that forbids it so offenders could be made to stop or at perhaps be a deterrent. Obviously those that will break the law, do break the law and have low morals and don't care regardless. Large corporations balancing the cost of penalties versus the costs of doing it right in the first place.
We demand clean air and water and healthy soil for growing food and fiber but we don't want to have to change what we do to get these things.
Hmmm, what's up with that?
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Post by dickel on Jan 1, 2016 18:48:00 GMT
Talking points never consider the repercussions.  |
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It's suppose to be a tad warmer here also. I just want sun and wind to dry this mess up!
melt in the spring and go directly into surface waters. HOWEVER, there are definitely practices that could have been recommended to avoid or at least minimize the that. Obviously nuance is not their strong suit. I suppose the next law is to forbid livestock from pooping in the winter? Peanut butter and cheese sales would skyrocket, so still good for agriculture!
I lost control of my fingers.