First Day of Spring in Anahuac Texas

[marksmu]

Just thought I might add a few pictures of our first day of Spring. It rained again, and the temperature shot down from 76 the day before to 38 this morning. Which for us SE Texas folks is pretty cold.

Ive got a pretty small herd...were just getting started and so we've only got 54 head. 10 steer calves, 5 of which were just bought yesterday and 2 heifer calves. The remainder of the herd, are 19 open heifers we weaned off last year, and 25 cows....22 of the 25 either just calved their second calf, or are about to calve...the other 3 are on their 3rd.

We planted 135 acres of rye grass to carry us through the winter without hay. It was an experiment that worked well. We did not feed any hay this year.

Last years heifer calves....Should be coming 1 this month...1 small straggler is only about 10 months.

5 new steer calves fresh off the trailer.

5 new cows unsure of what just happened...they have not seen green since October.

Mother and her steer calf...a bit of family resemblence.

The rest of the herd coming to see whats happening.

Off the 5 pairs go...they walked the fencelines before rejoining the rest of the herd.

It started raining shortly after these photos, and the temperature shot down. If we could get a few days without rain that rye grass would be doing alot better.

Hope you enjoyed!

 

[Spectator]

Those calves are sure high-tailing it across that green field! Your experiment looks good.

 

[cowhunter]

We plant a lot of rye here in fla to. I'm goin to plant all my high pastures next year with rye grass but I got to lock my cows in there to get them to eat the bahia down first. Them pasture planters don't work as well with a lot of grass to cut threw. Good lookin bunch of cattle u got started with. Yalls weather is a lot like ours. It was 60 here before church and rainin and gettin cold when we got out. Not knockin the rain but I've had a belly full of cold. I have all ideays I'll be grumblein about the heat soon.

 

[Trinity man]

I can't believe I didn't see water anywhere. My Mother-in-law lives in Dayton Texas and every time we go down there it rains. :wink: I use to kid her that cattle down there have web feet on them. She believe me until she seen some firsthand. But with all the rain we have had lately I think all cattle in East Texas should have had web feet this year; they could have gotten by easier. It nice to see more ranchers from Texas on Ranchers. Those northern guy out number us big time. We can make their mouth water over our green pasture while they are still cover in snow. But they maybe are laughing at us while we are cooking in our hot summers.

 

[marksmu]

I can't believe I didn't see water anywhere. My Mother-in-law lives in Dayton Texas and every time we go down there it rains. :wink: I use to kid her that cattle down there have web feet on them. She believe me until she seen some firsthand. But with all the rain we have had lately I think all cattle in East Texas should have had web feet this year; they could have gotten by easier. It nice to see more ranchers from Texas on Ranchers. Those northern guy out number us big time. We can make their mouth water over our green pasture while they are still cover in snow. But they maybe are laughing at us while we are cooking in our hot summers.

Dont let that green fool you...its wet under the rye grass. The cows are pretty slow moving across it. If you look at the tops of the ditches, there are still remnants of the old levies from when this was all rice fields...the cattle have pretty well walked that levy as much as they can because of how deep they sink in the middle of the rye.

If we had not gotten so much rain this year that rye grass would be a foot tall by now...but the rain had it burned pretty good earlier in the winter...it wasnt until the last 2 weeks that it really greened up again...I just keep hoping the sun will stay out and kick the rest of the place into greening up. Its been so wet we were unable to get anything to burn this year, so its going to be a much slower green up for us.

The heat is coming though...sooner rather than later those mosquitoes are going to kick into high gear and Ill be wishing I was up north not dealing with the little buggers.

 

[burnt]

I almost forgot how pretty green is in the springtime! Thanks for posting those beautiful pictures. And those calves on the run - oh my goodness!

 

[WyomingRancher]

Looks like heaven to me, thanks for posting those green pics . Now I've got hope that it will green up here too someday! Your cows look great.

 

[HAY MAKER]

thanks for the picture story and welcome...........Rye looks like it could use some nitrogen.
good luck

 

[Trinity man]

I can't believe I didn't see water anywhere. My Mother-in-law lives in Dayton Texas and every time we go down there it rains. :wink: I use to kid her that cattle down there have web feet on them. She believe me until she seen some firsthand. But with all the rain we have had lately I think all cattle in East Texas should have had web feet this year; they could have gotten by easier. It nice to see more ranchers from Texas on Ranchers. Those northern guy out number us big time. We can make their mouth water over our green pasture while they are still cover in snow. But they maybe are laughing at us while we are cooking in our hot summers.

Dont let that green fool you...its wet under the rye grass. The cows are pretty slow moving across it. If you look at the tops of the ditches, there are still remnants of the old levies from when this was all rice fields...the cattle have pretty well walked that levy as much as they can because of how deep they sink in the middle of the rye.

If we had not gotten so much rain this year that rye grass would be a foot tall by now...but the rain had it burned pretty good earlier in the winter...it wasnt until the last 2 weeks that it really greened up again...I just keep hoping the sun will stay out and kick the rest of the place into greening up. Its been so wet we were unable to get anything to burn this year, so its going to be a much slower green up for us.

The heat is coming though...sooner rather than later those mosquitoes are going to kick into high gear and Ill be wishing I was up north not dealing with the little buggers.

I hate to think of those. They are already out some around here, I just don't want the heat. Maybe is will stay in Washington so Al can start his new book about the planet warming again. :wink:

 

[Ned Jr.]

That green grass sure is pretty. All we have here is whiteness. We had -9 F Saturday morning -4 F this morning and they're calling for 1-2 more feet of snow starting Tuesday. Makes calving fun. :? :roll:

Thanks for showing the warm looking pictures. :wink:

 

[marksmu]

thanks for the picture story and welcome...........Rye looks like it could use some nitrogen.
good luck

You know, I had thought about putting more Nitrogen on it, but the red you see on it, I actually think is the burning from being saturated with water for so long. Its had about 1-2 inches of standing water on it for pretty much the whole winter....50% of the field was burned with the red tint 2 weeks ago, then it quit raining for 2 weeks and the sun stayed out, and it actually grew and much of that red coloring went away and the field darkened up quite a bit. When we planted in September we put out 130lbs/ac of 18-46-0 to kick start it.

Also, at this point its so wet in that field I would have to have the fertilizer flown on....the tractors would put huge ruts through it that I would have to go back out later and fix...At this point Im just hoping that it will green up a bit more, and carry me through the next 30 days which I think I am ok for. The rest of the property is already starting show signs of fresh growth, so it wont be long before I can move them off to something other than rye.

I just want the rain to stop more than anything. Just give me 2 weeks of good drying sun. It will be so welcome, and maybe 1 really hard freeze after the first hatch of mosquitoes.

 

[Blkbuckaroo]

Nice looking outfit 8)