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Mid August in Shortgrass Country

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Altho we'd only officially picked up 6 inches of rain this year- the rains that do come have kept things looking fairly good... The water and grass are holding up- and the cows/calves are doing good... Especially with the 90-100+ weather we've been having...

This was 2 days ago- and since then we had some good rains go thru again..Spotty- but some received 1/2 an inch while others picked up aound 2 inches...


This little water hole/dam was bone dry 2 weeks ago- but apparently picked up a good rain on this pasture...


Even a mudhole for some calves to play in.. Nice to see a green tinge to the grass still in mid August...



Springs are still running out fresh water... Luckily this pasture has 2 good springs...


Everything looks pretty contented..








Some snoopy bull calves and the 316 heifer (Rito X Bannon of Wye )... The 205 and 208 bull calves are A.I. calves sired by Prime Cut 0145.. 749T calf sired by Bannon 2BY.



This is 5U's calf and could easily end up being the nicest/heaviest heifer again this year... Her mother- Cole Creek Juanadamere 5U (Cole Creek Goldmere 31N X C H Quantum 6247) is the closest to a perfect cow as I'll probably ever get - little cow weighing less than 1200 lbs and bringing in a 600-700lb calf every year... Calf sire by Bannon 2BY...


A bull calf out of another of the Floret cow family that is doing good for us- W C R Floret 749T (Cole Creek Track Hunter 60R X Basin Max 104J)... His sire is the double bred Bannon of Wye bull we raised- Lazy Bar B Bannon 2BY...
Not looking too bad for an April calf...
 
Wednesday I traveled from the home place to a pasture about 10 miles south of this one, where we have some pairs in... When I left the home place on the river the dust was flying- when I got to the pasture it was a good thing I was in the side by side as there were mudholes everywhere... Every waterhole in the creek was full or running over...Wish I would have remembered the camera as I don't think I've seen that much water in the creek this time of the year ...

Now yesterday it started raining- off and on- and since we have picked up .75 at the home place-- but the north pastures both look like they could have received quite a bit more by what the radar shows..

And weather boys say we should get quite a bit more before the weekend is over...



Sure put a halt to the spring wheat harvest and 2nd cutting alfalfa- but at least all the winter wheat and most the peas are harvested... Temps have gone from highs in the 90's to highs in the 60's and 50's...
 
We've had over 6"s here in the last 2 weeks pretty much put an end to our haying standing water in all the meadows.
 
Anybody on Facebook can go to the Tooke Bucking Horse's page- and see some pictures of the damage from the microburst that hit the little town of Ekalaka MT last night...

Its also a great page to follow if you like bucking horse history or pictures of bucking horses...
 
Shortgrass said:
When the grass is like that, it is hard. The kind that will make the calves bust in August & Sept.
Click to expand...

Yep- the years we had lots of rain- we had lots of grass, but it was washy and didn't pack on the pounds like this does...
And I hope they keep packing on the pounds -- I haven't seen it for myself yet- but heard this morning that a neighbor right along the border sold his heifer calves on the video yesterday for $3.23 at 530 lbs- which my calculator tells me is $1711.90... :D

I love Montana- a week ago we had temps approaching 100 degrees- and so dry in some areas a mouse faht could start a fire- now today you almost need your long handles... Temp is 50 with 30+ mph winds and raining make for an icky day... And now the whole area is under a flash flood watch as they are predicting some areas could get over 3"...
Down here at the river place I am up to 1.2" for this rain event...
 
UpDate: At 6PM we are up to 2.8" for the rain event, which is a lot of moisture for us- especially in one rain event... Some areas around us are over 4 inches- and are predicted to receive as much as close to 6" before the rain ends Monday...

Weather folks now predicting the Milk River will go above flood stage...
 
whiskeyridge said:
north of lewistown ive had maybe 3 inches of rain all summer now over 4 inches and closing in on 5 the last two days
Click to expand...

Yep appears as tho almost the whole state is getting rain- and much of it is a real soaking rain.. This morning at 7AM I am up to 4.7" and still raining...

Now the weather folks are predicting the Milk river will reach moderate flood stage in our area- which could put water over our only road out of this valley...
 
In the last 3 days we've received 5.25" of rain at the river place... Some folks in the area have over 9"... One farm near Wolf Point reported 9.6...That is more rain then we get for the whole year, some years... Every creek, river, or ditch is flooding... And not sure if we are done yet !

Willow Creek is about a mile south of me as the crow flies and the mouth where it enters the Milk River is a couple of miles east... It drains some of that hardpan country toward the Missouri Breaks... Here are some pictures taken from the hill overlooking a neighbors corrals...This creek barely had a trickle of water in it a couple of weeks ago...









I checked our north pasture and while it looks like we picked up a good rain and the creeks are running- its nothing like some of the creeks further south... This is the Dry Fork of Porcupine Creek...

 
I spent some time driving around today looking at everything under water, some of the damage and the roads that are still closed... Our county road has water over 4-5 spots but is low enough and with little current its passable to drive thru....





This is my neighbor who is about a mile and half below me (at the mouth of Willow Creek where it dumps into the Milk River).... He now has himself an island of his own :wink: :P Again!

He is a local retired real estate agent who bought a couple hundred acres of prime river bottom farm/hunting land about 30 years ago (best whitetail hunting spot I've ever found)... They've been great neighbors for all those years- but when the water is high they have to boat back and forth if they want to go to town...
The sad part is that all those fields around him that are under water had some of the best dryland wheat crop I'd seen in this valley this year... Lots of wheat and alfalfa fields standing under water... And the River is not dropping very fast...

For those of you that know the size of Fort Peck Reservoir- I talked with the Corps manager this afternoon- and he said since the rains started on Thursday of last week- Fort Peck Lake raised 2 FEET... That takes a huge amount of water to make that kind of raise in a lake that big...
 

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