Tag Archives: farming

Going back to Gully

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My daytrips usually involve exotic locales such as Carrington, North
Dakota to visit my brother or even so far-flung a location as Austin,
Minnesota to pick-up something I purchased on eBay. This week I made
a ½ daytrip and discovered a nice little town I used to know pretty
well.

1985 was an exciting time for me. I had my first job in radio at the
Fosston station. I sold advertising during the day and one of my most
productive stops was the little town of Gully, Minnesota. Although tiny, Gullyhad several productive businesses that purchased regular radio
advertising and so I stopped pretty often. One of my visits was the
Gully Elevator where Vern Iverson and Vern Wold (“the Verns” music group)played a very good, old-time music show in the break room. I drank coffee and listened a couple of times and really enjoyed their hospitality. I also liked the café back then but made so little money from my work that I
rarely purchased more than pie.

This week I came to Gully to rent the cooperative’s “Gopher Getter.”
The ‘getter is a machine which plows a tunnel into the ground for
pesky gophers and at the same time leaves tasty treats for them
suitable for a last supper. I arrived from the North and could
clearly see Gully a few miles towards the horizon under a light mist
floating above the peat fields. There is a definite transition from
prairie to pine which culminates at West St Paul Avenue and Main
Street on Gully’s north side. When I returned the implement to the
co-op, I came in from south of Gully which meant I rode the hills
along State Highway 92. This is the land I always imagine when I think of
good cattle ground; rolling and grassy with little ravines for
watering and a corral.

I was impressed by business in Gully. There was an elevator,
lumberyard, hardware store, c-store and even a little bar. My left
elbow is permanently crooked from constant coffee drinking so I
stopped at the c-store for something to bolster my trip home. They
offered me free coffee but I always feel free coffee is for regulars
so I left them a dollar. The coffee was good, way better than the
quality suggested by its price. I walked around the hardware store
for a little while and found it equipped well-enough that I could
imagine no household emergency in which I wouldn’t be able to find
supplies for repair. It should also be mentioned that this tiny
little town was the only place I could find a “gopher getter” and the
manager said they’ve had people from as far away as Argyle come to
rent the machine.

I’m safely at home now and having sown my wild oats on another
daytrip that was about as unlike anything Hunter S Thompson ever
tried, I feel no more need to roam. Should I ever again need mild
adventure, or a gopher getter, I shall return to the nice little
productive town of Gully.

A Danie Day II

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“I had a Danie day,” this is a phrase that sounds innocent and maybe
even enjoyable. However, I am like the little boy who sees dead people
in the movie, “the Sixth Sense” in that I know the truth. Today I
have the far-off look of a man who’s seen too much; today I
had a “Danie Day.”

Danie Packard is my farm business management instructor through the Thief River Falls (Minnesota) Technical College and a wonderful guy. He
does the work of an interpreter as he takes the story of our farm and
translates it into a language which is international, the language of
numbers and totals. Danie takes all of my book work and condenses it
into a report which explains where we spend money and earn money on our
little farm. I would be unable to be innovative and creative without
Danie to explain my method to those who finance me. Danie is
important to me and a very talented person.

Okay, that was the disclaimer, gird your loins Packard-here it comes.
Sisyphus was a King in Greek mythology condemned to roll a mammoth
boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down after each effort.
Sisyphus had to do this for all eternity. This is similar to a day
spent gathering financial information and completing my taxes with
Danie; it is a “Danie Day.”
It is painful, you fail just at the point of success and it lasts
eternally. I always arrive confident that my ducks are correctly
arranged. Under constant questioning, my confidence dissolves
as I forget data such as the last four digits of my social security
number and even my own middle name. It’s just that my understanding
of our farm is very concrete and real whereas putting it on paper is
very abstract. I have even felt a little sorry for myself after a
good, thorough “Danie Day;” after which, I will sometimes watch a
movie such as,
“the Grapes of Wrath,” just to remind me how good I really have it.

About noon we broke for lunch. I noticed my hands were shaking and
very nearly vibrated the contents of my sandwich onto the tray in
front of me. It was obvious that my nervous system was under a great
deal of stress. I called Lisa and got a little dose of her calm,
soothing voice which helped. There is no aspect of what I do on our
farm that is nearly as painfully boring or stressful as documenting
the act in Danie’s little office of pain. If one day of my year has
to be spent there being waterboarded with paper work, then the only
way to make up for it is that all of the rest of the days of the year
must be Christmas; complete with an endless supply of Kolache and
chocolate beer. It is the only just remedy of which I can think.

We eventually reached a completed stack of paperwork three inches
high as I felt the animation drain from my body. As I drove home, I
could see the multiple colors of the setting sun as they refracted
through the tears of my exhaustion. My shoulders ached and the inner
workings of my body were the consistency of old concrete. I had just
experienced, a “Danie Day.”

Temple Grandin

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Showing animals some kindness and understanding life from their
perspective has been a concern for good farmers for a long time, it
became fashionable January 16th, 2011-more on that later.

Temple Grandin is a professor at Colorado State University who holds
a doctorate in animal science. She has written several bestsellers on
both animal and human behavior and is responsible for the humane
design of livestock handling facilities in better than half of all
meat processing plants in the United States. Oh yeah, she also has
autism.

I have read Temple Grandin’s articles in the past and use some of her
techniques for handling cattle. Her studies on cattle handling are
basically how to use a cows tendencies to the handler’s best benefit.
Cows like good footing, enjoy walking up a slope better than down,
hate loud noises, enjoy being in a herd and find shiny dangling items
to be suspect. They also like to walk in circles and enjoy almost 360
degree vision. After I’ve read an article by Grandin, I always feel
fired up about cattle and inspired to do a better job in their
handling.

Temple Grandin is not a vegetarian. She feels cattle are there to
provide meat but also wishes that they be treated in a humane matter.
Cattle that are calm cause less trouble, normally do not injure
humans and they taste better. If we are to be good stewards of what
we are in charge of then giving cattle a good life prior to their end
on a plate is the right thing to do. Grandin sums it up best, “I
think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we’ve got
to do it right. We’ve got to give those animals a decent life and
we’ve got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”

Claire Danes stars in the movie “Temple Grandin.” It tells the story
of a woman who sees conversation in pictures and finds spoken
language to be of only secondary importance. She does not speak until
the age of four and would have been destined to an institutionalized
life had it not been for a determined and innovative mother. Although
Grandin cannot even see the signs of human happiness or sadness, she
can read the face of a cow without trouble. She is able to step into
their lives and therefore design handling facilities that make their
contact with humans much less stressful. Lisa and I loved the movie;
it’s about as far from removed from status as a romantic-comedy as
possible but the movie touched our emotions. You’d have to love
animals to understand. The only location I could find the movie to
buy or rent was “Mr. Movies,” however the large internet outlets all
have the show for sale. It would be excellent in the classroom.

If you think the movie “Temple Grandin” was something no one ever
heard of or saw, you would be incorrect. January 16th, at the Golden
Globe awards, Clair Danes received the best actress award for her
portrayal of Temple Grandin in a movie of the same name. The show
also garnered seven awards at last fall’s Primetime Emmy awards. It
seems a little compassion for animals is not only ethical; it is
popular-maybe even fashionable. That’s just fine; what’s really more
important is it is right thing to do, as it’s been always.

A Tree’s Revenge

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Trees provide shade, cattle need shade; trees and cattle are a good combination. Cattle can be hard on trees however, so maybe trees get the short end of this relationship. Last week one tree evened the score at our little farm.

I came home from work in the mid-afternoon. The cattle are now out on the leftover corn stover from last fall and it’s a pleasant sight. They like being on pasture and so it was a surprise when one little heifer was not on pasture but rather standing amongst the shade on a cloudy day. There are ruts by the water tank, so I assumed she’d twisted an ankle and wished to walk as little as possible. I went inside and changed clothes.

Before I’d left town that day, I went to work out at the gym. I worked out pretty hard because I had no tough chores to do when I arrived home, at least until I went to check on that heifer. The little heifer had somehow wedged her head in between the crook of a tree where two nine inch trunks met. She was caught and she knew it as she hardly fought her situation.

I tried to lift her head higher to a spot where the trunks became further apart but it wasn’t enough to release her. I considered a chainsaw but that would cause her to thrash about and she could get cut. There was no answer her but labor; brutal, hard hand labor. I struck out for the garage to get a hand saw. I keep about three of those little camp saws around for trimming the trees so I knew I could cut the tree. I sat on my rear and slowly began cutting just under the heifers neck. Cattle know when you are there to help them and she settled down and let me work. The rest of the cattle formed a circle around us so I kept a stick near me in case someone stumbled into the scene.

The first saw broke at the blade, almost right away. I headed back to the yard for another, it was the first of seven round trips I made that afternoon. The second saw broke at the handle after about fifteen minutes. I used it anyway, until the spring sap made it too gummy to saw which caused me to change positions. I felt my biceps balloon and my left elbow ache as I pursued the heifers release.

There came a time of diminishing rewards as a result of my efforts with the saw. I could have pulled the tree down with a tractor but I didn’t have enough chain to thread it through the other trees to open space. I had already decided against a chain saw. I came upon a new plan. First I used what was left of my saw to scrape the bark from the inside of each trunk to get a little extra space for her head. Then I headed back (again) to the garage for my handyman jack. The handyman is a mixed blessing as it can either do tremendous things or open a door than leads the uncautious to injury. I positioned the jack above the heifer in between the two trunks and carefully pumped the handle once. It caught on the both trunks and moved them a little. I believe you can lift about four or five thousand pounds with a handyman and by pump number three it was getting tough. I was worried that the base would lose contact with the trunk and smack me in my head. I watched the lynch pin carefully as I made the final pump. Controlled strength is difficult and I slowly eased the handle until the pin fell into place, safely-perhaps.

The heifer lifted her head and was free. She hadn’t been caught too long as she wasn’t stiff or drooling from lack of water. She reminded of a cat who’s been caught doing something stupid: she had that look like “what, I meant to do that.”

In the end it all worked out. The heifer was free and uninjured, I got a little extra work-out which made Tuesday night’s beer that much better and the tree got a little payback. I love a happy ending.

 

 

(my radio program will be up in just a bit at www.ruralreflections.net

A New Arrival

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I sold our cows a few years ago, I now purchase feeder cattle and finish them
out on grass. Last year, I did take on a couple of heifers for the
winter just because they were part of a group. I planned to trade
them to my brother for more feeders. Plans are great, but nature is greater; last week we had a surprise birth at our farm.

I came home Friday night and immediately noticed the heifer sitting
by herself, legs out to the side, in calving mode. I used to calve out about 40 cows but I was really set-up for it then, this was going to be an extemporaneous birth. I got my
work clothes on and warmed up the tractor. I planned to lay down some
bedding in the barn which is kind of the equivalent of boiling water
during a human birth-it keeps the man busy. While I was being busy, I heard the heifer bawl
once and found her calf already on the ground. The little heifer reacted like an old veteran;
she licked her calf clean and just generally mothered her well. For my part, I took some bedding and made little piles around the calf to give it some comfort and left hay for the
cow. Every able-bodied steer came to check things out and stumble
through the scene, so I stood guard with a pitchfork until their
short attention spans were exhausted.

The next day, I checked on the pair to make sure things were okay. I should have been at work; instead I used some vacation time and stayed home. Adam Tongen and Mark Bruggeman made this possible by sharing my shift for which I am thankful. I needed to make sure the little calf got the colostrums milk he needed and adjusted to life. That morning, the calf had sucked from the front quarter of the heifer and got both front and back quarters in the afternoon. Farmers with cattle will appreciate how relieved I was that I didn’t have to try and introduce the little calf to his first taste of milk-its not an easy task.

The night of the birth, I remember going up to the barn to turn the lights off. The barn has a hip roof so the interior looks kind of majestic with the lights on. It felt a little like church and I considered how my efforts to help the heifer and calf had done very little. What the heifer needed was provided by nature and my affect on the outcome was pretty small. It’s like that in life, we are given the gift of life and an afterlife. We then spend our time on earth trying to earn this gift with good deeds. Truth is, life is a gift and you should just accept it and then do good things out of the kindness of your heart-not for reward or to make people think you’re something great.

Back to the calf, he’s doing fine and looks good. However, I needed a name for him. I thought about how nice it was that Mark and Adam had worked my shift so I could take care of the calf. Actually, the naming rights seemed pretty obvious. Ladies and gentlemen; I would like to introduce to you, for the very first time, Mark Adam Nelson-Angus calf.
 

Here’s a picture if you like, it was too big to post here.

grantnelson00.tripod.com/angus_calf