Pjesky Spring 2008 Diary Entry

Spring 2008 Diary

March

With the month of March comes lambing season. When the ewes are nearing the time when they will have babies they get penned in a large barn every night. This ensures that any babies born will stay close to their mothers. Each morning I check the barn and any lambs and their mothers are moved into 5’x5’ pens with bedding so that I can closely monitor the health of both the lambs and their mothers. After three days the ewes and lambs are moved out into a pen with other ewes and lambs. Before they are turned out lambs get paint numbered and vaccinated. Paint numbers help us quickly identify the lambs and their mothers in case there is a problem with either the ewe or lambs. The shots they receive help immunize them against several diseases. Much like you need shots when you are little, so do little lambs. Over a span of 20 days we had 46 baby lambs.

During March we also move cattle off of the wheat we intend to harvest. Over the span of one week we gather and sort all of our cattle by size and then put them back out on grass pasture or wheat pasture that we want to graze off. Grazing off wheat means allowing the cattle to “harvest” the wheat instead of letting it produce grain for harvest. Cattle gain up to 3 pounds a day when they are eating wheat and the pounds of beef are in most years worth more than the grain we would have harvested. We really make good use of our semi-truck and cattle trailer during this time. Later in the month is the time when we start fixing fence on all our places. Each year we go around nearly 20 miles of barbed wire fence making sure the wire is tight and no posts need to be replaced.

Each day in March is very busy. Early mornings checking ewes, then working with cattle all day and then more working with lambs and ewes in the evening. Many nights I get up to go check on the ewes in the middle of the night, especially if it is cold. Things look really good around here; I think it’s going to be a great spring.

April

April is really a month for catching up with all the chores and tasks we were unable to do during the winter months. We made repairs to fences and corrals. This is a constant battle we fight; keeping up fences and corrals when they are in constant use requires a lot of time and effort. Repairing fence requires replacing broken posts, stretching loose wire and replacing staples and ties that have broken off. This requires a lot of walking and moving through weeds, brush and trees. Doing the work in April assures nice weather and very few bugs. Repairing corrals involves replacing broken posts and welding broken gate hooks and panels, this is fun for me, because I really like to weld. We also took some time to clean up around our places. We filled a huge roll-away dumpster with junk that had been lying around in our yards and shop for quite awhile. We also used our four-wheel ATV to spray fence rows around the perimeter of our land and spray the early spring weeds in our yards and around our machinery park.

My ewe’s finally finished having babies, but the ewes and lambs still have to be checked, turned out to pasture then gotten back in each day. The sheep usually spend about 4 hours a day grazing wheat at the farm where my dad lives. We ended up with 50 really nice lambs. They are a lot of fun when they are little. They play all the time. As with most every other month, we were also busy starting calves. We usually have all the cattle chores done by noon each day then spend the rest of the day doing the aforementioned jobs.

One new twist this April is the fact that Hope is in Asia doing her Eisenhower Fellowship. She has been in Japan and Malaysia this month before moving on to Thailand. In addition to all my daily chores I have to cook and clean the house all by myself, which I am definitely not used to. We are fortunate that our wheat crop appears very good so far this spring. We have received enough rain and had no bad storms with wind and hail. If this continues we have an opportunity for a really good crop.

May

The month of May can really get busy for us. In addition to buying and starting cattle, we begin to get our machinery ready for a summer’s work. Our tractors need to be serviced. This operation includes changing oil -10 gallons, hydraulic oil – 25 gallons and transmission fluid – 10 gallons and the necessary filters. Our tillage equipment gets checked for bad tires, leaky or worn hydraulic hoses and wheel bearings. Our wheat trucks get serviced as well. We also get our combines out of the barn and service and change fluids in them. We make minor repairs on the farm. If any major work needs to be done the combines are hauled to a shop that specializes in combine repair.

During May we sell cattle each week off graze-out wheat. This is really fun, the cattle are big now and selling them is our payday. In late May we went to Libby, Montana to do our Provider Day at the school that adopted us this year. The Libby area is really beautiful and very different from where we live. We enjoyed sharing what we do with the students and meeting the other providers.

Pjesky Winter 2007-2008 Diary Entry

Winter 2007-08 Diary

December

The month of December is usually one that from a weather standpoint epitomizes a saying by the famous Oklahoma humorist, Will Rogers. He said “If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma just wait until tomorrow.” We had several days of temperatures near or over 60 degrees and then winter arrived. During the early part of December we had 3 inches of sleet followed a few days later by a cold 2 inches of rain. It could have been much worse, as over 700,000 Oklahomans to our south and east were without electricity because of an ice storm for several days. We only lost power for part of one day. Just before Christmas we received 6 inches of snow along with strong winds causing blizzard conditions and the snow blew into drifts. All of the precipitation and freezing and thawing have made the dirt roads to our farms really muddy and hard to drive on, it’s a good thing we have four-wheel drive.

Cold weather and snow are really tough on animals. Every day we need to thaw out water pumps and break the ice on top of water tanks with axes and throw it out using pitchforks. Cattle also need to be fed hay and feed because the wheat they graze is covered by snow. This makes our day’s work much more difficult. Livestock and pets need fresh water in cold weather as well as when it is hot. Always remember that domestic animals can’t take care of themselves, so farmers and ranchers must be responsible for their care and well being.

The typical day for us in December starts at 8 a.m. We go to each farm where we have cattle to feed them, make sure they have plenty of hay and be sure their water tanks are full and free of ice. This process is repeated at all 12 farms where we have cattle. At the receiving pens we check all the cattle and make sure they all eat. If any don’t eat we put them through the chute and check to see if they have a fever. If they do, we give them an antibiotic shot and pills. These cattle are kept separate in a smaller pen where they can eat and have a barn for shelter.

Christmas with the family is important to us. We all spent the holidays with my brother and his family in Canyon, Texas. We are looking forward to the New Year. It will bring a lot of work, but we believe 2008 will be even better than 2007.

January

The month of January in Oklahoma is one of short days that are really the easiest of the year. With mostly cold weather all we do is take care of the cattle, feeding and watering as well as checking new cattle to be sure they aren’t sick. We will get busier again in February as the days get longer and warmer.

Early in the month a huge event in our area occurred. The Chisholm Trail Agrifest is a large farm show. At this event different types of businesses that cater to agriculture show their products in one location. This is kind of like a gigantic toy store for farmers. New machinery and all sorts of cool, new technology and gadgets are available to see and check out. I spent the whole afternoon looking at everything from GPS guided auto-steer to new tractors and harvesters. It is really fun to look at this stuff but most of it wouldn’t be practical on our farm because it is too expensive.

This month marked a milestone for our family. My dad and I were able to pay off our land. This is like paying off a house for those who live in town. Finally after five generations my family doesn’t owe any money on land. This is important as it now gives us so much more financial flexibility than we have ever had. When I think of the struggles that previous generations of my family had paying the mortgage, along with my struggles over the last 14 years, I realize just how exciting it is to pay off the loan. It is a great relief.

February

February is usually when we get most of our winter weather, but this year has been mild. We have gotten several cold rains and one period of snow. We applied our spring fertilizer this month. This is done to replace the nutrients used while the plants have been grazed by cattle during the winter. We as farmers have really felt the pinch of higher energy prices. Not only are we faced with the high price of gas and diesel fuel but fertilizer, which is produced using natural gas, has increased nearly five times over the last five years. You may have heard that wheat is trading at record prices but those prices have barely risen enough to cover the huge increase in expenses. Not to mention that severe weather conditions this past year caused us not to harvest hardly any wheat, so we don’t have any to sell at these high prices. Enough bad news, the good news is that our current crop has great potential if everything goes well from here on to harvest.

This month Hope traveled with a group of other producers and agribusiness people from Oklahoma to China and South Korea. They visited Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and Seoul. During their travels they met with government officials and looked at several different agricultural operations. While she was gone, I used our semi truck to haul some more hay home that we had bought. We got ready to begin moving cattle off the wheat that we will harvest in June. I also got our lambing barn ready for our ewes to lamb, which happens during March.

Pjesky Summer 2008 Diary Entry

Summer 2008

June 2008

June in Oklahoma brings with it wheat harvest. This year, June not only brought golden fields of ripe wheat but also nearly 15 inches of rain. Because of the rain harvest took nearly the entire month to complete and even then we still had to leave wheat standing in several mud holes in our fields. Harvest is a very stressful time. The equipment we use for harvest is very complex and sometimes breaks down. During harvest, more than any other time of the year, a farmer’s skills as a marketer, mechanic and heavy equipment operator are truly used to their fullest. Stress is also high as storms and rain affect the quality and price of the crop, so speed is of the essence. Markets move quite rapidly during this time. In one day the value of our crop decreased by nearly $12,000! The good thing about markets is that they can also go up just as rapidly. I hope they do.

A typical harvest day consists of servicing the combines in the morning. Then harvesting from approximately 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. and then home for supper, a shower and bed to get up at 6:30 a.m. to start all over again. After last year’s complete crop failure this harvest was one for the record books. We harvested more total bushels and more bushels per acre than ever before. We are very fortunate and grateful for our bountiful harvest and very glad it is over. As we move into next crop year the rising costs we face are very troubling. Fertilizer will be 3 times as expensive as last year and fuel for our tractors twice as high. As usual farming is risky and scary but rewarding. This won’t change.

July 2008

What proved to be yet another very wet June provided us with ample moisture to get our primary tillage done during the month of July. Primary tillage consists of disking in the straw from wheat harvest and then using a moldboard plow or chisel plow to open up and loosen the soil to enable it to better soak in and retain moisture. In July we also start getting cattle for wheat pasture next fall. Special care must be taken when weaning these calves in very hot temperatures. We provide barns for shade and fog nozzles to keep them cool.

August 2008

The hot and dry August has come to an end. The days of over 100 degrees make me long for the winter when it is cold. During the last month we have applied nitrogen fertilizer to our wheat land in preparation for planting in September. This year our cost of fertilizer rose to three times what it was only a year ago. Fertilizer is made with natural gas and is yet another item that costs more because of high energy prices.

We sold nearly 200 cattle during the month. We also purchased 200 new, small cattle to replace them. The starting and weaning process with these 200 new calves was really easy. We had almost no sick trouble with them which was great. A group I am part of visited several great places in the Texas Panhandle. We toured two cattle feedlots, a beef processing facility and an ethanol plant. I really enjoyed these tours.

Pjesky Fall 2008 Diary Entry

Fall 2008

September 2008

September is the month when the days start getting shorter and the ground temperature starts cooling enough for wheat to germinate and sprout. This means it is time to start planting wheat. During the early part of September we are busy getting the wheat drill and trucks ready. The first part of September was unseasonably warm and dry but on September 11^th we had over 10 inches of rain in less than 24 hours. As is always the case in life, too much of anything, even something good, is a very bad thing. Big rains like that are very destructive. Fences were washed away and terraces were washed out.

Beginning on the 18^th we started planting. This task took much longer than usual because we had to fix the washouts and problems created by the rain. We completed planting on October 5^th. During wheat planting we are extremely busy. Our days usually start before daylight and involve loading the truck, getting everything situated in the field and then driving the tractor all day until dark. Planting wheat involves one tractor pulling a cultivator that tills, evens out and firms up the soil. The second tractor pulls the grain drill. Our drill is thirty feet wide and plants 48 rows of wheat in one pass. We seed wheat at a rate of 90 lbs or 1.5 bushels per acre. Drills hold 45 bushels of wheat at a time. We use a truck to bring wheat to the field to fill the drill.

October 2008

We use the month of October to clean up and put away or park all our tractors and machinery. Also, we do a lot of maintenance on our corrals where we start calves. Welding and replacing anything broken, bent or rotten due to constant use. This year we spent a considerable amount of time going out into our tender, newly emerged wheat checking for Army Worms. Army Worms are multistage little, cut worms that, when small, remove chlorophyll from plant leaves. When the worm matures, they just eat the whole leaf and kill the plant. Several neighbors lost whole fields of wheat. We checked throughout the month but only had one field become infested. We caught it in time and hired a crop dusting plane to spray the field.

October presents a difficult challenge when starting cattle. Weaned cattle stress even harder when we have temperature swings from day to night. This is October in Oklahoma; it may be 80 degrees in the day and 35 degrees at night. This is tough on calves and tends to make them more susceptible to high fever and pneumonia. October is the time when we begin our winter routine of checking and feeding cattle daily as the cattle become our main focus.

November 2008

November is the month we begin turning cattle on wheat pasture. A little over six weeks have passed since we’ve planted the wheat and it has emerged, tillered out and now covers the ground with lush pasture which contains over 20% protein. This is great for cattle to eat and rapidly gain weight. One thing we also do in November is haul hay from our supplier back to our farm. We haul 20 big round bales weighing 1500 lbs each on our semi-truck in each load.

The economic conditions facing the country also have affected us here on the farm. The price of wheat has fallen by nearly 50% since harvest in June and the price of cattle has fallen nearly 25% during the same time. Cattle prices falling is both good and bad news for us. The good news is the light calves we are buying to sell in 6 to 8 months cost less but our bigger cattle are much less profitable. Fuel prices have come down which is great news as we drive 50 to 60 miles per day checking and feeding cattle.

We spent a great Thanksgiving with family stuffing ourselves with food. Thanksgiving is a time when we should all reflect how lucky we are to live in a free country.

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