4 - 16 - 12: First Day of Farming

Today was my official first day as a farm hand. My mom departed in the morning, and Isabel and I went out to work at 10:15 a.m. Beavers and ducks, did we learn a bunch today! First, I threw some hay into the horse pen, half to one side and half to another side, so Nelson and Henry could enjoy lunch separately, like the respectable Halflinger horses they are. Then, Rob explained how he makes the pig feed, which is 70% barley, 20% mashed up peas, and 10% minerals and salt. Next, I watched as Rob and Mimi hitched the chicken coop to the tractor and dragged it to the far side of the property. The chickens had to be moved to the field because Mimi didn't want them trashing the yard anymore, and they had to be moved to the far side of the field because if they can see the barn (next to the yard), they will flock back to the barn and not go into their coop at night, which makes them susceptible to predators. The chickens, aside from grazing in the field, get a ration of pig feed, whole wheat, and oyster shells. It's like Elliot's Oyster House on wheels! Rob and Mimi went on an Easter egg hunt for the layers' eggs and collected them, then we brought them back to the barn while Isabel ran and played like an affectionate maniac with Kiora in the field.

The next item on the agenda was to pierce the three newborn calves with name tags, give each a shot of selenium (because the soil in this region is low in selenium), and band the testicles of the bull calf. I got to hold the hind leg of two of the calves, after watching Mimi do the first, while Rob held the front of the calf down and gave the shot and did the tagging. After lunch, I learned how to drive a tractor. Rob showed me how to check the oil level in the engine by finding where the oil comes up to on the dipstick, as well as how to check the gas level. Then, he explained how to turn on the tractor, operate the clutch, gears, brakes, and throttle. After demonstrating the correct tractor-operating procedure, I got to give it a whirl in the field, and gee, whilikers, was it fun! I drove it around the field for a while, and practiced with the clutch. It was like driving a less complicated version of a manual transmission car without having to worry about accidentally crashing into another vehicle (although one does have to watch for craters the cows dig up). Tomorrow, I get to do some harrowing, which is the practice of attaching a harrow, or a mesh of metal hooks, to the back of the tractor and dragging cow manure across the field to fertilize the field. Oodelalee!

Next, I helped drop bales of hay from the second story of the barn onto the ground, where Rob put them on the back of the tractor, then drove them to the shed to keep them from getting rained on. Tomorrow morning, the bales will be taken to the mother cows and calves. Here are two fun things I learned today: (i) cows taste with their noses, not with their tongues (this is why they always nose the ground) and (ii) the quality of hay is determined by the proportion of grass blades to grass stems in the hay; the higher the percentage of blades, the higher the quality of the hay. The high blade hay is for the steers, or beef cows, since they are the ones who will become steaks in the near future, whereas the low blade hay is for the mother cows and calves. The last thing I did today was help Rob unload the new fences for the horse pen from the back of the pick-up truck. Tomorrow, Mimi will help me choose a part of the garden where I will grow kale and later in the week I will start to learn the morning chores for taking care of the critters, so I am downright ecstatic. Today was an excellent first day on the farm!