One of several significant events in a cowboy’s year is the day
every spring when the feeding ends and the cows are turned out to grass. Most years in Montana that day arrives late
in May – but it seems to be coming early this year.
The early part of this week was unseasonably warm, and I
actually got several days of farming done.
We finished harrowing the hayfields and two passes tearing up an old
hayfield. We had the last calf for the
year, and turned out most of the remaining pairs into the bigger “outside”
bunch.
The temperature got up to 80o this week, and the
grass was beginning to grow – not enough however to sustain either the cows or
the health of the grass. The cows are
getting pretty particular about the quality of hay we feed them. They are as tired of eating hay as we are of
feeding it, and they walk away from what is too course to suit them.
One never knows, however, what the course of the weather
will be. After a week of fine
grass-growing weather another storm blew in.
If it warms next week, we could turn the cows out to grass
early this year. If it turns cold again
we’ll be feeding for awhile. Farming is
on hold for a few days at least, until the field dries off a bit.
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