Predators

Coincidental to kicking the cows out of their winter feeding lot (which had become a mud hole) I see  a large wolf track that had been checking things out outside the corral.  This set is 4 inches across.  Nothing compared to the set of grizzly tracks not far away- they were 11 inches wide!  Might be an interesting calving year.

Business End of Beef Cows

The cows are finishing the end of this year's cull carrots.  Ten of these dames left for Delta today- #6, #8, #33, #25, #15, #18, #10, #7, #4, #16.

The 10 bred cows weighed 13,700 pounds.  The 20 yearlings weighed 13,400 pounds.

This begins the process of a conversion that will convert the home place from a cow calf operation to a feeder operation.  The ten cows were replaced with 20 yearlings that will be ready for the table this fall after a summer on open pasture.  In fact, after a couple of days they will all be kicked out of the feedlot to the open fields that are still covered with snow.  Those fields don't attract the cows much when they are covered with snow but we will be feeding remotely until the grass shows up.  That gets them out of the dirty winter lot where the new calves can have a clean start.

Unearthed- 4000 year old Calendar On Wolverine Farm

I have always been curious about the deep soil profiles that were exposed on Wolverine Farm every time we cut a new road or opened a new gravel pit.  Consistent through the length of the farm was the presence of two significant ash layers that I thought could be clues to the dates on the calendar on the left.  This cut documents 8 feet of deposits on the edge of the Matanuska River.  The most significant ash layer is 57 inches down from the top surface of the photo.  It is about 1 to 2 inches of pinkish ash.  The other ash layer is down 30 inches and is only about the width of a pencil at best.  Since we are within a hundred miles of dozens of volcanoes I decided that probably these volcanoes had their own unique fingerprint which surely had been studied.

Sure enough I contacted the United States Geological Society and Dr Kristi Wallace who specializes on volcanoes of SE Alaska suggested that the heavy ash layer was probably from the eruption of the Hays volcano around 1500 BC. That event blew out more than 4 cubic kilometers of the earth's crust into the atmosphere. This was about the same time the Jews were experiencing the exodus out of Egypt.

Dr Wallace has promised to visit the farm later this spring to help us interpret our calendar.

Evident in this profile is the first organic matter that started to appear in the wind laid loess.  Also evident in close proximity of the ash layers is clear evidence of large fires.  Was the ash enough to kill off a lot of the vegetation and set up the fires?  We want to study microscopically the loess itself to see if it changes from the top to the bottom and gives up any clues to source or age.  Some of these banks have stood solidly for over 50 years.  Studies of loess elsewhere suggest that our loess is the jagged triangular type that is more stable.

This is a story that you will hear more about in the future.  Can anyone give us access to a microscope?

Looking Ahead

I was amazed to see how long it has been since our last post!  We have completed our largest meat cycle ever and are collecting names for this fall's meat cycle.  Placement on the list becomes important when we have more orders than meat.  We were unable to fill about 6 orders last fall.

I just returned from Siberia and couldn't resist sharing a picture of the meat department in the outdoor market in Yakutsk- the coldest city in the world.  In the foreground you see quarters of beef from Brazil.  That meat was cheaper than the local reindeer.  It was even competitive with the frozen fish that you see standing up in the background.  If you look closely you will see that the local sparrows liked to warm their feet on the Brazilian carcasses.

The news at Wolverine Farm is that we continue to invest in upgrades to our meat processing.  We bought three certified scales and will have Phillips Scales installing them later this spring.  We are converting to a printer/scale that will print an individual label for each vacuum package complete with net weight and carcass number.  This will facilitate tracking the meat and accuracy.

Our slaughter schedule is set for this fall and looks like we will be filling orders from the first of October through the middle of November.

Heifer #28 lost last calf of the year- 7/5/15

Have been watching #28 for weeks and finally she disappeared yesterday- July 4.  Found her on the 5th in the deepest, most remote alders grieving a large calf that was stillborn.  Evidence was that she had struggled in this area for quite a while.

Opened the new pasture to the herd.

7/2/15 Yearling Bulls go to work

#47 and Gideon # 42, both yearlings went to work today.  Was going to wait until the 4th but one of the large cows that didn't take last year was in heat so the boys went through the chute to get cleaned up and were let out into the cows.

Good Taste

Last week we ran out of cull carrots.  So, I bought a 5 pound bag of California carrots to hand out as treats.  I gave the first treat to Bella.  She chewed it a while and then spit it out.  I then threw down another carrot for all comers to fight over.  They sniffed and nuzzled that carrot but it was never eaten.  Amazing for cows that just days before had been used to eating three thousand pounds at a time.  In fact, when it was carrot time they would get pretty vocal with impatience- they loved them.