Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

We had 65 degrees here last week, man was that ever easy to take!

I found the First cold snap of the season Is always the toughest, then by January you are wondering what all the complaining was about, In the end Spring is the best time of year.

Its Long johns time. Ha

Come March I'll be wearing shorts when the high is 30 above 0 again. Everything is tougher in the cold when there are animals involved but hey, it is how it is when you live in the snow belt I guess !!

Gee, I miss a couple of days and your out having so many adventures!

I'm sure the adventures will slow down now that field work and all that is done but I'll try to keep the ball rolling over winter I guess. Winter is when I try to do as much with the family as I can as there is very little to distract me outside. I've been bringing my 3yr old in the shop in the evenings after supper to "help" me in the shop. It's fun watching the goofy **** she does out there !!

 

[jblnut]

So you're saying that the cows walk up to those milkers all on their own to be milked? Amazing. I guess to them, those machines equate to a big relief of full udders.
The cows are fed a pellet in the robot to get them to want to come in. The amount of pellets they get is based on how much milk they are expected to give and how long it's been since she's been milked last. The cows only go in there to get fed really, the milk gathered is a happy bonus for the farmer

That one made me laugh! That's got to be a bunch of really happy cows.
I don't know the exact numbers behind it but part of the idea is to get the cows up and moving around so they eat more, drink more and make more milk. They also really help to keep their backs clean. Cows are messy critters, some throw feed all over when they're eating and the Luna's keep it brushed off their backs. Plus, it's a giant back scratcher, I for one LOVE having my back scratched

I know what you mean, I feel like such a slacker each time I pop in here to this thread.
Haha, I feel like I have an ample amount of downtime. Spring and fall are REALLY busy with planting and harvesting but the rest of the year is a little slower. Well, summer is busy and winter is slower I guess. Winter is when we fix all the **** that breaks when there's no snow on the ground.

I have a winter "To Do List" and here are a few things on it.
-Design and build a portable cattle handling tub/alley/chute combo
-Organize the shop !!
-Build some new shelving in the shop
-Paint the walls/ceiling in the shop
-Get enough wood cut for next year for dad and I
-Take a vacation somewhere
-Get some cameras hung up in the steer barn
- ..........

 

[jblnut]

Last night I started with this .....

And turned it into this. Not bad for a hour or so. I am also in the process of dumping out all those little drawers full of junk and organizing them all. What a PITA !!!!

 

[Bears Fan]

Good job on the clean up

 

[C_F]

I am also in the process of dumping out all those little drawers full of junk and organizing them all. What a PITA !!!!

I hear ya, that can be quite the chore just by itself. (groan)

 

[jblnut]

Good job on the clean up

We've only just begun ;-)

I hear ya, that can be quite the chore just by itself. (groan)

I had my 3yr old helping so it was a fun chore that I'm sure took MUCH longer than it needed to !! I ended up tossing a bunch of stuff I don't think I'll ever need. I won't regret it until I need it I suppose ...

My black Friday shopping consisted of a new hydraulic hose for the skid loader and a gallon of carb soak stuff. The M and the H need to have their carbs cleaned badly so hopefully this works.


I also saw the first used listings for a John Deere 9620RX tractor. It is currently the largest Deere makes at 620hp and 54,000lbs.

Used listings found in Minnesota Farm Guide. Sticker price for a new one is around $575,000.

 

[jblnut]

I've been trying to decide how I wanted to organize all my junk in the shop on the west wall and had run through a number of options before I settled on this. Light duty pallet racking, I believe it's officially called "Muscle Rack", from Home Depot. They was on sale for $129/ea so I picked up three of them.


They made my poor little Ranger squat pretty good. I believe the box said the the shipping weight of each was 139lbs each so 420ish pounds total. I guess it is only an 1/8 ton pickup after all



I started unboxing them and we had to go to my parentals for Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to ditch the turkey this year and had home made pizza. Definitely a good decision !!!


I don't know how to describe what I want to do but I'll give it a whirl. The racks are 6' wide, 2' deep and 6' tall. I want to end up with a 12' wide and 9' high racking unit so I'll be cutting two of the legs in half to add 3' onto each of the 6' legs. There can/will be 12 total shelves and I want the top shelves to be sized for large rubbermaid tubs for the bulkier stuff.

Here I have one of them assembled. I'm thinking I'll have at least 4 shelves total, if not more, full of Orbeseal pails with stuff in them and go from there. I only had time to get one together tonight as I had to take all the old stuff down and pile up the stuff that was in the shelves in the corner that I had all neat and clean yesterday.


It was clean this morning. Argh. Make a mess to make it clean, doesn't make sense but hey, its got to happen.


Every time I think about how small my shop is I try to picture the garage that a fellow member used to own and all the **** he had packed into it. It was amazing how organized it all was and how much he did out of that little two stall garage. I have lots of pictures of my various vehicles outside of his garage but none of it when it has no vehicles in it with all the shelving and such being shown off. Props to Mr. ABSTIFFGS for being an inspiration ... don't let it go to your head dude.

 

[jblnut]

From what I understand there are a few peeps on here with some strong opinions/knowledge on the electricals. What do y'all think of this wonderful electrical device I moved today ?? Think it's time to rewire the shop, or at least redo the switches and outlets perhaps ??

Here are a few pics of my air setup in the shop. I picked this CoxReel out of a fellow members attic and his words were "It's broken, if you can get it out of the attic you can have it". Well folks, I saw an opportunity and had it fixed up in no time flat. The spring was busted inside so I fixed it, no big deal

I also acquired this 80? gallon air tank from the same dude and made him deliver it along with the shelf it sits on. I don't have much of a need for it right now but it's plumbed in and out of the way.

Everything is plumbed using 14mm Festo air line and Festo push to connect fittings. Nothing beats this stuff !!

The whole system is run for now with my little IR portable compressor but hopefully I can get the IR 2475 head up and running this winter. It'll be nice to be able to use my air tools without having to wait and wait for this little compressor to build up pressure all the time.

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

Every time I think about how small my shop is I try to picture the garage that a fellow member used to own and all the **** he had packed into it. It was amazing how organized it all was and how much he did out of that little two stall garage. I have lots of pictures of my various vehicles outside of his garage but none of it when it has no vehicles in it with all the shelving and such being shown off. Props to Mr. ABSTIFFGS for being an inspiration ... don't let it go to your head dude.

It was a 2.5 car Mike

 

[jblnut]

It was a 2.5 car Mike

It's clearly gone to your head.

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

It's clearly gone to your head.

Clearly

 

[jblnut]

I'm always on the lookout for good old tools on the cheap and I scored these four Crescent Adjustable wrenches for $40 shipped. They all need a good cleaning but are complete and operate like they should. There is a 6",8",10" and 12" and I have a 15" on the way from the same seller.

While I was cruising eBay and looking at random stuff I ran across this sign. I laughed so hard I had to buy it.

 

[Bears Fan]

That light switch does look pretty sketchy Great score on the hose reel and the Crescent wrench's! Your new sign made me laugh

 

[jblnut]

The dirtwork guys are giving it their all today to get as much done as they can before things get solidified.

You can see the dozer off in the background laser leveling the barn pad.

They are going to replace the tile line that runs in this depression as it needs updating and it's got to be crushed by all the scraper traffic by now.

Off on the North end of the manure stacking pad leveling things out.

This is the "borrow site" that most of the dirt on the North 1/3 of the pad has come from. I sure don't mind having another level spot on the property

They will be digging in the tile line with this. It's just a little bigger than the one we have. Ha. It'll dig 23' deep and it is this company's middle sized excavator. Good grief.

 

[C_F]

The leveled pad area is looking good! Looks like it warmed up there for a couple days, all your snow vanished.

What diameter tile will you be using? Will it also eliminate the soggy area in your field in the summer, or is that soggy area in another area & I'm just mixed up?

 

[jblnut]

The leveled pad area is looking good! Looks like it warmed up there for a couple days, all your snow vanished.

What diameter tile will you be using? Will it also eliminate the soggy area in your field in the summer, or is that soggy area in another area & I'm just mixed up?

It was in the upper 40's for awhile and rained a bunch the last few weeks so the snow vanished pretty quick. All the moisture made for sticky and slippery mud/clay/dirt so they were unable to get anything done before it cooled off and the ground froze a few inches.

The tile is currently an old 10" clay/concrete tile and we will be replacing it with a plastic 10" tile. There are a few pictures with the roll in them in my last post. The soggy area will have between 1 and 12 more feet of dirt on top of it before it's all done but yes, it was soggy before when it was field. The tile needed to be replaced as a few sections had collapsed this past year.

Tonight I cleaned up the four Crescent wrenches I acquired. I started with four beat up and dirty wrenches with the two larger ones all but refusing to slide. It took a bit to get them apart but they are all ready to be cleaned up.

I ran a drill bit through the sliding area to get the crud out and it worked great. Everything got worked over with the whizzy wheel and the gear dealio's all got some motor assembly lube on them.

Boy oh boy do they look way better. I don't need them to be perfect as I fully intend to get them all nasty again over the next 40 years but they slide nice and work great again.

What a nice cozy home they'll have while I'm not using them.

I also worked on the shelf stuff a bit. I started with this ...

And ended the night with this ....

Does anyone know what this is ?? I can think of a few creative uses but I've never run across it's actual purpose and I've had it for a long time. I acquired this and the next mystery item at an auction a while back and don't know what they are.

I don't know what this is either ....

 

[Terrick down Under]

The first one looks likea large bearing seal puller, the other looks like a press for sintered bushes.

 

[jblnut]

The first one looks likea large bearing seal puller, the other looks like a press for sintered bushes.

I figured that was a bearing seal puller but haven't run into anything large enough to need it yet. My Lisle 56750 seal puller has done everything I've asked of it so far but it's good to know it's intended purpose. I don't think I'll ever use the press but it'll be fun telling people I have one

The 15" Crescent wrench I purchased arrived today. It was in pretty good shape and only took about 10 minutes to clean it up.

Dirty.


Cleaned up.


They got the 10" tile line in today. What a mess !!



I had them bury it a few feet from the old one.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Never seen a hammer head welded to an adjustable wrench before. Must be a farmer thing because no legitimate mechanic would use an adjustable wrench on anything. As for the hammers, a ball peen on a hickory stick for sure but a claw hammer? Not in my mechanic's tool box.

 

[jblnut]

Never seen a hammer head welded to an adjustable wrench before. Must be a farmer thing because no legitimate mechanic would use an adjustable wrench on anything. As for the hammers, a ball peen on a hickory stick for sure but a claw hammer? Not in my mechanic's tool box.

I am informally trained to fix **** when it breaks. I can repair (to the point of getting it home or though the rest of the day) damn near anything with a slip joint pliers, regular screw driver, adjustable wrench and a hammer. I just combined the last two to save space.

The hammer/wrenches were a 6th grade Inventors Fair project that I took 1st place in. That was a long time ago and I still use them quite often. The 10" claw hammer/wrench not so much but the 12" ball peen sees a lot of use and the hammer head is handier than one would think.

 

[Carl_WI]

Never seen a hammer head welded to an adjustable wrench before.

I really like the idea of the adjustable wrench welded to a hammer head. Around my farm I have many hammerheads in the scrap box. When you are broke down in the dark way out at the furthest piece of land from the shop, the wooden hammer handle will break. This is a great solution and I will be on the lookout for a few more (older) adjustable wrenches.

 

[jblnut]

Not much going on other than this BS. Gonna be at least sweatshirt weather the next week or so.

 

[jblnut]

The cattle get a little frosty when it's chilly.

Not as much snow as I expected got blown into the East hay shed opening.

The wind comes whipping around like mad on the West side and this opening is getting filled pretty quick. Oh well, gonna have to deal with it. Doors aren't in the budget for near future.

 

[jblnut]

I am lovin the new LED's I put on the Bobcat. 18w each and wowser are they bright !!

 

[jblnut]

45 new 426lb calves came into my world on Monday. It was a rather exciting day in a few ways. The calves are the first exciting thing, I love getting new animals !! Secondly, I developed what ended up being the 24 hr flu about 8am Monday morning. I barely had time to meet the guys bringing the calves out to the barn before I HAD to be back inside. Thirdly, it was my oldest's 4th birthday. She was born on 12-12-12 so it is quite easy to remember.

Here are the new calves in their pen.


Here is me doing chores Wednesday evening. It was -12F and quite windy outside. Without the wind in the barn it wasn't bad.


Today we vaccinated the calves. They get a couple things to help ward off pneumonia and various other respiratory ailments.


Here is the make-shift cattle tub/alley/chute combo we put together when we need to. It's been on the to-do-list for awhile to build something permanent but we're not sure where yet as more buildings need to be built and I don't want it in the wrong spot. I didn't get any photos from the other side showing the chute because it was **** cold outside and I didn't want to screw around anymore than needed.


Clean tools last longer and are easier to use. After each use my repeater syringes get disassembled and cleaned. They need to stay clean as there are injectible vaccines going through them and I don't need the calves getting sick from a dirty syringe.


All shined up and ready for next time !!


To celebrate I made myself some Kraft Mac-n-Cheese with hotdogs and had a brewski.

 

[Bib Overalls]

Being a city boy all I know about cows I learned on second grade field trip to the dairy. So set me straight. I thought that calves stayed with their mothers until weaned.

 

[jblnut]

Being a city boy all I know about cows I learned on second grade field trip to the dairy. So set me straight. I thought that calves stayed with their mothers until weaned.

Most dairies milk the new mama cow right away and feed the colostrum to the calf as soon as possible. The roughly 100lb calf will then get milk replacer or pasteurized whole milk or a combination of both until they are around 50 days old. They have a high energy feed in pellet form known as calf starter available to them this whole time. Once they are around that 50 day old mark they get weaned off milk and are known as "started calves" and usually weigh around 200lbs at that time. They get fed ground corn, a pellet with the necessary vitamins and minerals and roughage (baled hay usually). Once they get to about 300lbs they are transitioned onto a more coarse diet of corn, pellets and roughage. I like to buy them around that 400lb size because they are on the diet I like feeding and are about 4 months old.

If you have any more questions please ask !!

 

[Allenw]

jblnut

you might check out how this bud box set up works for a cattle handling facility. http://gobobpipe.com/cattle-flow-bud-box.htm We're needing to build something, what we have is what grandpa built years ago when there was plenty of help.

 

[jblnut]

jblnut

you might check out how this bud box set up works for a cattle handling facility. http://gobobpipe.com/cattle-flow-bud-box.htm We're needing to build something, what we have is what grandpa built years ago when there was plenty of help.

I've seen a few of those in action and they are pretty sweet for sure. They come with a hefty price tag though and I don't know that I really need the ultra portability they posses. I'd like to be able to hook on to whatever I build and drag it from barn to barn with a tractor, it'll never need to go down the road.

We've got a few ideas for next summer and I'm sure it'll look nothing like what we have planned now as things change on paper 100 times over before anything gets built.

 

[C_F]

Out of curiosity, what's the approximate going rate for 45 new calves? And then on the other end of the line, what does an adult cow net you when you take them to the slaughter house?
I can't remember at all what my Dad used to get when we sold ours...however, that was in the mid-70's & I was only 12 at the time, so I'm sure there's no comparison. Plus, we only sold a dozen or less each time. If I recall, the largest herd we had was around 40 head.

 

[jblnut]

Out of curiosity, what's the approximate going rate for 45 new calves? And then on the other end of the line, what does an adult cow net you when you take them to the slaughter house?
I can't remember at all what my Dad used to get when we sold ours...however, that was in the mid-70's & I was only 12 at the time, so I'm sure there's no comparison. Plus, we only sold a dozen or less each time. If I recall, the largest herd we had was around 40 head.

I paid $1.05/lb for these so at 427lbs they were just shy of $450/ea. Right now they are worth around $0.90/lb when they are fed out and weigh around 1450lbs. Seems like a lot of profit at first but I figure on average it costs around $850 per animal to get them to market weight. Plus, the calves I got this week won't be ready to go to market until this time next year. A lot can happen in 12-14 months when you're playing the market.

To save you the hassle of whipping out your calculator, using today's market values that is a $50/animal profit. That is lower than normal but from the way things look the market animals should be slightly over $1.00/lb next summer so things are looking up I guess. Fingers crossed.

 

[C_F]

I paid $1.05/lb for these so at 427lbs they were just shy of $450/ea. Right now they are worth around $0.90/lb when they are fed out and weigh around 1450lbs. Seems like a lot of profit at first but I figure on average it costs around $850 per animal to get them to market weight. Plus, the calves I got this week won't be ready to go to market until this time next year. A lot can happen in 12-14 months when you're playing the market.

To save you the hassle of whipping out your calculator, using today's market values that is a $50/animal profit. That is lower than normal but from the way things look the market animals should be slightly over $1.00/lb next summer so things are looking up I guess. Fingers crossed.

Yes, fingers crossed! Thanks for answering my question. Honestly, I expected there to be more profit, shows how much I know about things. Hopefully next year it's over $1.00/lb for you!

 

[jblnut]

Yes, fingers crossed! Thanks for answering my question. Honestly, I expected there to be more profit, shows how much I know about things. Hopefully next year it's over $1.00/lb for you!

If I could average $150/animal profit I'd be jumping up and down happy. Once the barn is paid for it'll get easier too. By then I'm sure I'll have built a few more, hopefully anyway !!

 

[hoho98925]

Your thread is one of my favorites. So much going on. Can't wait to see the chicken barn. Thanks for sharing!

 

[jblnut]

Your thread is one of my favorites. So much going on. Can't wait to see the chicken barn. Thanks for sharing!

I didn't really have a favorite thread on here until I took the time to read through your's in it's entirety. Wow. Awesome !! Truly amazing construction and what a wonderful place to live.

I know this isn't the only place that it gets this cold but wow, it's cold here today !!

The poor steers really get frosty looking when it's this cold.

The waterers really get frozen up when it's this cold. The cattle like to splash the water when they're drinking and it makes a huge frozen mess. I chip it all off when it gets too bad.

 

[carlquib]

Farming is a crazy game. Buy everything retail and then sell our products wholesale.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic

 

[jblnut]

Farming is a crazy game. Buy everything retail and then sell our products wholesale.

It really is crazy to think about what we have invested per acre months before anyone has any clue as to what the harvest will bring. I've been racking my brain to see if I can find a local need that is not being met that I can fulfill to further diversify the farm but pretty much everything is being done.

Like you said, it's a crazy game. It's a fun game though

 

[carlquib]

I've been racking my brain to see if I can find a local need that is not being met that I can fulfill to further diversify the farm but pretty much everything is being done.

Like you said, it's a crazy game. It's a fun game though

I've been doing the same. I would love to find some niche I could fill, but I always seem to be on the wrong end of those and the booms only seem to last a few years. We were looking at putting in a poultry barn a few years ago. One of the big processors was going to build a processing plant near us, but the not in our backyard crowd chased them away. I would love to find something to diversify away from just row crops.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic!

 

[jblnut]

I've been stuck outside the last few days living on this sweet lift tearing down and replacing barn curtains at work. This lift is a life saver !! We usually work off ladders and holy ****, this thing pays for itself 5 times over in labor savings alone. I don't know why we haven't been doing this all along !! It wasn't really liking the snow and we had to chain it to the truck to get it back out and up the hill but it worked. The auto level deal on it was AMAZING. The lift only had 100hrs on it and I can imagine the auto level deal would start giving fits after time, gotta be a fair few sensors and stuff to make it work I'd imagine.


I also saw this in "Farm Show" magazine. I've been a subscriber for a long, long time and there are SO many neat ideas in there it's well worth the subscription price !!

 

[jblnut]

We have been talking about building a new house for a LONG time and have drawn and scrapped 50 different floor plans and ideas. When we moved Out on Quaker Road things changed yet again. We (me) think a shouse is a great idea but we (her) don't want it to look like a giant pole shed. It would be two pole sheds with perpendicular roof lines. The house part would be 48'x54' and the shop would be 48x54 as well.

She sketched this exterior plan out and I rather like it.


Rough floor plan idea. Drawn with the FbiBuilding Planner. Gotta give credit where credit it due, it's a great tool. All dimensions are approximate.


We are going to get prices on the shouse as well as a conventional house and 48'x54' shop as two separate structures. Here is the house broken off of the shop.



Feedback is welcomed as I'd love some positive things to shoot at the Mrs. in favor of the shouse !!!