At the corner of Hwy 22 and Eden Shale Road (generally considered the main entrance to the farm) used to sit a small white farm house. This house had not been lived in for many years and had suffered from the years of neglect. So we had the house demolished in 2014.

Removing the house gave us a perfect building site on a summit position, and where a pasture and alley way to the other side of the farm converged. However, over the past ten years other projects have taken priority and received our attention and the site sat vacant. But recently Hwy 22 underwent an expansion and we were able to acquire pavement millings for the base layer of the structure that we built on the old house site.

Dr. Steve Higgins designed the winter feeding structure that now sits on the site. It incorporates a Bo Renfro hay feeding structure, a calf creep area, and 80 feet of bunk space. The structure is designed to feed up to 40 head of cows and their calves.

The 24 ft hay feeding structure has a 6 inch raised feed table to keep the hay out of any manure that is created. There is also a 9 ft concrete apron all the way around the feeder so a cow eating hay has all four feet on concrete. The structure is covered with a mono-slope roof with the low side facing west to keep the elements off the hay and reduce waste. The north side of the structure has concrete retaining blocks that are used as a manure push wall when cleaning out at the end of the season.

Beside the hay feeder is a 24x30 creep area for the calves to go into when they are in the structure. This area can be bedded, have hay for the calves to eat, and it will get a wind break built on the western side to provide shelter.

On the opposite side of the feeder there are 80 linear feet of feed bunks running down the outside of the site. This allows the cows to be fed without having to go into the field with them.

Water is provided in a tire water tank located 400 ft away out in the pasture. This motivates the cows to leave the structure after they eat to go get water. This reduces loafing in the structure which greatly lessens manure buildup.

This developed corner can also serve as a trap pen for cattle that need to be moved to the western side of the farm. This structure opens up into an alleyway that cattle can be walked through to the “paddocks” part of the farm.
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A decade after the old house was torn down, we have repurposed the site into an efficient winter feeding area for both the livestock and producer. 

There is no denying that the months of January and February gave us more winter than we have had around here in a while. So far March has not relented much either. But complaining about the weather does about as much good as worrying about it.

Our calving season started on February 21st on a 10 degree morning with 15 mph winds. The following two weeks of calving didn’t experience much improvement in the weather. We did have one calf that was lost due to the cold and snowy conditions. A heifer laid down against a gate and pushed the calf out under the gate to where she couldn’t reach it to lick it and get it up. We found the calf laying there on the frozen snow still alive. It went in the house to get warmed up, but ultimately didn’t make it.

The cows started calving a week after the heifers, although they have been slow to get going. We have also noticed that we have had almost entirely bull calves this year. Out of 34 calves, only 5 have been heifers. We did not use any sexed semen last year, just conventional semen for AI and then cleaned up with bulls.
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So far we have been calving for 15 days and we have 34 calves on the ground. This puts 41% of the calves born in 2 weeks. A lot of the cows are looking close so hopefully they keep dropping them at a steady pace. With any luck the weather will turn towards spring and these cows keep spitting out healthy calves.