The scurs’ disappointment continues with the Weather Eye in the temperature department. Warm days have been hard to come by. Will we string together more than two days in a row of 70 degrees or will Jack Frost make yet another appearance? Starting Wednesday, cloudy becoming sunny with a slight chance of forenoon rain. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the upper 40’s. Thursday, mostly sunny becoming cloudy with a good chance of evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Cloudy becoming partly sunny on Friday with a slight chance of rain in the forenoon. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Saturday, mostly sunny with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the low 50’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with an increasing chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the mid-50’s. Memorial Day, mostly cloudy with a modest chance of showers. Highs in the low 70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Partly cloudy for Tuesday with a continued possibility of rain. Highs in the upper 60’s with lows in the low 50’s. We’ll get over 15 hours of daylight on May 23. The last time we had that much daylight was July 19th. The normal high for this Memorial Day, May 27 is 73 and the normal low is 52. The scurs will be honoring those who served and thanking them for that service.
Progress was made last week in the fields with most able to finish corn planting and get closer to the finish line on the soybeans. It has been frustrating though to see temperatures lagging below normal. As of Monday, GDU’s at the SROC in Waseca totaled 119.5 which is only 63% of normal. Forecasts for improved temperatures should help although rainfall every few days remains part of the equation. We should probably count our blessings though as there are some areas that have very little planted while others haven’t even turned a wheel. Odds are unless the weather pattern breaks soon there will be prevented plant acres across large areas of the Midwest. Here our early planted corn has emerged and while as expected it isn’t always perfect, at least the stands are respectable. Soybeans are also starting to pop through. No frost please!
At the ranch we see more signs that spring is actually here, although the patchy frost Monday morning made one question that. We continue to see more migrating birds passing through. Some of the early arrivals such as the Harris’s sparrows and white-throated sparrows have disappeared. It must’ve been warbler week though. The common yellow throat is back, adding backup vocals for the wrens from the plum thicket. One of my favorites also appeared over the weekend. A black-and-white warbler was working over the tree trunk of the ash tree. It had been a few years since I’d seen one so at first I thought it was a nuthatch. Looking closer it looked a little like a nuthatch wearing a striped suit.
The goldfinches have been numerous, building to a peak over the weekend then dwindling to a handful by Monday. The wet weather may have been a factor, although I cleaned the wet seed out of their feeders and replaced it with fresh, dry seed. Their consumption has slowed and that’s OK as they were tagging the thistle seed supply pretty hard. Orioles, both Baltimore and orchard types, continue to arrive almost daily it seems. The females of both species are evident as well as some younger males. The young males are lesser colored and have a tendency to bumble around before figuring it out, not unlike their human counterparts. One recently arrived young male oriole tried to pick at the thistle feeder a while and eventually decided the jelly feeder was probably more his speed. More hummingbirds are noticeable as well. One was working the crabapple tree over, so it’s time to get the flowering plants in place. Sorting through the canna bulbs and planting some four o’clocks is next, weather permitting.
We saved back several yearling ewes from last year’s lamb crop to replace some of the models that are getting some age on them. It is a nice looking group and they look especially good on the move, which is what they usually are. Seldom do they walk anywhere; they’re usually on the run. Not the brightest bulbs on the tree either except when you’re trying to go through a gate with a tractor or skidsteer. They’re on top of that in seconds flat, on a dead run of course. No gates have been left open, but several times when we’ve come out for morning chores there have been one or two of them prancing around the yard. No big deal other than you wonder how they’re getting out.
It appeared we had our answer when doing chores Monday morning. None were present in the yard, but there was a lot of commotion in the pen of ewes with lambs. Sure enough, three of the idiots managed to get mixed in with that group. Along with that they’d knocked the electric fence down and broken the wires to get in there. Nice touch.
Few things irritate a livestock farmer of the male persuasion more than animals that won’t stay in, especially when effort has been expended to see that fences are maintained. These yearlings had squeezed between the shed and the end of a panel to escape. It had been that way for years and we’d never had any issues. Like a good football team though, once livestock finds a weakness they’ll keep exploiting it until you stop it. Unlike a good football team, when you get sick and tired of their garbage, there are more permanent alternatives.
We got the yearlings back in with the rest of their group Monday night. Luckily they decided for the time being anyway that being with a group of sheep on limited feed where they weren’t welcome versus back with their buddies and able to consume as much fresh green grass as they’d like probably wasn’t a brilliant idea. At least until the next time. I’ll be watching them.
As I’ve said before, my dad always had a special place for animals that got out. Back in his day it was Wilson’s in Albert Lea. Mine is Morgan’s in New Richland. I’m not above taking a high-end animal out of the gene pool if they can’t behave themselves. They’re simply not worth the hassle nor is passing that trait on. Just one more good reason to eat them. Besides, the obnoxious ones taste the same, maybe even a little better.
See you next week…real good then.