Bull On the Loose

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This week we wrapped up the second cutting of hay and hauled the bales off the field. Then I helped with chasing down a runaway bull that had jumped out of the corrals at the house and ventured to the neighbor’s pasture. It was quite the morning, we chased the bull around until we got him back to the house and then we loaded him straight into the bull trailer to take him to the sale barn. In Torrington, they have a sale barn where they do a sale every Friday, so it was the right time to get that bull over and sell him. After that problem was taken care of, there was a windmill that needed its tail fixed, as it wasn’t catching enough wind. There is a spring on the windmill head that keeps tension on the tail, but that spring was too loose, and it wouldn’t allow the windmill to stay straight into the wind.

Additionally, this week we started fixing a road out to the alfalfa circle that had a big rut from a previous rainstorm. It would have taken about 6 tractor bucket loads to haul the rock over, however, instead they loaded the rock into the manure spreader thinking it might make it easier to haul and dump. The first load worked just fine, but the second load was stuck and couldn’t be pushed out. The problem was the heavier rocks had fallen under the chains and the floor bars that move from the front to back in the bed of the truck, causing the moving parts to seize up. Since the truck couldn’t dump out the last couple tractor buckets of rock, it had to be scooped out by hand with a shovel. This was not a fun process and I think that’s the last time a manure spreader will be used to haul rock on my watch.

In regards to the sale of the bull, a couple questions I had this week were: how long does the bull stay at the sale barn before a buyer comes and picks it up, and how much of a commission or fee do they charge. After the bull event, while working on the windmill I had the question of, how much longer will windmills stay around?

I can use my new knowledge of upkeep and improving current designs in my future endeavors. With the side by side, I understood why the bars were needed and how the manufacturer’s design of plastic siding was not going to hold up around cattle. The windmill needed to be adjusted so the spring was tight, and I learned how to use a wire tightener to stretch out a spring and attach it to the further hole on the arm. I think a big lesson here this week was using equipment for its intended purposes or upgrading it to handle more rugged jobs it wasn’t originally designed for.

Submitted by: Samuel Warneke
Edited by: GrowinG Internship Team