After dishing out $4,600 dollars to repair the old Massey, Jan and I agreed that it was time for a new tractor, so my old companion was sold and the proceeds became the down payment on a new machine. The newest member of our farm is a 48 horsepower TYM T474. I have to admit that it is larger than I was looking for but the price and performance tipped the scale in its favor. The only issue I had with it was the fact that, with a 2,250 pound front end loader capacity, there is a definite need for rear counter weights. I estimated 1,200 lbs to be reasonable so built a 3 pt hitch block of concrete for the task. My dad was right… “you’d better be handy if you’re not wealthy”.
Still suffering the unintended consequences of the Covid years, our traditionally wooded habitat has been challenged by the advent of remote work opportunity and the accompanying real estate boon and development. We always had bobcats, bears and coyotes but in the past they had adequate woodlands to avoid local farmlands. Earlier this Season however, despite electric fencing, we suffered the loss of two young goats to a bobcat right outside the barn, and last week I spotted what appeared to be a wolf (definitely NOT a coyote) roaming around with my cattle in the upper pasture.
Since this will be an ongoing, if not worsening problem, we have added a Šarplaninac LGD to our herd.
The breed is an Eastern European livestock guardian dog that needs to be working with the herd animals it lives among. It has natural guarding qualities mixed with independent thinking ability. Usually calm, but when a situation warrants, it will ferociously protect its herd utilizing all of its 100± pounds with no hesitation about confronting adversaries larger than itself. Of course, as a puppy almost everything is larger than our young lady so we’re looking forward to that day in the not too distant future when we can incorporate the skills of our newest farm hand. Even at four months of age she has grown to the substantial weight of over fifty pounds
With the daylight getting longer and the stack of seed catalogs getting higher, we’re starting to plan our garden plantings as we wait for any livestock birthings which may occur. Our cow and several goats certainly look to be pregnant but frankly, I can wait until the temperatures rise into the “reasonable range” to attend to newborns first thing in the morning.
Until then, enjoy this slow season to rest up for another adventure!