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Ricky's Ramblings

Belvedere the Bull

Last time I wrote to y’all I told you that I was going to talk about our bull, Belvedere, a big Longhorn bull. Most of the time he is very good-natured and mild mannered, but the other day we had some heifers in heat and he was feeling his oats. Little Darlin’ went out to feed and Belvedere got between her and her goats and commenced to stompin’, snortin’ and shaking his horns at her. Little Darlin’ stood her ground and told him, in no uncertain terms, that if he kept acting like that he was going to Burger King and become a whole bunch of Whoppers.

Belvedere does his job well and most of the time our cows and heifers breed on the first cycle and Little Darlin’s goats are extremely prolific and have kids every 5 and half months, like clockwork. We, however, have been experiencing problems with the llamas, Dolly, our female, was bred when we got her. Unfortunately, when the baby (I don’t know what you call a baby Llama) was born we had a storm come over us, with hail and an embedded tornado, killing the two-day old baby. Well, since that time she has not had another baby. This bothered Little Darlin’ so I told her that we probably needed to replace one of the llamas (figuring one of them was the problem since they mate on a regular basis). Needless to say, that did not sit well with Little Darlin’ and she immediately started researching to find an answer to this problem that she liked better. She found out that Llamas do not have a “season” and that they breed first and then the female releases the eggs. If the pair is left together year round, the female will just absorbed the semen and not conceive.

Now you may be wondering why I’m talking about all of this. The other day I got to thinking (Little Darlin’ says that don’t happen often enough) that just like the fertility of Little Darlin’s critters is different, the fertility needs of plants is also different. If we try to fertilize sorghum sudan like we do corn, we are not going to be happy with the results. Sorghum sudan cannot have all of the nitrogen put on before planting. If we do, we stand the risk of nitrate problems in the first cutting and we will not have enough left for later cuttings. A good rule of thumb is that sorghum sudan needs 1 ¼ to 1 ½ lbs of N for each growing day between cuts, therefore, if you think that you are going to make your first cut at 40 days, you need between 50 and 60 lbs of N. If you are going to make the next cut at 30 days, you need 35 to 45 lbs of N.

Well, that’s all I have for now, Little Darlin’ says it’s time for me to go do chores. Next time I’ll tell you about our cow, Elsa.

P.S. I don’t know if it was Little Darlin’s threats or if it’s because the heifers are bred and Belvedere has calmed down but he’s back in Little Darlin’s good graces…she told him he could stay awhile longer.

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