Garry and Maxim finished the feed bin on Friday- they used the loader to pick up the chute as planned, and got it fastened to the ceiling with some lag bolts. Maxim worked on making the valve to turn it on and off so they can fill the wheelbarrows with ground grain- or compicorn as its known here. While he did that Garry cut the hole in the bottom of the bin (as in photo- Garry took these pictures for you) that they had lined with steel the morning before.
Garry noticed that the steel on the bottom of the bin was showing a little rust already while he was working inside it. The roof of the barn has a vent at the peak. The moist air coming up from the cows in the stable forms condensation on the inside of the barn roof, which freezes and then with the warm sun hitting it in the morning- it rains down. Not a huge amount of water, but enough to make the steel start to change after a day! The guys rigged up a roof over the bin with boards and some used plastic off the silage pile, which should keep most of the "rain" out of the bin. Not just the steel to worry about- wet grain will spoil too.
The main reason that Garry decided to build a feed bin before going home is- the mice have chewed so many holes in the bags of grain that they put downstairs that the guys have to run over to the steel barrel that they have been feeding out of as grain pours out everywhere. So this steel-lined bin will keep the mice looking for dinner from eating the grain. It will save the step of shoveling grain into the wheel barrel as it will fall neatly into it from the chute- then all the guys have to do is feed it to the cows.
We are going to get a delivery of grain that we bought from the lady a week or so ago, ground and delivered from the mill where it is stored, Maxim is going to go watch them do it on Monday so we don't get cheated (it's a Ukrainian thing- it seems no one is trustworthy in the former Soviet Union, because that is how things were always done.) I think that there is some beam reinforcing to do yet in the morning on Monday.
Milk production is up, even though cows are going dry- Friday afternoon to Saturday morning the cows had 260 liters I think- the most since November 11th according to Garry. Sunday morning (they give the most in the morning since it is 9 hours since evening milking, the other two milkings are 7 hours apart) they had 111 liters- averaging about 13 liters a cow. The fresh cow is milking good already, and drying off a couple cows that are giving a few liters a day is sure to help the average! She is Luba's cow to milk, and has gotten her cows' production up the the same level as Yana's now (the ladies have certain cows that each one milks, and are paid according to how much milk their cows give- this is the way they were paid at the other farm.) So that is a good thing, and hopefully they have the same number of cows freshening this month, so one lady is not making a lot more money than the other.
In the morning I'll post about what has been keeping me too busy to write this weekend, I need to sleep.
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