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I cant remember if there has ever been a thread for pictures of cattle but I think there ought to be. I dont have many on my phone but I'll throw up what I do have. First one is my prize red heifer out of one of my favorite cows. Getting some of the replacement heifers cake broke and gentled. First calf of the year last fall. Gathering to wean last spring. I'll try to remember to get some more pictures when working cows but its usually one of the last things in my mind.

yes , twostep, i'v read that somewhere, if i remember correctly, it was a group from Houston area. also IH wanted to first limit sales to Texas, in case it was a flop, it would'n be found out so easily. also the new 10-20 was'n selling well in Texas.

Fred B anther part of the "Texas" story was that after the trial period was over and IHC came to take the tractors back for evaluation, a group of Texas farmers said if that they (IHC) didn't produce the tractor, the Texas group would copy it with just enough changes to bypass patent laws and build it themselves. Of course IHC did build it. But have you ever heard that story?

I thought I would put up a photo of an early production F30 with the so called duck bill steering (first photo), same as an early F20 except the F30 is taller. The experimental F30 (second photo) appears to have a Ross cam and pin steering.

I had a tough breed up here as well this year. 16% open and generally have been under 10% and many years around 5%. Between that, the late spring, and the poor haying weather as of lately our year isn't off to the greatest start but it is what it is and things will turn around soon enough.

Not a bad question at all. The style of burners in propane forges in general are Venturi style or ribbon burner. A Venturi burner is a round tube type that normally uses a small orafice like a mig welding tip to inject the propane. Most of the time a decent size forge will run 2-3 Venturi burners. They run off of tank pressure and have no blower. The “ribbon burner” is more elongated with multiple holes and the propane is injected via a needle valve and forced through the burner by the blower. This version is more efficient on propane and requires no mig tips but does require electricity for the blower. The burner is simpler but the piping is more complex than the Venturi style. Double Venturi style burner pic from google The ribbon burner I built. I made a form and cast the refractory cement into the bottom of the burner about 3/4” so it would grab the metal portion. I will only need one burner. Last pic is compared to a fairly large “rosebud” style torch tip.

It’s not a Regular but......I thought a few of you might get a kick out of this. Old process with a bit of new technology. I built a ribbon burner for a forge I have been working on (for myself). Test fired it and was happy with the results. This is modern day blacksmithing at its finest. It will all be enclosed in a forge body that I’m working on currently as well. This was proof of concept. All ideas were gathered from U-tube videos. It wasn’t made for you tube or views but I thought some people might enjoy and this is the best way to share I have found. Never mind the narrator.......he may be questionable....? If anyone comes up with a good name for it, feel free to let me know.

Wow, keep posting pics!

Got all the side dressing done yesterday. Thought I'd throw up a couple pics of the 14 getting her new work clothes dirty.

Well, I pregged fall cows and weaned fall calves Wednesday. Preggin' didn't go so well. 18% open. Not a good year but vet says herds have been running 35% with one big herd 65% open. It was 4,5,7,8,9,11,13 year olds, so spread across age groups. The cows over 10 don't bother me so much as they are needing to go down the road anyway but it hurts to take them out of the middle of the herd. "They" say fall cows are tougher to get bred than spring calvers. I dunno, I've always had pretty good luck usually running around 8 - 12% opens. Some years are like this one I guess. Just keep a few more heifers back. I can't complain, cows have been pretty good to me over the years. On the flip side the calves weaned real well. All came up to eat pellets out of the bunk on the first day, were real quiet and not spooky at all. Oh, they hollered for momma the first night and the next morning but it is quieting down out there now the cows are ready to go back out to pasture probably this weekend. The dogs were happy, they always like it when I am doing something with cows or calves and all I have say in the morning is "lets go feed calves" and they about push me out of the house. ?

Finally got time to hop back over here and read up where you are. Wow. The work you put into the cab was crazy! I really like the console concept as well, although I'm like you, a cable would have been better. Make sure you pad that if there is any likelyhood of leaving your arm laying there to hang on to the levers--those cup holders look sharp! I like the long grab rails. I will say I like my "outside" rails better for a simple reason. When I first got my 43, Dad & I slipped of the outside of the steps a couple times. Not sure why, other than it seemed to be hard to gauge where the steps were. By adding the railing on the outside, it not only gave you something to grab, it kept you away from the step edge. Never slipped off once after adding them. Just be careful. I also noticed the grab irons on the front corners....not sure what I think of that but nice idea. I think I might have put them on the back corners, but then I never clean my windshields... I love the corner stack---always wanted to do that on the 43. Great update. Sure wish I had had your info on the brake calipers back when I was working on mine. $1000 for a used caliper is..... I'd be curious to see where the hoses route on the back of the cab with the new placement. One problem I had was being careful about the routing from the valve block around the bottom of the cab and over the pivot. Couple hoses wore thru over the years. I had a rubber hose covering the "Cradle", and a tie strap holding the pressure and return hose over and away from everything else. Its amazing how busy and rushed everybody was this year....for having nothing to do but sit and stare at the rain! You must have been a little dryer than us...we had that one week (June 3 -10) to get stuff planted, and that was pretty much it. I pattern tiled one field last fall---man what a GREAT year to have tile (pats self on back). I was only able to get on that on June 3 because of the tile. Used to be my wettest field, now its the dryest. The ripped corn stubble---had to tear it open and clod it all up before it would even start drying, then work it again and again....finally got beans planted on the 10th. I have a lot of ground around me no-plant.

......another one of calves....early winter Mike

Just some random pics here. A bottle calf or two, some weaned calves in the lot. The lovely lady is a vet trimming my cows hooves down with a 4” grinder. She did a good job. I had one cow that had to be trimmed so she could get around. I wound up raising one more calf out of her and she turned into 1 lb packages. The other lovely lady is my daughter, that has absolutely no fear of animals. Kinda scary when you think about it.

Its pretty easy to pick the irrigation project out from the air. Orman dam where our irrigation water comes from is on the west side of the picture.