Power in his slightly younger years. He is a great cow-maker bull. Picture taken Nov 15, 2009. “Balance traits,” they say. I say, “Bull!” Balancing traits means that you try to go in the middle, you give up something to get something else. Why? How does that improve your operation? You breed for balance, you breed for average, and why… Read more »
Jer went and irrigated then started getting ready to haul a pair and Mr. P to Fox’s. Nick finished stacking the 1st cutting bales that had been brought back to the house. In the meantime, Charlie and Marion were busy collecting bugs. Jer loaded 804 and her calf and Mr. Perfect to haul them to Fox’s. I snapped a… Read more »
June 9, 2016 Started the day with the norm: irrigation. Finished up on Gayle’s, it won’t need water for another week or so. Have to let it dry out a bit. There is such thing as too much water. The last pipe to irrigate on Gayle’s doesn’t have much control or finesse to it: Water bubbles out of the bottom… Read more »
Irrigating has helped me drop like 25 or 30 pounds just this Spring. There is a ridiculous amount of walking involved, and shovel work. Nothing gets you in shape like hiking up and down a field, shoveling for 30 minutes, and don’t forget the aerobics in between. Up, down, up down, close gate, stand up, adjust gate, stand up. Step… Read more »
Last week I had a conversation with Dan, a dad of the kids’ friends, and he said we could put cows on his place. Only about 3 or 5 acres, but it’s grass. In the same conversation, we were talking about the field next to his place that we used to lease, but gave up the lease when we moved… Read more »
I’m a rancher, not a farmer. I fully admit it. Animals come easy for me. I love animals. Plants not so much. I love plants, don’t get me wrong, but the biology behind plants (and soil) is not something that I had found interesting enough to really educate myself on–not a passion, so I really have to make myself learn… Read more »
Looking east across Cox’s. Finally hay cut on Cox’s and Winchester’s leases yesterday. Both leases are 16 acres, but Winchester seeded down one of the two fields a few weeks ago, so only one (about 8 acres) was cut. Pretty skimpy, but after the nightmare of irrigating it, I was ready to have it cut and raked–maybe make my world… Read more »
For years I have been meaning to start a blog for our ranch. Now there is so much information to share, it is so overwhelming I didn’t know where to start. Just have to start. It’s not going to be pretty. It’s not going to be perfect. Just start and tweak it as I go. Hopefully people will find the… Read more »
