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For many years a yearly visit by the vet with his chute has been part of my routine, well over the last 15 years with the same vet. We worked the calves and wormed and vaccinated the cows, often working the calves a second time in the fall. I might have to wait until late in the day but I could...

I grew up hearing the older folks saying Sa heifer (pronounced with a drawn out short A or Sah) to a cow that did not want to claim her calf or to a cow you were trying to get take another calf. I heard it so often and from so many I began to use the phrase myself. We said it every time the cow...

From November through March my footwear is a pair of what we use to call gum boots, heavy wool socks over cotton socks when it is cold. I never wear coveralls, just jeans. My problem is the open tops of the boots collect everything from sawdust to hay. If not cutting firewood, I am packing out...

I have a small group of seven cows with new calves on the far end of the place. When the forecast was for freezing rain, snow and below zero temps, I put out two heavy 4 x 5 rolls of hay on Thursday. They have a good four hole fountain and with the hay I thought they could get by four days if...

I am a cattle producer who time has sort of left behind, my small herd of home raised cows are small change compared to the truck load lots that line up at the yards when I take my calves off. Any consideration I get is due to long term friendship, not the money I am making for the yard. Still...

I wrote earlier about buying some weedy soybean rolls of hay from my neighbor. I have fed square baled soybeans in the past with no problem. This was so full of fescue and other grassy stuff I did not think it would be a problem. Nice tight rolls that are net wrapped. I thought it was a good...

Been seeing CowboyRam posts pop up often and noticed he is from Riverton, Wyoming, near Lander. Now I have never been much of a traveler, but in 1974 a friend and I got in an old white 6 cylinder 1962 Chevrolet truck that had a shift on the steering column that kept popping out of gear, and...

Several around here had trouble getting a good herbicide kill on their soybean fields this year, particularly on sod ground. A friend had so much fescue, Johnsongrass and foxtail in his the combiner just took off the top of the plants and left over half in the field, saying it would clog his...

I had lime spread on my hayfield about 3 weeks ago and the man who spreads it finally brought the bill by where my wife works. It cost 18 dollars a ton. I paid $20 per 4X5 roll to get the hay (two cuttings- about 2/3 of normal yield) on the same field cut, raked and rolled. All I had to do was...

With high inflation and a generally poor economy, will the consumer continue to purchase beef as the high prices we have been seeing work their way into the supermarket? How will they choose between gas for the car and steak for the table? Dry weather is starting the fall run a little early here...

These are out of Angus, Charolais and Red Poll crossed cows by a SimAngus bull

I do not have a camera to take pictures and struggle to post them any way, but I found this on my computer my daughter put on there a few years ago. It shows me across the creek looking back on the farm. Our home is on the extreme left and my big barn is on the extreme skyline on the right. Wish...

I have usually kept back my own replacement heifers and been well satisfied but have wondered about the economics. The last few years I have purchased a few older 3in1 packages in the spring. Worked out pretty well. I got the cattle up yesterday in 85 degree heat and had a hard time. My place is...

Dave's reply that "the two surest ways to go broke is to forget what Grandpa learned or to do things just like Grandpa did" has got me to thinking. When I started in cattle, baby beeves were still a big thing in my part of the country. By this I mean calves born in the winter to high milking...

I was only a full time farmer for about ten years. Without immediate family involved in farming and owing for the price of the farm and equipment, it became clear that if I was going to be able to marry and raise a family, I needed a job with steady income and a pension plan of some type. I let...

On Friday the USDA reported the lowest beef cow inventory on record. They also reported the 2nd lowest cattle inventory and the 3rd lowest beef calf inventory on record. Any thoughts on what this means for the beef cattle industry? How about its effect on sales barns and how they operate? Is...

This has been the worst summer in my memory for haze and gray skies. The bright blue summer skies we normally experience have disappeared and the sky resembles that more often seen in Louisville or Cincinnati. They say it is due to fires in the boreal forests of Canada. I wonder if you are...

Its ridiculously high salaries and the policies of its management have lessened the attraction of baseball to fans. Yet, sitting under a shade tree listening to the Reds on the radio and visits to old Crosley Field and Riverfront remain a favored memory. This year a young Reds club has brought...

I have a sweetcorn and half-runner bean patch on a ridge top above my house. It is the site of where a pioneer preacher, Randolph Hall, settled in the fall of 1796 and lived until his death in 1821. His widow lived on there until 1830 and the cabin was abandoned, all the children having moved on...

Many years ago (1970s) I mowed my steeper hillsides with a pair of gray mules and an International No. 9 horsedrawn mower. I had good grass on them then, mostly fescue and Jap clover. I struggled for time to get the job done and began to hire them mowed with a Ford 4000 and Ford sickle mower...