Photo Friday: Where is the Water?
Remember this scene from early May as I described the two feet of rainfall received in the month of April? What happened to all of that water? We will miss out on our second of three cuttings of hay this year, ponds are getting shallow, and grass in the pastures is at a standstill. AND […]
Cowboy Romance (of horsesweat and hornflies)
Just warms your heart, don’t it? As I’ve told ya’ll before, I love to read others’ first-hand accounts of ranch life. Van Horn Texas Cowboy and “agritainer”, Bob Kinford (web, blog, facebook, twitter) shares his accounts of cowboy lifestyle through his books like Cowboy Romance (Amazon) — the lastest addition to my Readings and Ruminations booklist. […]
Cows and Politics Explained
A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor. A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what? AN AMERICAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has […]
Why Am I Mowing Pastures: Part 2
Why do livestock producers mow pastures? As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, today I’ll let Jesse Bussard, a graduate student at Kentucky, do a little explaining of cleaning pastures from a forage perspective. Thanks Jesse for helping out! I was posed the question, “Why do we brush hog (mow) pastures?” by Ryan this past week. If […]
Wordless Wednesday: A Day in Ranch Life
This week has been busy, busy on the ranch… We hauled and stacked 300 square bales of horse hay on the hottest days possible (of course there was no wind) I was pretty certain the neighbors were setting the world on fire (turned out to be a controled burn of canopy debris from a timber […]
Why Am I Mowing Pastures: Part 1
As I’m bumping, bouncing, and thumping across the rough pastures lately one question comes to mind. Why am I doing this?!? Why are we brush hogging pastures, clipping the grass and weeds, when we have cows that can do the very same thing? There are many, many answers to these questions. Brush hogging, or as […]
July Is National Ice Cream Month
Now that July is coming to a close, you should have tried plenty of your favorite dairy treats for National Ice Cream Month. It’s been a great time to thank many of our nation’s dairy farmers for raising quality dairy cows and producing some of the safest milk supplies in the world. Here are a […]
Better Blogging: Thinking of a Topic
I’m the kind of person that is always looking for improvement. I can’t seem to settle and believe there is always more to learn. So how can I improve my blogging skills? I’m going to take a few posts to share tips, thoughts and ideas about blogging, answer a few questions I’ve received, and maybe […]
AgBoards Announces #HayTalk Chat on Twitter
Attention forage producers and consumers, make room in your **Thursday** schedules for an hour of hay, forage, and grazing discussions on Twitter. Starting Wednesday, August 10th, at 8:00 p.m. EST, AgBoards brings you #HayTalk Chat using the Twitter hashtag, #haytalk. The AgBoards Network (@agboards) creators of HayTalk.com and RanchingForums.com, amongst other farming sites, have teamed […]
200 Bales Peace of Mind
Not sure if 200 bales would do it for everyone with the drought and heat we’re dealing with this summer, but I believe my minister has it right when he talks about this peace of mind. I gotta admit, it felt pretty darn good to get my own 300 bales in the barn last week. […]