I’ve been out-of-pocket for the past few weeks. I took part in a Grazing Lands Ecology course this summer where we visited 7 states and traveled 2,600 miles over the course of 2 weeks. We started in Charlotte, traveled down to Clemson, all the way across Tennessee, up to Missouri and Kansas City, over to the Flint Hills, then down through Wichita, Oklahoma and eventually Dallas. This was a heck of a way to earn 3 course credits. Much easier and more intensive than sitting in a classroom throughout an entire semester.

We visited several beef cattle farms, a few dairies, an organic vegetable farm, several University research farms, a few family farms, a few historic sites, and a private research farm. There’s not many opportunities like that available at an affordable cost.

We focused primarily on forage management systems that varied between each farm visited. There are some great technologies available for producers to make the most efficient use of our resources. I look forward to them being employed on a larger number of operations in the near future.

I took a few hundred photos over the course of the two weeks, most of which are available on my Flickr page, but here are a few of my favorites.

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I also had the opportunity to travel home for the first time since Christmas. 5 days was entirely too short of time to spend with the family, but we tried to make the most of it.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll have a few more posts sharing experiences from the trip, but don’t expect too many updates because I’m trying to buckle down on Thesis work.

Here’s a few important headlines I’ve missed from the past few weeks:

Published by Ryan Goodman

Ryan Goodman works in grassroots advocacy as a communications consultant with beef cattle farmers and ranchers across the United States. He is a proud alumnus of Oklahoma State University, with studies focusing on cattle reproduction and nutrition. Ryan's experience in the beef industry range from family farms and ranches in several states to large feedlots and non-profit policy organizations. Ryan is an avid trail and ultrarunner, proudly showing how beef can be an important part of a healthy diet and active lifestyle. Find Ryan on social media as @BeefRunner.