From the Barns: On every mind

Calving season is wide open right now. Every cow group has multiple new calves every day and, of course, the occasional issue to deal with. These obstetric abnormalities are to be expected, but they are real time killers that add to the day’s already busy agenda.

Nate sold a big pile of fat cattle at the last market run-up, so every morning we’ve been starting out with a barnyard full of bull racks to get loaded — add a couple of calves to pull or a not-too-smart calf to get nursing and the morning is pretty well shot.

It’s been too wet to farm most days so fieldwork has come in spurts and frenzied shots at getting over the acreage. We got done applying manure and are poised to get everything planted at the next opportunity.

Wet field conditions have given rise to other opportunities, however. Turkey hunting, track meets and the best morel season in many years has filled whatever voids that have opened up in our schedule.

The green-up of spring is telling the tale of our brush control efforts of last summer. The still-dead brush and locust trees are a pleasant testament that we didn’t waste our time or chemical dollars. There is a ton more grass growing beneath the now-dead carcasses of the brush we treated last year and that is the payoff we were seeking. The carcass removal of these now-dead trees can commence once we have grazed those pastures over the first time.

The successes we’ve had in this brush-removal endeavor have fueled a new level of excitement and I’ve been busy making maps of areas for Kaden and Karter to attack with their drones as soon as school gets out. Driving around fields at 2 mph while spreading manure gives you plenty of time to notice and map out areas to be treated, especially with autosteer freeing up your hands and even more time. Technology is easy to cuss, but since it is here to stay we might as well embrace it and put it to work.

These super-high prices we are experiencing all across the beef industry leave one unanswered question on every producer’s mind: When will it all end? That uncertainty still has every cow guy questioning any expansion notions and every cattle feeder questioning every replacement purchase. Nobody wants to hold the bag when this deal unravels.

My brother-in-law Big Tim from Wyoming came to visit a couple of weeks ago and do a little turkey hunting and crappie fishing. He tells me that in parts of the West it’s so dry that there will be no spring green-up at all. Their pastures have looked like winter since last summer and will still be that way all year. That’s hard to imagine, especially as I look out my kitchen window at the green jungle that has swallowed our place.

With all the turmoil going on around our country and the world right now, enjoying what our Creator has blessed us with looks pretty darned good.