This Industry

I've interviewed 12 people over the last few days, and visited with several more on the route that lead to those interviews. I've heard the personal accounts of how people across the western states are planning, working and striving to make it through this tough year, how they're recovering from the devastating fires that swept so much of the country in recent months and what their strategies are to survive what are sure to be more challenging months, and possibly years, ahead.
On a year that is setting record high temperatures combined with record low moisture, when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publishes its support of meatless Mondays, when other government agencies including the Forest Service are telling producers in some areas that they won't be able to graze their permits next year either as a result of a fire that burned their permits this year, when corn is shooting through the roof and politicians are continuing to support its use in ethanol production (which costs more to produce than it makes in return...wonder why we're in a budget deficit), when the USDA is reducing meat in school lunch programs, when certain species of wildlife are placed at a higher value than livestock by the public, and when over a million acres have been burned in western states alone, killing thousands of head of livestock, wiping out homes and entire operations in some cases, I saw yet again what makes our agriculture industry so unique, wonderful and powerful in my opinion: God and the farmers and ranchers themselves.
There was resilience, hope, humor and grit surrounded by a solid belief in the Lord amongst the people I spoke to. It's humbling to visit with such people, who in a matter of minutes made my family's situation this year look plumb rosy in multiple instances. There were the stories of help provided by friends, family, acquaintances and in several cases those people who use private lands for recreational and hunting vacations. There were the stories of the sheer workload being taken on by landowners to recover from the effects of 2012, and the fact that I never heard any hesitation, complaints (except for how the government fights fire, which I agree with wholeheartedly) or excuses. Instead, I heard about action, plans, ideas, innovations and answered prayers. I also heard about continued prayers for those who did have to sell out and regroup. People spoke of how good we have it today compared to the 1980's or 1930's. Miraculous moments that occurred during some of the fires were explained, as was how the western cowherd is going to be fed this winter, not if. There was a resigned willingness to dig in and survive, come what may, combined with the ever-present hope you'll always find in agriculture that the weather will become perfect starting tomorrow and the government will back off, and that prices will reach a level we all have in the back of our mind. We are, and always will be the most optimistic pessimists, or most pessimistic optimists, you'll ever meet.
I am proud to not only be a part of this industry, but to be a part of its core; which are the people who raise the food and fiber that feed and clothe the world. The fact that I get to do a part in sharing the stories, ideas and news relevant to agriculture is just a bonus, and this has been a great week on the job for me!

Our calving routine

Calving heifers is one of those tasks where if you ask 10 people how to do it, you'll probably get 11.5 answers. The best way to go about it varies dramatically depending on location, environment, facilities, how much help there is, the quality of the help, the livestock, the weather, and numerous other variables.
Some people keep everything in a corral at night, and in a larger lot during the day. Others sort their heavies (the heifers they think are closest to calving) off at night and put them in the corral, and everyone else stays out in the lot. Some people stay up with them all night, others just check them periodically, and a few say they're on their own if they calve after 10:00 p.m. Some people have lots of problems calving heifers, others don't.
Here's what we do. We put our heifers in a 20 acre lot, and have them water out of our corrals. This gets them comfortable with going into the corral, where our shed and calving pen also happen to be located. If a heifer is comfortable going somewhere, it makes your job a whole lot easier to get her back there when she needs help calving. They stay in this lot, and have access to the corral, 24-7. Most calve on their own in the lot.
We check our heifers every three hours, around the clock. We all arrange our schedules so that someone is always here during the day to make sure all is well in the calving department. My brother, dad, mom and myself each take a night/morning shift (10:00p.m., 1:00p.m., 4:00a.m., and 7:00a.m.), and are responsible for that three hour shift if anyone is calving.
To be a little more specific, we cruise out to the lot on a 4-wheeler with our flashlight that is closer to being a stadium light in hand at night, slowly drive through all the girls, checking every one for signs of labor. If all is well, you can go back to bed or on with your day. But, if a heifer is in labor, you're on duty to make sure she has a healthy, live calf for the next three hours. Depending on how far along she is, this may mean checking her in 15 minutes or in two hours, and can make for some long nights at times. It's also not uncommon for more than one to be calving at once, and you're on duty for all of them. Everyone's schedule gets all messed up during calving.
You check, without fail, come blizzard, howling winds, exhaustion, and anything else you can imagine. Our heifers come first this time of year, period, amen.

When you're done with your shift, you report any new births, why someone is locked in the corral, etc... (wildlife sightings are not required) on this dry erase board, located on our porch. This lets the next person know how many new calves should be in the lot, if the calving pen is full, not to tag the skunk, and just helps with communication between tired people.

During the day, we are generally driving by the lot often enough that we don't keep a strict three hour regiment for checking them. Everyone just pays attention and keeps an eye on things. We are also out tagging any new calves, sorting out pairs, and shuffling the odds and ends that always result from calving heifers. So far this year our odds and ends consist of one heifer that doesn't like her calf. We have to put her in a small pen three times a day, then sit there and watch while her calf sucks. It's tedious, and irritating, but so far better than bottle feeding the little guy.
Every evening we feed the bunch their daily ration of hay. While not proven (especially not this year so far), we've found that feeding in the evening reduces the number of calves we have at night. This may be due to the heifer's filling up, laying down and relaxing. Highly scientific, I know, but it does seem to work for us most of the time, and you will try a lot of things to reduce how many nights you have to stay up waiting for a calf to be born!
It is pretty much a full time job calving heifers. When your future cowherd is on the line, it's worth a lot of time and effort to keep them alive and healthy. It's also just the right thing to do in caring properly for them, and calving season is one time of the year when I become especially irritated at those who say ranchers don't care for their animals, and are cruel to them. I've often wished I had one of those individuals with me on a particularly busy, cold, blustery night when you work tirelessly to save calves, keep them warm, healthy, and paired up. When a couple are on your porch, another in the bath tub, and there is enough milk replacer spilled in your house that it would be mistaken for a crack house if the authorities showed up. When, no matter how cold, wet and physically exhausted you get, you don't stop because of how much you do care for the cattle. Oh yeah, then I would want them to stay for the few days following such a night as you continue on.
Anyway, off my soapbox. We are just finishing up our second week of calving, and are just over half done. It has gone exceptionally well, especially with all of us home this year, which hasn't been the case for the last several years. Hope if you calve, your routine is going great too!

Wyoming Thunderstorms

Here are a few pictures of one of the thunderstorms that rolled through this week. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Spring has sprung

A couple weeks ago, it looked like this in eastern Wyoming.










Then the temperatures warmed up enough to melt the snow, but not take the frost out of the soil, and all that wonderful early spring moisture ran off.


Usually this creek is bone-dry this time of year.



We're all quite incensed about it. After dealing with the mud that covered a slick layer of ice for weeks, we were hopeful the frost would go and at least some of the moisture would sink in. But that's just something you live with and manage around in agriculture, and the upcoming weeks look favorable for more spring moisture, now that the frost is officially out...for the time being.

June grass

This year has been wonderfully and unusually wet. That means grass, and grass makes people in agriculture happy. Some people are getting a little tired of all the rain and it has certainly set spring work back-but nobody dares curse the moisture because for the last 10 years we've been in a very severe drought and we know the rain will stop. I personally love it!

It's also funny and irritating to hear people in Casper curse the rain, then curse the humidity that follows it. Now it's sunny and the wind is howling in typical Casper style, and they're cursing that too. There's just no pleasing some people. I have to resist the urge to walk up and shush them for daring to curse getting 3+ inches of rain over a 2 week period in June.

Here's how the grass situation has looked for the last 4 years where I'm from. It will help explain the whole, "rain is a good thing" mentality.

Taken June 8, 2007. This is a meadow and it's already dusty and the grass is turning. It's also pretty short. We are heading out to rebuild fence in this picture and the temp. was already in the high 90's in the first week of June.

Taken June 16, 2007. Note how short the grass is and that its already turning brown. This was a bad year for growing grass and this was as good as it was that year. It was hot and there wasn't any rain to speak of. Where I'm from we receive of 6-10 inches annual precipitation, so we are never anything more than semi-arid. But 2007 was an extreme case of heat and lack of moisture.

Taken June 1, 2008. Greener than 2007, but not very tall. It didn't get much taller than this all year either. These heifers had just arrived home from the feedlot, where they were grown over the winter, partially because the drought resulted in us having to reduce our carrying capacity (number of head we run).

Taken June 17, 2009. We grew some grass last year, but the grasshoppers ate most of it. You can see there are some short spots and the cheatgrass is already turning a purplish brown color. We had a cold, wet spring-but the combined July heat and ravenous grasshoppers took care of most of it.

Taken May 28, 2010. This calf in this photo is in almost the exact location of the tractor in the June 8, 2007 photo (It's just looking the opposite direction). While this was taken a couple weeks earlier, the grass is already significantly taller and I'm told it looks even better today.

This is in almost the exact location of the heifer in the June 1, 2008 photo.

There's grass everywhere, and while I haven't been home in a few weeks I'm told it's still green, tall and growing. There is also a record-breaking grasshopper hatch this year, but we and almost everyone else in the county is signed up to spray them and hopefully minimize their impact.

This is a good example of why agriculturalists spend so much time discussing, watching and worrying about the weather. It impacts us significantly every year. 2007 was hard, frustrating and depressing for many.

My uncle said it best when branding this year when he noted how fat and happy our cows were, and how most of them had never been fat before in their life. It's a good year to raise livestock in eastern Wyoming!

Ranchers and the weather

I am at my parents house tonight. This photo was taken on my way home this evening. Normally there isn't any water in this location.
Weather is a big deal to everyone, but I truly believe there is no one that discusses it to the degree farmers and ranchers do. There are meteorologist who don't think about the weather to the extent agriculturalists do.
Let me put it to you this way- My parents know every person on the weather channel by their first name, and they each have their favorites.
This level of interest is because it impacts every action taken on a farm or ranch. For instance, this spring branding and shipping cattle and plowing fields and planting crops are all being delayed in this part of the country because of amount of rain we've had. When there's rain and mud roads become impassable and working cattle becomes difficult with muddy corrals and wet livestock. More work is created when fences are washed out or fields need to be re-worked.
While the weather may cause most peoples morning drive to take longer or make one wish they had remembered their umbrella, it can bring everything to a grinding halt on a farm and ranch. Then, when it stops everything has to be caught up.
So, when there's nothing to but watch it rain, farmers and ranchers talk about the rain. They talk about the weather regardless of the conditions.
No one dares to curse the rain, because we all know it will stop. The recent drought in this part of the country makes people extra cautious to say anything negative about moisture in almost any form. We know hundred plus degree days are looming in coming months and that we should enjoy these much needed inches of moisture.
But at the same time getting cattle worked and crops in the ground is necessary to our livelihood and has far-reaching consequences. Everything you eat, most of your clothes and countless other items you use, need and enjoy daily come from an agriculture beginning. For example, if cotton isn't planted that has a huge impact on the clothing industry. Yes, there is global trading, but U.S. agriculture is top of the line in almost all products, both in quality and level of production.
So we fuss and stew and discuss the weather almost constantly. But it's still raining, so for now everyone will continue to talk and thank God for the moisture.
If it stops we will work cattle tomorrow-and I will be taking my little camera for the first time, so we'll see how that turns out.