It seems that each new day brings some new technology that is either going to revolutionize our industry or at least make our work easier.

Lagoons and ponds are required storage facilities for large cattle operations. Their purpose is to collect watershed from the livestock areas and hold it until it can be properly dispersed according to nutrient management plans. However, as the effluent flows to lagoons, it tends to carry solid particles that over time can fill up the settling basin positioned in front of the lagoon to catch those particles.

Deciding what innovations to use almost requires the ability to forecast the future.

I’m riding high as a kite these days because after Big Al pumped our septic tank he said, “You have one of the most healthy septic tanks I’ve ever seen.” “I bet you say that to all your clients,” I blushed. But Big Al insisted that he’d never seen such a healthy septic environment, and he ought to know. I bet he’s drained 10,000 septic tanks in his 25 years as a septic superstar.

Earlier this fall, we had an old cow in the corral that I’d been doctoring and needed to be turned back out. I’d been planning to load her in the trailer and haul her four miles to the lower gate of the forest allotment and turn her out.

You don’t have to hang around the cattle business long to realize how many women are running their own farms or ranches. Often they are widows who have taken over the operation with the help of their children and made it work. More recently, these women-farmers are daughters who have come home after schooling and become part of the family team. And there are occasions when women decide on the occupation and buy their own place.

Tractor Supply Company, the largest retail farm and ranch supply store chain in the U.S., has entered into an agreement to purchase an undeveloped parcel of land in the Maryland Farms area of Brentwood, Tennessee.  The company will build a new corporate headquarters, referred to as its store support center, and expects to move to the new location in mid-2014. Tractor Supply Company has been headquartered in leased facilities in the same Maryland Farms area since 2004. Due to unprecedented growth, however, the company leases space in three separate buildings.  

The International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) is providing tools for commercial cattlemen to assist in comparing the expected performance of Brangus sired offspring to that of other breeds. These most advanced tools are Calving Ease EPDs, including Calving Ease Direct and Calving Ease Maternal, which take into consideration the weight and shape of the calf, gestation length and breed of the sire. “In the past we have only had birth weight EPDs which is extremely important when comparing two or more bulls’ calves within a herd or across herds from the stand point of expected birth weight,” said Joseph Massey, IBBA’s executive vice president.

The impacts of the 2012 drought continue to play out in a beef industry discouraged by high feed prices and large cattle feeding losses. In the latest Cattle On Feed report, the USDA confirmed that placements into feed lots dropped sharply in September following substantial declines in July and August. As a result, on-feed numbers are now down nearly three percent as the beef industry is doing its part to reduce corn and other feed usage. Drought has been particularly cruel to the beef cattle industry. A multiple year drought in the Southern Plains has been followed by a devastating Midwestern drought in 2012 that is now forecast to continue into 2013.