We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Last month, I attended the American Farm Bureau Convention. One of the break-out workshops I attended was on dealing with generational issues – the majority of us in the room were millennials.
The barn needed to come down. It hadn’t been trusted to hold anything but memories in years, and the old sheep-hauling trucks inside went out of commission more than 20 years ago.
Ag legacy is the summation of a lifetime of achievement and the context in which that lifetime will be remembered. A legacy is not just money but a reputation, what was accomplished and the difference a person makes in the world as they pass through – their mark on the universe.
How many people do you know who started out in production agriculture without debt? I’ll wager it’s not too many. It’s a personal choice and comes down to deciding what risk you’re comfortable with.
Like many of you, an intense interest for cattle develops in the blood and soul of a person, to the degree that it is hard to describe. It is in our DNA and is often a passion we can’t seem to let go of, even if we tried.
Looking across a pasture, we should expect to see grazing animals, a diversity of forage species, fences with gates and drinking water sources. Not so obvious is the dynamic flow of energy, nutrients and water above and below ground. But rest assured, this is occurring constantly, just at different rates depending on the seasonal growth cycle.
Grass-fed beef currently constitutes about 3% of the total beef market and continues to grow as a market segment. The USDA defines grass-fed as “ruminant animals whose diet throughout their lifespan is solely derived from forage.”
Over the past decade, interest in management-intensive grazing (MiG) on irrigated pastures in the western U.S. has been steadily increasing due to the prospects of reduced production costs, increased animal output, land use efficiency and environmental benefits.
Nitrogen fertilizer management is highly impacted by changes and variability in climatic conditions. The specific aspects with the greatest effect include wet conditions in the fall, shortened winters, delayed spring fieldwork season, excessive precipitation early in the growing season and unusually heavy individual rainfall events.
Joe Davis is a numbers man. His brain is full of them, and every gigabyte of his phone and two laptops is crammed full. So naturally, when it comes time for the retired chemical engineer to answer a question or solve a problem, he turns to figures. “I don’t like to deal with ‘kinda’ or ‘it depends,’” he says.
RSS
