“This was a worn-out dairy when I came 10 years ago,” says Eric Evans of Evans Dairy near Castleford. “It originally had a double-four parlor with grain feeder but was built for Holsteins.” Eric wanted to milk Jerseys, and the cow size difference required some remodeling anyway, so he remodeled the parlor to work as a double-nine.

Jeff and J.C. Siddoway have owned a sheep, elk and bison ranch near Saint Anthony, Idaho, for generations now, and they have tried almost every method of brush management there is. For Western producers, sagebrush is a curse. Some varieties, like Wyoming big sagebrush, can grow tall as a man and wide enough to reach its neighbor, forming a 6-foot canopy over the range.

With four Bureau of Land Management (BLM) district offices and 12 field offices, the BLM manages nearly 12 million acres of public lands in Idaho, nearly one-fourth of the state’s total land area.

In 2013, a group of colleagues and I started demonstrating with cover crops, with help from a Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant to fund the work.

Is it just me, or does the summer feel as though it is passing us by quite rapidly? Well, it’s not just me – and time does feel like it is moving faster every year. In just a few weeks, the kids will be back in school, and we will begin looking at the fall work.

If it seems like breakdowns are more frustrating than they were three years ago, you’re not alone. The representative at the dealership is probably feeling the stress too.