My life….ROCKS!

My final semester of undergraduate work at KSU has been somewhat “untraditional” but I am loving every minute of it! At the beginning of the semester, I was working on completing a research project on using different methods for analyzing bull semen quality. The second half of the semester, I will be at Heartland Cattle Co. working as an intern! In the meantime, I have been at home being Dad’s little helper. Basically I feed the cows, haul water, and work on other odds and ends around the ranch.  As a result, you will be seeing lots of pictures and hopefully videos (that’s my goal!) of cows over the next couple of weeks!

To give you a little taste of my day, here are some pics!

My morning started out by “caking” the cows. To our family, the term “caking” means feeding the cows. The cows are fed large pellets that are full of different grains, protein, and some molasses…the slang name for the feed is cake! The cows love it as much as I love cake (the real kind of cake with lots of frosting!)…they run across the field when they see the cake truck coming!

This picture is actually from two days ago. After I feed the cows I go over to the bulls to make sure the ice is broke on their water tank. We don’t have to haul cake to the bulls because they are grazing on a wheat field and have bales of hay that we bring for them to eat when it snows. The black hose in the bottom right hand side of the pictures is the hose that is used to put water in their tank from the water trailer.  Since there are no water wells at most of the locations we have our cows, we haul water to them using a 1,000 gallon trailer. I will try to get a better picture of hauling water sometime this week!

This afternoon, I hauled water to the bulls and cows. It’s important that we keep the tanks full so that the calves are able to reach the water to get a drink. Again, I will get more pictures of this soon!

Here are the cows eating sunflower flakes from the feed bunk! These are the cows that recently calved and they will be kept at the house for a few more days before transferring them over to the stalks with the other pairs (cows and calves). Sunflower chips are crushed sunflower seeds and the shells. They crush the seeds to extract the oil to use in making diesel.  The sunflower flakes are high in protein and fat. The cows also really like these! I guess you could say they are kind of like potato chips for cows…

That was my day! May not sound exciting to everyone but I love every minute of it! 

The REAL story is YOUR story - learn how to start sharing!

Before I started my blog, the whole idea of sharing my story seemed extremely overwhelming. I didn’t know where to start and with all the social media options, I wasn’t sure which was the best for me. While attending my first KLA (Kansas Livestock Association) Conference in December of 2009, I heard a lot of talk about beef advocacy, which was also overwhelming to me, and those conversations lead to the Master’s of Beef Advocacy program. I signed up for the program online and began watching short tutorial videos about modern beef production, the environment, animal care, beef nutrition, beef safety, and the Beef Checkoff. At the conclusion of each video, there are short assignments designed to help you “get your feet wet” such as writing a letter to the editor about a certain topic. Each session (there are 6 total) takes about 30-45 minutes to complete.

This program is free and you can work at your own pace. After you “graduate” it would be well worth your time to look for a MBA Commencement in your area. At the MBA Commencement you will have the opportunity to listen to several speakers from the industry, have “mock” conversations with consumers about the beef industry, learn how to respond to web comments (from articles, blogs, etc.), and write a letter to the editor to be published in your local newspaper! This program is also a great way to network with other producers from around the area.

As you can tell, I HIGHLY recommend this program and would encourage all producers, young and old, to participate! If you are interested you can go to http://beef.org/mba or call the Kansas Beef Council at (785) 273-5225. They would be more than willing to help you enroll in the program and answer any questions you might have. As always, comments are welcome and I will try to help in any way that I can!

The Tough Guys…

Today Dad and I went out to take pictures of the bulls; a.k.a. the male cattle that are intact, meaning they have the ability to mate with a cow and produce offspring.  It always makes me laugh when we go check the bulls because they all think they are “boss”, and have that tough, studly look about them.

See what I mean???

Sometimes they fight, butting heads to determine who will be the “head honcho”…typical males!

Right now the bulls are on wheat pasture. They will stay there until March 15.  It’s important that they are off at that particular time to ensure that none of the wheat is damaged and it can be harvested for feed.

Some of the bulls hanging out and enjoying the warm sunshine!

This Spring, my family will sell these bulls to other cattleman in the area to use in their herds. But before the bulls can be sold, they will all have to pass a Breeding Soundness Exam. In order to pass this physical exam, they must be healthy and their semen must be of high quality and pass certain parameters. Once this exam is passed, they can be sold and the buyer can feel confident that the bull will be able to generate offspring in his herd.  Purchasing the right bulls and making sure they are healthy is one of the steps that cattleman take to be sure that consumers receive a wholesome, safe, and nutritious product at the grocery store! 

Do you have questions about bulls, cattle, or agriculture in general?? Feel free to post a comment!