The romanticized view of a family farm or ranch is a small acreage, a menagerie of farm animals and a large garden with abundant produce to feed the family for an entire year. Many of our ancestors farmed and did what they could to keep only their family sustained. Today, two percent of the population […]
Part 9: I find this beef innovation particularly interesting and important – mostly because I enjoy a great, juicy steak and am glad I can rely on the grading system of beef to provide that! From the beginning, beef was more about protein than pleasure and used as draft animals or for milk until they […]
Part 7: I know that squeeze chutes make cattle work more efficient and less stressful for the cattle we are handling. Just this Thanksgiving, my family branded and doctored over 200 head in a few hours and this was possible because of our squeeze chute.Temple Grandin will also tell you the animals prefer this method […]
Part 6: To read the previous five parts of this series, click here. Railroads were extremely important to the expansion of the beef industry and the start of exporting beef. When the steam engine and technology of railroads came about in the early 1800s, the options were endless in moving large, heavy cargo – livestock […]
Imagine traveling through the Japan countryside, through beautiful, green rice paddies and tree covered mountains when you turn the bend and see the coast. You can easily see the water two miles away because what once was thriving coastal cities, is now a layer of debris, mostly flat except for the piles that workers […]
Part 5: My favorite memory of electric fences is the bag that my dad strapped to the four-wheeler that contained the fiberglass fence poles – a golf bag! I thought it was so silly, but it was the perfect size to hold a lot of small poles and easy to carry as you’re putting the […]
Part 4: I look at barbed wire as a form of art. The hundreds of different designs in the wire, the barbs, the twists, etc. But it was created for a use: to help manage where the cattle could roam. Think of the U.S. before any pastures – one big open range with natural landmarks […]
