Black Ink: Finding the common ground in ag
They say it takes all kinds to make the world, and the adage is all about people. Look around the mall, watch TV or check out the Internet and you find ready evidence of the individuality of individuals.
Black Ink: Happy people lead to happy cattle
When ranchers or feedlot employees are unhappy or feeling stress, how much pride can they take in the job they're doing? Call it mammalian empathy or stress-related errors of management, but those bad feelings are contagious across species.
Black Ink: Critical mass in the beef industry
It takes so many plants to make a stand, cows to make a herd and drops to make a rain. Before turning that herd out to pasture, you look for enough plant mass to support their grazing. If you’re watching a couple of bred heifers for a month, you might as well be watching 20 or 30.
Black Ink: The ag business of social media
Farmers and ranchers tend to be on either side of the fence when it comes to social media. There are the hold-outs, the staunch supporters, the occasional users and the clueless.
Planning to cope with emergencies
Flood water forces the exodus of cattle to higher ground. Drought does the same on a wider scale, only to greener ground. And in...
Top grades and relationships: You have to work at it in farming, too
Nobody likes to be told that they’ve done a bad job. Think of the situation-comedy or movie scene: A junior high student has worked...
Tagging the right calves not easy
As you tag another calf and write the information in that little book, do you ever think about how well it will hit the...
Long cattle life comes with a cost
The oldest cow on record died in Ireland in 1993 at the age of 49, having been born on St. Patrick’s Day 1944 in...
Where do you find your information?
Take another look at your cattle. Get out your records and take a deeper look. You think they're the right kind, but you may...
Picking genetics may save time sorting
Low-stress cattle handling is becoming a mainstream practice, but have you ever thought about the ultimate low-stress sorting system -- right from your computer?...
