From the Barns: Made it look easy

This will be my shortest report ever since I’m on R&R in a warmer place. Back at River Oak, Carson has worked through a breeding protocol with the 53 cows with calves. That was a bit of a challenge, since they were on the south side of the river in winter pasture and needed to be in the working area at headquarters for treatment and then back to winter pasture for a week.

Carson made it look easy with his management, plus having a paddock of winter grazing close to working helped too with overnight accommodations. One of the great things about intensely managed grazing, easy-to-handle cattle. That group is now back home at WCC to finish off their calf duties and go through the weaning procedure. The 35 breds are finishing up the winter stockpile grazing. That has gone very well overall, with only a few bad days of tough weather.

Preparations are made for frost seeding, but the seed is still in the bag. I look forward to that when I get back on site. It is going to be a really important year for seeding, so we hope to get it done right.

February becomes a very busy month with frost seeding, seed drilling, Illinois Beef Expo, Heart of America Grazing Conference, Dudley Smith spring meeting, more cows on harvested feed and more. Hope you all can enjoy it all. Take care and stay safe and sane.