Grazing

Officials sought to dispel worries they want to exclude oil drilling, livestock grazing and other activities from vast government-owned lands, as they faced pushback over a contentious proposal to put conservation on equal footing with industry.

After a week with my youngest granddaughter, who is 14, as my guest during her spring break from school, I have to feel 20 years younger. I walked; she explored. She picked up small bones; I helped carry. I changed the house water filter; she cleaned bones.

With livestock farming, producers often get the good, the bad and the ugly. When you do both cow/calf and feedlot, as we do, that is even more of a possibility.

Join Jay Solomon, University of Illinois Extension natural resources, environment and energy educator, for “Understanding Farm Scale Manure Management,” the final program in the Getting Started with Livestock webinar series.

I spent the last two months entertaining myself and can only say that I contributed to the ranch operation by completing most of the frost seeding and attending some grazing and cattle events.

The Midwest is strategically positioned to be a solar collector with adequate water resources to grow healthy plants.

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.

Join University of Illinois Extension for the second topic in the Livestock Production and Principles for Beginners webinar series.

The Heart of America Grazing Conference will take place Feb. 20-21 at the Ferdinand Community Center in Ferdinand.

This year’s meetings start Jan. 26-27 with the Driftless Region Beef Conference and then Feb. 2-4 with the Grassworks Grazing Conference at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin.

The winter enveloped us for a bit in December, but we were prepared and worked through without major problems. The worst for me actually occurred inside when my steam boiler busted the sight glass and filled the house with steam.

As I hinted at last month, this time of year things can get wet and stay wet for a long period of time. That has proven to be the case and no surprise we are dealing with muddy conditions now.

A pasture is a high-quality crop — not a place — for graziers utilizing managed intensive grazing systems.

Regenerative agriculture is focused on improving and restoring soil health rather than only utilizing sustaining practices.

Developing the supply chain is an important part of adding value to products sold by farmers to consumers. “We are working in five geographic areas located in Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota for the Grassland 2.0 project,” said Sarah Lloyd.