Grazing

Soil tells the story of what has happened in a field for decades.

The Noble Research Institute is focused on land stewardship for improved soil health for grazing animal production with lasting profitability.

It looks so far like spring has arrived early this year. Even if we get a last blast of winter, spring has a pretty good head start — so much so that I missed my best opportunity to frost seed some clover.

At the Illinois Lamb and Wool meeting a guy told me that he didn’t know about the wool loan deficiency payments program until he read about it in my article last year. He was able to get more than the 40 cents per pound minimum by having his wool graded.

Three ounces and a cloud of dust! That phrase came to mind as I finished up the “frost” seeding in very dry warm conditions.

I just saw a map of the affected drought areas of 2012 and right now and they looked awfully similar to the one for 2024.

March weather has come in like a lamb, so if the saying is true, it will turn into a lion at some point this month. It is still winter, but we are inching closer to spring.

From a window atop my grandfather’s old barn, you can see my family’s whole farm, from the hayfields to the chicken houses to the pasture where the mama cows are grazing.

I was just having so much fun with the minus-15 temperatures and 20 mph winds last month that I just forgot to write an article. Well, the last part is true. Things have been mundane around here — unroll hay, break ice and fill water tanks.

Having just returned from two weeks of R & R in Gulf Shores, Alabama, I can’t help but share a few thoughts I have about that time spent.

The Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition opened registration for its inaugural statewide grazing conference.

Discussions and decisions made during the winter months can impact managing a beef cattle operation all year.

It appeared as though we were going to have a repeat of our luck with weather for our Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition Pasture Walk scheduled here at River Oak. We always seem to bring rain when we schedule.

Joel Gruver, a professor of soil science and sustainable agriculture at Western Illinois University in Macomb, will receive the 2024 Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa.

Maybe you can’t tell the difference between 15 and 32 degrees after spending a few minutes outside, but your cattle can.