Thanksgiving

Classifying Holstein cows gives dairymen an unbiased evaluation of the phenotype of their cows. “That information is used in two ways,” said Maureen DeBruin, classifier for Holstein Association USA.

The rush is on as the hustle and bustle of the holiday season ramps up. It seems like there’s never enough hours in the days or days in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. We will be sending the last of our pastured hogs to the locker, so one less winter chore. We take orders in the spring from our regular customers and add a few more for new customers and buy our Berkshires from Ralph by East Peoria.

Today it is like winter here in northern Illinois — a rain/snow mixture with the cold wind blowing. As I like to say, it is “wool weather!” Those wool socks, sweaters and jackets feel so cozy.

Americans look forward to celebrating the simplest of gifts and gathering with family and friends around the table during the holiday season. It is also often a time of giving thanks as Illinois farmers mark the end of another growing season.

Even though it is becoming the dreaded winter out there, it is good to feel the fresh air and get away from the noise. No, I am not thinking of the traffic or another distraction, but the constant pounding we have taken from the political ads.

We have about 500 acres of corn to do, so we’re almost done. The mid-May planted corn yielded really good. The late-May and early-June corn had good yields, but it didn’t fully mature, so the test weight is lacking, which kept it from being really good.

If you don’t understand the allure, gyrating value and many crack-ups of cryptocurrency, a few words from New York University’s Nouriel Roubini, the economist who predicted the 2007-2008 housing collapse, might help.

The weather in November has been surprising. The warmer temperatures have been really nice. We had a chance to complete many of the projects on our fall to-do list. Harvest around us is going strong and it is a pleasure to see the combines in the field.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. I keep looking at the 10-day weather forecast for a return of fall, but so far it looks more like winter to me. Harvest is now over for us and thanks to my neighbor’s drill we have 75 acres of wheat that’s looking good.

Well, with the coming of fall, the breeding flock goes into landscaping duties, so they have been traveling from farm to farm, making farmettes look pretty. With the warm weather we’ve had, it’s been fun and nice, but reality hit the third week of November.

I was just on the road heading to another Farm Bureau meeting when one of my granddaughters called to say hello. She peppered me with questions about where I was and why I was going there. After I hung up, I smiled and thought, “I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

Several studies by reputable psychologists from The University of California, Davis, and University of Miami and University of Pennsylvania, published in a Harvard Health report, found that giving thanks can make you happier.

As widespread rains begin to slowly refill lakes, reservoirs and rivers, Thanksgiving thoughts turn back to the southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth where the Mississippi River, just a mile from our dairy barn, was a constant, often dominating presence.

Making the Thanksgiving meal can be stressful because there are many things that can go wrong. So, here are fixes to the most common fails. But first we’re going to make an emergency kit like an insurance policy in case of disaster.