Fighting Parkinson's with Gate Strategies

My Dad is a fighter of Parkinson's Disease.  If you are not familiar with Parkinson's Disease, it can best be explained as death of vital nerve cells in the brain called neurons.  These nerve cells dying cause tremors in my Dad's hands and also cause him to walk leaning forward and with a bit of a shuffle.  Parkinson's has also slowed my Dad down a lot.  This has caused some changes on our farm, including leaving all the combining and planting that my Dad use to do, to my brother.  However I believe this has been a great transition for him.  Jason has had the opportunity to learn and still has Dad there to answer questions.

There are a lot of things that Parkinson's has left my Dad unable to do.  There are a list of things that Dad has spent more of his time doing because these things have been removed from his daily chore list.  One of the things my Dad has really enjoyed working on is designing cattle handling facilities for friends and neighbors.  He also has a patent on hog pens that you can see at the Ross County Fair in Ohio. My Dad makes frequent trips to Kentucky with a plan to purchase gates and sell them to friends and neighbors.  Dad finds much enjoyment in designing, ordering, purchasing and delivering gates. 

Summer is here - finally!

Summer is here finally.  We celebrated with one of our favorite summer activities, Jake likes to call it Road Farmin'.

There are only a few simple rules for Road Farmin'

1. You need snacks.  We like to find new/old/interesting ice cream places.

The girls want me to post they were posing like the Statue of Liberty.  But, you probably already guessed that.

 2. You should probably also fill your tank up with fuel.  Unless of course your kids aren't with you and then like Brad Paisley says "on second thought forget it, that one turns out kinda cool".

3. The next rule of the game is to try to get lost.  While you are lost, let the kids decide if you should turn left or right.  They will think it matters, and we let them believe it does. It is important to explore new roads, especially the ones that have no names.

4. Make sure you bring a camera and find the most majestic places to picture.

Ag Gag Bill

I like to read about politics and sometimes I will follow interesting political stories.  Unfortunately I find it difficult to find credible sources that don't become so extreme in their opinions and the swaying of the public.  I hope that one day we will see the media trust Americans again. I believe when I see this trust it will look like facts being presented with the intent to trust Americans' intelligence enough to understand the right and wrong.  It will be like heaven if we also at the same time were able to elect politicians that were able to do their jobs with their full intent to do the right thing, instead of what benefits them. It would be so much easier to understand politics if we knew that politicians never did anything, but what benefited the people.

These thoughts lead me feeling "more confused than cows on astro turf", while studying politics. 

picture from a google search

The Ag Gag Bill that is being introduced into state legislatures across the country. North Dakota, Kansas and Montana already have similar wording in the books.  Utah and Iowa have recently passed legislation which will give people taping or photographing animal cruelty 24-48 hours to turn these pictures and videos to authorities and subsequently reporting the matter.  This would then end the ability of the animal activist groups to be hired to work with animals undercover to collect videos and pictures and then edit them to create news worthy pieces to try to end livestock production.  The question remains in my mind of why you would watch animals being abused and continue taping it sometimes for weeks and never turn them in? 

I believe most farmers and ranchers are open to sharing their stories, farms, ranches, feedyards, when asked.  I hope that more media will help to share the positive stories of the humane treatment of livestock for the use of feeding the world. 

The enemy is blooming.

Sometime in the 1800's apparently someone thought it was a good idea to bring this plant to America.  

The Russian Olive

Historically these plants have been used for erosion control, strip mine reclamation, wildlife habitat, and in landscaping. Regrettably these bushes have erosion around them.

The Russian-olive are an invasive, deciduous shrub or small tree that grows to 20 feet tall.  It has yellow flowers and dry yellow mealy fruit. Silver scales occur on the underside of the leaves. The twigs of Russian-olive are typically covered with thorns. These shrubs begin to flower and fruit annually after 3 years. An individual plant can produce 8 pounds of fruit each year. Currently these flowers are blooming and from all research they would call them fragrant.  However with so many of these blooming around the pastures and the fact that I believe fragrant to be a positive term, I find this a false statement.  These plants stink really bad.  I am wondering how long this "fragrant" blooming will go on.

Some of the problems or benefits, of the  Russian-olive are that they have nitrogen-fixing root nodules which allows them to adapt to many poor soil types. They are found in areas such as pastures and fields, grasslands and sparse woodlands. The grow aggressively  and take over native plants and shrubs. They grow rapidly and re-sprout heavily after cutting or burning.   

To make a longer story short, these shrubs are a nuisance like with most non-native species they don't do what they were intended to do.  The thorns that cover the shrubs/trees do not allow you to maneuver through them to find cows or calves.  I believe the cows are aware of the thorns and purposely hide in the Russian Olives.  They do not stop all erosion. They are unmanageable and cause a great deal of expense.  Oh and did I mention they smell bad. They smell like the enemy.

May is Beef Month - Happy Grilling

May is a month to celebrate beef. This is the beginning of the grilling season.  Have you used your grill yet? One of the challenges I have with butchering our own beef is, you get what you get and you don't through a fit.  Therefore if you want filet but you only have sirloin, you make the sirloin.  I have always struggled with cooking sirloin properly and getting it tender enough to enjoy chewing it.  I have found the answer.  I am sharing this marinade choice with you as a tip for Beef Month. What is your favorite cut to cook? If you butcher your own beef, how do you cook your less favorite cuts?  

Also as part of the celebration of beef month, please check out this Beef website for all of your questions about the beef industry.  There are nutrition, cooking, production, animal care and environmental facts and information.  Please share how you plan to celebrate Beef Month.

Reaping One Last Seed

I received a surprising email about a month ago from the Ohio FFA Association inviting me to attend a retiring State FFA Officer reunion in May 2, 2013 as Kayla Starlin's former FFA Advisor.  It was such a pleasant surprise as I hadn't taught at Logan since 2010.  It was so thoughtful of Kayla to include me in her special weekend.

I have taught some truly remarkable students over the years.  I thoroughly enjoy every letter, card, email, phone call, facebook message and tweet keeping me updated on their accomplishments and sometime disappointments.  Selfishly it is nice to be remembered and included in your lives.  Thank you all for keeping me in the loop.

As I sat in the audience at the State FFA Convention today with a mother of one of my former students, she was reminding and pointing out all of the outstanding students I have had the privilege to teach over the years. There have been outstanding leaders and many good souls. They are too numerous to count. It has been a blessing.

Included in this picture with me is my former teaching partner Andrew Delong, Kayla and my former student and current Agriculture Education teacher with Andrew, Jeremy Grove.  

 
Kayla I couldn't be more proud to have been able to be your teacher and advisor. I hope you enjoy a fantastic convention and  I look forward to all of your wonderful accomplishments yet to come.

Calving and Euchre

Do you remember learning to play Euchre?

Jake called the other night after I had started cooking supper, because he thought he may need an extra hand pulling a calf.  I shut off the stove and the girls and I loaded up.  By the time we arrived Jake literally just needed an extra hand and my brute strength to help pull. The cow was down, making it difficult to use a calf jack. In about five minutes we were done and headed back to finish supper.  After supper Jake mentioned he thought she may have been able to have the calf herself.  I was thinking that could be a 1000 dollar risk.  My thought is we are there, lets just help her.  The calf looked big to me - probably overdue.

After dinner this made me think of an analogy for calving - Euchre.

A live calf that is ready to grow with a good mama with a perfect udder trumps everything - like the right bar.
A dead calf with a dead mama is like an off suit 9.

You get the idea.

So, I told Jake a big live calf trumps a dead calf everyday of the week and twice on Sunday.

HSUS your names sound kinda hinky.

I don't remember when I first learned about HSUS, but I like the other roughly 70% of Americans thought the name sounded a lot like the local Humane Society.  But, then you learn the similarity in the name is where it stops. After all the Humane Society spends it's time wanting to unite unloved pets with loving caretakers.  Then there is the HSUS and as you can tell from this map, they aren't spending much of their money to help shelters find loving homes for their abandoned pets.  In fact they are on record as saying they have no problem with the extinction of domesticated animals. However the bad publicity of HSUS does keep people from donating to their local Human Society and further hurts their ability to help animals.  If you want to donate money to help animals I would encourage you to drive to your local humane society and make a donation.



HSUS is now back in Ohio with another hinky name. HSUS has decided to start an organization made up of farmers and supporters of humane animal care called Ohio Agriculture Council. The strange thing is there is already an organization in Ohio that supports the well being of the entire agriculture industry (obviously including the well being of all animals) and it happens to be called Ohio Agricultural Council. Does HSUS lack creativity in naming their organization or is this on purpose?

Jake and I are members of a few organizations that support the Agricultural Industry including Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Ohio Cattlemen's Association, and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. These organizations support and lobby for the humane treatment of animals. They also continue to educate producers on the best management practices for caring for animals.  I am proud to be affiliated with all of these organization and the wonderful people working for these groups on behalf of producers.

Feedlot Magazine - the message of a dying industry.

Do you remember reading your first magazine?

Jacie "reading" her first magazine the National Cattlemen.

Was it the Highlights magazine?

Why do we read magazines?

The first magazine I read was the Highlights magazine because I thought it was cool that I got mail and it made me happy to do the hidden picture.

The second magazine I received was the FFA New Horizons.  This was back when I still thought it was fun to get mail and I read it for inspiration and knowledge.

I did occasionally browse the Glamour Magazine while in high school, until I realized there was so little in fashion that I would enjoy wearing in the magazine.  I like to tuck my shirt in and it has been pointed out by many high school students that I have taught that "that isn't cool".

I know you are wondering where this is going.

I stopped to get the mail on my way to pick the girls up the other day and found the Feedlot Magazine in our mailbox.  I really enjoy the Feedlot Magazine. The interesting thing about Feedlot/yards is that they are all so different, however usually lumped into one group. Among Agriculture magazines it is just a sector.  In the mainstream magazine world, you are hard pressed to find an article that is about feedyard/lots written in a positive or respectful way. This leads to the excitement of finding the Feedlot Magazine in our mailbox. It is an entire magazine written for and about the feedyard/lot industry.

Although I became a little discouraged this time when browsing the magazine as I stumbled upon this article that might as well said get out while you can. After I read this article I was disappointed that they would put something so sad and depressing in their magazine for people already fighting against odds and regular negativity from every direction including weather, animal rights organizations, environmental groups and the markets.  I can handle articles reporting cow numbers being the lowest since the 1950's and that battling drought for a second year should be something we are prepared for or even the fact that corn prices should lead you to alternative feed sources that will still push your fed cattle into the Choice grade. However what I don't have much appreciation for is a Highlights Magazine without a hidden picture a New Horizon magazine without an inspirational story of an FFA member starting their own business. I also no longer like reading Feedlot Magazine stories that would like to lead feedyard/lot owners to somehow believe the cattle feeding industry dying.

Let's be serious we have people lined up to eat beef. We have established ourselves as healthy as we actively advertise our Lean Beef.

Maybe I am overly optimistic as I am packing for a move across the country to be a part of this dying feedyard/lot industry.  Maybe I will someday have to write a eulogy for 4+ Feeders and post it here on fortheloveofbeef.  But until then you can find me advocating for feedyards/lots and the beef industry, raising beef and thanking you for enjoying beef with your friends and families.

What? It's just grass and water.

Jake, the girls and I spent some time this afternoon with Kristy Foster from the Farm and Dairy.

 

After she left I was helping the girls with their homework and cooking supper. Jake (in his good jeans) announces he needs to go "find a calf".

He returns after the supper is cooking and homework is done with cow manure all over his good jeans.  He comes into the kitchen and says "hey do you think you can get this out".  I am assuming at this point he has "found" the calf. I put on my "I complete believe that" face and said "really Jake, those are your good jeans".

Of course if you have ever scrubbed cow manure out of denim, you also know the answer is probably not.  Not only is this cow manure, but it's green fresh grass manure that stains like nothing I have ever seen.

He then goes on to explain how it happened.  I needed to separate this calf that is in with the Y group that we are moving in the morning.  I didn't want it to be moved with the group.  The calf wouldn't drive, so I picked him up and he didn't have any manure on him, I swear.  (Does anyone believe that?).  He said by the time I had him on the 4-wheeler I was covered.  He then says "it wasn't his s**+". I just smiled and was thinking this story doesn't make any since, your jeans are ruined and you better not utter those words "it's only grass and water".    

Setbacks - Hay Fire

I have made promises to share setbacks, disappointments and sadness, for people to understand that everyone has challenges in life.  I am much too authentic, to share our story in a way to make others believe it is all sunshine and rainbows.  The past week has been a little challenging and disappointing as feed that is both difficult to find and valuable caught fire at the feedyard.

The fire continued for several days and burned . . .

and burned.

Thank you to the Lexington Volunteer Fire Department for your help.

We have been left with a mess of water, wet feed and a lot of paperwork. The good news is we still have plenty of feed for cattle through the summer.

It was stressful to get a third hand report through Jake about these fires.  I think it may have been less painful to be there to watch it.

After a short cry, a talk with Gail Martin, a talk with the insurance agent, a longer cry, a sleepless night and then a trip to Mass, things are going to be alright.

A new home with a view

As reported  on the rumor mill the Wolfinger's are in full swing of another move half way across the country.  It really is just one of three in the last four years.  This time for an extra challenge Jake decided we should build a house. After an exhausted search of only one potential home (that sold rather quickly) I agreed.

The building process is underway and so I thought I would share our new view from the front porch.

Happy Birthday to my Baby Bother!

Today my Baby Bother turns 33. I started calling him my baby bother to the girls, when they watched a show called Olivia.  Olivia the main character who is a pig has a younger brother she calls her "baby bother".  I told the girls that I have a baby bother and his name is Jason.  They asked why he was a baby bother.  I told them because he used to take my Barbies and take their heads off.  I didn't tell him later when I had to drive him to school he would put my car in neutral so when I would push on the gas it would rev up the engine.  He mostly does anything that irritates me - because he is my baby bother and he is very good at it.  However, he taught me to drive, has been their to move me (on several occasions), loves his nieces (as long as he doesn't have to change diapers, wipe butts or cook for them), he is my husbands best friend and also works for free at the feedyard.  He is spending his Happy Birthday evening hauling manure for Poorman Farms.  We love you Uncle Jason and Happy Birthday!  

Moving Cow/Calf Pairs to Greener Pastures

Jake and I spent the morning moving cows that have calved from the calving pasture to the "kick-out" fields. This mornings work in the pasture I have often called Marriage Counseling, where Jake and I go to work on our communication skills.

Today as we were moving the mamas with their calves, I began to realize many life lessons are learned when moving these creatures.

1. Life is easier when you point the cow in the right direction and let her find her own way to the gate hole. (even if it seems a little out of the way)
2. The calf almost always follows the mama cow.
3. Marriages are made stronger in the pasture field.

** These pictures are from last year. I couldn't help but post the beauty of the green pastures. Still waiting for the green pastures of 2013.**

Corn Prices and Rain Make Me Giddy

I am driving through Fairfield County today, when I hear the distinguished voice of Dale Minyo.  I reached to turn it up and told the girls to quiet down.  Just as he began the story about corn prices going down the limit today.  I almost thought it was some kind of April Fool's Joke, but it isn't and corn is going down rapidly. I called a friend of ours and corn producer Jon Miller who is also a Board Member on the Ohio Corn Growers, for the update. He with more disappointment than I, explained that the USDA planting reports came out on Thursday at 11:30AM and then corn went down the limit of 40 cents.  The report had a couple key components that started the trend downward, one was that they are predicting more acres to be planted this spring than there has been since 1936.  Secondly they have realized that there were more than 500 million bushels of corn in storage on farms and elevators that they didn't have accounted for last month.  The market then was closed Friday and obviously the weekend to open today, where the market could have went down an additional 60 cents since it went down the limit the market day before.  However it only went down 58 cents but then closed down at 53 cents on the Future Markets.

There have been two moments in the last week that have made me giddy. The first was when our friends called and posted on Facebook that our Nebraska home was getting rain.

The second was corn prices coming down. As a feedyard owner the price of corn is crucial to our business. It takes a lot of corn to bring you the Grain Finished Beef that your family enjoys.

Happy Easter - Enjoy New Life

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ... 1 Peter 1:3

Easter is a powerful holiday.  For the first time in our married life we made it to the Holy Thursday and Good Friday Mass.  The girls asked if we were going to a Holy Saturday Mass tonight.  I told them we would not.  I am not sure they get the power of the weekend celebrations.  I assume I have about 8 more years for them to "get it", if not they may never care to understand.  Jake and I came home from Mass to watch "The Passion".  The movie is almost too much to watch and I have guilt in just turning my head.  I didn't realize Jesus is played by the same guy that is in "The Person of Interest".   He does a fantastic job. 

The girls and I made some extra Easter goodies including fruit salad, deviled eggs and cupcakes. 

Although one of my favorite parts of the Easter weekend is seeing all of the new life in a new calf crop and just the hint of greener pastures.  Jake, the girls and I went out to put mineral out and watch the calves laying in the sunshine and running about with the energy only the sunshine can bring. 

I hope you enjoy your Easter weekend and watching all of the signs of new life.

fortheloveofbeef - for kids

I grew up watching Sesame Street. We didn't have cable or a VCR and so everyday just before my Dad came home for lunch I watched Sesame Street.  It is funny how you have certain memories that stick with you.  For me one of the songs I remember is "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others". There are certain songs that stick with you so much, that when things happen in your life, they pop into your head.


So you can imagine what song popped into my head when I saw this the other day.

Let the record reflect that this heifer (I think) that keeps appearing on Jake and I's Facebook pages and now for the first time on fortheloveofbeef is the neighbors.  He is unable to get her in and would like to sell her, unfortunately he is now unable to keep her on his side of the fence.

Life Lesson #99

Jacie's Kindgarden teacher Mrs. Rikli apparently would tell her class many times as she passed out items, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit".  Jacie adopted the saying and brought it home to share with her sister Jaelin.  I love it and find myself using the catchy phrase all the time.

For example I have repeated it several times to myself in the last few weeks about the weather and the pasture conditions as we continue to unroll more hay.

Last year at this time we were bottle feeding calves in shorts and the grass was green.

This year we have snow, brown pastures and mud.  Although I am hopeful this will lead to more precipitation this summer.  

But no matter what, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit"!

Helping Hand - Judi Graff

You may have noticed some changes here at fortheloveofbeef.  There have been some makeovers and edits.  I have changed my About For The Love Of BEEF.  I have also been working on understanding Google Analytics, which is a program that tells you where the traffic comes from and what information they are searching for.

I started this makeover by accidentally finding a group on Facebook, mostly for Agriculture Bloggers called Blog Overhaul.  It has been really fun and I have met several great bloggers who share tips, secrets and suggest changes for my blog.  This overhaul is the product of the work of Judi Graff.  I am not sure why she wants to help a complete stranger like me or how she finds the time, but I am grateful.

This is a link to a blog written by Janice Person about Judi Graff and her blog.  These will be two excellent Agriculture Blogs you will love.  They are also two wonderful women helping me a complete stranger with my adventures in blogging.  Thank you both!

Janice Person with a big thank you to Judi Graff 

"Bull" Party

We have on occasion hosted a bowl party or two, when Ohio State plays in the Rose Bowl or the National Championship. Other than the Buckeyes and on occasion the Huskers this family does not follow sports.  I told the girls this week we would have a family "Bull" Party.

We are going to watch the Leachman Bull Sale tomorrow in between calf checks and unrolling some hay. The sale will be live on the internet and is actually taking place in Colorado. Carol Wildman asked me on Facebook today if we ever sold cattle through internet auctions.  She asked me if the auction is actually taking place somewhere.  The answer is yes we have on several occasions sold cattle through livestock auctions, in numerous ways.  The live auction most of the time is happening someplace. The Leachman Bull Sale is actually live in Colorado at Colorado State sales facility (which is very nice). It is very useful for people who can't make it to the sale for various reasons (weather, calving, time, work, travel).  Not hauling cattle to an additional place of sale is helpful for security.  Some cattle are videoed and never leave the farm.  This means less stress on humans and animals and less exposure to disease. Most of our calves are sold in the fall through video auction.

Lot 34 is Jake and I's bull that will sell tomorrow.  It is our first bull in the sale.  We believe although we haven't seen it since this fall, it is the best bull we have ever raised.  We are excited for it to sell tomorrow.  This is the video for Lot 34.




Lee Leachman believes the best he has ever had in the sale will also sell tomorrow as lot 34.  Just kidding he obviously put what he believe is the best bull as lot 1.  This is Lot 1, it will be worth watching the sale just to see what Lot 1 brings.  For my non cattle readers - more than one person/farm/ranch will purchase this bull and then someone will get breeding rights (custody) and the others will get semen rights.  It will likely be more interesting than most anything on television for the minute and half it takes to sell Lot 1.




Safe travels to everyone traveling to and from the bull sale.