TC Diary

Remember the major ice storm in January. We still have out-of-state crews working long hours. They tell us now they hope to have electricity to our irrigation motors by July 1. When traveling the interstate we always see loads of poles and we know exactly where they are going. To get power to everyone as quickly as possible many lines were rerouted. Now they are replacing poles and lines the proper way. Every time the wind blew the power would go off since everything was so temporary.

All the cattle sales continue to be good. Analyst kept trying to tell us that the cattle price would go down with the price of corn being higher. I think the highest price for corn here was the day of our sale last month - unfortunately we did not have time to sell that day. Ethanol plants are being built as fast as possible. Iowa has the most plants and Nebraska is second. The by-product is a help in feed costs. One wonders how many plants will survive and how much more corn is going to be grown. Just hope they don't rip up good pasture land for corn.

We are calving out in the open as have good protection in the timber for the cows. However it was really cold and we did lose some ears. We never have scour problems and sickness when calving out in the open. It is always exciting to see the babies by a new sire.

The last week of March we started to make sale deliveries. Enjoy visiting with the buyers and seeing their operations. The guys are sure that they always raise the price of gas when we start delivering - but I tell them that is their vacation.

Grandchildren have so much energy and enthusiasm that I leave you this month with . . .

“Enthusiasm finds the opportunities, and energy makes the most of them.” - - - Henry Hoskins