TC Diary

SEPTEMBER SIGNALS


Erskine Cash from Penn State checking out the TC Ranch cattle

Joe Paterno in
Big Red Country

A fun time at NE - Penn State football game with good friends Erskine & Willie Cash of PA

A scenery picture taken
on the northwest NE Angus Tour

Packing silage
We spent a weekend in Lincoln attending Vance’s college fraternity 40 - 50 year reunion. It was interesting to see what all these “farm” boys had done with their lives. Many of them were pretty impressive. However the one thing I did notice was that the majority were retired or semi-retired – I don’t think Vance caught on to that part.

Other people were traveling this month as we had lots of visitors to take on pasture tours. Of course there is nothing Vance and Dru would rather do. We thank all those who came for a visit.

Erskine and Willie Cash and two other couples came from Pennsylvania for the Nebraska - Penn State football game. They toured various parts of NE and really enjoyed our state. I had them staying at the Hyannis Hilton Hotel (well, not quite a Hilton), visiting

Ash Hollow State Park (where one can still see the wagon wheel ruts), the largest quarter horse ranch, our beautiful State Capitol, and the famous Omaha Zoo with the largest rainforest, desert and swamp. Then I took them down on the Husker field before the football game — you see I wanted to get a close up picture of Papa Joe Paterno. I not only got his picture but he came over to the sideline and chatted with a few of us red-clad fans who were standing behind the Penn State bench.

The Nebraska Angus Tour was held in northwest Nebraska. It was a good tour and we enjoyed seeing good cattle and visiting with good Angus folk.

We rounded up cattle and weaned the calves due to the extreme drought we are having. When rounding up Trude’s horse got in some wire and Trude learned that your shoulder doesn’t give when it hits dry hard ground. She was really sore for several days.

The weaned calves are doing good. I find it interesting to sit back and listen to Vance (the old generation) and Dru (the young generation) make decisions. Vance wanted to try across the fence weaning - Dru said it would not work. This time Vance won out and guess what — it did work. They weaned in the pasture and put a hot wire across just a portion of the fence. Then they watered and fed the calves right there next to their dams. They weaned easily and it was not close to the house so I didn’t have any night-time bawling.

Vance and I drove to North Dakota for the National Angus Conference and stayed for the North Dakota Angus Tour. We

saw lots of good cattle on the tour and had good visits with friends and met new Angus breeders. On the way home we were like kids again and took the long way home. We went to Iowa for a sale, to Lincoln for a volleyball game and back to Omaha for the AkSarBen Livestock Show. We had several juniors showing heifers they had gotten from us. This show was the first event held in the new Omaha Convention Center. It appears to be a great complex. Hope they can keep it busy as we out-state people are having to help Omaha pay for it…some days I am sure the tax money is not divided evenly.

This year we chopped cane for silage. For those not familiar with this practice, the chopped silage is dumped in a pit and then we run tractors back and forth to pack it. Come cold weather the cattle will enjoy this feed.

Since this was a busy month seeing lots of good Angus cattle and good Angus people, I leave you with . . .

“Good cattle, people and barbed wire all have their good points.”