 |
TC Diary |
|
MAY MEMORIES The guys were busy breeding AI very heavily the first part of May. On last month's diary I showed you a picture of some females with white tail heads. In our travels we are always learning and this “trick” Vance learned from some good cowboys in Montana. Anyway they used white paint and painted the tail heads of the females. Then when the females were jumped or rode you could easily tell – the paint is ruffled up and gets dirty. It was another way to identify females in heat. We moved the cows to pasture and have the bulls out. Some of the bulls running our pastures this year are Sitz Tradition, Connealy Forefront, Leachman Boom Time, TC Moonshine 364 (who is owned with Warren Bryan from Louisiana), an Alliance son out of Freedom's mother, TC Supreme 0138 a bull we brought back because of carcass data and performance, Basin Best Bet and Woodlawn Replica. One of my pet peeves is when someone calls and says they don’t need a real good bull because they AI. Well – I don’t think they get everything settled. We are proud of our pasture bulls and use the best we can find.
We are still extremely dry. In fact they are hauling water to pasture because the ponds are dry. Hopefully we can get some water piped over from another place. For irrigation we cannot irrigate out of the dam or river as we have for the past 50 years. In fact we only have until the end of the year to drill replacement irrigation wells and put up pivots – after that it will not be allowed. Then we also have meters on all our wells so the state knows how much water is being pumped and they tell us there will be a limit on each meter next year. We are having to spend too much time on paperwork. Without rain we were able to get the first cutting of hay up without getting it wet. However the problem we had was that it was so dry and the wind so strong that the hay was blown out of the windrows. One field they windrowed three times. Even though we have not had any rain – we have also not had any storms. The tornadoes have been fairly close and we feel for those people who lost so much and then have a mess to clean up. One small town, Hallam, was completely wiped away.
Vance attend the BIF Conference in Sioux Falls, SD. It was an interesting meeting and maybe DNA is not as cut and dry as we thought. There are many factors that go into marbling and DNA markers do not seem to be the complete answer. He enjoyed visits with cattle friends. Sioux Falls is a pretty town, the falls are very interesting, and the area is full of history. The city is progressive and making good developments. We saw the Lewis and Clark movie and enjoyed it. We also learned what great explorers Lewis & Clark were. May is always a busy month with activities. A high school boy who works for us graduated, a niece graduated, Hannah had a school musical program and a dance recital. Then Vance had a high school reunion. At the reunion everyone was old and retired but Vance...don’t think he will ever retire! With Memorial Day this month, I leave you with . . . “The flag is not about parties or politics, but it’s about our country. It’s about us being Americans.” – Retired Nebraska National Guard Brig. Gen. James Murphy
|
