Barley Harvest 2015

Hey everyone!

Yes, we are still in the midst of harvest around here, although it has been somewhat disjointed. We've had a lot of stop and go with harvest this year, largely because the crops are all ripening at different times. Even within the barley harvest, we had a few days break between cutting barley at Tom and Carol's and cutting the barley that Jeff and I raised. At this point our barley harvest is more or less finished, so I thought I'd give you all a brief wrap-up of that. If you want to go back and read up on how our winter wheat harvest went, you can do that by CLICKING HERE. The winter wheat post was one of my most-clicked posts of the summer, so that tells me that people must be enjoying the farm-related posts and hopefully learning something, too! 

So. Barley. 

When barley is ripe, the heads bow down.

 We raise what's called 2-Row Barley. That means that the grain head itself has two rows of seeds. There are other types of barley, such as 6-Row. In Montana, most everyone raises 2-Row. Our friends in North Dakota raise 6-Row. From what I gleaned from Jeff's explanation, it sounds like 6-Row barley produces a higher yield. Makes sense-- more rows, more seeds. But 2-Row barley may have better, more consistent malting qualities, and that's the desired end-use for the barley we raise.

So, what happens during harvest is we cut the barley and send a sample to the malt plant with whom we have contracted our grain. They will test the sample to see if the grain we raised is sufficient for malting. They have a lot of stipulations, including test-weight, protein, moisture, plump vs. thin kernel size, germination... on and on. Jeff just showed me the list and after reading through it, I began to wonder how anyone makes malt grade, ever. But, I guess demand for beer doesn't go down, so sometimes the malt companies will be a little more lenient. Actually, it seems like you're less likely to get docked by the malt company than you are by the wheat buyers. So, there's that.

Something else I learned as I was doing a little research for this post is that malt is made from germinated barley kernels. So, at the malt plant, they soak the kernels in water so they germinate, then they dry them out with hot air. Something happens within the seed during germination process that makes it sweeter. When the malted grain reaches the desired dryness and color, it's ready to go.

We are at the point where almost all of our barley has been cut, but we're not sure if it will make malt grade yet. We have to send our samples in and then wait and see. If it doesn't make malt, then it'll be sold (for a lesser price, most likely) and used in animal feed. We hope that's not what happens.

I don't have a ton of photos from barley harvest because anyone who knows anything about barley kind of tries to stay away if they don't have to be involved. Barley dust is really itchy. It's kind of a burny, stingy itch that gets in the sweaty areas at the back of the neck or in the inside of the elbows and doesn't go away until you take a shower. This year, some of the barley cutting days were in the upper 90s, so that means more sweat and worse barley itch.

There was also the day that the air-conditioners broke. Our friend Brett helped us cut barley this year because we were planning on baling the barley straw and his combine makes a better straw-row than ours does. One day, both combines had been running hard all day long on a hot, hot day and then, oddly, around 7 p.m., the air-conditioners quit in both of them. Being in the glass-walled cab of a combine is like being an ant under a magnifying glass- it's hot! And there's no opening windows when you're cutting itchy barley. There was no going on that evening without the A.C. Honestly, I don't think anyone minded the early quitting time that day, though!

In this photo, Jeff is driving combine and Tom is in the truck, just across the road from Tom and Carol's house.
Taken on the first day of Barley harvest, July 31.

Right now, we are in another one of the harvest pauses that seem to be the norm this year as we've been working on other projects and waiting for the spring wheat to finish ripening. Once we get rolling on the spring wheat, probably by Thursday, I'm hoping we can just cut through it without any more multi-day pauses. I think everyone is ready to put the bookends on this harvest and move on. Stay tuned for more harvest posts as we plow ahead! 

Starting Harvest

It is *officially* harvest!

We started cutting winter wheat on Monday afternoon. That morning, I helped Jeff quite a bit with all the very-last-minute preparations. We cleaned out a grain bin and swept out a truck. I washed all the windows on the combine, even the ones inside the hopper. 

This is what the inside of a grain truck looks like. 

 The sky was a bit broody on Monday, but no storms that night. This year, we grew winter wheat, yellow peas, spring wheat, and barley. After we finish cutting the winter wheat, we'll probably move on to barley, and then finish on spring wheat. We're actually not cutting our peas at all this year, but that's a topic for a separate post.

Each morning, to start the day, the combine is serviced and gassed-up, and the windows are washed. This is just to hopefully maintain smooth operating with this beast of a machine. Daily greasing and cleaning keeps it running as efficiently as possible.

Jeff gets into one of the hard-to-reach places on the combine with a grease gun, while Harvey looks on.

 Also, just because it's harvest doesn't mean that other farm work can be completely neglected. Jeff has been getting up very early every morning to spray while the wind is down. Then, he'll spend a full day on the combine or driving truck. He had been spraying our peas (again, it's a long story for another post, perhaps), and then this morning began spraying the fallow fields. I could probably do an entire post just about spraying-- why we do it, pros and cons, etc. So, that's another one that could be coming down the pike sometime, folks! But this post is about harvest kicking off, so let's continue with that!

I took a break from cleaning the windows and mirrors for a photo op. 

 Harvest is easily the busiest time of year for us. Remember that we spend an entire year planning and working just for this season, to harvest our grain. A significant portion of our income is based solely on how the crop does. I always like to make the analogy that harvest for us is like tax season for an accountant, or like Black Friday in retail. This is when you hope to make it into the black, so to speak.

I'll be doing several more posts as harvest continues on about how it's going, so stay tuned for that. I also want to give a big shout out to my friend Christy. She lives and works on a big beef ranch and dryland farm, similar to our operation only they're bigger on cows and less on crops while we're heavier on crops and less on cows. Christy is a very active member of Team Beef Montana and has a great running blog with many, many followers. We met in person at the Montana Farmer's Union Women's Conference last spring and she stood up during a goal-making session and said she'd like to spend more time on her running blog educating her readers about her farming and ranching lifestyle. She is definitely making her goal a reality! She has a really fantastic post today about her family's wheat harvest, which is also underway, and I highly recommend you check it out: You Like to Eat, Right? Learn A Bit About Your Food!

Golden winter wheat under that big Montana sky!

Happy harvesting, everyone!
If you are a farmer, how does harvest typically go for you?
If you're not a farmer, what would you say is your busiest, most important time of the year?

Thankful Thursday ~ State of the Farm

Hey Everyone!

Happy Thursday ! 

Things have been busy around here lately. Jeff and I were on vacation visiting family in Iowa, which you can read a bit about in my previous Thankful Thursday post. Then, we were home for a few days before some great friends of mine came from Seattle for a visit of about four days. I'll write a bit more about that soon, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, for the most part it has continued to be dry, dry, dry with the weather. Jeff just showed me the drought report put out by our local tv news station...

We are located near Havre on that map, in the peachy-tan colored section. So, we're not as bad as some parts of the state, but we're still pretty bad. We have not had much rain at all this year, which makes it pretty difficult to grow crops.

Then, on July 4th we had some "fireworks," brought to us by Mother Nature by way of a severe thunderstorm with rain and the four-letter H word. Yep, you guessed it.. hail. There was actually a tornado warning issued for part of our county. 

To add insult to injury in a dry, dry growing season, we then were hit with sideways hail. On the land that Jeff and I farm, we received hail damage to some extent on 100% of our crops. Tom (Jeff's Dad) had hail damage on some of his land, too. Both farms were reeling from droughthy weather. Some of our neighbors literally have no crop left standing in the field. With harvest just around the corner, their crops are completely totaled out already. 

You can see how the wheat is literally laying down.
The power of strong wind and hail.

So why do I bring all of this up? There are a fair number of friends and family who read this blog because they like to know what is going on here on the farm. Now you know. I'm not writing about this to gain sympathy or to share a sob story. It's simply statement of fact as to how the year is going. I.e. not very well. 

But what we must do, despite everything, or rather, IN SPITE of it all, is try to remain positive and thankful for what we do have. In agriculture, we are completely at the mercy of the weather. We cannot control it. We can do everything we can to plan and prepare for how we expect weather conditions to unfold according to typical weather patterns for our area, but when we have an off-year, that's just how it is. Not every year is going to be tremendous. Most will be average. When bad years or bad things happen, we have to learn from it, if possible, and move on. 

And just to lighten the mood while emphasizing my point, please watch this video from The Lion King:

"It doesn't matter-- it's in the past!"

What happens, happens. And, it really DOESN'T matter, because it's in the past! We can't change the past. What we can control is our own behaviors and actions in the moment and going forward.

Is it easy to let go? Hell no! Does it still suck when bad things happen? Absolutely. But I believe that a person can recognize, acknowledge, and give some weight to the negative emotions we feel due to bad circumstances, learn from them, and then let go and move forward. Try to make the best of what's still here to work with.

Rather timely, I'd add, another blog that I follow posted this article this week: Things You Gain When You Let Go Of Control. It's all about letting go of what you can't control, giving space to those things, and relishing what you can control, which is really only yourself. When you do that, you find that you're more able to recognize the good and the peace in what is all around you, and in yourself. I think the best quote of the entire article is this: "If you want to control your cows, give them a bigger pasture." Ponder that one for a while. :)

And so, even as the summer drags on, with whatever mixed bag of tricks Mother Nature still has in store for us, I remind myself of some of the many reasons I still am glad to be here. What we do on our farm helps feed a hungry world. Today's modern agricultural practices feed more people than ever before, and we are part of that. Every bit of grain we will harvest in the coming weeks, even though it's less than we originally thought we would have, helps to serve others. That's something to be proud of and to be thankful for.

I'll leave you with this Wendell Berry excerpt. There's a lot in there that rings true.


Happy Thursday, everyone! 
What are you thankful for this week?

Spring Cow Feeding

Hello to my (tiny) blogosphere of readers! (Thanks mom!)

I have been MIA for over a week and I missed last week's Thankful Thursday.

Here's Why.

Stressful caseload at school + busy track season + busy farm season/homelife = not enough sleep + little time for myself = SICK KATIE!

Yep. I spent the good portion of the weekend without moving from my bed. It started with a sore throat last Wednesday. Thursday I spent the entire, long day, which also happened to be cold and damp, outside for a track meet-- throat got worse and add to that neck and head aches. Friday I woke up with a fever in addition to the other symptoms and subsequently spent more time in bed sleeping than I did awake. My throat hurt SO BAD. I felt pretty awful the rest of the weekend, but thankfully felt OK enough to go to school starting this week. Today, Tuesday, I feel pretty much back to fine. I'd say I'm at 95% of 100.

Needless to say, blogging was a nonessential activity while I was trying to get back to feeling semi normal. I don't know if it was some version of Strep or the flu or what, but I was pretty miserable for a few days there. Thankfully, I never got a runny nose or cough--you know, the really annoying cold and flu symptoms. Just had the painful ones. My lymph nodes were so swollen I thought they would burst if I touched them wrong. Ugh. I managed to somewhat dull the pain and the fever by simply taking Advil the whole time I was sick. Better than nothing!

The whole weekend felt like a weekend that had been full of plans but ultimately, some things got pushed by the wayside.

What I DID do over the weekend:

• Jeff did convince me I was feeling OK enough to join some friends of ours for a lovely dinner on Friday night. Surf and Turf with beef from their ranch and shrimp from Pike's Market in Seattle. So good! Great conversation and company, too. 
• Jeff and I also attended North Star's Graduation Commencement ceremony on Saturday afternoon. We arrived right before it began and left immediately after it was done. I felt bad about not going through and shaking hands with the grads and visiting with friends, neighbors, and coworkers, but I was just feeling so awful. Still, glad we went. The speaker was a man named Flint Rasmussen, who is actually a Rodeo Clown by profession. He tours with the Professional Bull Rider circuit. He was a really great speaker and had some good advice for the kids. 
• Sunday, I felt good enough to get outside a bit and help Jeff with some cow chores. Photos will follow later in this post!

What I did NOT do over the weekend:

• Household chores and cooking. OK, I did laundry on Sunday but that's really about it. Special kudos to Jeff for taking my turns with pet chores and other household drudgery.
• I didn't do any blogging or spend much time at all on the computer. Mostly, I was asleep. Priorities.
• I didn't do the 10K trail race in Ulm, MT that I've been sort of planning on for a long time. (If I couldn't even get up to walk from my bed to the kitchen table, how could I have run 6.2 miles, hmm?) Honestly, as the weekend approached, even before I got sick, I was leaning toward not going anyway. Ulm is nearly 3 hours from my house and since I'm gone so much in the spring anyway, it was starting to look like a good idea to stay home. Turned out to be cold and rainy on Sunday morning in Ulm anyway. Hopefully next year. 

So, lets get back to the pictures and info of what I did do on Sunday, which was help Jeff feed cows.

Jeff, Tom and some neighbors spent last Thursday (while I was at the track meet) sorting our cows and calves into breeding groups, administering vaccines to the calves, and hauling the groups of pairs to pasture. We have four breeding groups and we breed the "old fashioned way," meaning that we don't use artificial insemination to breed our cows. Here's a post I did a few years ago, specifically about how we breed our animals: http://prairieponderingsmt.blogspot.com/2014/02/matchmaker-matchmaker.html. The post is worth a look especially for the YouTube video at the end. Anyway, this is the time of year when the magic happens.

These gentlemen are about to be let out into the world to do work.

Get ready, ladies!

Our cows and calves are already out at pasture and the men will join them tomorrow or Thursday. It's going to be quite a bit like the Discovery Channel around here. This time of year, the cows get a little extra feed supplement in addition to the grass they eat at pasture. It's called range cake, or just cake. We drive out to their pastures and dump little piles of it on the ground for them to eat. It just helps with their overall nutrition as they are rebounding from calving and supporting a growing calf, and spring grasses are still a bit short. Here is a post I did back in February that has a lot more information about range cake: http://prairieponderingsmt.blogspot.com/2015/02/cake-walk.html. If you want to learn more, I highly suggest you click back and read through that one!

I went with Jeff on Sunday to feed the range cake. When we drive into the pasture and get close to the group of animals, Jeff will roll down the window and hit his hand on the outside of the pickup door and yell, while honking the horn. The cows know that this is the dinner bell and typically come running. It always makes me giggle to see them run this time of year because their udders are still so big! They get pretty excited about their range cake, though!

The cows know that the cake comes from inside that bag and they are pretty eager. Some of them will eat it out of your hand if you hold still enough. I love that our cows are so gentle.

 We pour the pellets out into little piles in the grass and the cows munch away. You can really see in this picture how the cows have lost their winter coats and are down to their short, summer hair. The light wasn't great on Sunday, but their coats are actually really gossy and nice-looking right now. Overall, the cows and calves look to be in really good condition. The calves especially are bouncy and happy.

Jeff snapped this photo of me dumping out some cake for the girls. I like cow chores where I can be in among the herd. While you do have to be aware of the cows--where they are and what they are doing--overall, they're used to people and are really pretty gentle. It was nice to be outside.

The astute reader will have noted that I made mention to rainfall and was wearing my rain coat and boots in the photo. Yes, it did (finally!) rain a bit over the weekend! We ended up with between .5 and .6 of an inch of rain, with about .7 on our farmland to the north. There were PUDDLES in the yard! I had nearly forgotten what such a thing even was! The rain was a good drink for the crops and the pastures, but we'll certainly need more before too long, since we were so dry to begin with.

So that's what's been going on around here! What did you do (or NOT do) over the weekend?

Before and After and Balance

Everybody loves a good Before and After photo series, right?

Jeff and I went on a crop tour last night to check on our winter wheat and peas. I remembered as we were walking around that I had gone for a run up to this field last fall and taken a few photos. So, here are the "before" pictures-- 

Young winter wheat in the furrows. Planted late last fall.

Winter wheat on the right. On the left is a field of spring wheat stubble, which we planted to peas this spring.
Also, a red blur in the stubble-- that's my dog, Harvey. :)

If you want to see the entire blog post from when I took these two "before" photos, you can check it out here: When Farming, Running, and Hunting Collide...

And now the "after" photos. "After" referring to after winter, I guess...

This is our winter wheat crop now. This was planted on pea stubble.
And again, the red-ish blur in the background is my dog. :)

Young pea shoots on spring wheat stubble. 

Even though we haven't had any rain this year, our winter wheat is still doing really good. Especially the wheat that was planted on the pea stubble from a few years ago. That field was yellow peas in the summer of 2013, last year it was fallow, and then last fall we seeded winter wheat on that field. If you remember your basic biology, peas are a nitrogen fixer in the soil. Wheat is a nitrogen taker. Jeff attributes the success (so far) of this crop in great part to the nitrogen left by the peas in the soil. We also had significant moisture last fall for planting, which certainly doesn't hurt.

Here is another image of winter wheat, from a field directly across the road to the south of the winter wheat pictured above.

Winter wheat planted on spring wheat stubble.

This crop was planted on spring wheat stubble. So, this field was spring wheat in summer of 2013, fallow in 2014, then seeded to winter wheat in fall of 2014. This wheat is still not bad, but it's not quite as lush as it's counterpart field that had been planted on pea stubble.  This is the same breed of seed, planted at the same time, with the same moisture and weather happenings as the previously mentioned field. The only difference is the type of crop that preceded it. This is why crop rotation is important (among other reasons).

As a reminder for my non-farming friends and family who read the blog, winter wheat is planted in the fall. It must germinate and grow a little, then with hard freeze it dies off for the winter, only to come back up in the spring. It's an interesting crop in that it's life cycle includes two germinations. There are many reasons to include it in our rotation. One is that we have a big enough farm that the time stress to try to plant all of our crops in the spring is great, so planting some winter wheat in the fall helps a lot. Another reason is that winter wheat does typically yield more bushels than spring wheat does, when the right conditions are present. We planted many acres of winter wheat last fall because we had A LOT of moisture in August and September.

This spring, not so much on the moisture front. When I wrote that it hasn't rained this year, that's more or less true. We haven't had any measurable rain of significance in 2015. Last week it rained, but it was a brief shower and we received less than one tenth of an inch of moisture. Better thana kick in the seat, but we all really could have used more. Many farmers, including us, are seeing the effects of drought and disease on their crops. Jeff and I feel pretty lucky that our fields look as good as they do.

Thinking about crop rotation, if our peas never make it to maturity due to lack of moisture, I wonder if they'll still be a good nitrogen source for a future wheat crop? If so, then we may still be money ahead for having planted them, in the long run. Interesting to think about.

Jeff and I spent quite a bit of time yesterday evening discussing our relationship to the farm. Specifically, my relationship to the farm and how my role fits in to the success of the operation. Something like 90% of family farms include at least one person who works off-farm. I guess I fall into that statistic, with my jobs at the school (I work at the school but I am not employed by the school- I work for a separate company). My income, while small (I positively impact children's lives and make less than a person who stocks shelves at Wal-Mart), contributes to the comfortable lifestyle we lead and helps us continue to farm in best way we can. I know there are times when Jeff has wished I had been more available, and my lack of availability can't always be blamed on my job. While I believe it is very important for anyone to take care of themselves and do what they need to do to maintain their own baseline, there are definitely times when I need to be better about balancing my own wants and needs with those of the farm. I guess it's just an ongoing learning process for me to see how exactly to do that. Not so different from balancing nutrients for a crop.

Weekend Happenings

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a nice weekend! My weekend was pretty good around here, though busy. The major highlight of the weekend was that my birthday was on Saturday! Woohoo! Today's post is more or less a recap of the weekend's activities, which were many and varied, and also of what's going on on the farm.

The crabapple tree bloomed (early!) in time for my birthday this year.

Birthday Happenings
Saturday was my birthday. Yay! I celebrated with Jeff, Tom and Carol on Friday evening. Tom and Carol had a nice meal of grilled steaks, tossed salad with volunteer spinach from our garden, potatoes from the grill, a nice crusty bread, delicious wine, and some cheesecake squares for dessert. It was low-key and nice to get together and share good food and good conversation. Saturday, my actual birthday, I got to take a group of Junior High kids to their track meet in Cut Bank, along with another Coach. It was a long day, but good to be with some of these youngsters as they're discovering the sport of Track and Field. They surprised me with a nice birthday card and some singing of Happy Birthday. Pretty thoughtful for a group of pre-teens, right? Made me feel special and appreciated. :)

It was a pop-up card- my favorite! :) Delivered on the bus ride home.

Farm Happenings
We are officially DONE with seeding. The winter wheat was, of course, seeded last fall, but we still had lots of spring wheat, peas, and barley to do this spring, along with some land that we re-seeded into grass. Overall, seeding went well with little to no machinery breakdowns. The biggest news related to seeding is that we purchased a new blockage monitor system for our air-drill (seeder) this year, which is a little hard to explain, but helps show the person who's running the drill if the seed is flowing through the implement and into the ground as it should be. Jeff, Tom, and Stephanie (when she was here) installed sensors on each hose of the air drill. Each sensor is monitored using an iPad app that Jeff or whoever is driving the tractor can view. The app would buzz if it sensed that no seed was flowing through a hose on the drill, and would indicate which hose was blocked. Then Jeff could go out and see what was up, or how that particular hose was blocked, clear the blockage, and get back to work. The system worked very well and definitely ensured that seeding continued to run efficiently. Without a system like this, a person could have a blockage and not know for a very long time, which means that part of the ground goes un-seeded. So, with this system in place, we know we didn't miss any ground. Pretty cool how technology can work in agriculture and improve productivity, and therefore yields. Now we just need some rain. Seriously, folks, pray for rain!

This is what an air drill seeder looks like. Normally, it's hooked up to trail and seed behind a tractor.

Fitness Happenings
Shape Up Montana ended last Thursday. Overall, I'm happy with my own performance this year. I wanted to make it to 500 miles and I eclipsed that and then some by reaching 565 or so. As a team, my team did awesome, too, and I can't wait to see where we finished in the team standings. I ran and biked quite a bit more this year than in previous years, and already have a 10K under my belt, so I attribute that as a big reason why I scored so many more points this year. Over the weekend, I ran on Friday and Sunday. Friday was a windy uphill run of 3 miles or so in the afternoon, and Sunday was an easy walk/jog combo of less than two miles. I was pretty sore for some reason yesterday morning, plus I knew that Jeff and I were planning our big bike ride for that afternoon so I didn't want to overdo it... I am planning to do the 10K at the Buffalo Jump Race Series in Ulm, MT on May 17, so I do need to concentrate on keeping my mileage and training up this week, then "tapering" next week in preparation for the race.

I love this logo for the Buffalo Jump races!

Bicycle Happenings
Jeff has a fitness goal this summer of getting in a lot more mountain biking. I told him that for my birthday I didn't want any presents, but let's plan to go on a long bike ride instead. So, Sunday afternoon, we spent about an hour and a half on our mountain bikes. For the first time, really, we rode through our pastures instead of on the gravel roads. We mostly followed cow paths, which are a lot like single-track, except where there were no trails, then we just picked our way carefully through the grass. We left from Tom's house and made a big loop heading out to the Southwest, crossing the creek, then by the tepee rings, across the Inverness Road by the gravel pit and reservoirs over there, then crossed back into Chuck's pasture, and headed toward home. We think we covered about 8 miles. Harvey and Abby came with us and particularly enjoyed all the creek crossings and reservoirs. We had a great time!

Our first creek crossing of the afternoon. 

Stopping at another reservoir. Dogs went for a swim. :)

You can see how brown the grass is in these photos. We really need some rain. 

The narrowest, most harrowing portion of our ride. Barbed wire fence on one side, steep drop off on the other...
No big deal, right? We made it through with no spills. :)

 It was a jam-packed, but awesome weekend of work, play, and celebration. How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? Happy trails, everyone!

One of my favorite views on our entire farm. Actually in some pasture that Jeff and I rent. Sage Creek with the Sweetgrass Hills in the background. 

30 Day Protein Challenge

Every once in a while it's a good idea to take a step back and look at and think about what you're eating. About thirty minutes ago I learned about the Beef It's What's For Dinner 30 Day Protein Challenge and I decided rather spur of the moment to do it. This is not an April Fool's Day Joke.


Even though the challenge is being put on by Beef It's What's For Dinner, the challenge itself is not beef-specific. Rather, it's about simply eating a balanced diet that includes 25-30 grams of lean protein in each meal. I decided to do it for a few reasons. First, I really don't actually have an idea of how much protein I eat in a day, so it will be nice to simply learn more about my eating habits as they currently stand. Maybe I'll learn something and be able to make a smarter shift in my diet. Second, my family ranches, so I'm all about learning to find new ways to eat beef as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Third, I think it's a good idea to be mindful of what we are eating, so journaling on and off for a month will likely help with that.

I've already taken the first step toward completing the challenge. I printed off the calendar they have on their website and I'm starting this first week with simply journaling about what I'm eating, noting how much protein, and noting how I feel after I eat what I eat.  Since I also love fitness, and fitness and fuel go hand in hand, I'm also going to journal about my fitness activities and how/if they are being affected by what I am eating.

Throughout the challenge, I'll be blogging about my progress and what I've learned, as well as hopefully posting some images of protein-rich balanced meals I'm eating, and how I'm fueling my fitness and recovery. You can follow along here on the blog, or on my FB page, or on my Instagram, which is (at)katie(dot)r(dot)bangs. I'm excited to give this challenge a try and to share what I'm learning with each of you!

Think you're interested in participating in the 30 Day Protein Challenge, too? Click on over to Beef It's What's For Dinner to get started! There's no cost to participate. Just like anything else, you'll get out of it what you put into it.

Calving 2015 Update

I feel like I've barely been home lately between going to Chico for the MFU Women's Conference and then on to Wichita for the NFU Convention. This past weekend I was ACTUALLY HOME. Aside from heading to town Saturday morning for track practice, I didn't leave the farm. It was nice to spend some time with my husband, get some housework done, and spend some time with the cows and calves. Today's post is going to be pretty photo oriented, with lots of images of cute animals, including Harvey the vizsla, and lots of cows and calves. I hope you can handle this!

Benjamin!

Let's start with this guy and just get him right out there. He's a gorgeous, throwback Simmental calf- splotchy red and white. He's actually pretty big for being only a few days old, too. Now's the test to see how observant you are. It's hard to see, but he actually has a cast on his back left leg. In the first day of his life, he accidentally got stepped on by a cow and his lower leg broke. Tom took him to the vet in Havre where they gave him a cast. Then, to keep it waterproof, Tom and Jeff improvised by covering it with a plastic grocery sack and securing it into place with electrical tape.

While at the vet, the vet assistant thought the calf was pretty darn cute, which he is, and decided that his name should be Benjamin. Needless to say, it stuck. He's already pretty used to people and loves to be scratched on his neck. He's our pal. He's doing great and we expect that his broken leg will heal quickly. He already hops around pretty well, just like a normal, healthy calf.

Here's a cute, healthy little guy!

With the weather as nice as it has been pretty much all throughout calving, the process has been going very well. Everyone is staying healthy, and cows and calves are all happy. They are really loving basking in the warm sunshine! 

The calves are particularly curious and really can't figure out what to make of Harvey. They love to get close to him and try to see what he's all about. Harvey, for his part, is cautious around the larger animals but feels safer around calves, for the most part. Here, you can see him close to Carol, with another calf getting close to check him out. 

Harvey sticks close to Carol, while she takes a photo. 

This is a photo Carol took of the calf coming up to get a look at Harv. 

 Harvey definitely feels safer when he's near a human...

Another calf comes up to check out Harvey, while a cow looks on from behind Carol.

Here, Harvey is anchored to my knee.

 As of this morning, we had 67 calves born and about thirty cows yet to calve. At this point, they'll continue to sort of taper off. Today and tomorrow the weather is supposed to be cooler and rainy, so we'll see if the pressure change causes more cows to go into labor, as sometimes happens.

Here's Jeff and Harvey kneeling down to let some calves approach.

More calves! The little one curled up on the left side of the image was so content to lay in the sunshine! 

 When we had walked out to check out the cows and calves, we noticed right away that one cow was in the beginning stages of labor. We left her alone for a little while, and when we checked back later, it looked like she was struggling. Sometimes the hips of the calf sort of get stuck inside and the mama needs a little assistance. At this point, if the calf is still encased in fluid, he can actually suffocate. Jeff watched pretty close and at one point helped pull the calf just a little bit with his bare hands. The mama took a short rest and then gave one last push and the calf was freed. Just in time. But, Jeff was prepared with the pulling straps, if they were needed.

It's pretty cool to watch the miracle of birth. I know that it may not be for everyone, but I think it's pretty neat. Carol actually took video of the whole thing, but we agreed that it may be too graphic to post on the blog. What do you think, readers? Is that a video you'd like to see, or would it be too much?

We left the new pair alone for a while more so they could bond and the mama could clean her calf.  Below was the scene a little while later:

Cows bond initially with their calves by licking and cleaning them. 

I know I've said this before, but it's so great to live and work on a family ranch. Jeff and I are so lucky to contribute to agriculture in this way and to carry on a family tradition. There's nothing like calving time to feel the rewards of hard work.

Thanks to Carol for the photo!

 I've always wanted to do a sort of tongue-in-cheek Farm Girl Fashion post on the blog. It would be modeled after a high fashion post that fashion divas do on their fashion blogs, only it'd be about what we farm girls wear to be practical when working outside. I think my outfit above embodies that spirit! haha! You just have to love the Carhartt Jacket, old jeans, and mucky overshoes look!

Photo by Carol.

 And now a short infographic on beef, thanks to Ryan Goodman at Agriculture Proud.  He has a pretty well-written blog and an interesting point of view on agriculture and particularly on ranching. If you like ag blogs, definitely stop by. He actually had this image posted on his Agriculture Proud FB page the other day. He and I are both members of Team Beef Montana (although we've never run in the same race. Montana is a big state), which is a group of ranchers and beef producers who also run and race as a way to stay in shape. As a Team Beef member, I am enthusiastic that lean beef is a quality energy source that helps fuel my run and recovery. When Ryan posted this graphic, I wanted to share it with my readers.

On our ranch, we sell our calves in the fall and they are typically finished on grain. The animals that we keep to finish for ourselves are also finished on grain. There is a growing market for grass fed and I would be interested in pursuing this. I'd also love to pursue more direct marketing of our beef, or selling directly to consumers. Lots to think about for the future on that topic. 

Regardless, our animals are treated very well and we really do love our cows and calves. They have unlimited pasture to graze on and always have access to clean, fresh running water. I'm proud of the work we do with our small herd of cattle. 

I'm also proud of our dog, and he is quite pleased to be himself, as you can see below...

Harvey is guarding the porch! You may not cross unless you pet him first!

I hope you enjoyed the photos! Have a great week, everyone!

Thankful Thursday (On a Friday) ~ Thanks Farmers!

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by today's Thankful Thursday post on my blog!

Yes, you read that right, and no, today is not Thursday. It is actually Friday today; I'm in delay for posting my weekly Thankful Thursday post. I spent the better portion of the last seven days away from home out of my normal routine while in Wichita, KS at the National Farmers Union Convention. I did arrive back home on Wednesday afternoon, but everyone knows the first day after returning from a trip is mostly a waste. Hence the delay in blog posts.

Anyway, let's get to the matter at hand, which is this week's Thankful Thursday topic.

Did you know that March is National Agriculture Appreciation Month? Wednesday, March 18 was National Agriculture Day, in fact! You probably saw little memes and posts on the internet and social media telling you to thank a farmer and appreciate the Ag lifestyle. I'm going to continue that theme today, and I'm going to build it around some of the comments that our Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, gave in his speech at the NFU Convention earlier this week.

Some of you probably already know that I am a huge fan of Secretary Vilsack. He's from Iowa, as am I, and was fairly popular as a Governor there before moving on to become Secretary of Ag. What I really like about him is that he is genuinely concerned with finding solutions that bring people together, and also in helping people. He also states things as he sees them and doesn't come off as a phony politician. This is a characteristic I can appreciate, especially in today's political climate.

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addresses the National Farmers Union Convention.
Photo by Minnesota Farmers Union.

Secretary Vilsack offered many words of wisdom to the convention audience, but something he said early in his speech rang very true to me: "If you're not a farmer, you're delegating the responsibility of feeding your family to someone else." He went on to explain that this is a freedom and a liberty that we have in the US that many others worldwide do not enjoy. If you're not a farmer, you are counting on those of us who are farmers, fishers, and ranchers to provide sustenance for you and your family. That's a pretty big deal. If you eat, you depend on farmers. Secretary Vilsack also pointed out that in the United States, we spend about ten percent of our paycheck on food. In other countries, that percentage is much, much higher. Obviously, these are aggregate statistics and not the reality for every American household, but on the whole, to spend only 10% of our budget on food is really very good. We live in a great country and we have an outstanding agricultural system, filled with variety of producers, methods, and foodstuffs produced, and we should be thankful for that. We are lucky. 

Here's another reason to thank a farmer or rancher. American agriculture is a JOB CREATOR. Ag producers are directly influencing the economic growth rate in our nation and especially in rebuilding the rural economy. According to Secretary Vilsack's speech, the United States has seen sixty consecutive months of private sector job growth, which is an unprecedented stretch in our history. Can you think of any farmer who moved back home to a rural area in the past five years? I count myself in that demographic, in fact. Jeff and I are contributing to growing our rural economy, if for no other reason than simply existing and continuing to farm our land. I'm sure all of you can think of people who have taken up farming or gone back to farming in the past five years. Give them a pat on the back for helping with our nation's job growth!

The Secretary also spoke on some of my favorite USDA programs and intiatives, including SNAP benefits, the dietary guidelines, and many other topics. But, the line that stuck with me the most from his entire speech actually came about during the question period at the end. The general topic of conversation was about the diversity of agricultural styles and production methods in the US. Sometimes there is a tendency for ag producers to squabble with each other over who has the best methods, who is doing the most-right thing for the planet, who is feeding the most people, etc. Secretary Vilsack himself gave a line which, to me, was the overarching message of the entire convention: "Every minute we are fighting among our selves about agriculture is one minute we lose to advocate for agriculture to the public." Pretty big, right? In the end, we can and should all focus on what we have in common rather than how to hurt one another. What tools will help all of us. Leave your bias hats at the door and come to the table with ideas and solutions to work together.

There is a lot of negativity about agriculture in the media today. As we know, the media tends to focus on the negative instead of what we are doing right. Part of the mission of this blog is to continue to spread the positive messages of agriculture to my readers and hopefully beyond. If you are a farmer, thank another farmer for the work he or she does. If you're not a farmer, find one, and say thank you. Let's all say thank you and continue to work together to find ways to keep the American agricultural sector strong. 

Stay tuned to my blog for a few more posts pertaining to the NFU Convention over the next few days! :)

Next Generation Advisory Council

I have some exciting news to start this post: I applied for and was selected to be on a committee through National Farmers Union called the Next Generation Advisory Council. My friend Jennifer encouraged me to apply along with her and we both made the cut! The two of us, along with five others from around the country will be serving on the council. The mission of the council is as follows:

(The council) will serve in an advisory capacity. They will be called upon as a focus group to provide feedback on current programs and outreach, as well as proposed ideas for the future. For example, the Council could offer feedback on convention speakers, breakout sessions, brochure content, etc. to ensure that we are speaking to the "next generation" of Farmers Union members. 

So, with that brief explanation, I now enlist YOUR HELP, dear readers! I would love input from YOU as to what this Next Generation Advisory Council should try to accomplish, in your opinion. If you are involved in farming or agriculture, please consider what you would be looking for in an advocacy organization. If you're not involved directly in agriculture, but, say, you love food and you love supporting people who grow food, think about how you as a consumer could better interface with people who produce food. Here are a few questions to get you thinking and hopefully responding:

What are the best ways an organization can communicate with you?

What do you want an organization, particularly an Ag organization, to do for you?

What are some ways that people involved in agriculture can better connect with consumers?

As a consumer, what do you want to know about your food and your farmer?

When considering joining a new organization (of any kind), what are the biggest draws? biggest deterrents? 

What do you feel is the "next generation" of agriculture?

What do you think is the future of food and food advocacy?  Who are the producers and who are the consumers?

What is your overall opinion of farmers and agriculture? 

Where do you get information about farmers and agriculture?

Thinking specifically about National Farmers Union or Montana Farmers Union, what are some reasons you like the organization? What are some reasons you dislike the organization?

I would really LOVE to hear from any of you on these topics! Or, if you have anything else to say that I didn't specifically address above, please let me know! Feel free to comment here on the blog, comment in Facebook, or even email me at katie (dot) r (dot) adam (at) gmail (dot) com. My first meeting with this group is this Sunday morning as part of the National Farmers Union Convention in Wichita, KS. I can't wait to read your feedback!

Back to Reality

If you've been reading my blog this week, you know that I've been completely enamored with my experience at the MFU Women's Conference last weekend. I'm still riding the high and trying to keep it flying, while taking all of the positive vibes and transferring them into my everyday life. It's easy to feel like you're on an isolated island of fun while you're at such a conference like that but reality hits as soon as you drive away from the conference venue and you're faced with the challenge, immediately, of putting what you've learned into action.

Adria and I drove down together and met Stephanie at the conference. You might remember Stennie from this past summer and early fall when she was here to help us out around harvest time. Here are a few posts relating to her from that time:
Meet Stephanie
Goodbye, Girl Friday

Stephanie is here for another visit, so after experiencing the conference with us, she followed me and Adria back up north to the Hi Line, and then on home with me. We dropped our bags off and went directly to the farm, where we found Jeff, said our hellos, and then went with him to check the cows and calves. We are now full swing into calving and more and more calves are born every day.

Sunday evening, walking through the herd, we only found one new calf and it had been born dead. Talk about a reality check. This was the first test to all the positive energy from the weekend. Immediately, the three of us were faced with the task of bringing in the dead calf to the shop so he could be skinned: his cape would be used on another calf to hopefully graft the new calf onto the dead calf's mama. A bit gruesome, but necessary.

I wrestled a bit in my mind with reconciling that this animal was no longer a cute, baby cow. In fact, he never was alive. Now, his skin, his body, his spirit, would be put to use in order to give another calf a better chance, and to keep the mama productive and happy. We had some discussion, the three of us, as we did this, about how our society "cute-ifies" animals maybe too much at times, and about the disconnect people have between seeing a live farm animal vs. seeing a package of hamburger in their grocery store. People need to eat. Food comes from farms. Meat was once a live creature. That's how it goes.

Jeff had called around and found another calf from a nearby farm, and made arrangements to pick it up the next morning while I was at school. He and Stennie attached the new coat from the dead calf onto the new calf and worked throughout the day at trying to make a pair. Mama cows and their calves normally attach and bond to one another with aid of the calf nursing from its mama, just like people. The new calf wears the skin of the dead calf because the mama recognizes the smell of its own baby, and in this way we can trick the mama into accepting the new calf. Typically, once the new calf nurses a few times and the milk makes it all the way through its system, the mama will eventually take it on as its own. Sometimes this process happens quickly, other times it is tedious and takes some time.

In this case, this mama wanted nothing to do with the new baby at first. Jeff tried locking the two of them (safely) in the barn together, and eventually had to resort to putting the mama in the squeeze chute to get her to hold still long enough so the calf could nurse. Several days passed, progress slowly ensued. Mama eventually allowed the new calf to get nearer and nearer without freaking out and the calf was able to suck and cycle the milk through its system.

The mama is in the squeeze chute and the baby is trying to suck.
His cape is lying on the ground, if you can see through the shadow. 

I've been taking the first-thing-in-the-morning shift to walk through the cows and check on everyone. I'm up early to get ready for school anyway, so it's easy for me to get up, get dressed, walk through, and still have plenty of time to get ready for my day, while allowing Jeff and Tom to sleep in a little extra. Thursday morning, I went out for my walk through and was greeted right away by the new little calf we had been trying to graft. She hopped right over to me to say hello. The adoptive mama immediately stood up from her resting spot in the straw, gave me a wary look and a snort- protective instincts. When I went inside, I told Jeff that I think they successfully had made a pair out of the two.

We lost one calf (so far) on our ranch this calving season, but were successfully able to graft another one on to the mama, so still net 100%. That's the cycle of life. That's reality. Sometimes are great, sometimes are no fun, and sometimes are just so-so. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have days, entire weekends, or only short moments of brilliance that make a positive impact on our lives. It's up to us to recognize the good around us and harness that energy to sustain in the times that aren't that great.

As I walk through the calving pens in the early morning, the sun just beginning to rise, I feel lucky that I get to start my day by looking at and caring for animals. It's a great feeling to see a little black calf, an orphan calf, adopted by a big red mama cow, hop up to me and say hello.

Weekend Activities and Our First Calf of 2015!

It was another busy weekend this past weekend here on the farm!

Tom and Carol left for their Hawaii vacation last week, so Jeff and I got busy doing the final prep for calving. Our official due date is March 1, but the calves can and do come early every year! It was time to get our rears in gear and get the cows sorted and organized.

Even with no calves born yet, it began to feel like calving already on Saturday evening. Jeff and I walked through the herd that afternoon and noticed several that were looking like they were pretty close to calving. The weather had taken a nosedive from our sunny 50 degree temps and was down to single digits, with overnight lows projected to be below zero and with some wind. Sometimes pressure changes induces labor in animals that are close to calving anyway, so with that in mind, we decided we had better start staying over at Tom and Carol's and checking the cows a few times in the night beginning Saturday night.

Sunday we got up and began working in earnest on feeding and sorting the cows into their respective pens right away. Right now, our entire herd is sorted into five groups. The feeder calves are in one pen. Bulls are in a pen of their own. First and second-time calvers are in their own pen. Cows that look like they'll be in the second cycle of calving, or late-calvers as we call them, had their own space. Everyone else was in a big pen of their own.

Some of our bulls. We have four. 

It took some time to get the animals fed and sorted into their proper home for the next several weeks, plus a few more chores and organizational tasks thrown in here and there throughout the day. We also laid down some straw in our two busiest calving pens. The cows will munch on it a bit, but mostly we put the straw down to give them a warm and dry place to lay down. Sunday night's overnight lows were pretty brisk again, and we still thought we had some animals who could calve at any time.

My favorite cow: Z-35. So pretty. She'll have her second calf this year, so she's in the "Young Cows" pen.

We got all our work done on Sunday evening, watched the Oscars, and went to bed. Jeff went out twice in the night to check the herd. The next morning, Monday, in between his morning 6:00 a.m. check and when he came out later to do chores, he found this little guy--

First calf is a little bull. His mama is Y-14. 

His mama had clearly had him quickly and all on her own. Our first calf of the year! Hard to tell in this photo-- he was so young that his mama hadn't completely cleaned him yet-- but he is all red with a white stripe down the center of his face. A little bull calf. Pretty cute little guy! Only about 99 calves to go...

How did you spend your weekend?

Harvey and Abby had a GREAT weekend playing and rolling around in the straw!