Here is a link to a TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) video talking about the environmental conditions the world is facing and how this will affect the production of livestock.

Allan Savory is an environmentalist that has spent his entire work evaluating how livestock are bad for the planet and are part of the reasons for climate change and desertification. However after evaluating all of his work, Allan now says that livestock are the solution for climate change and determining ways to fight hunger, poverty, and violence across the world.

Take a few minutes and listen to the video which can be found here.

Until next time,

Miles Theurer

Favorite Posts of the Past

Readers,

If you haven't caught some of these posts, I wanted to make sure you had easy access to them. These are the posts that generate the most attention on our blog. Please take a moment to read them if you are interested and haven't gotten a chance to do so. Hyatt Frobose hit it out of the park with the post coming in at the Number One spot! Maybe that will convince him to write some more posts for you guys!!!

1. Does America Need a Fat Tax - 6607 pageviews
2. Extra Extra Read All About It - 4532 pageviews
3. Sweet Corn Vs Field Corn - 3966 pageviews 
4. Colorful Cauliflower - 2908 pageviews
5. Getting to Know Your Beef - 2601 pageviews

What has been your favorite post on the blog?

Enjoy,

Tera

Mad Cow Disease Status Update

The World Organization for Animal Health has upgraded the status of the United States' risk for Mad Cow Disease, or more accurately called bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), to "negligible risk." The upgrade in risk classification is due to the safe-guards put in place by American producers and retailers. The United States, once again, is demonstrating ways to produce safe and wholesome food for consumers. Consumers can feel safe about the food they consume each and every day.

A complete description of the status upgrade can be found here.

Until next time,

Miles Theurer

For Love of the Game

In some ways, farming is a game.

Farmers get to wear sweet unis. Sometimes throwbacks depending on if mom has kept up on laundry.

Typical uniform for the farmers in my family.

It's a game that takes a lot of practice. Many farmers come from generations of people who farmed the same ground they are farming today. My brother is now the 4th generation of farmers to be growing crops and cattle out at our farm.

My dad with his dad on the family cow horse at our farm a "while" ago. 

Farming, like many games, can be expensive. Equipment, gas, land, electricity, seed, feed, oil, tools and among others are all things that farmers spend a lot of money on to play their game.

Tractors, corn seed, irrigation sprinklers and a combine.

Do you ever gamble on a sport? Farmers gamble a lot. Every time they sell a corn crop, they are locking in a contract price. The next day the corn prices could go really low or get really high. It's a chance they have to take. When you are selling hundreds of thousands of bushels? That's a big chance.

Gambling with the markets, weather and input (diesel, seed, fertilizer) contracts happens on every farm. 

At the end of the day, farming can be a very high stress occupation. My dad went to college, got a degree in Agronomy and could've easily gotten a job in an office with air-conditioning, an office assistant and free coffee. However, for love of the game, he decided to keep the family farm alive. Today, my brother is following in his footsteps and doing the same thing. They've gone pro.

Heck, they've won the pennant. 

Tera

Life of a Farmer: January

The Peterson Farm Bros are a household name around here in Kansas. They have been creating funny parody videos about life on a Kansas farm. However, here's a video I think you will really like if you are more interested in the serious side of this trio.

Life of a Farmer

This video takes you through the day-to-day operations on their farm during the month of January. I will be sure and post February's on here as soon as they release it. I have a feeling these videos will get more and more exciting as the year progresses.

My dad spends a lot of the winter months meeting with bankers, preparing his taxes, updating machinery, looking at seed contracts and preparing for the busy spring and summer months ahead. We have cattle that keep us busy in the winter, as all of our cows and heifers are bred to give birth in the winter. We do this so that when they are growing and demanding the most from their mama's, we have lush green pastures to turn them out on in the spring and summer. Lately, since we have been in a drought, there is not one thing that resembles lush in our pastures. We have to supplement the grass that they graze with other feed sources.

Enjoy,

Tera

Fields of Gold

You'll remember me when the west wind moves...........Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky........................When we walked in fields of gold

Picturesque field of gold.

This blog post was inspired by a song playing on my Pandora while I was supposed to be studying. My family doesn't grow barley, but I thought I'd do a little research on the crop because that song is just so good!

Barley: cereal grain grown in both irrigated and dry land environments. 

Season: barley is a short-season crop, 27 states in the US produce Barley.

North Dakota: state that grows the most barley in the US.

4th Place: barley is the fourth largest grain crop after wheat, rice and corn. 

320 million: average number of bushels produced in the US between 1994 and 2003. 

Animal feed: number one commercial use for the crop (51%), followed by malt (44%).

Resources: Barley Foods, National Barley Growers Association

Barley ready for harvest.

Enjoy,		Tera

Mad Cow

Actually, we don't have mad cows on our farm. I really don't like the term because the disease is correctly called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Feel free to visit that link if you want to learn more about BSE because this post isn't about mad cows. It's about happy cows, but since the title drew you in you might as well stay and read a bit, right?

Why does my farm have happy cows? Because we work hard to insure the health, nutrition, productivity and well-being of our herd.

• Herd: the word used to describe a group of cattle. You can have a small herd like ours (30-50 head) or a large herd (100+ head). 
• Head: the word used to describe one animal in the herd. 

153 is a heifer in the dry lot at our farm.

Because we are raising a biological organism, our herd consists of cattle at different life stages. They are not all the same age, sex or reproductive status.

• Heifer: a heifer is a female bovine that has not given birth to a calf. 
• Calf: the name used to describe a juvenile bovine of either sex. Think of how we use the word child. 
• Cow: a female bovine that has given birth to a calf. 
• Bull: an intact male bovine that is used to breed the cows and heifers. 
• We have two bulls in our herd and farmers commonly have at least one bull per 30 females. 

A heifer walking through the corn stalks we let them graze. 

My family primarily raises crops. We raise cattle because we love animals and they are able to graze the ground we farm. Essentially, feed for our herd throughout a majority of the year is free because we own the land already and they might as well graze it.

• Dry lot: we bring our cattle into a set of pens where they have access to feed, water and minerals. It is handy to have cattle come into the pens because it makes it easier to check them each day. Cattle maintain a similar schedule daily according to the juxtaposition of the sun. Our cattle come into the pens at the farm every afternoon and return to graze towards evening. If my brother notices that one didn't come in, he knows something could be wrong and can closely inspect. 
• Corn stalks: we let our cattle graze the ground that was used to grow corn from April to September and has been harvested. The stalks are left in the field to prevent erosion and provide a great feed source for our herd. One acre of corn stalks can feed two 1,000-pound cows for one month. 

Stay tuned for an upcoming post that will teach you more about how we raise cattle in the heartland. If you have any questions or need clarifications, please comment below.

Enjoy,

Tera

Photo credit: These pictures were snapped by the newest farm wife in our family - my sister-in-law. I'm sure glad God made farmers, but it takes a special woman to be a farmer's wife! Shout out to all the farmer's wives out there!