Good weather and lots of grass cause beef producers to smile and walk around with a swagger. We are usually regular fellers but, at this time of the year, we are boldly sassy! Those of us who have not had to hit the hay fields yet due to the wet weather are cockier than the rest, and that is a bunch!
A neighbor about 10 miles away cut, raked and baled without a drop of rain hitting his hay. I don't know how he did it, the offspring were ready to start, but it sure looked like we were gonna get a deluge and so they waited. We will, if no unforeseen tragedy pops up, start today. They will start, I will monitor their activities from the pickup truck. That makes me appear busy.
Our bulls are ready to be turned out the first of June and, if I do not watch them, the offspring will turn them out a week to 10 days early. We will AI some cows and they are separated and measured. We will AI heifers to calve a week later than the cows. Well, it is the plan but, of course, cattle and women give birth when they decide!
I think it is early in the season for pinkeye, but we have a good black cow that is infected. I caught it one evening and decided she had just stuck something in her eye. By the next morning, it was full blown and I doctored it. Looks like it will turn blue, and I sure hate that. I do not know if the fly population is on the rise or just what caused the outbreak, but we are checking a little closer now. Also adding some Vitamin A to the mineral feeders. That may be an old wives tale that it will help, but it doesn't cost much to try it.
We are never without things to do, and I would like to have a year we were not behind a couple of days. I need to lease some more land but, since the Lord is not making any more of it, it is getting as scarce as snake hips. I suspect we will need to cull cattle in order to keep from crowding and killing our grass by grazing it too close. I have saved heifers for years, needed to build a herd for several years and it is a habit that is sure enough hard to break. My close relative comes to watch us sort to sell and almost throws rocks at me when I cut out a well-made and slick heifer to go to town. She remembers us using some rather undesirable stock to build many years ago, too!
It is my opinion, and everyone has one, complaining about a slow start to haying and the need to cull good cattle is pretty trivial! How unthankful a feller must be to gripe about rain and the need to sell over-crowded herds. We are a pitiful bunch of vermin and I am the chief one. I will try to be nicer and also endeavor to eat less pie! Both should be easy to accomplish!
Watch out for bogus $20 bills!
Bill is the pen name used by the Gravette-area author of this weekly column. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 05/25/2016