Tuesday, December 21, 2010

'Tis the season



Went and visited the in-laws over the weekend. Checked cows, fed cows, and checked out the horses. Sure is nice to think we only have one two year old to start this spring. It was so long ago that we had tweleve. Plus, the ex-stud makes an awesome gelding.

Here is Snip doing his work.

We are about 75% of the way through this calving season. My FIL has changed to 3 seasons for more branding opportunities, to try and hit different markets, and stabilize his cash flow. It works for them. It is also pretty innovative and helps the sustainability of the place.

4 comments:

  1. Cool Pic. I would like to know more about the three calving seasons. Perhaps you could start a thread on the ranch board?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I could use some of that dry, snowless country about now. Merry Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Linda- that country has a foot right now! The FIL had to turn around on his mail route because he couldn't get through the drifts in 4WD.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Three brandings sounds like you are stretching out the fun! I wouldn't mind branding a few calves every week. While having three paydays a year sounds better than a single payday, there may be other ways to increase sustainability while making more money while actually shrinking costs for maintaining infrastructure.

    By implementing an intensive grazing program through herding your FLI could actually improve range conditions and increase his carrying capacity while decreasing his infrastructure (and associated costs of maintaining it).

    ReplyDelete