I came across this quote the other day via Facebook. A disclaimer: I don't know Jacob Gorman, nor have I interviewed him. His quote was shared fourth-hand via a friend of a friend of a friend. And from what I understand, Jacob is from Alabama, has an agricultural degree, works outside the industry now, and makes ridiculously astute observations. Here goes: "It's funny how people cut down trees, bulldoze the land, pour concrete and asphalt over it, build a bunch of…

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My friend, Monica Stevens, shared a most awesome photo with me the other day. She'd been going through her grandparents' old farm magazines and photos, and she came across a page of ads in the 1973 Shorthorn World. And on that page, she found ads placed by her family and mine, right next to each other, nearly 40 years ago. So very cool! In part, because I love history and I love old cattle photos and old livestock publications. They represent years of breeding, refining, planning…

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Last night, my mother-in-law and I found ourselves in town for a fundraising dinner. By "in town," I mean a town 30 minutes away that has a very nice, reasonably large Hy-Vee grocery store. And because we always need groceries, we ran into Hy-Vee after dinner. On my list: ribeyes, for a special dinner. So I headed to the Hy-Vee meat counter. Turns out, the meat counter closed at 9 p.m. It was 9:04. So I turned to the meat case. My mother-in-law, Sharon, and I perused the offerings…

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So I was feeling a little sheepish about yesterday's blog post. I didn't mean to come off as a whiner, especially when my friend, Jennifer, pointed out that her family once calved out 350 heifers one spring. Dude. 'Cause we're not even remotely operating on that scale, and whining about being up three times in a week to pull calves rings a little hollow in comparison. However, that little blog post brought in a wealth of suggestions. Like from cattleman Joe Webel, who suggested night…

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So it’s 3:30 in the morning, and I’m sitting here in my kitchen heating water to defrost a bag of frozen colostrum, with one eye on the cow cam. John’s in the barn trying to convince the heifer that just calved that she should care whether her calf lives or dies, which she doesn’t seem so much into right now. And mostly, I have just one question: why do the heifers on this operation think they need to pop out a calf in the middle of the night? And by “pop…

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Note: this blog includes photos that may be graphic in nature. I mentioned earlier this week that we had a deformed calf born on our farm over the weekend. The first word came as the kids, our babysitter niece and I were waiting to hear what was up with the calving situation. I called my mother-in-law, who reported that my father-in-law said they were doing a C-section because the calf was “inside out.” That really didn’t make any sense to me, at least until I saw…

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If you’re from central Illinois, there’s a good chance you  know what “You Gotta Eat” means. The long-running segment on the local NBC affiliate out of Peoria visits one restaurant a week and reviews the menu, food, service and price. It’s a fun little piece to watch, in part because they love their small-town diners. And really, who doesn’t love a small town diner? Well, big news in our house tonight: You Gotta Eat is coming to a local restaurant…

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Sure, dog fighting is wrong. And so is abusing your pets. And yes, I’d like to see every shelter animal find a nice loving home. But that still doesn’t mean I’m going to support HSUS.   Rush Limbaugh, however, doesn’t make that distinction. He’s recently recorded PSAs for the Humane Society of the United States, voicing his opposition to dog fighting and his support for shelter animals.   The thing is, HSUS doesn’t run any shelters. They’ve effectively pulled the wool over Limbaugh’s eyes…

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Ever watch Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel? It’s a favorite at our house, and not just for Mike Rowe’s occasional foray into dirty agricultural jobs. We all cringed at the one where he caught snakes for the Ohio State University and got bit so hard on the wrist it actually pinched the skin together. And we laughed out loud when the woman he was working with told him, “Don’t worry – she’ll let go soon.”   We like Mike because he tells it like it is, and he’s usually pretty funny. Like the…

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