Sustainability: Pass It On…

Sustainability: Pass It On…

The ability to endure is strengthened by an individual’s ability to “think outside of the box”.  I am notorious for stopping my daughters’ mid-sentence as they claim that they cannot do something and simply stating three words: Problem Solving Skills.

I believe that any challenge can be solved with creative thinking, hard work, and a positive attitude.  One of my favorite Mother Theresa quotes speaks to this.  It states:

Often, under the pretext of humility, of trust, of abandonment, we can forget to use the strength of our will.  Everything depends on these two words: “I will” or “I will not”.  And into the expression of “I will” I must put all of my energy.

I believe that our farm can be sustainable both today and in the future.  It is ever evolving and changing in order to endure.  My favorite farmer and I believe that “We will” accomplish our goal of sustaining.  Where there is a will, there is a way.

We must balance environmental responsibility and economic viability with social diligence.

Matt and I accept our responsibility and do our best to always be stewards.  We believe that a culture of sustainability can be created when we teach our children to creatively look for ways to conserve our resources and limit waste.

What follows below is a fun family illustration of how we

Pass It On!

My girls learned their numbers prior to starting school by helping me to read bunks at the feed yard.  One would call out the pen number, another would assess the feed bunk and make a call, and the third would notate the information.

Karyn’s “bunk reading” position…

One morning my two favorite blondes noted that a couple of the feed yard pens did not have pen number signs.  This was problematic for my youngest daughter because she could not call out the pen number if there was no sign to read.  Megan was inspired to action and left this note for Jared, one of my feed yard crew.

Jared has great welding skills, and was able to fashion two pen signs for Megan out of left over scrap iron.  Megan happily painted the signs, and they are now proudly denoting Pen 21 and Pen 25 at the feed yard.

Recycling materials on the farm is common place. I was proud of Megan for automatically thinking of a way to use materials in the scrap pile to build what we needed.  I was also proud of Jared for doing a great job helping Megan to bring her idea to life.

A job well done!

I smile every time that I drive past the new pen signs.  They are a constant reminder that in addition to helping our farm achieve sustainability, recycling materials can also be a fun learning project for the next generation.

Sustainable: The Ability to Endure…

I did some searching on the internet last week for a definition of sustainable.   This one is my favorite.

Sustainable: The ability to endure.

• Perhaps this definition spoke to me because there are times on our farm when I feel as though Matt and I are so challenged that we simply endure.
• Perhaps it spoke to the natural tenacity that is firmly embedded in my personality.
• Perhaps the simplicity of those four words caught my attention because they juxtapose against the convoluted conversation that normally surrounds the word.

For whatever reason, it resonated with me and has circled around in my mind for several days now.  Interestingly, the third pillar of the Progressive Beef program is Sustainability.

Click here for the first two pillars if you missed them in January’s posts:

http://feedyardfoodie.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/progressive-beefs-first-pillar-food-safety/

http://feedyardfoodie.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/proving-that-we-care/

The fact that sustainability is a cornerstone to the Progressive Beef program speaks to the importance of the topic relative to the production of high quality beef.  Just as I care about food safety and good cattle welfare, I also care about the environment and the sustainability of my farm.

Matt and I must both effectively use and protect our farm’s resources while simultaneously enduring both Mother Nature’s trials as well as man-made challenges.  My favorite farmer believes that urban sprawl is the single largest threat for the future sustainability of our farm, our country and our planet.  That belief creates this pivotal question:

How can we all endure as population growth tests our ability to exist without irrevocably harming the Earth?

Because this thought is forever in our minds, there are many things that Matt and I focus on at the farm to try to increase its ability to endure.

• Reduce waste through recycling.
• Responsibly manage the manure that we use to fertilize our crop land.
• Reuse the water that runs off of the feed yard during a rain to both fertilize and water adjacent crop land.
• Constantly learn new science and the subsequent development of technology, and determine whether it is a fit for our farm.
• Procure the feed for our cattle locally (either on our own farm or within our greater community).
• Feed cattle who are bred to be efficient converters of feed, and offer them outstanding care that enables them to reach their God-given potential.

I believe that achieving and maintaining sustainability is a journey.  It is a constant evolution of ideas and practices that revolve around a principle goal of responsible food production, and are driven by an unrelenting desire to be a good caretaker.

Somewhere deep inside my heart is the desire to not only endure but to endure with excellence.  Does the surrounding new life of spring inspire you in your journey for sustainability?

Winter Storm Q…

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…

I always think of this quote every time that we prepare for a bad storm.  Mother Nature has a wonderful way of keeping me humble, and keeping my world in perspective.  With Winter Storm Q currently hitting our area, we are glad that we spent the first part of the week preparing.  The goal is to never interrupt good animal care and that takes planning in the event of a large winter storm.

Cattle resting comfortably before the storm…

So, how do we prepare for a winter storm on the Feed Yard Foodie farm?

• Check cattle feed supplies to ensure that we have several days of feed “on site” and easy to get to.
• Check the water tanks to make sure that each one is operational and in good repair going into the storm.
• Check both generators to make sure that we can hook them up quickly and easily to provide needed electricity if we loose power.
• Check the equipment (feed trucks, tractors, pay loaders) to make sure that all of them are full of fuel and ready to run in order to move snow and keep the feeding system operational.
• Park all necessary equipment inside the shop or the feeding barn to ensure that it is more likely to start when you turn the key.
• Change the cattle ration (casserole) that we feed to our animals to include more forage/roughage which helps them to generate heat from within and stay  warm despite poor weather.
• Make sure that everyone knows the plan so there is little disruption to the regular routine.
• Adjust schedules so that there will not be any cattle traveling to or from your farm during the storm.  No matter how bad it is on the farm, it is worse out on the roads!
• Pray that God will help you in your chores and keep your crew safe.
• Remember that the sun will eventually come out and things will get better.
  

  Rolled corn, ground alfalfa, and ground corn stalks inside of our feeding barn…

  

  A further out view of our feeding barn and feed storage area…

  

  A semi-truck delivering wet distillers grains feed…Before a storm we want to make sure that we have several days of feed in inventory so that feeding will not get interrupted in the case that transportation or commerce gets disrupted…

  

  We have two generators at the feed yard (one is pictured here) to ensure that we can continue to deliver feed and water in the case of a power outage…

  

  Here we are fueling the feed trucks–it’s no fun to fuel equipment in the middle of a blizzard…

  

  He will need more care to try to mitigate weather stress during the storm, so my crew and I do everything that we can to accomplish that…With a reported 12 inches of snow headed our way with 35 mile an hour winds it may be a long couple of days…

  

  While I am anal about preparing the feed yard for a storm, sometimes I forget to go to the store and stock up my own kitchen.  Fortunately, I have an organized teenager who isn’t shy about reminding me to feed her too!

   

CNN Eatocracy…

Calling all Feed Yard Foodie followers!  Head over to CNN’s Eatocracy site to see a neat article on Winter Chores…

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2013/02/11/when-the-fields-are-frozen-over-theres-still-plenty-of-work-to-be-done/

Writer, Ryan Goodman, includes links to many farmer blog posts to explain what happens during the winter months to help grow food.  I am very excited to be included in the post!

Winter chores are one of the wonderful things that we share…

What is your favorite winter chore?

Winter Chores…

“Mama always prays for a nice, pretty, brown Christmas”.  These were the words of my middle daughter when she was about 4 years old.  She was solemnly telling a friend that her Mama did not like it to snow on Christmas.

It is hard to believe that she used to be this little!

In Nebraska during the winter, there is a choice of two colors outdoors: brown and white.  While the white can be very aesthetically pleasing, snow brings extra work.  While the brown color is not as pretty, it makes chores a lot easier to do!

Six years later, she spends many sunrises with me helping to exercise calves at the feed yard…

During my years in New Hampshire at Dartmouth College, I loved the snow.  As a native Floridian, it fascinated me.  When I moved to Nebraska, my perception changed. Snow no longer represented simple beauty, it’s presence brought added work!

My winter “outfit”…

Being the boss lady, it is my responsibility to ensure that our cattle receive good care every single day.  In particular, the feed yard is busy during the fall and winter months when animals are moved off of grass pastures as the natural growing season comes to an end.  As the days get shorter and the temperatures get colder, good animal care takes more work.  Providing fresh feed and water, along with good living conditions for the cattle, is a priority for me.

Our goal is exceptional care—every single day…

Last week I was asked by a reader to talk about “winter chores”.  Here is a quick run-down on what my crew and I do each day during the winter as we don our coveralls and layers of clothes in order to care for our cattle.

Cattle huddled up and waiting for the feed truck on a cold winter morning…

Reading bunks and feeding cattle:  My foreman (Doug) and I both read bunks about 6:00am every morning in order to determine how many pounds of feed each animal will receive on our farm that day.  Feed trucks are running by 6:30 and breakfast is delivered by 9:00am.  My daughters call our afternoon feeding linner (a cross between lunch and dinner), and it is delivered between 2:00pm and 4:00pm.

The Breakfast Wagon!

Exercising calves:  I exercise and acclimate newly arrived cattle at the feed yard for the first 4-7 days in order to help them become accustomed to living in a new setting.  I do this in the morning before the cattle receive breakfast—during the winter it is usually dark outside! The following video shows the beginning of an exercising session where I ask the cattle to leave the home pen and enter the alleyway.

Processing/vaccinating newly arrived cattle:  Newly arrived cattle are vaccinated, ear tagged, and sometimes given a growth promoting implant within the first few days of arrival at the feed yard.  My crew and I do this in the middle of the day to try and take advantage of the “warmest hours”.

Jared, cleaning a pen using the tractor and box scraper…

Scraping pens: At our feed yard, Jared is in charge of cleaning or scraping pens in order to keep the home pens clean and provide good living conditions for the cattle.  The manure that is scraped off of the surfaced is used for fertilizer on our farm ground.  During the winter months, each pen is scraped 1X per month or more frequently depending on weather conditions.  With 24 pens, that means that he is scraping a pen almost every day.

When it’s reasonably warm outside we use the horse to “ride pens”–when it is cold many times we walk through the cattle checking health instead…

Riding pens or checking cattle: My cowboy or I check the health of all of our animals every day.  Depending on how cold it is, we either ride a horse or walk through the cattle on foot to check individual cattle health.  If an animal is sick, it will be pulled out of the home pen for further evaluation and most likely treated with an antibiotic.  Somewhere between 2- 5% of our cattle require antibiotic treatment for an illness.  We have a consulting veterinarian who helps us to ensure good cattle health and responsible antibiotic use.

These red angus steers are a few days from shipping to the packing plant. I look pretty small next to them!

Shipping cattle: We ship cattle to the packing plant approximately once every two weeks.  My crew and I load the cattle onto semi-trucks to travel to the packing plant.

A semi-truck used to transport cattle…

Receiving cattle: We get new cattle into the feed yard periodically as other cattle are shipped to the packing plant.  The new cattle come from neighboring ranches in Nebraska where they were born and spent the first 8-18 months of their lives.  I am my own cattle buyer so I travel to the home ranch to help load the cattle onto stock trailers or semi-trucks to bring them to the feed yard.

Newly arrived cattle on “stock trailers”…

My crew and I (there are four of us total) each spend an average of 50-60 hours a week during the winter providing care to our animals.  We all love what we do and strive for excellence every day.

Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.

Karen Ravn

Caring With Greatness…

Greatness isn’t a product of luck or chance.

Greatness doesn’t occur by accident.

Greatness isn’t even a result of superior talent.

Greatness is simply wanting something more than anyone else and working harder than anyone else to achieve that goal.

Greatness takes immense amounts of dedication and desire to be achieved.

My favorite 7^th grader’s club basketball coach posted this last weekend.  He wrote it several hours after my daughter completed her goal of shooting 10,000 baskets (the basket tally began in November).  I do not know if he thought of AG when he wrote it, but I certainly thought of her as I read it.

My face mask has gotten additional use this winter…

My daughter is an Achiever —she comes by it honestly.  Her personal drive mirrors my own and is fascinating for me to watch.  This week, AG is basking in the glow of accomplishment knowing that she completed more basketball shots in the last couple of months than she ever dreamed she would.

You might be wondering—Is there another reward?

Apart from the confidence and skill gained by completing the baskets, my daughter is also enjoying the knowledge that her basketball coach will spend an afternoon running 5 X 1 mile repeats with her.  You see, that was the deal.

10,000 completed baskets = 5 X 1 mile repeats.  The fact that her motivation for shooting 10,000 baskets was the ability to run 5 X 1 mile repeats with her coach says a lot about my daughter… I think that her coach is envisioning a nice leisurely pace—I can assure you that AG is planning to run fast enough to reach the finish line before he does!

The drive to want to be better today than you were yesterday is a great gift…

We all search for greatness in our lives and we all have different motivations that drive us to pursue that greatness.  My genuine love for animals drives me to care with greatness on my cattle farm.  This is my vocation and I strive to achieve it each and every day.

Good animal care is a daily requirement at a feed yard–the cattle’s health and the quality of your beef depends on it.

Caring with greatness takes dedication.

Caring with greatness takes discipline.

Caring with greatness takes empathy and attention to detail.

Caring with greatness ensures healthy animals.

I am proud to grow your beef while caring with greatness.

8 Years and Counting…

Eight years ago tomorrow, Matt and I were blessed with the birth of our third daughter.  She was born in the midst of the Fall Run at the feed yard (http://feedyardfoodie.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/the-fall-run/) .  I laugh that she arrived four weeks early for two reasons: 1. There wasn’t much room in my 5’3″ frame for her to continue to grow, and 2. She was tired of me receiving, vaccinating, and caring for cattle while she kicked and squirmed in my stomach…

The proof that Matt was destined to be surrounded by women!

She arrived at 36 weeks of pregnancy to the day weighing 6 pounds and 7 ounces.  She paid no attention to the planned due date, and arrived with little notice.  The nurses at the hospital curiously listened to my phone conversations as they took my vitals and helped to care for Karyn and I.  They were not used to new mothers arranging for cattle arrival, shipment and daily care from the hospital bed.

The chores at the feed yard were just as persistent as my newly arrived angel…

Karyn’s early arrival wreaked havoc with my carefully scheduled and busy fall season.  While I did not know it at the time, her early birth served as an effective demonstration of her natural ability to quietly but effectively change a situation to suit herself.  Eight years later, she is still employing this tactic daily.

Her sisters were very excited for her arrival. Although they would never admit it, she still rules their life today…

My mother-in-law brought Karyn and I home from the hospital—my husband was busy at the feed yard vaccinating cattle and doing my chores.  It wasn’t long before Karyn was spending quality time at the feed yard with her mama.

Keeping warm on a Saturday morning at the feed yard…Can you guess which one is about to turn 8 ?

It is certainly true that she has had an unorthodoxed childhood.  She was “helping” me buy cattle in the Nebraska sandhills at three weeks of age.  She still spends quite a bit of time at the feed yard—from riding in the feed truck to helping me to exercise calves.

Riding in the feed truck with my foreman, Doug, is a special time for her.

No matter what she chooses to do with her life, Karyn will bring a unique perspective.  She is growing up learning to see the world not only as a little girl, but also as a good animal caregiver which requires viewing the world through the eyes a bovine…

I cherish these times…and count my blessings…

This week I am thankful for my beautiful blue-eyed 8 year old.  While she learns to view the world with a multifaceted perspective, I smile knowing that at the end of the day she will still find a creative way to quietly ensure that the Feed Yard Foodie house continues to revolve around her…

Happy Birthday, Kar-Bear!

Duck for President…

One of my youngest daughter’s favorite books is Duck for President by Doreen Cronin.  It is an incredibly clever book that takes children through the ups and downs of having responsibilities.  While I am the first to admit that the anthropomorphism of a Duck being President is a bit far-fetched, the silliness of the concept holds the attention of the young readers.

The book begins by talking about the hard work that it takes to run a farm.  Duck is tired of doing chores and organizes an election to oust Farmer Brown from his “management” position on the farm with Duck taking his place.

Duck soon finds out that Farmer Brown’s job is actually harder than doing chores as an animal on the farm.  So, he decides to leave the farm entirely and become a politician.  After winning the election for Governor, Duck discovers that his new job also requires work and decides to move on and run for President.  The cycle again repeats itself and Duck continues to abandon his responsibilities in search of “another job”…

I always shake my head when Karyn reads the book to me.  Duck is lazy…Duck is searching for a job that does not require any work…Duck is selfish and is neither a team player nor a community builder.

She learns from the example that I set for her. I don’t want her to grow up to be like Duck—I want her to make a positive difference in the world using the talents with which she was blessed…

As a parent, teaching my children to be active contributors and to learn to work hard is at the top of my priority list.  I believe that work ethic is a vital part of both personal and community success.

When you love what you do, it is second nature to give 110% of yourself each and every day…

As a cattle farmer, work ethic is what drives me. It is what gets me out of bed and to the feed yard by 6:00am every single day. It determines the success of my animal care—it determines the quality of the beef that my animals produce—it determines the sustainability of my farm.

I start each day with this—dawn at the feed yard is beautiful…

Work ethic is the core component of greatness.  It is what allows an average person like me to manage a feed yard, raise three children, maintain a blog, and support my community in various volunteer positions.  Of all of the things that I have continually developed as an adult, my work ethic is the one that I am most proud of.

It is what keeps me going when my body and my brain are so tired that I begin to doubt that I can do as many things tomorrow as I did today…

Teaching them how to be good animal caregivers is special–from it, they learn life skills such as empathy and responsibility…

It is in giving of ourselves that we receive.

As we move forward as a country over the next several months, I hope that everyone will give great thought to what their role is as an American.  We are all different—different talents, different dreams, and different opinions.  Combining those differences with a good work ethic and a desire to work together will ensure the prosperity that our country so rightly deserves.

Pride in our country—Pride in ourselves

We are not all meant to be farmers.  We are not all meant to be President.  But, we are all meant to be fellow countrymen—and with that carries both a privilege and a duty.