Lest you all think that I am a complete bah humbug about the snow, I figured that I would share a few pictures from our family sledding expedition on Saturday afternoon.
The snow was perfect for sledding and the afternoon weather was gorgeous!
My 8 year old dare-devil…
My 41 year old little boy…
My ornery 10 year old cowgirl/chef/trouble maker…Yes, she did drop it on her sister’s head!
My favorite teenager who kept loosing her sled on the way down the hill…
And yes, even the girl who traded her flip flops for cowboy boots enjoyed the ride!
Even Shellie, the family mutt, was thrilled with the snow
The girls keep Matt and I smiling, and I cherish all of the memories that we make together!
Removing snow from the feed bunks before dawn so that we could get breakfast to the cattle…
Since the Florida girl is the worst at running the tractor, she gets to use a shovel to clean the ends of the bunks that the tractor-sweeper can not reach…
Getting breakfast delivered is important because the feed helps them to stay warm…
Thanks to an early start and my diligent crew, every animal on the farm was fed by 8:30 yesterday morning despite the challenge of the storm…
Poco was glad for breakfast too…
The ground isn’t the only thing that turns white with snow and ice…
I think that this young hawk wondered where his feed bunk was…
A very special thanks to my three guys for their dedication and hard work. It is a joy to work with you–thanks for putting up with me
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!
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…
“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 orchecking 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.
A native of urban Palm Beach County, Florida; I was an Ivy League educated athlete fueled by beef for many years before I understood “where my beef came from.” Now, I am a mother of three and live with my husband in Nebraska where we run a cattle feedyard and farming operation. Feed Yard Foodie is a site where people can come to read about the real story of beef, written by someone who actually gets their hands dirty.
