What A Difference A Year Can Make

Recently, my neighbor, PJ, and I sat on our deck for ‘Happy Hour’ to celebrate that we just finished our haying season! We were certainly ready for the end of it. After two months, it’s time to move on to something else on the ranch. It was a good hay crop. With all the rain this spring, we hayed more acres so things look a lot different from last year. As I write this, it’s now mid- August so my bulls are busy. The temperatures are relatively cool and the cows are in good condition so the outlook is 100% different than last year. As far as weather is concerned, I wish every year was like this year.

One of the things I’m now concentrating on is getting the herd worked. PJ and I have decided to do things differently this year. We will be turning all heifer calves and small bull calves back out to pasture with the cows and only weaning the largest bull calves. We have found that they seem to do better without the stress of weaning and then we can match up cows and calves for replacement consideration.

It also allows us to work the herds earlier since we are often running out of favorable weather in December. We are hoping this works out better for us and the bison.

I’m looking over prospects for the Legends of the Fall Show & Sale. I will probably bring pretty much the same as prior years. Mostly year- lings, two-year-old heifers and probably a couple of bulls. Most of them will be from a new herd I just started. I’m excited to see how they are going to look in November.

The weather outlook for fall is warmer than average. Hopefully we will also get some more rain.

I hope to see you in Albany in November,

Dale Rengstorf
Vice-President and Region B Director