My farming/ranching operation consists of just over 2,000 acres owned and rented. I run 150 stock cows in my cow/calf enterprise. I grow wheat, milo, soybeans, alfalfa, sunflowers, and oats in my farming operation. I also operate my parent's farm trust and manage another individual's cattle enterprise. I came to the farm in 1974 after graduating from Fort Hays State University with a degree in agriculture. I will post what I’m doing on the farm and how the weather affects my operation when I get time.

January 9, mud on the farm.

Well, 2008 begins like 2007, muddy! The snow and ice has has mostly melted as well as 2" of snow that fell night before last. If one ganders at my 2007 archive the January pictures on it mirrors what it is like through the first week of Jan. '08. We try to feed cattle early while the ground is frozen up and we can get around but yesterday not much freezing happened so I just feed everything with the big tractor. We will be watching for a dry open day to work "grandmas" and our fall cattle pairs around beginning to clean up downed tree branches from the Dec. ice storm. That is the near term work focus we're doing at the moment. The weather is changeable, with systems moving through every 3 days or so with light precip. falling with each system and usually breezy to windy south/north winds depending on which side of the upper systems we're on.

January 17, cold and snow on the farm.

We recieved 3" of snow with very strong winds yesterday and last night. This morning its 8 degrees but sunny. We worked my fall cow/calf herd Tuesday when the temps were 48 and very muddy. Wednessday we helped our neighbors move cattle as the snow was beginning and got that move done before the roads were too bad. The warmth we "had", had melted the ice off of most of the ponds for the first time since late December and will now freeze back up. In the mornings we were able to navigate around the muddy pastures because the previous snow had melted and the night cold would freeze the ground solid until afternoon. Forecast is for more cold and light snow for the next week, but it is the middle of January.

Jan. 19, the deep freeze continues.

The latest arctic outbreak has entrenched itself here in central Kansas. Last night Jeremy said his truck thermometer showed -7 degreese during the night, luckily there was not much wind. These cold temps are requiring more feed to be fed to the cattle and another chore is chopping pond ice for watering them. Maybe we'll get above freezing temps by Thursday-Friday (Jan. 24-25) according to the forecast----five days from now!

January 26, second January thaw.

The temperature rose above freezing yesterday for the first time in a long time!! Today the afternoon high was in the middle 50s. We took advantage of the nice weather to work Grandma's fall born pairs today, just shy of 100 pairs. We dewormed/deloused and retagged the cows and gave first immunity shots to the calves. This took 5 of us a little over 4 hours to complete these jobs. Our next major cattle task will be repositioning spring calving cows to the birthing pastures around the February 10 time period in preparation for spring calving beginning around February 24. The weather is supposed stay warm for the next two days then return to "normal" temps. for next week. This should melt the ice on the ponds so I don't have to "break ice" for the cattle to drink. Also the winds will blow tomorrow and the next day and with the snow now melted the grass fire danger will increase. May have some postings on the fire page.

Feb. 7, more snow on the farm.

We received 5" of snow yesterday with a stiff wind blowing up some small drifts. The cold, snowy winter continues. Jeremy and I moved "Grandma's" spring calving cows home yesterday after the snow stopped so they would be closer to feed and check as calving will start around Feb. 25. I will move my cows nearer to home in a couple of days. I checked my wheat fields with a crop service rep. before this last snow storm covered things again. We saw a lot of mustard weeds in my early planted wheat with one field having a lot of cheat grass that will have to be treated. 40% of my wheat (the early planted) looks excellent and I will reinforce success with fertilizer and weed control. 60% of my wheat (later planted due to rain delays) has such thin stands that it is hard to see if it is even there! With perfect weather these stands can still be good but time is running out as spring approaches. I'm anxious about all of this as we had low yields last year due to freeze and floods. Current prices are around $10 per bushel!!! NEVER have I seen grain prices like these---a chance to gain some decent income since I've recently bought land that i've rented "forever" and I have 2 tractor payments remaining. After struggling all my farming career to get out of debt, I finally was even, (no debt) a year ago, then the '07 wheat crop "tanked", cattle prices dropped some, and the land deal was "buy it or loose it". THAT is why I'm somewhat anxious about weather, crop conditions and cattle prices.

February 23, More snow.

Saturday---it started to rain this afternoon as we finished feeding cattle. Then the light rain turned to sleet/ice pellets, then to snow. At this time (5:00 pm), it's still snowing heavily with an inch of accumulation on the ground (around another 1" already melted). YUCK! Not what I want as we are beginning calving---I got two calves born yesterday, none so far today. I will not have too much hay left this year when we go to summer pasture as I keep feeding heavily due to the cold wet winter. The extended forecast for around March 5, (we're heavily calving then) is for more cold/stormy weather, a tough winter for raising cattle.

February 29, a nice day!

With all the cold, snow and mud we've had this winter, we had a very nice day weatherwise today. High pressure was centered over Kansas today bringing light winds and 60 degree afternoon temps. Short shirtsleeve weather! I fed cattle then Jeremy and I went to Salina to do some banking and get repair parts. We then cut some firewood then I burned some of "Grandma's" yard where leaves and ice storm sticks had accumulated. Activities on the farm include prepairing tractors for spring tillage and "tinning" a barn roof. Spring calving has begun and will be in full swing around March 10th, so checking pastures twice a day is routine. The ground is still frozen/muddy so can't work any fields yet as oats need to be planted asap. Tomorrow, March 1, equals 60 days till freedom from feeding cattle day so I can start that countdown. We've fed lots more hay this winter due to cold weather and another problem will occurr when the grass greens up---the cows and calves will reach through the fence for that jackpot mouthfull of green grass and get out of bounds taking our time putting cattle back in their pasture and fixing fence. (This is usually precipitated by a call from the neighbor on the cell phone, usually when you're in church or in town stateing "you have a cow in the ditch at where-ever-it-is place!" Yeah, lovely! "Ah, could you run her in for me?"

March 12, Recovering from surgical stay at hospital.

I got home from the hospital in Salina yesterday after having complications from gall-bladder surgery. I was in the hospital Thursday--Tuesday and am still slow. The reasons for the complications were scarring from previous surgery in 1997 and my liver disease (diagnosed in 1995). At least the weather is warm here as I begin my convolesce at home but again all that does is make me wish I was well enough to be out and doing, which seems to be down the road a piece. Well, I guess there could be deep snow or something so I should not be glum as I am, although rain is back in the forecast Thurs.--Friday and again maybe Sun/Monday.

April 2, still cool on the farm.

La-Nina still has the central plains in it's cool grip, we have had two mornings this week with temps below 32 degrees with daytime temps (usually cloudy) in the mid 40s. Just so tired of cold temps! It did shower during the last week (approx. .25") which should make my newly planted oats germinate, (if the soil temps raise some)! I've done some field work in the last week getting over all the ground I will plant to soybeans as well as getting over some milo ground with the chizzle. In between all this Jeremy and I have belatedly started going around and fixing fence, something I haven't tried much as I have been taking it easy somewhat with my recent surgery. Speaking of that, Sunday I must have strained the internal part of the surgery area because I'm very sore (where the gall bladder was) so taking it easy again. I will see my main doctor in less than a week which will tell the main story on how my recovery is going. So we'll see. Otherwise we will be working cattle and go to grass with them, (if it ever warms up and makes the grass grow) starting April 19, finishing around April 30. Freedom from feeding cattle day!!! This winter, starting with the huge ice storm in mid Dec. was really hard on the cattle herd, especially the older cows which we have lost a few when they just lay down and don't get back up then die. Even when I feed extra it seems not to help. I remember a similar year, 1993 was cold and wet and we lost some cows the same way but I'm thinking that the ice storm was how bad things got started and while it was not as wet as '93 it is certainly colder.

April 9, results from post operation visit with doctor.

I had my post op. checkup with my "regular" doctor yesterday. He went through the procedure (gall bladder removal) with me on a diagram of what happened while I was sleeping during surgery. The interesting thing about all this was to remove the stone I had in the bile duct between the gall bladder and the small intestine. The end of my bile duct was cut and enlarged and between the two doctors, the stone was removed. This is important in two ways now. If I have further stones in the bile duct area, it will be easier for one doctor to send apparatus into the duct to retrieve the stone. More importantly, if my bile duct disease gets worse, it will be easier for doctors to do sort of a balooning of any bile duct strictures in the future. With all this "extra" work done during the surgery it answered my biggest complaint----lots of adhesions and scarring that make sore spots on my right side when I strain or twist or take deep breaths. The blood tests show minor irritation to the liver (post op swelling/irritation) so thats fine. Bottom line is I'm getting older now and it takes a little more time to bounce back from these "episodes" than when I was younger. On the weather, we recieved around a half an inch of rain yesterday morning and expecting more tonight/tomorrow. Temps were 32 this morning and highs in 40s--- miserable weather for man and animals alike for almost the middle of April.

April 10, big rain, mud on the farm!

I woke up this morning with light rain/drizzle falling. Feeding cattle was a big headache. Due to mud everywhere it was hard to get around with the feeding truck. Finished feeding around 11 am. and the rain started pouring down around 11:30. The rain lasted about 1 hour and the gauge showed 1.75". At 4pm. the creek was 1/3 bank full and still rising some. The temp. at 10:15 when I was typing this is 40 degrees with a northwest wind around 25 mph. Weather service is forecasting a hard freeze for Sunday morning but the wheat hasn't started jointing much yet so just have to endure the cold. Most all our ponds have refilled after today's rain and I'm glad that I got a lot of the "spring" farm ground worked as fields will be muddy for a while. Gladly, next week, temps are forecasted to finally stay in the 70s----maybe spring at last!!!

April 20, finally some warm temps.

It was hot and windy when we drove home from church this afternoon. The car thermometer on the car said 80 degreese, whow, it was really hot, especially when we're used to 48 temps all the time (seemingly). The mud has dried out from last Thursday's rain and I actually did some chizzeling this evening. Next week will be cattle working and moving to summer pasture week and freedom from feeding cattle day will arrive around May 1, weather permitting! I found alfalfa weevil larva in the alfalfa today and will have that sprayed probably Tuesday and will need to check some summer pasture fences before turning out cattle this upcoming week. Fixing fence is a chore this year because of all the tree limbs from December's ice storm smashing the fences down. Cottonwood and siberian elms trees were the worst "shedders" of limbs on fences---sometimes in unbeliveable piles. There will not be any shortage of firewood next winter with all the branches laying around curing out in the summer heat!

April 29, freedom from feeding cattle day!!

We finished taking cattle to summer pasture today. We worked and sorted around 80 fall born pairs of ours finishing around 7:30 in the evening. Tomorrow and Thursday we help our neighbors get their cattle out to pasture then we'll turn into "dirt" farmers again. Upcoming jobs are tilling the rest of the spring crop ground, search and destroy musk thistle and begin soybean planting around May 12-15th.

May 14, still cool overall on the farm.