I don’t know about y’all… but I need a distraction from the situation at hand. I’ve been thinking about the blog a lot recently because it is something I enjoy but I feel speechless. In this time of confusion and uncertainty, it’s extremely hard to stay distracted. Personally, I’m dealing with the impacts the virus has brought on us as my last semester in college as been moved completely online, graduation has been postponed till December, and I’m staying at my college housing.

When this all started they recommended that all students stayed at their permanent housing. For me, this would be living on the farm again. Oh, how nice that would be! However, for the safety, health, and well-being of my family, I have decided to stay in Manhattan. I’m actually doing alright, all things considered. I think the biggest challenge is being away from the farm and my family until further notice.

I keep thinking back to the last time I was working on the farm and how we were working cattle with the new chute. We worked three groups of cattle! Let me tell ya… after sitting in a classroom for a semester then going home and using every muscle I didn’t know I have… it’s a huge change.

I love working cattle though. It is hard work that challenges your mind, body, patience, and underlying knowledge of the bovine species. Some people dread having to work cattle because it is a lot of work that requires extra labor. I should clarify… working cattle is the process of running the cattle through the chute, administering vaccines, castrating, and checking the well-being of the animal. My family also makes a point to rewrite their number on the ear tags (and trim ear hair) and writes down the animal’s ID so we can put them into the records on the computer. So as you can see, there’s a lot going on! Not only is there a lot going on at the front but one of the most important jobs is to get the cattle moving from the holding pens, into the tub and up the alleyway to the chute.

( I hope to go in more depth on the topic of working cattle more later on because it’s a very important process. I know that there are some negative opinions out there about vaccines and castration and I plan on explaining the purpose behind them in that post.)

Something that ties into working cattle is a certificate for cattlemen. Here in Kansas, we have adopted a program called Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) that is sponsored by Kansas Beef Council and K-State. This program is actually a national curriculum; it appears across the country every year, many times, and all over. They go to different towns and draw in a crowd of cattle producers and at the end of the event, they get BQA certified. The presentation is about proper cattle handling, stressing the importance and the know-how of ways to handle cattle in low-stress situations. They also discuss some research that has been done and how we can implement better management practices in our operations. This program is near and dear to my heart as I have volunteered with the Collegiate Cattlemen’s Club at KSU multiple times. One certificate lasts three years and I have been BQA certified about seven times in the past three years. I know this seems crazy (and it probably is haha) but my stockmanship/stewardship skills have improved tremendously.

I guess my point in telling you all this is that even though some people in society think farmers and ranchers only do things for personal or monetary gain. Agriculture is an amazing field to be in because people will always need to eat and be clothed. Farming and ranching can be profitable but if you ask almost any producer… they will tell you it’s not because of the money. WE TRULY CARE. It’s our passion.