Guest Blog

Spelling was not my strongest subject in elementary school (to be honest, it still isn’t), but thankfully spell check is as common as the cold nowadays. Whether it was your forte or not, some schools had an annual spelling bee to determine who the queen (or king) bee was.

Would you do the dishes by hand if you own a dishwasher? Or cut your firewood with a crosscut saw when you have a chain saw? Yeah, me neither. I like time- and labor-saving tools and information. Technology should make life easier.

There is something about saddling up a fresh horse on a cool spring morning, trailing cows into the corrals and getting ready to brand slick calves that compares to nothing else. Early morning jitters from lack of sleep finally give way to good morning hellos and laughter among the help.

Today, the day that I am writing this, is the first day of spring. It has been a long time coming, but the unpredictable weather patterns prove it is here. It is quite appropriate that I spend a part of my day treating a scouring calf. It just comes with the territory, but this year it seems so much worse.

We as human beings put up so many guards and make tons of excuses to protect ourselves from looking like idiots. We don’t want to admit we don’t know something for fear of hurting our image. Those guards and excuses I am talking about can all be summed up with one word: pride! Pride is the enemy to potential.

Are you profitable as a cattle producer at current prices? Don’t you lie to me, or worse, yourself. The elevated prices in 2014-2015 were great, but we all knew it couldn’t and wouldn’t last.