Cattle Herd and Faith

My legs feel like they’re gonna fall off! Took out 3/4 mile of electric fence this afternoon, the fence that held the cows last fall down in the meadows, swamps, fields and brush. Saved me mucho hay bales doing that and I figured it was a good time to take it down today before the manure hits the fan around this place. So as of now everything on that 80 acres is good! The field roads are drying up nicely, the cow lot where they get fed silage is even drying up which really surprised me! The fields would still swallow a tractor but they’re setting up more and more every day. I drove one of our tractors to the county seat today, about a twenty five mile trip, and even over near the Mississippi River they’re not doing field work yet. Those are sand flats that dry up quick. Mostly big farmers and corporate farmers over that way. A big crop there is potatoes and from spring to fall the areal spraying seldom stops. Glad we don’t live over that way, could be more than hazardous to a feller’s health.

Today though, working rolling up electric wire and pulling small electric fence posts out of very moist ground was a treat indeed! Almost no noise in the territory today, very little wind and nobody in the fields yet made for a day when a person could just get out and enjoy the open spaces. Allot of thoughts go through a person’s head, farming and faith, faith and farming. And of course don’t forget family which is in both farming and faith anyhow. Don’t want it to look like I’m belittling that! Never! On the farming and ranching end of things, well, its no secret that these last few years have been tough with the multiple, back to back to back droughts. Long before there was worries about the economy on the media and in this nation as a whole there were tough times here, sometimes very tough. And those thoughts out in the meadows while taking down fence as far as the farming and ranching end of things are concerned were about continuing the dream of years ago before they were almost entireloy stomped out by these last few years. To have a second to none cowherd, the type of herd a person could be proud of. reputation cattle! The fact is they are pretty high up there as far as reputation cattle go in these here parts. And most folks in the area haven’t the slightest clue how that herd took a hit over the last few years. Two years in a row I didn’t even keep replacement heifers, not enough feed to carry them through a winter. The cowherd has gotten a little over the hill as far as age is concerned. There wasn’t much a person could do except hold on tight and pray that things would turn around sooner or later.

This year I held back a nice batch of replacement heifers, both Black Angus and Black Baldies. Good stuff. Get some young blood back in the herd! There’s gonna be a network of new corrals built this summer in the spare time when I’m not making hay or something. These are buit with railroad ties and oak plank, heavy duty. There’s going to be renewed effort in getting the place and the herd top notch! Almost had er once, but got beat back a bit, now there’s a new fever in me to continue this and see it through. I write this cause sometimes people might wonder about someone who has faith in God and a calling to boot in the ministry, wondering if they let the cattle operation and the farm slide and just fool around with church stuff. Maybe some do that, I don’t know, but this cattle business is in my blood just as this faith is. And a person has to make a living, might as well do it good! There ain’t know way I could ever do church stuff, faith stuff, when I’d be knowing that I ain’t doing the job right on the farm.

I was going to write more on this but am behind a bit on other stuff so with any luck I’ll be able to finish it off sometime. There’s Kingdom work to do and cattle herd work to take care of. Spread the Gospel the best a feller can, and take care of the herd and make a reputation herd that a person can be more than satisfied with!