New Year - Better Me
Happy New Year! I’m sure I’ll be saying it every year but it sure seems like the year flew by. The year goes quick when you’re busy chasing kids’ activities and trying to keep your head above water with the endless “to-dos” of farm and ranch life. The start of a new year is a great time to reflect on the happenings of the prior year but also to lay out goals for the upcoming year. In usual fashion, we’ve thought of what we would like to change around the operation and also with ourselves. However, this year our daughter gave us a new perspective on the traditional New Year saying. Instead of New Year - New Me it is now New Year - Better Me.
With the mindset of becoming not a “new” but rather a “better” version of ourselves, there are a few changes that have happened within our operation that will potentially bring added value to our current methods. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a long list of wants that is always present on a farm/ranch…such as that new tractor or skid steer! :-) One of these changes that we recently implemented was the use of EID tags. Currently we only have them in the calves that we weaned this last November. In our operation, upon weaning our calves they go to our feedlot and will be fed a mixed ration of corn, silage and hay that we produce with the addition of corn distillers and a custom mineral package. We feel this allows us to better market these products through the growth of our cattle before they are sent to a finisher. A good friend of ours always says, “You can’t manage something you don’t measure.” Therefore, with the use of these EID tags and the scale on our chute we can better monitor Average Daily Gain (ADG) of the calves individually as well as monitoring the group as a whole. Looking forward, the use of EID tags will hopefully provide us insight with the use of actual data on productivity of our herd and what our weaning average is. Of course, we will still use the age old method of just knowing that “Ole 316 orange weans a 600# calf every year!”.
Another improvement that we are starting this year will be the use of freeze brands. We have a smaller than average group of bred heifers this year so we felt it would be a great starting point with using the freeze brand method for identifying the cattle. We will continue to use ear tags as well but with the addition of the freeze brand we hope to eliminate some of the multiple issues we have had with just the use of ear tags. Our cattle will still be branded with a hot iron for proper cattle identification but we will be adding the freeze brand method for our personal identification of individual cattle.
The ability to consume our thoughts with desires of being better can really affect our ability to see the growth that we have already achieved. That’s why I was intrigued with our daughter’s perspective of not a new version, just a better version. If we can try to celebrate the small victories and strive to reach the goals in which we set for the upcoming year than how does one not become a better version of themselves. My New Years Resolution - be a better version of myself tomorrow than what I was yesterday and live today with gratitude. May 2024 bring you much joy and many blessings!