WRITING

From rancher to stocker to feeder, every cattle owner wants the same outcome. “We all want those calves to be as successful as they possibly can be,” Robby ...

Each heifer is unique, but the moment of triumph often sounds about the same. She spins around, nuzzles the wet calf, and lets out a low murmur with a lick. ...

"So... what’s the trade-off?" I asked. "You give up a widely accepted, profitable practice to do a new thing. There must be sacrifice. Do you give up product...

Thank you for coming to my "One-Line Legacies" workshop at the 2019 American Farm Bureau Federation in New Orleans! Here is the one-page guide to writing you...

“They’re just plain ol’ range cows.” Bob and Frances Dellit shared a good-hearted laugh at the idea of their 'plain ol' range cows' being featured in a magaz...

Dave Pratt scribbled rapidly across the giant post-it board. He switched colors with ideas, added seemingly cryptic equations to the margins, circled the im...

Dave Pratt, an internationally-known grazing and sustainable ranching expert, will present a one-day pasture and ranch business management workshop in Big Ti...

They thought they knew everything they needed to know about barley. After all, Mike and Linda O'Brien had grown cereal grains on his family's farm for years....

I’ve missed wheat harvest in Nebraska the past few years. Riding along with Herbie Husker on the side of the Case IH red combine. Sinking in to soggy salami ...

Sorting a livestock class is easy. Just put the good ones up, the bad ones down. Then, be ready to back it up; talk tough. But sorting kids? The most experie...

F.S. Cooley's writing is full paternal wisdom. “Uncle Sam” Hampton’s words progress with a contagious enthusiasm. Even business letters penned by former Mont...

"I hope they slow down every once in a while," Chuck Hahn said, nodding at the steady line of boaters, anglers and campers streaming north to Canyon Ferry La...

(Originally published Jan. 10, 2015) It's January at the Castle Mountain Ranch, and the wind whistles through the veil of snow that has crystalized the mount...

Used cars. Potential dates. Bred heifers. A prudent shopper for any of the above is wise to wonder: How well were they cared for before I came around? What i...

He's keeping pace beside me. My childhood playmate's dad; our middle school track coach. He's in wind pants instead of his traditional wranglers; tennis shoe...

In a state of 10,000 lakes, water law rules the land. At Stoney Creek Farm, near Redwood, Minnesota, Grant Breitkreutz knows conservation isn't just good pra...

In the Highwood Mountains, quality-driven cows are at the top of a supply chain that can quickly snowball. "It can be tough on the rancher. We do all this wo...

Harvest season always seems to start in the same frantic, frustrating way. Two months before the combines roll, Megan Hedges recounts, her brother starts cal...

Compared to a mechanized harvesting machine, they're not super efficient. "If your combine was throwing 80 percent of what it took in back on the ground, you...

Ranchers learn the cooperative way to survive ESA enforcement. Regulations. Rules. Restrictions. For ranchers dealing with government agencies, it may feel l...