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National Environmental Education week is being celebrated from April
15 - 22, with Earth Day being recognized on April 22. What does this
mean for the ranching community? Consider it an opportunity to share the
story of how you care for the land with local school children, or even
your local media. Make it a week to help educate others about the
important role ranchers have in the environment.
Anne Lewis, South Dakota Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) and
president of Environment Education Connections of South Dakota, a
network of environmental educators within the state, says that
environmental education has come a long way since the 70's which is when
the environmental movement first gained prominence.
"It used to be that environmental education was environmentalism," Lewis
says. But environmental education has broadened its scope says Lewis.
"In the environmental ed world we like to say we teach people how to
think, not what to think."
The goal of environmental education, she says, is to get people to act
in a "responsible environmental" manner.
So take time to share your knowledge of the environment with others. In
this issue of American Cowman Update we also ask you to share
your mistakes with others. Troy Marshall highlights why business gurus
say mistakes can be a good thing. Read on and enjoy this issue.
For another interesting read, click on the following link (beef-mag.com/mag/beef_selling_beef_not/)
for a story from the March issue of BEEF about a small eastern
Washington rancher who has found profit selling direct to consumers
looking to buy niche beef.
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Business gurus ask this question in a lot of different ways, but
their point is really quite simple. The problem usually isn't that a
business is making too many mistakes but that it's not making enough
mistakes.
Business gurus make the case that if you're not experiencing failures,
then you're not taking enough chances, stepping outside of the box, or
thinking boldly enough. Such advice is easy to disregard in agriculture,
however, as just about every day presents several minor disasters that
need fixing.
Problems, however, aren't the same as aggressively attempting so many
new things that you're discovering what doesn't work. It's difficult to
break out of a commodity mindset, where everything is essentially done
the same, and your constant focus is on making incremental changes
rather than trying innovative new ideas.
Even when we commit to being willing to accept failure, and to think
outside of the box -- and not just in terms of making incremental
improvements -- there's still a major obstacle. That is trying to create
something revolutionary.
Being radical isn't something that makes a typical cattleman get
excited. But the important thing to remember is that being radical
doesn't mean you have to reinvent or re-imagine your business from the
beginning. It means implementing five or six new things in your business
that potentially can result in a revolutionary breakthrough.
What mistakes have you learned from in your beef operation? We invite
you to visit the American Cowman website (www.AmericanCowman.com) and
share your lessons learned through our blog. To share your comments
click on this link: blog.americancowman.com/community_blog/
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With the continuing drought in many areas, horse owners are often
forced to provide supplemental feed to their animals. South Dakota State
University Extension horse specialist Mark Ullerich offers these
guidelines:
* Ullerich says founder is often a concern when feeding concentrates to
horses. He says the best rule of thumb is to offer no more grain than
.5% of the animal's body weight at one feeding. Thus for a 1,100 lb.
brood mare that's about 5 pounds of grain.To read the complete
article, click on the headline above.
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A free two-day seminar titled "Grazing Behavior: Understanding and
Managing Livestock, Wildlife, Plants, Soils, and People" and presented
by Utah State University professor and researcher Fred Provenza will be
held May 1-2 at the Prairie Knights Casino and Resort in Fort Yates, ND.
The event is being sponsored by the North Dakota State University
Hettinger Research Extension Center.
Provenza will focus on how behavior influences food and habitat
selection among animals, and using examples from a variety of
landscapes, he will show how behavior can be used as a tool for changing
the distribution of grazing animals around riparian areas; for
controlling weeds and managing fire breaks; for minimizing damage to
economically valuable crops by wild and domestic herbivores; for
enhancing and maintaining biodiversity; and for reducing losses in
animals from toxic plants.
For more information call (701) 567-4323 or visit www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/hettinge/
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The Kentucky Angus Association has set its annual field day for May
19. The Central Kentucky Angus Association (CKAA) is hosting the event
that includes a tour this year.
The day begins with tour buses leaving the CKAA Pavilion in Danville at
9:30 a.m. Tour stops include a joint stop at Cliffside Farms and C & H
Cattle Co., both at Lancaster; lunch stop at Akers Farm, Lancaster;
Branch View Angus, Hustonville; and Tarter Gate, Dunnville.
Once the tour returns to CKAA, John Crouch, American Angus Association
executive vice president, will provide information about the Association
and its programs. The day will conclude with at steak dinner.
There is no cost to attend the field day and tour, but individuals
interested in attending should pre-register by contacting Anne Clark at
606-247-2433 to ensure bus and meal availability by May 1. For more
information about the Kentucky Angus Association, visit www.kentuckyangus.org.
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 Gallagher has a field staff of 26 fencing professionals
willing to come to your farm or ranch to review your needs,
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Rotational grazing, predator problems, horse fencing or any fence
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Check out the Gallagher web site for the professional
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Looking for innovative, out-of-the-box ideas for your ranch
business? Turn to the pages of some books that aren't all about beef --
but instead offer business, leadership and brand marketing insight.
Frequently speakers at beef events quote a great book that they've read.
Often times, the book has little to do with beef, but the principles
being taught offer some unique cross-over ideas for successful business
innovation -- whether you're a rancher, own an ag business, or are in a
leadership position within the industry.
Take for example the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the
Leap...and Others Don't by Jim Collins. This is one that Barry Dunn,
executive director of the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management at
Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and Colorado State University professor
Tom Field have promoted to beef audiences for several years.
The book poses the questions "Can a good company become a great company
and if so, how?" To read the complete article, click on the headline
above.
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Statistics indicate reproductive losses cost the U.S. beef and dairy
industries $1 billion annually -- making it an important issue for
cow-calf producers.
The challenge is optimizing reproduction while keeping costs down, and
beef producers have to do that across very diverse environments,
explains John Hall, Extension beef specialist at Virginia Poly Technical
Institute.
Hall shares a few management strategies targeted at improving
reproductive efficiencies in beef cattle. To read the complete
article, click on the headline above.
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A proposed $3 billion, 750 turbine wind project in Tehachapi, CA,
that will be the largest in the United States if it's approved by state
regulators. Alta Wind Energy's proposed project, in partnership with Oak
Creek Energy Systems Inc., would cover 50 square miles and generate
possibly 1,500 megawatts.
The current largest U.S. wind project generates about 750 megawatts,
half of Alta's proposed project. Last December, Southern California
Edison signed a 20-year power purchase agreement to buy electricity from
the project. The project awaits the approval of the California Public
Utilities Commission. And while some avian-related concerns have been
raised over the project, Georgette Theotig, an executive member of a
local chapter of the Sierra Club, says her organization has given
conditional approval to the project.
While the project should be monitored for environmental impact, she said
that her organization supports "any technology that doesn't pollute the
air or use limited natural resources."
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