Looking ahead….

….most farms (not the big corporate ones) are a mix of a number of small enterprises.  In our case, that includes selling heifers and cows to those starting out or upgrading their herds, selling bulls to the commercial cattlemen, meat to our own customers, and steers (pictured here) to other meat operations.  And all have to be kept in balance.

We have several very good steer customers.  Sometimes we deliver to their farms….sometimes straight to the butcher for their own label.  But since steers take just over two years to reach “finish” weight, we have to track a number of things, including keeping enough in the pipeline for almost three years….enough for our steer customers and enough for our meat customers.

These three steers (so uniform you’d think there was one except for the Angus-cross in the back) are not quite two-years old.  They’re on Frank Wickersham’s pasture near Warrenton and looking right now as though they’ll finish early.

We don’t emphasize enough the support we get from our farming partners….not only Frank, but Don and Sue Ferro, Lindsay Sangstuen and John Dibble, and Kirk and Jo James.