#agvocate

What a fuzzball.

The little dude's grandmomma is a black Angus/Hereford baldie and she crossed with a black Angus bull. His momma here was crossed with a black Angus bull. But this little shit looks all Hereford. I'm just gonna call him Fluke.

2017 calf crop

Am I fake yet guyz

Found on Facebook. My heart aches for my fellow ranchers right now. Mother nature is a mean bitch, and a miracle worker.

*Long post* Found on Facebook. With a following of over 6,000 people, I found it appropriate to share this information. My fellow ranchers are in dire straits. Animals are dying by the thousands and a way of life is burning away for hundreds of people, every single day. For multiple generations, these ranchers have worked their ass into ground for this land and cattle, but now it is all going up in ashes. WILDFIRE RELIEF INFORMATION - LISTED BY STATE How you can help, if you need help, where you can go to get it. COLORADO – INFORMATION • CASH DONATIONS - Colorado Farm Bureau Fund - Checks payable to Colorado Farm Bureau Foundation, cash and credit card payments are being accepted at this time. Please note "Disaster Fund-CO Wildfire" in the memo line on the check. Cash and checks can be sent to: Colorado Farm Bureau Foundation Attn: Disaster Fund 9177 E. Mineral Circle Centennial, CO 80112 • HAY, FENCING, TRUCKING DONATIONS – Take to CHS Grainland in Haxtun. A loader and scale are both available, if needed. Contact Rick Unrein (970) 520-3565 for more information about dropping off donations. More information: Kent Kokes 970-580-8109, John Michal 970-522-2330, Justin Price 970-580-6315 Dan Firme 970-520-0949 KANSAS – INFORMATION • DONATIONS OF HAY AND FENCING - Kansas Livestock Association is organizing hay and fencing material donations for delivery to affected areas in Kansas. To make in-kind donations, call KLA at (785) 273-5115. • CASH DONATIONS - Cash donations can be made through the Kansas Livestock Foundation (KLF), KLA’s charitable arm, by going to www.kla.org/donationform.aspx. OKLAHOMA – INFORMATION • SUPPLY POINT – Ochiltree, Lipscomb, Hemphill and Roberts counties will be located at 202 W. Main St., Lipscomb. The point of contact is J.R. Sprague, AgriLife Extension agent in Lipscomb County, who can be contacted at 806-862-4601, office, or 806-202-5288, cell. • SUPPLY POINT - Gray, Wheeler and Roberts counties will be at 301 Bull Barn Drive, Clyde Carruth Expo Center, Pampa. Mike Jeffcoat, AgriLife Extension agent in Gray County, is the point of contact and can be reached at 806-669-8033, office, or 580-467-0753, cell. • FOUND CATTLE - For found cattle or other livestock with official identification, document the number and location of the animals and call the Texas Animal Health Commission at 512-719-0733 or 806-354-9335. They will contact the owner. • STRAY CATTLE W/ BRAND– For stray cattle with a brand, call the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association at 817-332-7064 for brand identification. • STRAYS ON PROPERTY– In the event cattle stray onto your property, you must report them to the sheriff’s office in the county in which you are located within five days of discovery to be eligible for reasonable payment for maintenance or damages caused by the estray livestock. For more information regarding Texas’ estray laws visit: Texas Agriculture Code, Chapter 142. • CARCASS DISPOSAL– For questions about carcass disposal, call the Texas Commission on Environment Quality at 800-832-8224 or visit their website at www.tceq.texas.gov. TEXAS – INFORMATION (provided by Capital Farm Credit): • Have an injured animal that needs to be processed? Please contact these resources for further help/information: o Preferred Beef (Booker, TX) Travis Herrod 806-435-7999 o Caviness Beef Packers (Hereford, TX) Steve Anthony 806-357-2333 • In need of vet-related supplies? o In need of Vetercyn spray and Pen G? Forrest Watson (Spitzer Animal Health) will be at the Higgins Fire Department the morning of Thursday, March 9. He will stay until dark or he runs out of products. (free of charge) o Synbiot Ag Wash is donating their Wound Wash product to anyone in need as a result of the Texas Panhandle Fires. Contact Michael Jeffcoat, CEA, 580-467-0753. • In need of hay, fencing and/or general supplies? Want to donate supplies? o Arena of Life Cowboy Church (Amarillo) is taking, and will be distributing, hay donations. o Michael Jeffcoat, CEA (Gray County AgriLife Extension) 580-467-0753 Hay donations can be made at Clyde Carruth Pavillion (301 Bull Barn Drive, Pampa, TX) o J.R. Sprague, CEA (Lipscomb County AgriLife Extension) 806-202-5288 Hay donations can be made at Lipscomb County Show Facility (202 W. Main St., Lipscomb, TX) o Andy Holloway, CEA (Hemphill County AgriLife Extension) 325-668-0466 • General Questions? o Visit Texas AgriLife Extension Service- Wildfire Resources • Want to lend your support? Contact these relief organizations: o American Red Cross- Texas Panhandle o Perryton Fire EMS o Higgins-Lipscomb Volunteer Fire Department

Via Facebook

In honor of National Agriculture Day. And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer. "I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer. God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer. God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church. "Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer. -Paul Harvey, Future Farmers of America convention, 1978.