In 1993 country music artist Toby Keith released a number one hit song, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.” As a young boy this song quickly became my anthem; a tribute to my dreams of becoming a cowboy. So that is what I did. After I graduated high school, I worked for two of the largest ranches in the state of Ohio, and several years later built a cowherd of my own. I was living the cowboy dream. But it didn’t take me long to realize that although fun, the romanticized life of a cattleman wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Did Toby Keith get it wrong?

On November 20th, we had the vet out and Pregnancy checked all of our cows. They were exposed to bulls for 90 days.

The biggest threat to our sheep is predators. Here in east central Ohio our biggest concerns are coyotes, bobcats, fox and most of all black headed buzzards. Some folk use donkeys and others say llamas work for them. For us, nothing compares to guard dogs, their bark alone will keep predators away.

Water is money. On our farm without water we have nothing. We recently leased a farm that has 760 acres of grass. It has one small pond on it, all the way on the southern edge. From the pond to the north boundary is 1.4 miles. When we put cattle on this farm, we can rotate them effectively through the southern half closest to the water. We find it very difficult, even using temporary wires to create lanes, to get them to have any kind of impact on the north side. In order to fix this, we have limited options.

Every year lambing season starts May 1st. We lamb outside on pasture when the weather is warm, and the spring grasses are productive. Lambing season typically lasts for three weeks. During these three weeks we stay out of our lambing fields as much as possible.

Calving season starts May 1st each year. By calving in May and June, we align the peak energy of our grass growth with the peak nutritional requirements of our cows. Since we moved our calving season from March to May we have gone from an overall breed back percentage of 71% to 89%.

Each year we keep our entire heifer crop. Bulls are put in with the heifers July 24th for 30 days. This allows only the most fertile heifers to breed, typically around 50%. The heifers that do not breed are finished and sold through retail.