By Tom Parker “What if we could create a new system?” Missouri rancher and farmer Cody Holmes asked members of the Kansas Farmers Union and the Kansas Beginning Farmers Coalition during their annual convention in early December. His question wasn’t merely rhetorical. Holmes had asked himself the same question a thousand times, but answers remained [...]
Kansas Beginning Farmers Coalition invites beginning farmers and ranchers of all ages to the Kansas Beginning Farmer Day, Saturday, December 6 at Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan, KS. The event is being held in conjunction with Kansas Farmers Union’s annual convention, December 4-5. More information on KFU’s convention can be found elsewhere in [...]
Management-intensive Grazing is the intensifying of management of the ranch and forage resources not the grazing. Plants capture solar energy. MiG balances grazing, rest, and consumption of various plant species to harvest and turn the solar energy into a salable product of meat, milk or fiber. These products are critical to human survival. With MiG [...]
When selecting the species most suited to a grazing situation, producers should answer a few questions as to how their personal goals play into a proper choice. Are they interested in bottom line profits, fun, value added products, as well as evaluate the other responsibilities that come with that choice? Factors include: How hard do [...]
Many small scale family operations struggle with the decision to add an additional type of animal enterprise and if it has economic returns. This article addresses the returns of four possible animal scenarios for a 50 acre farm; 1) cow/calf taking calves to finish, 2) Yearlings purchased and grass fed to finish, 3) Yearlings to [...]
For a small farm, sheep have several advantages; biological, physical and economical. Sheep can provide meat, wool and dairy. The amount of forage needed to support one cow will raise eight ewes. Eight ewes are much cheaper to purchase than one cow. Sheep do not need as much to survive and rebreed as a cow [...]
Carbon dioxide, water, soil minerals and solar energy combine to grow the plant that animals consume to produce meat, milk and fiber. The four key ecosystem processes should determine a producer’s grazing management. Ranchers should strive to build a better solar panel of plants to turn sunlight into forage for animal consumption, bare soil is [...]
