Cubes Shaped Like Cylinders

Bull and cows did their jobs this year as we have quite a few calves to sell in the fall. So far, our expenses include the purchase of the herd, mending some fences, one major fence repair, installing a few metal gates, an electric fence, supplemental hay during the winter and early spring and some breeding cow “cubes.” Why they are called them cubes, I don’t know. Cubes are compressed nutritional food in a cylinder shape an inch and half long with about the circumference of my thumb. I think of cubes as the cow equivalent of dog biscuits and we use them the same way. Not so much as to reward for good behavior (I do not think cows are that smart) but for herd control purposes. If we want the herd to move to the pasture on the other side of gate, we used the cubes. One method is the put the cubes in a bucket and rattle the bucket. The cows know that sound and come running toward the bucket. Then, either toss the cubes in a line on the ground or have them already laid out on the ground where you want to cows to go. They head for the cubes on the ground while we exit the gate and close it. We’ve also learned to get out of the way fast after the cows realize cubes are available….they love them and come running! We buy the cubes from a real nice lady who runs a local feed and country store.

Cow-Calf Operation

Cows Grazing Among the Bluebonnets

Even though, according to the Blue Bell Ice Cream people, dairy cows think Brenham is Heaven, Dogwood Ranch operates a beef cow-calf cattle operation in our heaven-like pasture just outside of Brenham. This means we have a herd of beef cows and one bull suitable for breeding. Obviously, even to city folk, the bull’s job is to breed with each of the cows once a year. The resulting calves are then sold at auction. Although we owned part of Dogwood Ranch for several years, we did not own the primary parcel of land for the cattle business in until late 2009. Therefore, we are clear novices in the cattle business. Since we have not yet been through one full breeding, calving and auction cycle, we don’t really know what to expect as far as auction and sale price. We believe it will take us several years to re-coop the initial herd acquisition cost and expenses to date. Keep in mind; we are not counting the cost of the newly acquired land as a “ranch expense”, because we would have purchased it anyway whether or not we decided to run cattle on it.

Parallel Ranch Universes

Parallel Ranch Universes? Those who follow cutting-edge theories of modern physics (or sci-fi) are familiar with the idea of parallel universes. For real scientific information about the theories of parallel universes or multi-verses, visit Stephen Hawking's site http://www.hawking.org.uk/ or Dr. Michio Kaku's site http://mkaku.org/home/?s=parallel+universes or http://bigthink.com/ideas/20340. The topic is way over my head, but I nonetheless like the loose analogy of parallel universes to describe Dogwood Ranch activities.

Dogwood Ranch consists of two parallel “ranch universes” both operating side-by-side, mostly parallel to each other, but sometimes they overlap or collide. The first universe is the cattle ranch universe, which is just what it sounds like, running cattle on the land for an agricultural purpose. Running parallel with the cattle ranch universe is the land stewardship or conservation ranch universe. In this universe, we concentrate on recreation and restoring much the land back to its natural state. We are trying to improve the wildlife habitats and encourage native grasses. This is a Reborn to the Land activity. (see post dated July 12, 2010). The two ranch universes, or activities, co-exist in space and time, i.e., on the same piece of property in Texas at the same time. Okay, that’s enough of the esoteric physics analogies for now.

Dogwood Ranch has a cattle operation and a wildlife/native grass operation. In some sense, these two parallel activities seem incompatible but so far, both endeavors are working well together