Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2018 i Farm and Ranch Living

Future Showman Brody Rankin, 2, hangs around the cattle barn at the Boone County Fair in Albion, Nebraska. His 18-year-old brother, Connor, and his 15-year-old sister, Ellie, are both in 4-H and show beef cattle. This year’s fair runs July 6-11, and, when he’s not in the barn, Brody might catch the tractor pull or the stock car races. boonecountyfairne.org CONNIE RANKIN Albion, Nebraska High Five Dan Depner of Caseville, Michigan, found this Michigan-shaped eggplant in his garden. Eggplant fries, anyone? tasteofhome.com/recipes/eggplant-fries Moo-ving Down Main Street Meet the future of farming on June 2 during the Strolling of the Heifers Parade in Brattleboro, Vermont. Heifer calves get decked out in hats and flowers, and young handlers from area schools and 4-H programs lead them proudly down Main Street in a…

As kids, my brothers and sister and I loved my dad’s 1978 Sears GT/18 tractor. We helped Dad by picking up leaves and loading them into the trailer, mowing the grass and snowblowing. I loved that tractor because you could pop wheelies with it when you dropped the clutch. Dad had that one for years, until 2005, when he bought a brand-new garden tractor. He gave the old Sears to my brother Timothy, but he didn’t use it much. I got the GT/18 in 2009, and I started repairing it. The main issues were that the carburetor wouldn’t always pump fuel, and the nose cone was broken. I added an electric pump to the tractor, and later went looking for a replacement motor. First, I bought a 1974 Sears SS/16…

ON JILL WINGER’S WYOMING HOMESTEAD, her family knows that their Brown Swiss milk cow, Oakley, just might be the hardest-working member of the team—at least among those living in the barn. In search of some TLC for Oakley, Jill came up with a soft, fragrant homemade udder salve she likes better than the store-bought type. “Bonus,” Jill says of the balm. “Works like a charm for human hands, too.” Jill says to start by melting ½ ounce beeswax in a double boiler, then to add 1 ounce each of shea butter and coconut oil. Stir until melted; add 3 ounces olive oil and remove from the heat. Cool slightly and add 2 drops each of lavender and melaleuca (tea tree) essential oils. Store in a small container and apply daily…

Patty and Fred Omodt didn’t start off growing blueberries, but these days their farm is a source of family pride and enjoyment, in addition to income. “Blueberries are one of the finest foods on earth!” Patty says. Fred, a forester by trade, and Patty bought 25 acres in Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1991. It took four years of working together as a family—they now have eight children—to turn the land into their ideal home. The family spent the next 20 years raising cows, chickens and pigs. After the kids left for college, Patty and Fred decided to develop six of the acres as a commercial blueberry farm, calling it Shingle Mill Blueberry Farm. They also grow about 500 strawberry plants, reserved for the family’s enjoyment and so the grandkids can pick…

MARK AND JERI MUELLER like to stretch their Independence Day celebration from the family farm to nearby Shell Rock, Iowa, population 1,296. For more than 15 years, they’ve kicked off the holiday by inviting friends and family over on July 3 to sample craft beers and eat cake on the porch. At 9:45 p.m. everyone jumps on the hayrack (pulled by a 1953 John Deere 70 tractor) and rides to a nearby hilltop to watch the Shell Rock fireworks. The past year was special, though, because more than pretty pyrotechnics exploded over the rural landscape. “Heat lightning lit up the western sky, while a half-moon illuminated the cornfields below us,” Mark says. “We all enjoyed both man’s and nature’s displays.” On July Fourth, it’s off to Shell Rock for the…

WHEN IT COMES TO KEEPING ranches, vineyards and orchards free of pesky birds, there’s a new set of raptors in town. Kathleen Tigan, owner and human member of Tactical Avian Predators, Inc., works with a crew of five falcons, a hawk, an owl and a trusty pack of dogs. Together they scare off would-be pests from all kinds of agricultural land, as well as outdoor dining areas and other places nuisance birds gather. Starlings, crows and ravens can destroy valuable crops overnight. Farmers and ranchers hire Kathleen, who is a licensed falconer, to patrol the skies and keep trouble away. It’s known as abatement falconry, an alternative to such traditional preventative measures as poison, noisemakers and fireworks. The main objective of abatement falconry is not to hurt the nuisance birds—it’s…

This Chevrolet Apache has been in my family since 1959 when my great-grandfather John bought it brand-new from Sheridan Chevrolet in Sutton, Nebraska. He used it as his farm truck, and he added extensions to it to haul his grain to the elevator during harvest. I grew up near Glenvil, Nebraska, and I have fond childhood memories of the Green Chevy, as we call it. I remember riding in it with my dad, Alan, to the local grain elevator to get milo and cracked corn for our chickens. We drove right into the elevator, and the grain would fall from the chute above us. I watched through the back glass as the grain filled barrels until it spilled over into the truck bed. On the way home, I might even…

I was quite excited the day we brought home our miniature ponies, Queenie and Daisy. They seemed to be behaved, allowing my children to ride them around. My husband and our boys had constructed a makeshift pen for them, using a large corncrib for one wall and a series of green metal gates for the rest. We thought it was sturdy enough for the time being. The following night was the eve of Independence Day. It seemed as though every neighbor around us bought fireworks that year. The next morning my husband went out to milk, and I was rather surprised to hear him come back inside a short time later. When he told me the ponies were gone, I flew out of bed. I woke up my oldest son…

NAME: Brady BREED: Golden retriever AGE: 10 years HOME: Hooksett, NH JOBS: Babysitter, patrolman STRENGTH: Chasing cats Brady is our 10-year-old golden retriever, and we rescued him eight years ago. He has since become a big part of our family. After my son, Benjamin, was born in November 2016, my husband, Josh, and I were unsure about how Brady would react. At first, the old dog kept his distance, but he eventually became fond of baby Ben, sleeping in his room, laying next to him on the floor and sneaking a few of his snacks. They are now great pals. Even at his advanced age, Brady still runs and plays with the speed and enthusiasm of a puppy. He loves a good scratch and tries his hardest to get plenty…

Brian Scott couldn’t have planned it better. One Friday evening in 2015, on a whim, the fifth-generation Indiana farmer took a video of his son driving a tractor. Matthew was 6 at the time, a little cutie with dark blond curls and a wide smile. He wanted to be a farmer like his dad—and still does. Brian had been using social media to advocate for agriculture for about four years, and he posted the clip on his Facebook page without thinking too much about it. When he woke up on Saturday morning, his following had more than doubled overnight—from 17,000 to 40,000. That little video of his son had gone viral. “I quit reading comments that weekend because I couldn’t keep up,” Brian says. “I wasn’t even trying to do…

It was a fleeting thought as I arrived at a friend’s 1,100-acre farm to baby-sit her children: Maybe I will meet a farmer. Little did I know that was about to become a reality. I had grown close to the family of one of my kindergarten students the previous school year, becoming good friends with Katie Donaldson, whose son Matthew was in my class. So I didn’t think anything of it when Katie texted me and asked if I could come over to watch the kids so she could go out to celebrate her July birthday with her husband. I was happy to do it. Shortly after I arrived, Matthew’s 10-year-old brother, Aidan, offered me a speedy ATV ride to the family farm’s market. As we drove to grab strawberries…

Q: Do Boer goat hooves grow faster than dairy goat hooves? If so, how do you keep up? MARGIE LYTLE WASILLA, ALASKA A: In my personal experience, Boer goat hooves do not grow faster and have about the same rate of growth per month as the hooves of dairy goats. I have found that Boer goat hooves can be a little harder to trim than dairy goats, but it seems as though the goat’s size is the greatest factor. I have trimmed moderate-size Boer does with an average thickness to the hoof horn and some very large does with hard, thick horn. However, my largest Nubian and Nubian-Boer crossbreed wether goats have hooves just as hard as a typical purebred Boer. For those goats I use nippers, not standard hoof…