Family farms such as our Rain Crow Ranch allow for plenty of variety in your job description. As a grassfarmer we nurture the soil so it can produce better grass. We promote the grass growth for the maximum quality and yield while using sustainable practices.

Our cattle harvest our grass crop without having to use the first drop of fossil fuel. Our animals then support the farm as their harvest produces protein in sync with natures. This is all accomplished under our straw farmer’s hat. But how does this healthy and safe protein make its way to the table? The farmer needs some different hats.

Once harvested the farmer, in this case our son Peter, wears a white hard hat as he produces primal cuts of beef. The meat is broken down into what the industry calls primals. These primals are then fabricated into steaks, roast, and trim which is ground into burger or further processed into ready to eat products. These products are vacuum sealed and placed in the cooler or freezer ready for shipment or pick up.

Now the farmer must don another hat to market that beef as a product. It may be dealing with chefs in a 5 star restaurant or with a burger flipper in a diner, or a customer who calls on the phone and wants beef shipped to their door, or a retailer who wants to buy wholesale.

At American Grassfed Beef we do all the marketing. I wish at times that we were big enough to use marketing experts but for the most part we, the farmers, are also the marketers.

This is the case with many family grass farms that I know. Not trying to compete with the big boys in the meat industry, we keep our staff low and simply wear the right hat for the job. So, when our customers call to discuss the possibility of using our farm to source grassfed beef . . . they are talking to the folks who also grow the beef. As such we feel it a real privilege to have our beef offered in some of the finest restaurants and retailers in this part of the country.

We are committed to the partnership and the business of selling through the beef. We conduct training for restaurant staff and retail meat managers so they can explain to their customers why and how our beef is different from conventional grocery store beef.

We design and promote the use of educational brochures aimed at providing information to the consumer at the point of sale. We also do our part to provide in store sampling of our beef. Mark gets a kick out of going into the store and connecting directly with customers interested in buying our grassfed beef. We share our farm story, answer questions and ask them to try a taste. Mark explains in good humor that this is his chance to get off the farm and play “Emeril” for a day.

When you buy products from an American Grassfed Beef and other family farms like ours, you are investing in United States products raised with pride and care every step of the way until it reaches your table.

I am sure that by July I will be praying for rain but right now that is hard to imagine.We have received 18 inches of rain up until last week.This is very high for our area and since most of it has already caused major flooding.The Current River reached an all time high when it crested two weeks ago.Though the river had receded the ground continues to be saturated.The storms that came through the last two days have dumped another 12 inches of rain on top of this water saturated ground.

For the second time in a month we have had a major amount of fencing washed away.Yet, we are thankful to have missed some of the devastation left by the tornados associated with this last storm system. Damage to emerging pasture is getting critical and we have had to put animals into some sacrifice areas to protect the main pastures. These are paddocks that contain our least productive grass density. The animal impact upon the sodden ground will leave them appearing to have been disked with a plow. After the animals are rotated to grassy pastures we will come behind them and sow new grass.  In the long run they will actually be improved, but in the short time they take a beating.

Currently,we have planned for working one group of yearlings this week to separate by size and prepare for spring grazing rotation of range pasture. Our pens are also soaked and even rubber boots will make for difficult moving as the mud comes half way between the knee and ankle.

We consider these animals a wonderful natural resource and we are passionate about their conservation.The balance of co-habitation simply works.With ourselves as stewards we see our role as managers of all the resources;the cattle, ourselves, and the wildlife.

Viewing and photographing these wild species is truly my greatest hobby and an endeavor that I just can’t seem to find enough time to explore.Yet, it always seems that my greatest encounters with wildlife occur when I do not have a camera in hand.One such encounter was yesterday.

While walking along one of my typical trails I came upon a group of elk. They were out on the edge of the woods at the interface where the pasture meets woods. A large bull elk was acting strangely.  He was walking imbalanced and stumbling.

My first though was that a poacher had snuck into the area and shot him. Standing very still I stood and watched, unsure of what I could possibly do to help him if he had been shot.As I watched he began turning from side to side trying to lick his back. He then began to turn in circles like a small dog chasing his tail. All of a sudden he ran and came to a quick stop like a quarter horse going through a reigning routine. When he put on the brakes to stop both antlers fell off onto the ground on each side of his body. I had been lucky enough to actually see an elk shed his antlers! It was a remarkable sight.

A large bull elk’s antler (this one was a 6 by 7) weighs approximately 20 lbs a side.What an incredible difference the shedding of these antlers must feel like to the animal.

Remember antlers like that of elk and deer are shed each year and grown back.  Very shortly this same elk that I witnessed shed his majestic crown will begin a new rack in velvet.  Velvet is the vascular covering for the new horns as they grow.  This velvet is shed as the soft cartilage type tissue hardens. Horns on the other hand are permanent structures that have bone underlying the horny tissue and maintain a blood supply.

Cattle have horns.Cattle that are selectively breed to not have horns are called polled. Many producers who have cattle with horns choose to dehorn in order to facilitate easier and safer handling. They dehorn the young calf by the use of caustic chemicals or by cauterizing the horn bud of the calf.When dehorned at an older age the horns must be removed by cutting or sawing them off.

When removed in this way there can be considerable blood loss.  We do not dehorn our cattle unless for a medical / physical reason such as a horn with a tip that grows into the face.

Huge storms moved through our area dumping about 12 inches of rain in about a 30 hr period and leaving in their aftermath flooding. Southern Missouri is feeling the beginning twinges of spring and we frankly expect the rain, and the occasional river or creek out of its bank.  It comes with the region.  Yet, what happened over the last couple of days goes beyond the normal.  We have experienced what some old timers are calling the flooding of the decade or even a quarter century.  Lives have been lost, homes destroyed or flooded and schools closed everywhere.

We have always been proud to have our farm located on the Current River (actually 3 miles distant) it is one of Missouri’s Scenic Waterways and its crystal clear waters are truly a delight for fishing and sporting.  Yet when the region receives a deluge of this magnitude it sure causes heightened awareness of the fierce power of nature.  Beautiful streams become torrents of muddy, violent, raging water that push everything in its path downstream in crashing rage.

We are all safe for which I am thankful and we slept in a warm dry house, some in the area were not so lucky.  Yet, we are not without our destruction.  Large amounts of fence are gone and some pastures this morning had cattle grazing in a lake.  Pastures beside creeks have lost calves, swept downstream.  It will take days to help the momma cows and calves match back up and determine the loss.

In the midst of a crisis it is always gives you pause when certain sights imprint an image on your mind.  While surveying the damage and wading knee deep water where about a half a mile of fence had been washed away I happened upon a calf.  The calf was curled up in that oh-so-sweet manner on top of a clump of debris.  I assume patiently waiting for momma to return.  It was the picture of peace.  Tranquility when all around you the world rages.

There cannot be any prettier color in the world than green,to a grassfarmer that is! As the dull colors of winter give way to the signs of spring we delight to see the event we call the green up.When our range pastures start the turn to green we feel a new birth,a re-creation of a new growing year.

This early spring we have had lots of moisture. In fact,we are wet.  My husband is a pilot and was flying in a couple of weeks ago and called to ask the condition of our grass strip. I told him, You better land elsewhere unless you have equipped the plane with pontoons since you have been gone.

Rain is one of those vital parts of growing good grass. As a farmer, talking weather is not just a pastime it is part of your soul. Our Missouri soil is partial to erosion and when saturated makes driving on pasture like driving on ice.We forbid anyone from driving off the farm roads unless in an absolute emergency.

Animal impact can change a field to mud in 12 hours. Yet, when not left to further abuse and properly rested it also seems to go a long way to bringing out and restoring native grasses. Managing for wet conditions is as important as managing for drought yet can be a tool to improve pasture if used correctly.

It happens every so often that we will have a calf orphaned or otherwise victim of circumstances that require being raised on a bottle. It usually falls to the youngest of the children to take on the chore of bottle-feeding.What always begins as pleasure and fun gives way to the realization of real work.

Such is the case with a calf being raised this year by our 8 year-old daughter, Katie Grace.She has never had the responsibility before and begged to be allowed to be the one to do the feeding. Previously, she had always looked upon the job as pure fun when she had helped her brothers with the duty.

This year she bears the full responsibility herself and though the fun has worn off she is doing a wonderful job of living up to the trust place in her and her fulfillment of her responsibility.Even on the occasion recently when we sat down to the table to eat dinner and she had neglected to feed the calf she uncomplainingly got up from the table, fixed a bottle,fed the calf and then returned to the table.
Equally important to the responsibilities taught by these farm lessons is the appreciation and respect for the wondrous creature called a cow. We have several former bottle calves that will still come up to you in the pasture to be petted.

Adrian’s roots in the small area known as Poynor, Missouri run long and deep.In fact he was born and grew up on an old house on our farm that we use as storage shed. We once started to tear it down thinking it beyond repair and useless.Adrian came over one day and stood beside the weathered house with a rusty tin roof looking at it a bit sadly.

Upon seeing him leaning up against the bulldozer I went over to speak. He grinned and yet had a somewhat sad look.He said, You know,I was born in that house and grew up there,it has a lot of memories for me. It kind of amazing to see how old it looks,guess it’s kind of like me.

We have numerous old home sites on our farm, some have old houses, some are good enough to rent and others are completely gone without a trace except for an old well or cistern and what can be picked up using a metal detector (a favorite pastime of my oldest son). I would love to know the stories that each site could tell.

As we stood there in the pasture with the old building as a backdrop, Adrian shared a couple of stories about his mother and his childhood. Typical to many of our retired neighbors there never seems to be urgency about time. I have come to view their stories as a treasure and try very hard to listen rather than think of what all I need to do.

After a while,Adrian said, Well,I just wanted to come and tell the old home place goodbye.

Today,that same run down,weathered house with the rusty tin roof is a storage shed that stands near a new hay barn with shiny new tin. It is there it will stay. I can think of no better reminder of a dear neighbor and what he has always meant to us.

My touchstone is a wild and rugged 200 acres of woods located on our family farm. These woods are cut with numerous trails large enough for a 4-wheeler or to walk, but not big enough for a truck.

It is on these wood trails that I have the privilege of running in the mornings. I know the exercise does my body good, but it is the attitude change that works the miracle.

It is where I find the greatest amount of peace, joy, contentment, hope, wonder. It is why I consider it a priviledge to live on a family farm.

Every spring we are privileged to experience the unique joy of calving season.I say privileged because I do not know of any greater rejuvenation of soul and spirit than seeing a newborn calf lying on the pasture and its mother doling out affection as she licks it clean.  Seeing a calf rise for the first time on wobbly legs and instinctively find its way to that first vital meal of mother’s milk.Or standing in warm spring sunshine witnessing the pure entertainment of calves frolicking with ch other in the warm spring sunshine.Not a person on earth could help but smile at their fresh antics. It makes you feel that all in the world is as it should be and it is good.

Yet, into this idyllic picture there is the occasional blemish that causes you alarm.There might be that calf that presents in mal-position and causes dystocia (difficulty in delivery) requiring prompt intervention to save the calf. We carefully select our breeding animals for calving ease and this is rare.

There is also the occasional time when a calf does not nurse its mother. It is critical for a calf to consume its mother’s first milk, called colostrum.Colostrum is full of antibodies that give the calf passive immunity from disease,without it survival is risky.There only exists a small window of opportunity for this passive immunity to occur. Past about 36 hours from birth the calf does not have the ability for the antibodies to pass into the bloodstream and the colostrum does no good, it is like never getting it in the first place.

When we see a calf that looks weak and the mother has obviously not been nursed we consider it an emergency. We carry the calf and walk the mother in to the barn and check to see if we can determine the cause.

Such was the case this morning. Mark had noticed a new calf born late yesterday and observed this morning that the mother’s udder was distended and that the calf had obviously not nursed. He took the calf on the 4-wheeler and the mother followed along to the barn. Once at the barn he put the mother in the chute and examined her udder.All four teats were plugged.There is a waxy substance in the lower teat canal before birth that impeds any milk flow and protects from the loss of colostrum. This is usually dislodged when the new calf starts to nurse but not always.

Perhaps, the plug is too large or the calf is for some reason inefficient in dislodging it.We manually dislodged the plugs, milked the colostrums into a milk bucket, filled a bottle with the colostrum from the mother and allowed the calf to nurse from the bottle.The calf seemed instantly revived with the nourishment. We placed the mother with the calf in a small pen for a while until we observed the calf nursing on its own with no problems.

It is a feel-good task;all in the world is as it should be and it is good.

our milk cows are more or less like pets and of course have special names.Over the years we have had Elsie,Sour Cream,Jasmine,and currently have Buttermilk.Buttermilk calved yesterday and it is always a special treat when one of these cows becomes fresh.

First of all Jersey milk is especially rich and generally has lots of good colostrum.We allow the new calf to take all the colostrum for the first 24 hours and then milk her for the remaining 4-5 days to take any additional colostrum to freeze. Of course, the calf continues to nurse its mother during this time.

Colostrum is vitally important to newborn calves since it contains the passive antibodies needed to protect that calf from disease in its early life.There is only a small window of opportunity for the calf to absorb these antibodies.

If for some reason the mother of a calf is unable to provide colostrum, the calf is in grave jeopardy of not surviving.  We try to have frozen colostrum on hand to give any calf, which might not receive it from its own mother. Our supply had dwindled and the freshening of one of the nurse cows is a wonderful event.