10/26/07 Same Articles

Articles, articles everywhere, but which one tells you what you might want to know. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute to analyze articles. I've noticed lately just about every cattle production publication has pretty much the same type of articles. Revelations take a while to ferment in my gray matter barrel, so it only took me around forty some years of reading to figure that one out. Almost every magazine has the same type of article on calf weaning, marketing, vaccination procedures, total herd health, creep feeding calves, bull selection, replacement heifer development, and cattle handling techniques. The thing you have to remember it is the article tells about a way of gaining success that works for specific ranch or farm and possibly a few more; I've noticed every operation is unique. But the worth of the story is that there is usually some little idea you can pickup that can be incorporated into your own situation. Although it just might be a stretch to find any common ground between working cattle in a perfectly engineered facility in the Midwest with every worker totally tuned into cattle flight zones and a bunch of cowboys on the high desert of Oregon or Idaho sorting cattle in a fifty year old native wood corral mounted on half-trained colts. Well, the goal is the same  get the job done with the least amount of effort. For my money, I just have to believe that's accomplished riding that young horse. I'm Jeff Keane.