Winter weather, calving and basketball

By Richard C. Snell

Barton County Extension Agent--Ag.

Randy, you talked me into it! At a recent high school basketball game, a friend of mine said, "You aren't going to write about that in the paper, are you?" in a semi-threatening tone after his team lost to mine. No, I wasn't going to, but after he said that, I said I might and now I am.

All of this basketball rivalry got me to thinking about calving season and the weather and some similarities. We had 42 people at our calving school recently and so it's a hot topic in this winter cold weather.

Old man winter made a return visit recently in terms of cold temperatures. We have had a mostly mild, dry winter. Some of the Wheat actually grew this winter, just like the flowers that "I have which were in the bud stage in mid-February. We had that one week or so of cold weather in early December when it got below zero and now some near zero stuff in the middle of February. Some folks in Nebraska got below zero again.

I mentioned that about the only good thing about winter was basketball and perhaps every four years, the Olympics. Rival games like I mentioned are fun, unless you get blown out. Randy and I are both K-State fans, so we share in that. This year we got our first win over KU in basketball in several years, much like last year, when they got their first football win over us in quite awhile as well. Unfortunately, K-State hasn't won all that many other men's basketball games in league play though.

Getting back to the in-county game. My team hasn't won too many this year so when Randy's team came over and lost to us by 20 points it was a quite a shock. The truth is basketball teams can be like winter weather, cold and warm, on again--off again. We probably played our best game of the year the night we played his team. We were "on fire".

Now to the calving for a moment. How is it similar to basketball? Well, first you have to be prepared. You have to have your colostrum ready as soon as that calf is born, just in case he can't nurse or the heifer has a problem. Secondly, you have to know what to do when things don't go right. You have to be ready to change strategy, such as pulling the calf or calling the veterinarian. Lastly you don't know what kind of weather you will be dealing with. You may get a nice, warm afternoon like the day I was out to the guys place and he had nine heifers all calving on a perfect day. However, most beef producers tell me (and from my own experience), it's usually in the middle of the night with near zero degree weather.

It's like a basketball coach, his team may be hot or cold shooting but they better be hustling, playing defense, rebounding and doing everything else they can to win the game or save a calf.

Two more things, some people are asking, "Did the recent cold snap hurt the wheat?" It's hard to say. It wasn't sudden like 1989 when it dropped 94 degrees in 36 hours. It also wasn't nearly as cold, but the soil was almost as dry. It surely slowed the Wheat down for awhile. We will have to wait a couple of weeks and see how it reacts. Wheat is usually a hardy, tough crop but that one year I mentioned, we only averaged about 10 to 15 bushels because of spring kill and dry weather.

Getting back to Randy, I had asked him to take it easy on my team in football and frankly we did stay in the game with them, so we have had fun going back and forth. Actually since I used to live in his town, he knows I root for them when we aren't playing. Both boys team have had tough seasons. Most of you know I am such a fan that I claim all the teams in our county and sometimes in our area as my teams. I like to cheer for all the Big 12 teams when they play out of conference.

How does Randy relate to beef? Number one, he sells it, at one of the finest grocery stores in Barton County. He knows we raise it here. It's a win-win deal for the beef producer, the consumer and him as a retailer. Better yet, his roots run deep here in Barton County. I hope you will support him as he supports his community and the beef cattle industry.

K-State Cattlemen's Day

I always look forward to the annual K-State Cattlemen's Day at Manhattan. This year's event will be held Friday, March 3, at Weber Hall on the campus. Registration, coffee and doughnuts begins at 8 a.m. with commercial exhibits open at that time and throughout the day.

The morning highlight will be at 10 a.m., with a symposium on Animal Identification Systems featuring five speakers.

Since it is during lent, there will be a choice of fried catfish or barbecued brisket for lunch. After lunch there will be several breakout sessions, including: Bio-security, synchronization strategies for AI, a beef market update, the future of research and BVD and other diseases. Later there will be an open house of the various beef research units.

Registration fee for the day is $15 in advance or $25 at the door. Call me if you would like to pool rides from our area.

If your schedule permits, you can also attend the Stockman's Dinner on Thursday evening, March 2, e-mail aaron@found.ksu.edu or call Aaron at 785-532-7528 for more details on that. Advance reservations are required.

Also, the annual K-State Special "K" Bull and Heifer Sale will be held at 3 p.m. that afternoon. They have a big offering of around 70 performance tested bulls and over 100 females from the university herd. This is a unique event in that the sale is run by K-State animal science students and gives them valuable experience in sale management. This year it will be held at a new location, the purebred beef teaching unit which is northeast of the campus. Call for directions.

Date: 2/23/06