Happy Earth Day, y'all!

People from all over the place are celebrating Earth Day today, which I tend to refer to as "Monday".  In fact, I know today is Earth Day only because it was printed on a calendar I have hanging in the milking barn. When you practice what Earth Day preaches on a daily basis, I guess you can forget that there is a specific day set aside to celebrate and embrace "being green".

Taking good care of our land and natural resources is very important to us. We utilize farming practices that minimize erosion and preserve topsoil, maximize the nutrient potential of our cows' manure to fertilize their feed crops, and maintain high air and water quality. And these practices aren't just good for business, they ensure that our farm's environment is well-suited to raising healthy cows and...more importantly...healthy families.

So Happy Earth Day today, tomorrow, and every other day of the year! I'll leave you with a couple of photos and a video of our milking herd strip-grazing, a practice we use to take care of both our land and our cows.

Weed Zappin'

If this hot, dry weather has been good for anything, it's at least given me an opportunity to kill some weeds this week. This sounds easy enough, but it's not as simple as dumping some chemicals into a tank and taking off across a field. Each herbicide has detailed "do's and don'ts" that we must adhere to. Different rates/concentrations will have different effects in different conditions. Protective clothing must be worn when handling these herbicides, and they often have to be mixed in a certain order when used with liquid fertilizer, adjuvants, or other herbicides in the same tank mix. We use GPS assistance to minimize application skips and overlaps in the field, and keep records that include the time, temperature, and wind speed/direction while making applications.

My first herbicide applications this week were in a large 60+ acre heifer pasture. I used a selective herbicide, primarily targeting pigweed, ragweed, and dog fennel. The weeds showed signs of stress within an hour of being sprayed, and 24 hours later it was obvious they were wilting. Using a selective herbicide to kill weeds removes the competition for soil nutrients, thereby improving the quantity and nutritional quality of the pasture grass (bermuda in this case). Once I finished applying this particular herbicide, I thoroughly cleaned the tanks and sprayer lines as per the instructions on the the herbicide's label.

Today I applied a different selective herbicide on our silage corn crop down in the bottomland. This time it was in an effort to kill and control broadleaf signalgrass, cocklebur, and morning glory. Though it's hard to tell from the photo, quite a few broadleaf weeds have already popped up between the rows. The herbicide I applied should kill them and have enough residual effect to prevent more from sprouting. There are pockets of johnsongrass here and there that this herbicide won't effect, but I can control that with glyphosate in a couple of weeks since the corn is a Roundup-Ready variety.

Speaking of glyphosate, that's likely the next herbicide application on the agenda. We'll either use a minimal- or no-tilling planting technique for our sorghum crop, but first we need to kill all the grasses and weeds that have grown up in the fields. We can't begin the planting sorghum, though, until we get some rain to improve the soil moisture. With that in mind, I probably won't be in any big hurry to get the sprayer back into the field until a couple of days prior to a favorable rain forecast.

Earth Day, everyday!

While today might be the official celebration of Earth Day, America's farmers and ranchers are doing their part everyday to conserve resources and protect the environment. On our farm alone we've adopted cropping practices that have allowed us to grow more of our cows' feed while reducing erosion and using less inputs. We also have and continue to improve our nutrient management in such a way that it proves to be an economic and environmental asset as fertilizer and not a liability as waste.

Our farm and others across this country will continue to adapt and embrace new conservation practices and technologies. Doing so will better enable us to be good stewards of our land, while at the same time meeting the food, feed, fiber, and fuel needs of our growing population.

So enjoy and celebrate this Earth Day, and take comfort in knowing that America's farming and ranching families are celebrating Earth Day everyday!

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, the day we turn our attention and social consciousness toward the many issues that face our planet. Students will take a few moments to pick up litter scattered around their school grounds, adults will make short-lived pledges to themselves to live more eco-friendly, and buzzwords like "green", "carbon footprint", "climate change", and "sustainability" will be thrown out by every pundit with a platform from which to preach. And while designating April 22nd as Earth Day may be necessary to bring about a heightened public awareness to our home planet's health, there's at least one group that celebrates the spirit of Earth Day every day...America's farming families.

Agriculture has been and always will be linked directly to our environment. Those of us who raise our nation's food and fiber continually refine our farming methods to grow our crops and livestock more efficiently. This commitment results in the increased conservation of soil, water, and fossil fuels, thereby preserving our precious natural resources for years to come. We have a responsibility to balance the nutritional needs of a growing global population with the needs of our sensitive environment, and we are able to do both without sacrificing one for the other. We continue to protect and improve the quality of our soil, water, and air, develop agri-based alternative energy solutions, and find more ways to productively process our livestock and crop residues. These issues aren't just important to our financial bottom line, beacuse the bottom line is that environmental stewardship is critically important to the health and well-being of both our own families and the public we serve.

So as you celebrate Earth Day and do your part to "save the planet", take time to thank conservationalists, environmentalists, and sustainability experts for all the contributions they are making to keep the Earth healthy and viable for generations to come. And remember...you can thank all three by thanking a farmer!

Gilmer Dairy Farm on TV!

Joey Barnes of WCBI-TV, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, MS, visited our farm this week to learn about our environmentally-friendly farming practices. The story aired at 6:00 this evening, and you can check out both the video and the written story.