Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

Wind it is an Ac in the summer and a nightmare in the winter! The wind has always been a major issue in the central U.S. The wind can have a major influence on the way winter crops and cattle produce. If the wind is blowing hard like it normally does,  and you have just planted your wheat, the top soil will blow off along  with the seed you paid for; Not a good thing! In addition, if you have a winter storm blow in and the wind is howling you can lose cattle in a white out or they could freeze; not a good thing either.

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Sheltering cattle through the winter can be a very tough and tiresome job. Cowboys rarely get sleep in this time because usually the operation is calving out first time heifers. First time heifers are cattle that have not been calved out and 90% of the time, cannot have the calf by themselves. Therefore, the hands have to do a check every hour depending on how close the heifers are. The wind can be a major problem to a newborn calf. The calf just being born will have after birth left, which will freeze and cause pneumonia and can very easily kill the calf.

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When the wind is up and the rainfall is down many wheat pasture crops a blown out and the rancher is out of ground for the winter. The solution to this problem is either sell your heard or find more pasture that isn’t gone and try to lease the country, but most of the time if you lose your pasture you probably won’t have the funds to lease more wheat ground. You probably did not think wind could do so much costly damage for a rancher. So next time the wind is up think of the hard workers trying to keep their lively hood running and give them a few prayers. This is what every rancher prays fore!

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[1]Leiker, Dave. “ Black cattle.”Photo. Kansasphotos.com5Febuary 2009. October 11, 2010. Retrieved fromhttp://kansasphotos.com/wp/2009/02/page/46/

[2]Amateur Photo. “Newborn calf.” Amateurphotoart.com October 13, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.amateurphotoart.com/pics.asp?pCat=farm&crntPage=2&oldPageNbr=1&maxPageNbr=8

[3]Zadelew. “white cattle heard on wheat pasture.” April 29, 2006. October 13, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/59526103@N00/137649071/