When the Timing is Right

4/11/2022

Life is full of seasons...

Seasons of busy...

Seasons of rest...

Seasons of waiting....

Seasons of change....

And lots of seasons in between.

The last year has been a season of waiting, planning and hoping. We have had dreams and plans, but there were lots of moving parts that needed to align in order for us to be able to fulfill our wants and dreams.

The biggest moving part was the right timing. The right time for us, the right time for others and the manpower (Isaac and Walker) to do everything we want to do.

We have been planning for the future, hoping some things would happen, but without concrete confirmation, it made making plans a little challenging.

The paperwork has all been signed, so we are finally able to tell you that we have leased an additional farm and are expanding the herd.

This farm has the perfect setup for cattle. Unfortunately, the last several years the property has fallen into disrepair due to the previous farmer's health conditions.

A lot of work has already been completed, but we still have a lot of clean up and fence repair before we can fully utilize the property.

Isaac and Walker worked really hard this weekend to get the paddock area cleaned up so that the bulls and steers could be moved to the new farm.

The bull pen at our house is just gross. The mud and manure is so deep that it is becoming difficult to even get hay to the feeder.

This is a normal part of Ohio Winter/Spring and living in a swamp on a hill, but definitely not ideal conditions. With rain just about every other day, the situation won't be improving any time soon.

Moving the bulls was high priority, but also their new pen needed the least amount of repair, so we focused on that first.

With this new farm on the horizon for almost a year now, we have been planning our herd accordingly.

Most of the cows we had planned on selling last year didn't get sold in anticipation of our new expansion. It's also why we bought Blast back.

We also purchased an additional 3 Miniature Hereford heifers in the past year, also waiting on this expansion.

We certainly don't have room at the home farm for more animals, but we toughed it out through the winter to further our expansion efforts.

Our plan is to diversify the herd and expand the meat portion of our herd. While we always want heifers, we are O.K. with steers now too.

The next several years we are focusing on growing the herd to be able to provide a more consistent supply of meat products.

We will continue to breed for show animals, but this just helps us to diversify and meet the needs of more people.

Isaac will be back home on the farm full time within the next year. This has always been a dream of his and he is really the driving force behind the decisions.

The new farm also has two hay fields that we will be baling to feed the growing herd.

We have baled these fields in years past, but I will admit we are nervous about how we are going to get it all done. Isaac will be pushing through summer classes to get out of college sooner and Walker is planning to work full-time.

I have already been told I may have to get a refresher course on the tractors so I can rake hay on my lunch hour.

Lots of moving parts, but we just have to get through the next six months. We may be temporarily insane, sleep deprived and extremely grumpy and short tempered...but it's just a season.

We have been hoping and praying for this opportunity for years, and we are not about to give up our dream.

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