Farm Wife Advice: Learn Your Way Around

After nearly a month of glorious rain, the fields have dried out enough to get back to planting. That means Royce is spending all day every day in a tractor cab until he finishes planting, and it also means I get tasked for lunch delivery to said tractor cab.

Before I leave the house with lunch in hand, I always have to ask where he is planting. Yesterday, it was "Dennis's." Today, as I received his response of "The Sargent" and I automatically knew where to go, I realized I've come along way since this time last year. How is that, you ask? Well, I actually knew which field he meant and how to get there.

If you are new to a farm or ranch, whether as a new girlfriend, wife, hired hand or husband, my advice to you is to learn your way around the farm and the ridiculous name of each field. The quicker you do this seemingly simple task, the easier the rest of your life will be. Oh, by the way, it probably isn't that simple.

How do you go about learning these names? There's plenty of methods. You could:

• Get a tour of the farm and take excellent notes.
• Find a county plot book and highlight each field, adding a note for common referenced names.
• Draw your own map.
• Google maps every field. 
• Or, you could just do like me and ask repeatedly which field/pasture they mean. You'll get it eventually.

Let me share some advice with you.

• Field names most likely won't make any sense to you. Some farmers name fields by number, but most farms I've been on haven't been that easy. On my dad's farm, he uses a combination of random identifiers, like "The Mile-Long," "The Curves," and "Egypt" (because it was *ahem* out of the way), and last names of the people from which he rents or bought the ground. This was really great if you are around when the land comes into the farm. Not so great if you are new and have no idea who the people were. Here on the O'Neal Farm, we are very similar to my dad's farm. We have lots of family names, "Kuykendall," "Sargent," "Sheridan," "The Doss Place," "Johnny May's Home," "Johnny May's" (not to be confused with Johnny May's Home), "Aunt Ruth's," ... You get the idea. We also have some random identifiers, like "The New Well" (which is somewhere between 15 to 20 years old), as well as "The West Pasture," "The Middle Pasture," "The East West Pasture," and "The East East Pasture." Yikes. 
• If you ask why a field is named something, you better be prepared for a good story or at least, a lesson in farm history. I once asked Granddad why "The East West Pasture" and "The East East Pasture" were named that way. He proceeded to tell me about when his grandfather acquired the ground, how and why he settled in the Texas Panhandle, and how all of his grandfather's land was divided up after he passed away. Eventually, he got to where he and my father-in-law had just decided to split the East Pasture into two pastures. It was really an awesome story and I thoroughly enjoyed the history lesson, but if you are in a hurry, just don't ask the question.
• Some fields are named after objects that are no longer there, so if you are looking for the "one tree" on "One Tree Field," you may never find it. Or, my favorite, there used to only be one tree on "One Tree Field," but now there are 10. 
• Most importantly, if you don't know where you are going or how to get there, don't be afraid to ask, especially if you are delivering a part for a broken piece of equipment. While they might be slightly upset that you don't know your way around yet and they had to take a quick second from being broke-down to answer your call or text, they'll be very upset if you take the part needed to get the combine running to "The Curves" instead of "The Mile-Long," delaying the harvest by another 30 minutes. I speak from experience. Please, just ask!

I want to hear from you! How do you name the fields on your farm? Have you ever had trouble remembering all the field names? Has it ever gotten you an upset farmer? 

Thank a Farmer!

It has always struck me as an oddity when we pray before a meal, thank God for the food and those who prepared it, and yet forget to thank Him for those who produced the food.

Maybe it is just because I've always been raised around farming, or maybe I'm just hyper-sensitive about giving credit where credit is due. Either way, I ask that tomorrow as you gather with your friends and family for a bountiful meal, remember to thank the farmers and ranchers who produced and raised the food you enjoy.

I make this request because of the reason why I celebrate Thanksgiving. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving for the football, the turkey or as the day before Black Friday. I celebrate Thanksgiving to remember how far we've come as a nation since the Pilgrims and Native Americans held the first Thanksgiving. As a nation, most of us don't have to worry about where we will get our next meal because of amazing agricultural innovations and awesome farmers and ranchers. That's a big difference from a bunch of European settlers who didn't know how to raise corn, and that is something I'm very proud of.

Thank you to farmers and ranchers everywhere!

This is the 23rd post (posted on the 26th day of November) of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

Lunch Dates: Farmer Style

While many people enjoy looking for the next best lunch spot in their city, we do lunch dates a little differently on the farm. Of course, there is no such thing as "typical" on the farm because it is ever changing, but today was a pretty good example of what lunch looks like.

I had to run to Pampa for a couple of errands. Since the guys were harvesting, I offered to pick up lunch for everyone. Turns out, Royce was the only one who hadn't brought his lunch so I just had to find lunch for Royce and me. Easy enough. I stopped at Braum's and ordered two chicken-fried steak sandwiches.

20 minutes later: I arrive at the farm, find the auger running corn into the bin, and am unable to locate my husband. Shortly after my arrival, he appears from somewhere (presumably his pickup). I tell him I'd like to eat lunch with him (over the noise of the auger, tractor, semi and my pickup). He nods then walks off, leaving me to gather the bag of food and two Dr. Peppers. Apparently he couldn't hear my call for help. Typical.

One minute later: With some fumbling and grumbling, I get the food and the Dr. Peppers to his flatbed, also known as the table for super romantic lunch meals. Royce is moving the semi to dump the back part of the trailer. I begin eating my sandwich while being surrounded by the corn bee's wings (floaty chaff that comes off corn). I'm sure those are a healthy addition to my lunch. Halfway through my sandwich, Royce finally joins me for lunch.

Two minutes later: Royce is halfway through his sandwich, I'm still working on mine, and there's a grinding noise followed by silence from the auger. Royce mutters choice words, sets his sandwich back down and runs to shut down the tractor. There's a problem with the PTO shaft running the auger (at least that's what I deduce when he begins taking it apart). You can always count on lunch to break something.

Ten minutes later: Royce finally has the auger running again and gets back to eating his (now cold) sandwich. Since I'm done eating, he asks me to pull the tractor and grain cart around to the truck to start unloading it for the bin. I agree, jump in the tractor to quickly realize I've only driven this tractor once over a year ago.

Three minutes later: I finally remember how to drive this darned tractor (why couldn't we use the ones I'm used to!?) and putter around to the truck. Royce is done with his lunch by this point and is clearly wondering what took me so dang long. He opens the tractor door and tells me to put the auger on the grain cart up. I respond with a blank look. I have no idea which lever controls the auger in this thing. I barely got it over here. He holds up his first finger. I try the number one lever... Nothing. I try pushing the number one lever backwards... Still nothing. I shake my head at Royce. He holds up two fingers. I try the number two lever. Forward, backward... Nothing. Royce starts messing with the hydraulic lines on the back of the tractor.

Seven minutes (and multiple attempts) later: The grain cart auger finally goes up! We rejoice, then he tells me to remember which lever it was so when I'm running this tractor over the Thanksgiving holiday, I know how to do it. Oh joy!

Our seemingly quick lunch meal somehow managed to turn into about a 45-minute ordeal. And that, my friends, is how things happen when you want an uneventful lunch date with a farmer.

Yay corn! And bee's wings with lunch!

The lunch date crasher: PTO.

"Now try 1 again." *head shake* "Now try 2 again." *head shake* "Now try 1 again."

My reaction to "Don't forget how to do this so you can help while you are off of work."

This is the 21st day (posted on the 24th day of November) of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

Freeze!

In case you hadn't gathered from previous posts, I'm really excited about my first cotton harvest! Today, I found the coolest video shot from a UAV (or drone) of harvesting cotton. I was hopeful it would quench my harvest thirst, but like any good farmer, I'm still chomping at the bit to get into cotton harvest. It is a struggle, but there is hope!

A month ago, I wrote about our cotton crop growing up. I have since learned that cotton takes a long time to reach maturity without a good freeze. Normally in the Texas Panhandle, we've had a hard frost by the end of October or early part of November. This year, our freeze held off until the night of November 10. Fun story: It was 81 degrees on November 10 with a low of 18. How 'bout that bipolar weather?! I read an article this morning from Texas AgriLife about the freeze and the effect it had on cotton in the South Plains. While where are located isn't exactly the South Plains, the rest of the article holds pretty true. This freeze put a hard stop on our cotton, and now once it dries out from the snow we got, we should be in good shape to start stripping cotton. I'm so excited! I obviously can't hide it.

What does that mean for you? Soon, we'll get cotton stripping pictures! And I'll finally get to talk about strippers! Thank goodness! The wait has been killing me! But until then, here are a couple more photos of our cotton, pre-freeze.

With the frost, I'm hopeful the remaining unopened bolls (that big green round thing) will pop open so we can harvest the cotton from them.

We still had plenty of leaves and unopened bolls left on these plants when I took these photos a couple of weeks ago. The frost will get rid of the remaining green parts, making harvest much easier.

Big boll for a dryland cotton corner. 5 compartments!

This is the 18th day (posted on the 20th day of November) of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

Let It Snow

Yesterday, I shared a few photos from Royce, who is at home on the farm while I'm traveling in the Dakotas for work. Here in the Dakotas, it snowed most of the day yesterday, and today it was snowing off and on with a good gusty wind blowing it around. It definitely was not my ideal weather. Back home in Texas yesterday, it was just abnormally cold, but today, it started snowing there too, which is great!

Why the change in attitude between snow at different locations? Because in Texas, we really need the moisture! Whether it comes in rain, ice or snow, we'll take it! When it warms up again (as it is bound to do because it's Texas), the snow will melt, releasing a steady amount of moisture for the soil to soak up. Along with the moisture, snow also contains more nutrients than rain. For instance, nitrogen: a very important nutrient for our winter wheat. Now the nitrogen from the snow doesn't add up to a whole lot, but we'll take whatever we can get, especially when it is coming from nature.

Having a blanket of snow is also helpful for providing insulation to our winter wheat. We've been frigidly cold in Texas, especially for this early in the season. We rarely see single digit weather in the Panhandle during the winter, much less in the first half of November. That hasn't been good for our wheat, and we are concerned about the possibilities of winterkill, or damage from getting too cold. Winterkill is more prone to happen when the ground is dry and without a cover of snow. Previous to this snow, it had been a couple of weeks since we had gotten any rain so our wheat was a little thirsty. We are hopeful the snow came soon enough to keep us from much damage, but we will have to wait to find out. I'll keep you updated.

With that, I'll leave you with a few photos Royce sent me today.

Looking out our front porch. Obviously, Royce did not want to venture out into the "blizzard."

Ranger (and Rori's butt). This was Ranger's first snow, and I'm pretty sure he's thinking, "Uh, Dad, what's this white stuff? Am I OK to go out in it?" 

Ranger (and Royce) helped Granddad feed the cows this morning because the cattle need to eat, especially when it is snowing.

This is the 16th day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

Meanwhile...

You know how the saying goes... Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Well, I'm going to edit it a bit and provide a few photo updates of the happenings back on the farm in Texas while I'm in the beautiful and snowy Dakotas. Royce was a trooper and sent me photos from the farm today so please forgive the grainy (pun intended) iPhone photos.

We are storing our late corn in the bins for a couple of months. Royce got the pleasant job of unloading the truck and running the auger to get the corn in the bin. 

He loves his job! But maybe not quite as much when it is cold.

If you look through all the speckles on the truck window, you can see the combine unloading corn onto the grain cart. We had a couple of large wind storms "lodge" or lay down the late corn, making it much harder to harvest.

Another dirty window photo. This time of the tractor unloading onto the truck.

In this photo, you can kind of see the lodged corn, a farmer's nightmare.

Royce apparently jumped ship on the truck and got into the tractor for this photo.

This is the inside of the bin, as the corn dumps in from the top.

This is Ranger, riding shotgun with Royce while he's driving the truck.

 Side story: I mentioned above I'm in the Dakotas. I flew up Friday into Fargo, ND and then drove down to my dad's near Clark, SD. Unfortunately, the snow has come early this year so many of Dad's projects are now getting done in the cold and the snow. It seemed fitting that Dad and his employees were working on building another grain bin while I was here. They made quite a bit of progress today, piecing it together ring by ring.

Tomorrow morning, I'm driving back to Fargo, and Monday morning, I'll be hosting a meeting for the WestBred seed suppliers. It was a quick trip down to see the family in SoDak, but I'm sure glad I made it.

Dad's bins are a little bit bigger (ok, a lot bigger) than our bins back in Texas. He stores a lot more corn than we do, too.

My dad loves his job too! Just look at that smile, even in 20 degree weather and a snow storm!

This is the 15th day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

Cow Cud

Over the last two weeks during my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series, I've talked about beef, corn, cotton and sorghum. Back in October, I wrote about our wheat growing and fencing off the corn stalks. What do all of these things have in common?

Prepare to be amazed......

At some stage in all of our crops, they can be used as feedstuffs for beef cattle on our farm. Now I'm sure you think I'm crazy since you've never seen a cow eat a cotton boll. It's true. I'm sure the actual boll isn't super tasty for them, but I digress.

Like I discussed in my posts about corn and sorghum (milo), both of those grains are often used as feed for cattle. Generally, corn and milo is taken to a feed mill where it is processed to make it more palatable for the cattle. Both could be fed as a raw material, but it would be similar to us eating raw oatmeal. We could eat it, but it is way better when it has been cooked for a bowl of breakfast or baked into oatmeal cookies. Oatmeal retains its nutritional value once it has been cooked. That's what feed mills strive to do for corn and milo.

In addition to feeding the harvested corn once it has been milled, we fence off our corn stalks after we have harvested the grain and let our cows graze the remnants. Combine harvesters aren't perfect at getting all of the corn and some falls to the ground. The cows will eat that lost grain and keep it from going to waste. They also do a good job of chewing on the stalks themselves, which helps us in the long run. How? Our cows are doing the work of a plow, saving us fuel for the tractor that would pull the plow and also reducing the risk of soil erosion. Plus, they are "fertilizing" with their "cowpies," if you smell what I'm stepping in. It is a win-win situation.

When I was talking about sorghum, I mentioned two types of sorghum: grain and forage. Forage sorghum is also used as a feedstuff for cattle. We grow a type of forage sorghum that we make into hay. This hay is high in nutrients our cattle need, and they like the taste of it. Other farmers may graze their cattle directly on a field of forage sorghum, or they may harvest the forage sorghum to make silage.

Moving on to the craziness of cattle eating cotton... Like I mentioned above, we don't feed the cattle the actual white fluffy stuff (fiber) used for making blue jeans. One, the cattle don't really like it that much. Two, that is important for blue jeans! During the process of ginning cotton (getting it ready to weave), the gin removes a lot of trash (consisting of leaves, the burr or what holds the fiber to the plant, and seeds) from the actual fibers themselves. While some of the trash really is trash, the seed is not trashy at all. In fact, cotton seeds are a good source of nutrients for cattle so, similar to corn and milo, the cotton seeds are sent to feed mills to be milled into cattle feed.

Also similar to corn, we sometimes will graze our cotton stalks after the cotton has been stripped. We don't necessarily graze cotton stalks every year, but during years of drought or limited pasture, our cotton stalks offer another option for us to recycle and reuse.

It's time for wheat's turn! My favorite! While we don't often graze our wheat on our farm, many farmers in Oklahoma and Texas choose to because winter wheat (planted in the fall for harvest in early summer) offers great nutrients to cattle over the winter months when normal pastures aren't growing. Wheat pasture often serves as the in-between time for calves once they are weaned and before they go to the feedlot. During this time, the calves are given full access to as much wheat as they can eat, and seeing as how calves like to eat, they generally gain weight efficiently on wheat. Some farmers choose to completely graze their wheat out so they leave calves on it until it stops growing. Other farmers want both grazing and grain from their wheat (called dual-purpose wheat) so they will move the calves off the wheat at a certain wheat growth stage to reduce damage to the developing grain. Those farmers will then harvest the grain from the field just like they would have if they hadn't grazed it.

In the media and in the supermarket, the words "grass-fed" and "grain-fed" are thrown around a whole bunch. It is important to note that all cattle spend most of their lives eating grass of some species, whether that grass is forage sorghum, wheat or native pasture. The difference is really in the final "finishing," whether the cattle are finished on grass or finished on grain. I'm not here to say one is right and one is wrong for every farm and ranch. I will say, however, for our farm, feeding grain to our cattle gives us ample opportunities to reuse what might have been wasted, like corn stalks and cotton seed.

And to that, eat beef!

This is the 14th day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

The Day Granny's Kitchen Closed

Growing up, my Grandma Norma cooked the dinner (as in lunch) meal for my dad and the hired men on our farm every day they worked, whether they were in the field harvesting or around the farm working. Every day, she had a hot meal waiting for them, plus a delicious dessert. I loved those lunches whenever I went with my dad to the farm. To be honest, lunch was my favorite part of the day.

Then eventually, Grandma Norma reached the age where she thought it was time to retire from the every-day cooking. She was 80 years old (or maybe 81 or 82 - I had already moved to Oklahoma when this happened so my memory fails me). Either way, she had definitely earned retirement. Of course, she still occasionally cooks a meal for the men when they are in the field, but mostly, she does as she likes.

When I moved to Texas in March, I got the privilege to eat at Royce's Granny's house for the noon meal. It was like reliving my childhood! Except maybe with a few more peppers than Grandma Norma used in her South Dakota cooking. For the last 8 and a half months, I've been driving the two miles to Granny's house for lunch Monday through Saturday. Let me tell you, it has been wonderful! A hot, home-cooked meal followed by mouth-watering, home-made desserts. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Well, it was a good thing I cherished those meals. Back in July, Granny announced she would retire from cooking on her 80th birthday, which happened to be Monday, Nov. 10 of this year. A little piece of me died, knowing I'd be on my own to fend for my own lunch after that date.

On Monday, I ate a microwavable pizza. On Tuesday, Royce cooked Hamburger Helper. Wednesday, we were in Oklahoma City for lunch so we had Applebee's. Then today, Granddad asked Granny to make chili for us since it was so cold outside. Because she's a wonderful woman, she obliged him, but I'm certain we won't get too many exceptions to her retirement. However, the chili was delicious, and I am sure glad I didn't miss it.

Granny's retirement got me thinking though. The farm wife/cook has been such a longstanding tradition on the family farm, but now as Grandma Norma's and Granny's generation reach retirement age (which is much later than the normal retirement age), who is picking up that torch on farms around the country? I know I'm not for now, with a full-time job of my own and, let's just say, "limited skills" in the kitchen. It is ironic to me, that as an agriculturalist, I have little to no interest in cooking, and yet I ask consumers to be more involved with their food. Their involvement is cooking their food. How do I relate to that when I'm pretty sure I keep the microwavable pizza company in business?

Until I figure out how to cook, I think I'll heed Granny's advice she gave me when Royce and I started dating: Granny warned me, just as she warned Royce's mother, to not start something unless you wanted to do it every day for the rest of your life (read: or until you're 80 years old). Now that's a commitment!

This is the 13th day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

AQHA World

I've gotten really good at "quick trips" over the years, but this quick trip was definitely worth the drive. Yesterday afternoon, Royce and I loaded up in the pickup for the 3-hour drive to Oklahoma City. This afternoon, we made the 3-hour drive back home. What made that 24 hours so worth it? Royce's little sister Tyler was competing at the American Quarter Horse World Show. 

In case you aren't familiar with the horse business, the World Show is kind of a big deal... like one of the biggest shows in the nation. Not just anybody can show there. To compete, you have to win a certain amount of points to qualify at previous shows during the year. Tyler and Hans, the Vonder Horse, qualified this year in amateur boxing. It was their first time at the World Show, and we (as the entire O'Neal clan) were incredibly proud of her. So much so that she had an entire cheering section of about a dozen people. It was pretty fantastic! 

Tyler and Hans showed this morning around 10:45. They had a great run, but unfortunately, didn't score high enough to make it back to the finals on Friday. Either way, Tyler worked really hard for this, and while it's not a trophy, just having competed at the World Show is something a lot of horsemen and women can't say. Good job Tyler! I'm glad we made the trip!

What does this have to do with Texas Panhandle agriculture? Well, Tyler is from the Panhandle and the farm so I think that makes it pretty pertinent. Also, she was competing in a class modeled after working ranch horses so another tie to Panhandle agriculture and ranching. Plus, the American Quarter Horse Association is headquartered in Amarillo, TX. That's my reasoning, and I'm sticking to it! 

Good job, Tyler and Hans!

Hans is a bit of a ham.

This is my 12th day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

The Artist

A common theme with farmers and ranchers is the appreciation of Mother Nature's beauty. As a group, we spend most of our time in the middle of a beautiful creation. Our views of sunrises and sunsets are rarely obstructed by a skyscraper or apartment building. More likely, we have to look around grain elevators, barns, tractors or cows; all of which, in my opinion, are much more desirable to have in your field of vision. We have a close relationship and reliance on nature and the weather. We learn to appreciate it, marvel at the power of it, pray for the best of it. We also learn how to read it, prepare for it, react to it.

Last night, as the rest of the Great Plains was talking about the Arctic Blast, I took the last hour of light to capture the sunset. Not only was the sunset absolutely breathtaking, but I also had the chance to reflect on just how blessed I am to have this life here in the Texas Panhandle. With nothing but cows, corn stalks and a camera as company, it sure made me think and rejoice. Some people have told me they have felt alone out in the great openness of the prairie. I, on the other hand, feel very much surrounded by God and the glory of his creation. He is, after all, the greatest Artist I will ever know, and I'm sure glad He thought the Panhandle would make a good home for me.

Have you ever seen a sunset and thought "How could it get any more beautiful?"

Our cows aren't pets. When they see a random lady walking out in their pasture, their instincts tell them to go away, but eventually...
Side note: Notice the gray haze behind the cows? That would be the aforementioned Arctic Blast blowing in.

And then it gets more beautiful?

Corn stalks + cows + a sunset = pretty scenery

Eventually, the cows start to get curious about this person laying/sitting on the ground.

Then it continues to get more beautiful? 

Until finally, you say "Really God? How are you doing this?"

And then He tells that cow to walk right in front of His painting to make it even more perfect.

Then He says, "One for the road!"

Until finally, the sun goes down.

This is my 11th day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas you'd like me to write about concerning Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear from you!

All in the Family

Over the last few years, I have noticed an ever-growing myth about "corporate farms." It is everywhere, and it seems like every anti-farming, anti-GMO, anti-agriculture advocate throws around the words "corporate farms" and "big ag" in every sentence.

I'm here to tell you that you shouldn't believe the hype. I've been on farms all over the U.S. from Washington state, the Dakotas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and all the way to Texas, plus a few in between all of those places. I've been on large farms and small farms. Organic farms and conventional farms. Vegetable farms. Beef farms. Wheat farms. Corn farms. Dairy farms. Pig farms. Poultry farms. And here's the thing: I don't know that I've ever been on a "corporate" farm. Behind every farm has been a family that owns, operates and, most of the time, performs the day-to-day activities that make a farm productive. Sure, some might have employees to help them, but that doesn't mean they are "corporate." Heck, on our fifth-generation family farm here in the Texas Panhandle, we have a full-time employee. Does that make us any less of a family farm? I don't think so, but here's why.

This morning, I gave up sleeping in (a rare feat for me on a weekend) to go photograph feeding the calves. Over the last two weeks, we have weaned and doctored around 100 calves. Those calves are now up in a pen so we can monitor them and feed them appropriately. Every morning, Granddad, Royce and Royce's father check the calves, feed them their "cake," and put out fresh hay for them. (If you are curious about cake, I'll have a post later this week explaining it.) It really is a family affair, and that's how most everything happens on our farm. I know we aren't alone in this either. In the U.S., around 97 percent of all farms are family farms! That's a huge percentage when you are talking about 2.2 million farms! Whether a farm is tens of thousands of acres or a farm is 100 acres, most likely there is a hard-working family behind it. Let's agree to put this "corporate farm" myth behind us for good.

In case you need some more evidence, here are a few of the photos I captured this morning while the men were feeding.

Granddad drives the feed truck and counts out enough servings of cake for the calves. Lexi, the Border Collie, rides shotgun.

The cake drops from the chute on the side of the pickup. The calves like cake, but they aren't sure about this lady taking pictures of them.

Red decides the cake is much more interesting than the camera lady. 

The first group of calves were weaned two weeks ago. They've learned to eat very well. The group weaned last week are still missing their mommas a bit and haven't quite figured out the cake thing yet.

Royce and his dad, Terry, drop the hay ring over the bale as Granddad lowers in from the forks. Three generations of O'Neal farmers take part in feeding these calves daily.

This is the ninth day of my 30 Days of Texas Panhandle Agriculture Series. To read more, please visit this introduction post. If you have questions or ideas about Texas Panhandle agriculture, I'd love to hear them!