Sorry for the lack of writing the past couple months. To quickly update you, we had a very wet spring and are now having an extremely dry summer! This has been the year of extremes, from lots of snow, lots of rain and now lots of heat. Our spring turnout was rushed this spring as we branded later in April when it was a bit drier.  We also had to closely watch the calves throughout the spring as moisture is one of the prime conditions for scours to start.

Luckily the hay crops grew well, so haying season went quite well, other than some equipment breakdowns and needed repairs. I don’t remember many haying seasons where we have had no rain storms whatsoever to slow us down. Looking back, a rain storm here or there is a nice break in order to catch up on a few small tasks in between fields.

However with no rain, the pastures that grew so well this spring are now incredibly dry.  Needless to say the forest fires in British Columbia have been terrible this summer.  Let’s all do a rain dance and hope that heavy rain comes very soon!

In between all the ranch tasks, we have been doing our direct marketing of beef within our local community.  I love being able to connect with our customers so that they can see who raises their beef and answer any questions they may have.

The next month will be a bit different than the past years, as our haying is done. We had planned to do some rail and barbed wire fencing but with it being so dry, we don’t want to use a chain saw or heavy equipment in case they spark a fire. Therefore, we are going to work on staining the buildings, clean up around the barnyard and as always, continue to check pastures while ensuring to stay on roads at all times.

I would love to hear from you on how your summer is going and if and how it has changed due to the weather!