August 02- Home from Fair

I have been away this past week at the big Auglaize County Fair. We were released this morning and both the cattle and I were glad to be home. I am getting too old to sleep in the barns overnight! We took nine head, two cows and an all calf string (Winter, Fall & 1997 models). The Heiress sisters were Grand & Reserve Champion Females with our September Finks 5522-6148 son named Champion bull and our January '97 EXT bull as reserve.

Our customers fared very well. Our herd bulls sired the Reserve Rate of Gain Champion (4.08 lb/per day since January) as well as the Champion Carcass Steer (Choice, Yield Grade 2.6, 14" ribeye) and the third place carcass steer as well, for both our customers and our customers' customers. It's nice when your calves do well, but it is great when you can improve your customers cattle and help their sales!

August 10- Technical Difficulties

The site has experienced some technical difficulties this past week due to problems at one of our ISPs. It seems that are no longer in existence! This does cause problems. Most of the site is up via my alternate provider and the rest will be back up by mid week.

August 12- Customers "Fair" Well

Congratulations to our customers! Kiata Farms of Hamilton, Ohio had the Reserve Champion Junior Bull Calf at the 1997 Ohio State Fair. He is a son of EXT out of PSA Blackbird 241B, a daughter of Leachman Tonto that they purchased from us. Bill Parchman & Dave Long have always been great to me and I am very happy for them. Bill Parchman of Kiata, Jim Rentz of Creek Side Farm and Paul Isaacs of Isaacs Land & Cattle are the three breeders most responsible for my being in the Angus business and for the strength of my program. Trying to pattern after these three has been the key to my success. There are no better Angus Ambassadors!

Congratulations also go to Brent, Jill & Rich Kasler of Millfield, Ohio. They exhibited PSA Queenmar 341F to be Champion Angus Female at the Athens County Fair! She is an October 1996 daughter of SAF 30.06 from our three year old PSA Queenmar 279 by New Trend 315.

August 15 - Straw baled

We finally finished baling our wheat straw. Between the Fairs and rains it really seemed to drag on. The second cutting hay is also done and we could use a bit more rain to insure a decent third cutting. The Sudax could use a bit more as well.

The show string calves are really taking off. They always seem to put on the weight and bloom after they have been out on the road and then come back to the pastures.

August 23 - Unseasonably Cold

It has been unseasonably cold this past week. temperatures are ususally in the mid to upper 80ºs F and instead have been in the upper 50s to 60s F for highs. It got 46º last night. It has also been raining almost every day. The amount is low but combined with the low temperatures it is quite cool.

We moved the close up cows to the calving pasture yesterday. They should start dropping calves next weekend and it looks like they will be on time. The pasture grass is really taking off with all of the rain and moderate temperatures. We will have some real nice grass for this Fall.

August 27 - Working Cattle

It has started to return to normal temperature wise, returning to the low to mid 80º F. It has also quit raining every other day and we have been able to get some painting and repair done around the farm. I have been working on the Way View Farms & Whitehead Angus Opportunity Plus Sale Catalog this past week as well.

We castrated bull calves today and calfhood vaccinated a group of heifer calves. Most of the castrated bulls were sons of Bon View 473. They just did not cut it. We did keep one very good son by him in Tag 486. We also have a super nice daughter by him in Tag # 351.

I have pretty much decided on our Fall AI service sires and will be using VDAR Lucys Boy quite heavily. I have yet to see a bad calf from him and I have seen some super, super females out of the bull. Check him out in our Reference Sire pages. We will use EXT a very good bit as well.

August 30 - More Congratulations

Additional congratulations go to our customers, Kiata Farms of Hamilton, OH. They recently exhibited Kiata Gunner, a January 1997 son of EXT out of PSA Blackbird 241 to be named Calf Champion at the 1997 Kentucky State Fair in Louisville. He was also Reserve Calf Champion at the the Ohio State Fair earlier this month. PSA Blackbird 241 was a strong producer for us and gave us two excellent daughters before going to her new home at Kiata. The EXT x Tonto cross has really worked well for us and our customers.