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Nap Time

Fresh Calf

This calf was only a couple of hours old this morning to its 2 year-old mother. Both have the necessary instincts to survive. She has carried it for nine months and now it’s learning to trust her instructions as she heads to the feed grounds, it trailing behind, before we intercepted them with a couple of flakes of hay near a shade tree. All’s well.

SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT ACT

PEAK EVERYTHING, OVERSHOOT, & COLLAPSE—Chapter-19-CA-aquifer-depletion.jpg

California has the law it needs
to retire Mom and Pop (early)
when they can’t find the fees
to fund its application—

let the citrus hang on trees,
fill the furrows with oranges
when they can’t pay
to drill a deeper well

if there’s any water left
after the Big Dogs drink,
leave and let the farm ground sink
clear to hell.

First Calves 2026

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Surprised to see three ‘first calves’ this morning from our first calf heifers, photographed to substantiate our Age and Source Verification Program required for our exported beef. We have begun our new year!

The recent notion to import more beef to lower the price of hamburger to consumers in this country also lowers the price to producers who are facing higher prices for fuel and fertilizer, many of whom are in a drought.

INSIDER:

  • Trump announced a plan to lower beef prices for Americans ahead of the midterm elections.
  • His administration will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of beef to be imported into the US.
  • The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said the decision “undermines American producers.”

America’s largest trade association of cattle producers says President Donald Trump’s plan to lower beef prices is political theater

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which represents more than 175,000 cattle producers and feeders, said on Friday that the strategy would do more harm than good for the industry. Earlier that day, Trump said the US would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of beef to be imported with no out-of-quota tariff over the next 90 days.

“Today’s announcement is not about helping producers,” the association said on X. “It’s not about putting their finger on the scale for one cattle industry group or another. It is 100% about the 74 days between now and the midterm elections.”

In the same X thread, the association said that encouraging more beef imports undermines American cattle producers at a time when they’re making decisions about rebuilding their herd numbers for next year. The association also said the administration’s “repeated whiplash on trade policy and beef imports” directly affects rural cattle producers.

“US farmers and ranchers need stability,” the group said. “Unlike spur-of-the-moment trading decisions made based on White House social media posts, the decisions and investments ranchers make in their herds are made YEARS in advance, not days or weeks.”

WATER TROUGH

A water trough
leveled for a float
with a puddle
at the bottom

resembles our aquifer
thousands of feet below
the tax write-offs
of corporate farming,

as the ground collapses
to take the water’s place
deposited before man
walked this earth,

before we were so many
thirsty inhabitants
pumping for more
until the trough is empty.

Cloudy

Though summer has been fairly tame here so far, it’s begun to warm up with 108 high on Saturday with cloudy skies and some errant raindrops. The Super El Nino forecasts have been pretty much the same for the past 30 days with few new details, just an elevated level of fear it seems. Like politics, we are hostage to the weather, preparing where we can.

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STRAWBERRY MOON

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBBIN

Quiet and still, nothing on the narrow road
before dawn, the birds are sleeping in
on your birthday, hills genuflecting

where heifers graze the dry creek bed,
a moment frozen from our beginning
before the barns, fences and a herd of cows

to be proud of. How we howled in the dark
through the open window, challenged the coyotes,
let the empty canyon know we were here to stay.

All these years on your birthday, too busy
to count them, too busy to care,
too happy to have it any other way.

BARN AS A BANK

Winter’s bank against
cold dry fronts,
almost certain.

An account
to draw from
when it doesn’t rain.

Price up or down,
we put cash in
glad when it’s full.

The Event

Approaching two years old, Hayes and Asher from the Fox-Fry Compound came down to the barn to watch the delivery of alfalfa yesterday, the big hay squeeze and 18-wheeler trucks, bringing along their own favorite plastic equipment. We’ve come a long ways from the days of booming the hay in the barn one bale at time.