We hosted the Animal Breeding and Genetics class from Southwestern Community College yesterday. They were a great group! It was so much fun to get to meet fellow cattle producers and share ideas.
We’ve had several tours stop by over the past year and I thought I’d give a little run-down of what we do on a tour.
First, a few days (or weeks:) before the tour arrives, we clean. It’s pretty much an all-hands-on-deck kind of cleaning where we enlist the help of every man, woman, and child on the place to pitch in and get the place looking nice.
Then, before the tour arrives, we have a meeting to nail down “the plan.” (It’s always good to have a plan.)
When the “Big Cleanup” is complete and our plan is in place, the tour group arrives. (We like it to happen in that order… Lol.)
We usually start at the Feed Efficiency Testing Center where we introduce all the family and welcome everyone.
Then we’ll swing through the office and grab a quick snack on our way out to the working facility. Here we’ll give a quick run-through of how the chute and alleyway system work.
Next, Joe leads the group through the barn and explains the feed test and tells about the facility.
Following that, I take a few minutes and explain the data we get back from the feed test and show how we can use the data to make improvements in the cow herd.
Then, depending on when the tour is here, we serve lunch. Heather is in charge of the meal and she does an AMAZING job!
After we are done at the Feed Efficiency Testing Center, we head up to “Headquarters” where we look at more cattle.
We drove through the pasture on this tour which was really fun.
When we get up to Werner Family Angus Headquarters, Dad shows everyone the cattle and tells about our management practices.
Sometimes, if we have a younger group, we show them how we process our baby calves.
Or we show them how we mix the feed for the cattle.
Or, with this tour group, we looked at the cover crop we had planted and were grazing.
And sometimes we have the students pretend they are bull customers and let them look over the data and the bulls to make breeding decisions.
We like to mix things up and keep things fresh! Lol.
But mostly, we just like to have fun.
We are so blessed to get to do what we love with a family that we love and share it with a community that we love.
Thanks be to God!