Hello October!

It’s crazy to believe that September is over. Weaning is just around the corner and the grass is finally starting to dry out with the fall like evening temps.

First off, thank you for all of the orders that shipped out this month. Grace and I were running rampant trying to get beef out, while staying up to date on ranch work. Package material and shipping held us up a bit, but we are finally caught up and with the fall temps are resuming our regular two-week shipping dates. The shipment dates for October will be the 9th and the 23rd. If you’d like to order beef, please do before the weekend prior to those dates as we have to order dry ice in advance.

The last couple of weeks have been one event after the other. We sold yearling steers on video for the first time ever this month. While we do send cattle to Flying Diamond Beef, the majority of our steers are marketed to finish out with a different owner before they head to harvest. The sale went really well, and dad and I were able to leave directly from where the auction was held to road trip down to Grand Island for Husker Harvest days were I served on a panel on behalf of Women in Ag, speaking about balance in work/life.

From the panel, I headed straight to Denver where I was able to speak with the aviation company ForeFlight via Zoom before presenting on a panel to other producers at the National Red AngusConvention on how we are marketing directly to consumers.

Meanwhile back on the ranch, Salvetti and Grace were putting on the finishing touches for a weekend tour with Humanities Nebraska. I serve on both the Council and

Foundation for HN, and this is the second time we’ve been able to open our ranch to the board. Guests were able to tour the ranch, hike, bird watch, head out on UTV’s and ATV's, a hay rack ride, and even got to interact with our little twin bucket calf that was relishing all of the attention. For a couple of the guests it was the first time they had set foot on the ranch so it made the experience even more special for us.

A couple of days after the HN tour, we hosted a more international delegation from Neogen.

That name may sound familiar as it is the genomic company that we utilize to genomic test cattle that are marketed through EnviroSmart Beef. We had guest from the UK, Uruguay, Brazil, and China. We were able to feed them some of our EnviroSmart Beef patties along with touring the ranch on ATV’s and UTV’s. The highlight had to be when the guest from China got to take her very first horse ride.

The next couple of highlights was participating in the Nebraska LEAD Program seminar as a panelist and also a speak on rangeland issues. This is around the 15 year or so that WFDR has been one of the main seminar sponsors for the LEAD class, which is an intensive two year agricultural leadership program for adults between 25-55 years of age. More info can be found at www.lead.unl.edu.

While we love interacting with visitors and guests, along with sharing our story and insight with other producers, the ranch work still needs to go on. The fall calvers are over half done, haying is finally starting to see an end in sight, and the spring calvers are getting ready to receive their fall vaccinations and be weaned from their mothers.

Like always, we appreciate the business and please reach out with any questions you have about the ranch, our beef, or even us.