Communication is Key

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

Being my first week, this week was full of new baseline knowledge for me to chew on.  A few major points we hit for this week were: the process and impact of working a field, the importance of pressure when moving livestock, and communication between partners.

Working fields is necessary when it comes to farming.  It was especially apparent this week when, after having already been worked once, crop had not been planted and fields were turning green with weeds. Running over a field again with a chisel plow before planting and knocking down those weeds, however small they are, increases the chances of good crop come harvest.

Pressure on livestock and communication between partners can go hand-in-hand. Reacting to what the cattle are telling you and what information you are relaying to your partner can lead to successful gatherings. Not having the proper transfer of what you are seeing and working with can lead to chaos, at which point the process restarts. We ended the week working cows and branding calves. From gathering, stringing down the road, loading into the corals, and finally the chutes, the proper amount of give and take was needed to not overwhelm and overwork the cattle.  There were both good and bad examples of this as some (myself) get riled moving cattle.

The picture to the right is an example of everything happening at once and why communication between everyone working on the calf was necessary for success. Being at the tail end, I needed to know if the calf was done and ready for me to spin around and let go. Also, communication between the head and tail end was crucial (ie. if the head needed to adjust, or if they needed the tail end to stretch stronger, etc.).  Whatever the case may be, we had to talk and work together to complete the task.

Communication between partners is huge on the business side of things as well. There is a need for communication when buying, selling, trading, and even fixing/doctoring implements, equipment, and livestock; each step holds information that must be relayed to the others who are a part of that section of the operation. If not, confusion of plans and days leads to problems between partners.

To me, all of these points had value.  Everything listed above holds importance and affects day-to-day happenings on a farm/ranch. One slip-up, or lack-of communication, and a day can be ruined or wasted correcting these problems.

My plan is to take the foundations I’ve been given, and begin to build my own feelings towards them. I can imagine how I would react in a certain situation, and compare that to how my hosts react themselves to see how experience may sway someone’s reaction. The knowledge I learned this week will set me up for future weeks and give me some key points to come back to when building my own foundation.

Submitted by: Jaxon Ondracek
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team