The Super Bowl and Texas Agriculture

Ever make the connection between tomorrow's Super Bowl in snowy Dallas? From the footballs used to your favorite snacks, Texas Agriculture gives a big boost to the gridiron game plan. Thanks to the North Texas E-News for these AgFacts!

• Leather is used to make footballs and Texas leads the nation in cattle with more than 13 million head with an annual production value of about $6 billion.

• Texas produced 8 million bales of cotton in 2010, which is enough to make every person on earth a Super Bowl Championship T-shirt - and still have almost a billion shirts left over.

•  Peanuts are a favorite snack at football games, and in Texas we produce more than 700 million pounds - enough to make 7 billion peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

• Hot dogs are a traditional favorite at football games and the Texas pork industry has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $250 million.

• Hot dogs also need hot dog buns. Texas growers produce an average 90 million bushels of wheat annually, enough to make more than 25 billion hot dog buns.

• Texas is a leading dairy state and produces enough milk each year to fill the massive Cowboys Stadium more than six times.

• A football field, including the end zones, is 360 feet long-by-160 feet wide and covers 1.3 acres. The entire Cowboys Stadium site covers 140 acres. By comparison, Texas encompasses 144 million acres of agricultural and rural land, more than any other state in the nation.

• In contrast, the combined areas of the two cities competing in this year’s Super Bowl is about 63,000 acres, and you could fit more than 2,500 of them within Texas’ borders. In fact, you could fit the entire states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin inside Texas more than two-and-a-half times, and still have 9 million acres left over.

• Cornstarch can be used to make a biodegradable plastic for drink cups, utensils and more. Texas growers produced 302 million bushels of corn in 2010.

• How better to celebrate a Super Bowl Championship than with a good steak dinner? Texas produces about 8 billion pounds of beef each year. That's the equivalent of 16 billion 8-ounce steaks or enough to supply 150 steaks to every person watching the game in the United States (according to Nielson estimates, last year's Super Bowl attracted 106.5 million U.S. viewers).

 So while you are enjoying the game and commercials, remember this is just the start of how Agriculture impacts our lives. Remember to Thank A Farmer and Rancher for all the great things we have

Feedyard Update

What do you call a cow with a twitch?

Can you believe that summer has passed and September is already here? My, how time flies when you are having fun, or in my case, staying busy. I have been doing most of the receiving and processing tasks lately because we are short handed at the feedyard. I find myself trying catch up with life, but work seems to get in the way more and more these days.

I do believe this stock tank has earned it's keep. I filled it up this morning and half of it had already drained out in a few hours. It might be time to invest in a new tank. I use tanks like these to supplement the automatic waters, like the one in the background, when I receive calves that may not be accustomed to fresh water from a tank or trough. The more readily available supply of water helps to reduce stress and helps cattle start on feed earlier.

Like many others in the cattle feeding business, we have been taking advantage of rising fat cattle prices and have been shipping several cattle to harvest in the past few weeks. Of course this means we have been receiving just as many feeders, if not more. An empty pen in the feedyard does not pay, so we try our best to fill every pen after it empties and gets cleaned.

I am at the yard by 5:30 every morning. So as I am looking at new cattle or making a pen move, I watch the sun rise from start to finish every morning. The horizon in the Texas 'Handle seems to go on forever.

The feedyard is a busy place, and the receiving desk is no exception. I take care of the vaccine and medicine inventories, processing charges, as well as the receiving and processing schedules. After I finish coordinating my plan with the pen riders, processors, feed crew, and yard crew I'm about done in. But that makes it challenging and keeps me on my toes. I really would not know what to do with a slow day anymore.

I got a new pup for my birthday. She is from a ranch in Kansas and should turn out to be a pretty sharp dog. Already she has proved to be an escape artist; finding every hole in the back yard and kennel that the older dogs had not found. It is always interesting trying to teach a new dog tricks. Too bad we do not use dogs in the feedyard. However, I could see how one mistake could really make a mess out of things.

These are some content cattle after the 1st round of feeding for the day. Each pen of cattle is looked at on horseback and fed three times daily.

This is not really much of an update, but I thought I would share a few things that are happening. Hope you are keeping up with my other blogs. Have a great week!
--ARranchhand

Oh yeah. A cow with a twitch is called BEEF JERKY.