Section
Chutes, trailers, fence, and keeping it running.
7 stories
A 24-foot gooseneck with 30 calves on it is carrying more money than the truck pulling it. Wheel bearings, brake magnets, the breakaway battery, the tire date code, and the floorboards under the mat, in the order they fail. An hour on the shop floor before the first haul.
Oct 15
Most electric fence failures in winter are not the wire and not the charger. They are three ground rods that were fine in wet June ground and are now sitting in frozen dust. How to test the ground, read the voltage, and find the short before the cows do.
Oct 3
Cattle handling injuries cluster in October and November, when the most animals go through the chute with the most help and the least sleep. Crowding tub angles, the one-person rule at the headgate, and what to fix before the first pen comes in.
Sep 24
A cow drinks 10 to 15 gallons a day in winter and eats less when the water is ice. Tank heaters, freeze-proof waterers, geothermal tubes, and the stuff that fails. A checklist for the month before the first hard freeze.
Sep 18
Section 179 is $2.56 million for 2026 and bonus depreciation is 100 percent for good. A big write-off is available for equipment placed in service this year, but a write-off you do not need is just a loan against next year's taxes.
Sep 17
Half of grain entrapments are still fatal and nearly all of them are preventable. National Farm Safety and Health Week is September 21 to 25. Here is the short list from OSU's Kevin Moore, and the one rule that matters most.
Sep 7
The FTC and five states settled with Deere in July. For ten years, farmers and independent shops get the same fault-code, reprogramming, and emissions-reset tools dealers have. Here is how to use it, and where it stops.
Sep 3