Let The Cows Eat It!

FTLComm - Melfort - Friday, July 20, 2001

I ask Bob Lindenback what it looked like out in the fields at Weekes. Bob smiled wryly then almost whispered, "I hate to say this but this could be our turn." The moisture situation and the strategic time of planting seemed to have gone well for the farmers fifty miles East of Tisdale as they have what looks like could be a good crop this year. But about the same distance West as you get close the rolling country between Melfort and Wakaw the scene above is something you don't often see. This herd of beef cattle have been turned into a grain field to use up what little has grown. Several fields in the area are so short that even if they do produce grain it will be very hard to harvest. In this case the farmer will be able to use the material in his field to replace the poor conditions of pastures and in this way convert some of the cost of planting and fertilising this crop into money on the hoof.