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Romance or non-romance? If you're looking for a romance novel, I'll have to ask my wife for suggestions. If you're just looking for a good story, then check out Beloved by Toni Morrison. It's a bit spooky and it takes place in rural Cincinnati.

Are you paying out bonuses this year? Are they common in your sector of the agriculture industry and the area you live in? I planned to pay the usual bonus, but now I'm considering topping them up because of the coronavirus which made their work significantly more difficult. What are you...

I appreciate the conversation between RichZ and OhSusanna because it helped me see that I misunderstood what the guy was talking about. To me, "feed" is the commercial stuff you buy. It didn't occur to me that the guy was talking about hay or pasture or anything but commercial feed. That's just...

They destroy most plant life in short order, which is why you're running across more images of hogs in pens instead of wide-open pastures. They create deep wallows in the soil, but they don't destroy the soil. When I raised hogs I used rotational grazing and turned them out to the woodlot more...

My neighbor has some dairy cows, and I help him when they fall. It doesn't often happen, but it's a production when it does. I think hip clamps have to be one of the worst ways to lift cattle. By the time you get the cow up and undone, the cow is either trying to escape, which can cause further...

You need sheep to get lambs and lamb meat is considered a nice dish in many parts of the US. Sheep also give us lanolin.

If the coop is too enormous it will be more difficult for the chickens to generate enough body heat to keep the space warm. It's much better to house them in a coop that's too large than too small though.

It's been a long time since I needed a new generator and did some comparison shopping. Back then, gas-powered generators were the way to go if you needed a long run time and lots of kick. Have solar-powered generators and battery-powered generators improved enough to be incorporated on ranches...

Wow. If strawberries were that big of a deal, wouldn't you ask your potential neighbors if they grew them during the spring and summer months? Even if they had done that, they'd have no guarantee that their neighbors wouldn't plant them in the future. Keep your strawberry patches. I...

Is it an app game that you play on your phone? I googled it because I was picturing something really wild, but all got was information about a phone app. No, I've never played. I've never even heard of it before. It must be fun though if it has captured your attention.

I hope my kids will want to run the ranch when I'm gone, but I try not to pressure them. Two of them work for me now. We're a family run business, so I should have someone who will take over the ranch when I'm ready to retire. Maybe it will be a niece or nephew if my kids move on to other...

Do you ever have your feed tested to make sure it contains the proper nutrients? I haven't done it and don't even know where you'd start. Do you send it off to a lab? I didn't realize it was a thing until I read about it.

Thanks for sharing. Since it can also spread to people, dogs, goats, and pigs, it can really do a lot of damage on a farm in a short period of time. It can spread through raw milk. I wish people wouldn't drink the stuff.

My wife watches them and I like making her happy, so I watch with her, but I don't see why anyone enjoys them. They recycle the same themes over and over and at least one person cries in every movie. It's so predictable.

We have three barn cats. My wife worries about them getting cold during the winter, so she bought them a heated dog house. One little fella is refusing to go in. I think he takes umbrage with it being a dog house rather than a cat house. Unfortunately it has the word "dog" on the front.

Well, I live in Texas so it's not really necessary to do much formal winterizing. I start things up once a month, but that's about it.

How have you guys changed things up in order to keep your business going through the pandemic? I didn't think it would drag on this long, so I feel like I'm still catching up to those of you who were smarter and made better choices.

@rogerauf Are you from the US or do you live in another part of the world? I'm in Texas and I'm an Angus breeder. I would make more off of moving towards a fall-calving season, but I'd also spend a lot more on feed and such since weaning takes longer. I ran the numbers and it just didn't seem...

I just read that a tiger tested positive for the coronavirus at the Bronx zoo. It's beginning to look like no creature will be spared. I'd probably be more willing to cull sick cows at this point. It hasn't happened yet, but if it does, I'll suspect something is very wrong because I don't...

It's been a while since I worked for someone else, but I can't imagine agreeing to a pay cut unless I was going from full-time work to part-time work, or I was moving into an easier job. I know we're experiencing uncertain times, but who is to say that the boss will raise the pay back once...