Thank you for your interest in our Tarentaise Cattle, our operation, and the business of ranching in general.

This UPDATE will include the following:

1. January Ice Storm,
    March Freeze
2. June Rain
3. July Flood
4. Haying Challenge
5. Thriving Cattle
6. On the Move

Ice Storm, January 2007

It's the middle of January 2007 and the weather man sure got this one right. 

We have had three huge waves of freezing rain and sleet that has crippled the entire state.  130,000 homes in Oklahoma are out of electricity.  Everything is covered with 2-5 inches of ice!

Our cattle have been anxious but surviving.  We have good hay and water running in the streams and ponds. 

The ice is hard on their feet, bleeding when they walk as the ice cuts.  The noise of the crunching ice frightens them.  They are scared by the truck tires breaking the ice on the grass, by the branches falling from the trees, and even by their own walking.

...click here to see ice pictures

then...just when it warmed up with plenty of moisture, Mother Nature hit us in late March with 3 days of a crippling freeze. 

Most of the wheat crop in our area was killed, forage grasses turned brown, all the buds and new tree leaves died. 

Little did we know that was only the beginning...

June Rain

It has been very rainy this June.  Setting records everywhere.   Most consecutive rainy days, most rain in the month of June.  We are avoiding the serious flooding which is happening all around us at the moment, but here is a typical gully washer.

...click here to see some unusual rain photos and some GREEN country.

July Flood

We had been in a flood warning for 7 days because of the amount of rain and saturation of the ground.

Then Kansas received an overnight drenching of 8-10"s in an area that drained into our Neosho River.

Our town flooded.  Our second worst in history.

City officials said as many as 1,500 to 2,000 people may have been evacuated from 500 homes and 30 businesses that flooded.

...click here to see incredible flood photos

Haying Challenge

Rain makes for lush beautiful grass. Rain also makes for frustrating and almost nonexistent haying.  Might as well not even try, unless you are considering silage.

Just this week, we have done some serious haying, but we got rained out this afternoon.

..click here for haying photos

Thriving Cattle

Our Tarentaise cattle are weathering this summer out with ease.  Our ranch location and weather circumstances have not bothered them at all.

...click here for more featured sales

On the Move

This has been the summer of moves.

• Moved our oldest daughter to Little Rock Arkansas to work for the Arkansas Cattlemen.
• Moved our middle daughter into her first rental home in Stillwater to continue her studies at Oklahoma State.
• Moved the Technology Office where I work part-time out of flood danger.
• Moved as many flooding friends out of their homes as fast as our truck and trailer could haul.
• Moved back into the Technology Office after the flood.