Branding Menu:

As part of our appreciation for everyone help we prepare a good supper and lots of beer to drink and socialize after the long day of work. I simply cannot handle being in the house cooking all day while everyone else is outside working with the cattle so I prepare nearly everything in advance.We usually have a crew of our 40 friends and neighbors come over to help with our branding.  This year we had a small group help run our cows through to get a breeding shot, weight, and a pour on. So we needed a lunch for the few helpers in the morning and then a big meal to accommodate all of the afternoon help.

Lunch was simple. Hamburgers and brats thrown on the grill right after the last cow had been through the chute. We had a simple macaroni salad, chips, and brownies to go with the burgers and brats.

Our supper consisted of BBQ Beef Sandwiches, Cheesy Potatoes, Corn, a couple of macaroni salads, leftover chips from lunch and a cake for dessert to help celebrate my brother-in-laws birthday.

For the BBQ Beef  I cooked 10 chuck roasts all week long in the crock pots while I was at work.  In my opinion the chuck roast is the best for shredding. Every night we would sit down and shred the roast, pour some BBQ sauce on the meat store it in a big bowl in the fridge. Bonus by cooking the meat ahead of time, I get help from Tyson shredding the meat. J On the day of branding I put all of the meat in a roast and warmed it on low a few hours before we planned on eating.

BBQ Beef

The cheesy potatoes is one of those recipes I just throw things together in a roaster until it looks and tastes good. I used about 6lbs of frozen hash browns (left in the fridge overnight to thaw). I added in sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, onion pepper, shredded cheese, and cream cheese. I put all of the ingredients together in a roast at lunch time and let it cook until we were ready to eat it.

We have lots of sweet corn left over from last summer, so took some out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw in the fridge then put it in a crockpot at lunch to warm as well.

The macaroni salads my mother-in-law prepared in advance and brought them out for us. My sister-in-law made some deviled eggs and took care of the cake for her hubby.

Our group likes to enjoy a few beers after the branding, so we have a couple of coolers filled with beer. I also have some bottles of water, and some lemonade to go with the meals.

Here is Tyson.. Enjoying his beer while working. 

Honestly the meal is a lot of work, but with a little prep work ahead of time it isn't so bad.What do you feed your branding crew? Do you make it ahead of time or do all the cooking the day of? Or do you have it catered? 

Potato Farming

Wednesday I had the chance to put on a training session with a large potato producer, who actually grows a large amount of the potatoes for Frito Lay potato chips! Before starting on this project, I didn't know much about the potato world. So here are a few quick facts!

One medium sized potato, eaten with the skin on:

• Is just 110 calories.
• Has nearly half of the Daily Value for vitamin C.
• Is one of the best sources of potassium and fiber in the produce section.
• Is a great way to eat your veggies
•  Preserve the most nutrients by keeping skin on. If you must peel, be sure to keep the peeling very thin, since many nutrients are found close to the skin.
•  Steam or microwave potatoes instead of boiling them, because water naturally leaches some of the nutrients from the potatoes 

Each year in the US there are more than 1 million acres of potatoes planted-that's like filling hte whole state of Rhode Island with potato plants. It's the leadinvegetable crop in the Us with a total Production of 41.3 billion pounds!

And a little History:

In October 1995, the potato became the first vegetable to be grown in space. NASA and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, created the technology with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages, and eventually, feeding future space colonies.

During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were valued for their vitamin C.  And gold, at that time, was more plentiful than nutritious foods!

French Fries were introduced to the U.S. when Thomas Jefferson served them in the White House during his Presidency of 1801-1809.

Some of the most famous potato dishes we enjoy today were created by mistake Collinet, chef for French King Louis Phillipe (reign 1830-1848) unintentionally created soufflés (or puffed) potatoes by plunging already fried potatoes into extremely hot oil to reheat them when the King arrived late for dinner one night. To the chef's surprise and the king's delight, the potatoes puffed up like little balloons.

Potato Chips In 1853 railroad magnate Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt complained that his potatoes were cut too thick and sent them back to the kitchen at a fashionable resort in Saratoga Springs, NY. To spite his haughty guest, Chef George Crum sliced some potatoes paper thin, fried them in hot oil, salted and served them. To everyone's surprise, Vanderbilt loved his "Saratoga Crunch Chips," and potato chips have been popular ever since.
(Source: potatogoodness.com)


In honor of all this potato talk I think I am going to make bacon wrapped pototoes on the grill tonight for supper. How do you like to cook your potatoes?

Calving Season

First I must apologize for the lack of blogging! Finishing up my last semester of school at UNL and planning a wedding really keeps me on my toes! The following is an update on Calving season for the Narjes Cattle Company!

This year the boys have taken on about 150 more head of cows! That is a lot of extra mouths to feed and mommas to calve out this year, but is still quite manageable for two people.. plus the boys have some great spouses that love to help them out at well.



Replacement Heifers: A crowd of good looking girls!



This calf was born in the middle of the night with a windchill of -40.. brrrr! With two calves already in the heat boxes this little guy had to come into the house to warm up! The boys usually check cows every 2 hours to make sure none of the cows are having any problems, and when it is as cold as it has been lately at night it is imperitive to bring these little guys into the warm barn. A calf can freeze in as easily as 45 minutes in these extreme weather conditions.

I am partial to black baldy calves so here is one of my favorites. It also happens to be one of Tyson's Uncles favorites as well. The calves love playing on the piles in the yards.

Here is another one of my favorites with her momma. Hope we can keep this heifer as a replacement for next year!

Calving Season just happens to be one of my favorites on the farm. I love see all the young spunky calves around and the protective mommas trying to keep up with their babies. It is a great way to experience the blessings of new life! I am already looking forward to next year's calving season when I will be living at the farm full time and not just on the occasional weekend I venture out to see Tyson.

Be on the look out for future updates on calving. Hope everyone elses winter season is going just as well as ours.

Corn Silage

While I was home this previous weekend, I was able to head over to my sister Rachel's to check out how corn silage harvest was coming along for her in-laws family feedlot. Take a look at a few of the pictures.

Chopping.

Silage Inoculant is put on the silage to help it ferment effectively and to get better feed usage.

Silage chopping has just begun, so the pile is small but will soon be taller than the tractor and fill up the entire feed bunker.

Rachel is checking out a few ears.

The trail cut by the chopper.

My niece McKenzie and I hanging out in the ranger before heading back up to the feedlot.

Farming and the Weather

With all the adverse weather in my area lately I decided to write a quick post about the risks in farming, mainly the risks associated with Mother Nature.  Every year farmers take a gamble with mother nature, they all hope for plenty of rain at all the right times and to avoid the severe weather; but Mother Nature doesn't always work that way.  Farmers are dependent on the weather everyday, one can get an abundant amount of moisture all year long, but that one final severe storm that brings baseball size hail just a week before harvest can be devastating. Some farmers are fortunate to have irrigation and can help control moisture to their crop, but it never seems to be the same as rain water. Plus with more restrictions in irrigation areas and higher energy cost irrigation can become quite an expense and a lot of work.

The following are just a few photos of how bountiful mother nature can be to crops, and how devastating it can be as well.

A gorgeous gravity irrigated corn field.

And the ugly, a corn field that was hit with golf ball size hail in mid-July.

 

Another angle of the field. The ears on the cornstalks were only partially developed once the corn hit and the ears will have damage. The corn will still be able to harvested, but the kernels will be damaged and not of very good quality.

I hope this post helps to relate the constant worry, stress, and gamble that a farmer may experience everyday while they tend to their growing crop.

Narjes Wheat Harvest

Well, this has been the third summer that I have had the opportunity to be in Sidney for wheat harvest. What a crazy time of year for the Narjes Farm. Needless to say I had quite a bit to learn about wheat two years ago. My parents simply farm around 500 acres of corn and soybean with a couple sections of alfalfa, so I didn't have much experience at all with wheat. Thankfully Tyson is a good teacher so he quickly opened my eyes to the wheat world.  I love being outside and having to do and learn anything that involves agriculture, so I thoroughly enjoyed riding in the combine and hanging out in the wheat field. I am sure that Tyson enjoys having a passenger as well. :-)

The following is the little that I learned about wheat. Most wheat is planted in the fall usually in September, and it sprouts in the fall then upon the first freeze goes into a dormant stage. This is a crucial part; if the wheat doesn't sprout and go into dormancy it will not produce anything the next summer. In the springtime, the plant will come out of dormancy and grow taller while producing the wheat head. Depending on the variety of wheat, it can grow anywhere from 18 inches to 48 inches. Typically prime harvest time for western Nebraska is the middle of July. Depending upon the weather and moisture it can range from late June to late July. Once the wheat crop is ready, the combines hit the field and go practically nonstop until the last kernel is in the bin. Hail is quite typical in western Nebraska, so many farmers are eager to get their crop in the bin before any unfortunate hailstorms have the chance to hit the fields. But inevitably some fields may get hail during this summer, which can greatly affect its yield. 


Check out these photos from this year's wheat harvest!

Tyson and I riding in the combine.

A harvest sunset.

Ryan's combine was flashing lights because the bin was full. Time to unload!

Cool picture that Tyson took.

Ryan unloading into the grain cart on the go.

           Fun Facts about Wheat:

• Did you know that Nebraska is the 7th largest wheat producing state in the Nation?
• Nebraska farmers contribute over 74 Million bushels each year.
• More foods are made from wheat than any other cereal grain.
• One bushel of wheat weighs about 60 pounds.
• One bushel of wheat contains approximately more than one million individual kernels.
• A bushel of wheat makes about 90 one-pound loaves of whole wheat bread.

To learn more about wheat check out the Nebraska Wheat Board's Website.