2016 winter feed

Baling hay for this coming winter's feed was finished this week and all bales are now in the hay yards.  A new custom harvester accomplished the task in a timely fashion and the properly harvested hay tested 9% protein and 52 TDN so it is much better in protein and energy than the late harvesting of the past 2 years.  About 320 tons of hay was baled which should see us through snow conditions since we still have very adequate grazing conditions due to good moisture this summer.  This meadow was hayed for the first time in 20 years and creates a pretty sight from the house.

wetlands study

A UNL grad student (Cody Dryer) was at the ranch several days this week working on his master's project.  He was accompanied by a botanist from Kansas and 2 students.  They collected dirt and water samples down to 3 foot deep in a swamp area previously selected by GPS.  Identification was made of all plants within the selected area.  Cody will relay his findings and conclusions from here and his other research locations when he completes his thesis.

Bull Project

Wohlers Ranch is cooperating with Dr. Dave Hardin from UNL on his bull dominance project.  We turned 7 bulls out with 105 heifers, Then Dave observed for 4 days to determined which bulls the heifers preferred to associate with and which bulls were most aggressive in chasing heifers.  Next year we will DNA test the offspring to determine each calf's sire to see what the correlation might be.  This information may be useful in giving pasture assignments to bulls on multiherd ranches with many bulls and several cow groups.