Preparing fields for soybean, AI heifers, milo field, BJ Ranch employees 2008.

Hallelujah! It finally rained 6 inches in the last 3 weeks!

The next couple of weeks will be spent: fumigating soybean against worms, planting between 250 - 300 acres of forage milo to be used as food in the dry season, planting approx. 250 acres of Tanzania & MG5 grass, and weaning an estimated 200 calves.

In other news...Marco just bought 21 reproduction bulls, and is waiting for Billy Joe to put together the new Case tractor that arrived from the U.S. Clemente already put together the romplow & the John Deere planter.

IT'S RAINING!

Dry Season Update

November - January Update

Crops:

• The first half of November, 500 acres of Milo were planted.


• The second half of December, 900 acres of Soybeans were planted.


• So far this rainy season has been DRY! January rainfall total = 1.5 inches

(I should point out right now that the weather chart that I've put on the right hand side of the blog is for Santa Cruz, which is not an accurate predictor for the farm at all. And, it looks like it's not even accurate for S.C. b/c it's showing that it's 80 degrees right now. How I wish it were!!)

Cattle:

• November marked the beginning of the birthing season. There has been an average of 300 calves born each month since that time.


• In February, 500 heifers will be ready for AI. Marco was planning for this to happen in January, but had to postpone the procedure due to lack of grass and dry conditions.

Other:

• There have been 400 acres of new grass planted of the MG5 variety.


• Clemente and his crew have been passing the Rolo (?) over the existing grass fields.


• The mobile group has been busy building fences.

**disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm writing about. Please excuse any weird words or mistakes on my part. If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I'll ask Marco to clarify. :)

Taking a Break

For the past couple of months, I've been taking a break with my blogs. Now that I'm back in Bolivia and I know that you're interested in reading, I'll try to keep up with it a little better. Here's a photo that's fitting for breaktime.....one of the few times that it happens at BJ Ranch.

Here are some photos from this month's stay on the farm. The cowboys are all making lassos. They stretch the leather all night from one end of the corral fence to the other. When it's stretched and dry, they braid it using the sticks wound with leather that are shown. As they go, they wrap the finished part around one of the wooden posts.

The sunflower is beautiful right now; almost ready for harvest. And, the sunrise one morning was perfect for a picture.

Be sure to check back next week when I'll be posting some information about the crops and cattle.

Welcome

Welcome to the new BJ Ranch blog from Bolivia. The idea is to use this site to update you on the happenings on the farm, as well give you a place to view photos, get to know the employees, and entertain you with news from Bolivia. We've been happy to host visitors all year long, and thought that it would be nice to give you somewhere to go to see what we've been up to since your last visit.

I hope to update the site a couple of times a month when I'm in the city, and would appreciate any comments about what you would like to see in the future. I can't promise everything, because I'm only an amateur. However, I'll do my best to give you what you ask.