I’m sure I was supposed to learn responsibility through chicken chores, but I probably needed more motivation. A few pep talks, a bonus of staying up late if the chickens laid 75 percent or more. Maybe even the explanation that this was Mom’s discretionary fund and I could help her.

That’s according to two years of results from the Southern Carcass Improvement Project (SCIP) as presented by an advisor to the demonstration. Tom Brink, president of J&F Oklahoma Holdings, Inc., helped compile a white paper on last fall’s results (www.

No matter how bad or how good a herd is, there’s always a top and bottom end. Therein lies a silver lining. Another 20 percent off the bottom means the surviving genetics are better adapted to producing calves that grow and grade in these stingy conditions.

Statistics show an 8 percent to 10 percent cow culling rate at the markets. But how many don’t make it to the sale? Unfortunately, some death loss is a fact of life on a livestock farm, and the older the cows going through “one more winter,” the more likely some will fit into that statistic.

The calves weaned as heavy as last year despite the drought, and they stayed healthy in the lot. The cows bred back to where I had to sell more just for age to make room for better heifers coming in that would intensify the best of my cow families. It was good for cash flow and genetic improvement.

I dreamed of fresh-smelling rain that beat waves against windows and swept slowly through fields to fill every crack before moving on to refill ponds and kick-start the creeks. Dawn light fell on a full rain gauge.

I dreamed of fresh-smelling rain that beat waves against windows and swept slowly through fields to fill every crack before moving on to refill ponds and kickstart the creeks. Dawn light fell on a full rain gauge.

You may know something because it is stated by a source you consider reliable, even infallible. You could know it because you’re confident of your interpretation of the data about it. Or you might feel the truth of something “in your soul,” as if your own perceptions are infallible; then you look for bits of science to support your beliefs.

The ideas we bring up often include the goal of doing business so that you can profit as well as the next partner in the food chain, and we may even call it “win-win.” Just because you know these concepts does not make them stale from excessive familiarity.

In politics, surveys regularly measure public opinions on issues and candidates so that when the votes are all in and tallied, we filter the score based on how reality fit the projections. A strong second-place finish can be more important than a win based on what we thought would happen.