Hope you still have Halloween candy 3 inches deep in the candy dish! Hope these political ads end soon.

Hope you are reading your emails because, well the day has come! Time to put a deposit on bulk beef shares for the summer deliveries. More on that later. First. Get a drink and let's see what happened these last few days on the T Bar J.

Life on the Ranch:
The Veterans Day promotion is going on till November 11. 20 families have joined in now. We thank them and remind everyone we are donating 5# of ground beef to the Montana Veteran's Meat Locker for every order between now and Veterans Day. The Meat Locker gives Service men and women past and present a gift of 15# of ground beef as a thank you for their service. No strings attached, no paperwork. It is a great program. Hope to help keep them fueled up.

How is that for a refueling picture? I thought it was fitting with Veterans Day coming up. The day to Honor Veterans.

Both our boys, Zach and Eb, came home this last week to help "work cows".

It is a big job getting the herd home, sorted off and run through the chute. Even the neighbors come to help.

Hope is the tone of that day.
Hope every cow and calf goes through the chute calmly.
Hope nothing gets broken in the process.
Hope there are not too many opens.

Hope my favorite cow is bred. You wait for the vet to yell good and that it comes quick.
When she has to really look for the calf, something may not be right.

Sometimes the answer is, "there is a calf, but it's heart is not beating, she is going to lose it. We better recheck her in a couple months". That is why we let the bulls stay with the cows.
Hoping that she breeds back up by December.

All the cows and heifers get ultrasounded and it is quite remarkable. The goal is 70 cows per hour through the chute, so we don't dilly dally.

And you know what? 3 cows are having twins!
B51 is having twin heifers,
2032 is having twin bulls and
213 is having a bull and a heifer

Hope you stay tuned in May to see how they do. B51 and 2032 have had twins before.

Then the calves got their baby shots, we are weaning the 13th. The stress of weaning affects how well the vaccines work, so we give those beforehand.

We are getting geared up to wean the steers that we keep and pick which heifers to keep on the 13th. Then we will ship the rest to town to the sale. I would like to keep all our calves at home, but we are not to that point, we are keeping over 60%.

Hope next year we can keep 70%. They have a far better life here than in a feedlot somewhere.

The heifers go back out with their Moms so they can learn how to be a cow and go through a couple snowstorms with her. They were born in May so they have no idea.

Hope we can help them learn how to deal with the weather, and refuel on the winter grass.

How it looks to refuel if you are bovine in the winter. There is enough energy for them in the grass, or carbohydrates, but we give them protein blocks or alfalfa hay 2, maybe 3 times a week. There is not enough protein in the grass. The weather dictates what they get and how much.

Welcome to the T Bar J Ranch Roundup:
Al and I are glad you are here and we like to share what our days are like.

Hope you learn something about production agriculture each time you stop in.

Our Facebook page has videos of mostly cows, but different activities. A change of scenery for those of you living in town.

Summer Share Deposits:
Hope you are aware they start today.
Legacy Pricing deposits are the ones you want.
Here are the links for all the shares: 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and whole
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-1-8-beef-deposit
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-1-4-beef-deposit-for-summer-delivery
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-1-2-beef-deposit-for-summer-delivery
https://tbarjranchbeef.com/products/legacy-pricing-for-whole-beef-deposit

You can place your deposit online or send a check like you have been.
Hope you can put in a deposit this first week, you will be entered for 1 of the Prime Ribs. If you don't win you will be in the drawing for next week's too. We are drawing for 2 Prime Ribs.

Then you can settle up on the balance owed in June before we deliver your beef.
You will have enough to refuel you and your family all year.

From Our Customers:
This 5 star review came in this week from a family that has just gotten beef from us for the first time:

We have not had beef this good before.

"We have eaten steaks and hamburger so far. It was better than we expected. My kids were even eating everything on their plate. We will be ordering again for summer delivery and our neighbor wants to order beef too. It is so good."
Todd E.