Pasture Geeks

As we were building electric fence in Lincoln today, I realized that I'm a pasture geek. We discovered lots of dung beetle activity in the cow pies at the ranch. Dung beetles are indicators of a healthy nutrient cycle - they carry bits of manure into the soil, where it is further processed by other organisms and made available to plants.

Roger Ingram, my friend and our local farm advisor, was equally excited - we're both pasture geeks! My interns, Julie and Jason, were mildly interested - they haven't yet achieved full pasture geek status. Jason's wife, Sarah, was amused - here were two college educated guys staring at cow pies!

There are several signs that you, too, may be a pasture geek:

1. Do you feel guilty about mowing your lawn? What a waste of good feed!


2. When you drive down the freeway, do you find yourself estimating the stock days of grazing available on the median strip? If only they'd fence the median!


3. Do you forget your anniversary but studiously record the first germinating rainfall each autumn?


4. Is the highlight of your day achieving 7,000 volts on your electric fence?


5. Do you think the forgotten 11th commandment was "Covet not thy neighbor's grass"?

Embrace your inner pasture geekness!