Jan Maynard and Peggy Luce admit to being greenhorns at cattle ranching. But the retired Alaskan schoolteachers are definitely doing their homework.
A few years ago, Luce inherited her family farm near Warrenton, N.C. The women had made a few trips down to the farm on vacations as Peggy helped care for her father. At that time, the pastures and cattle were somewhat neglected. Her father was a tobacco grower. (That's where the money has usually been in North Carolina agriculture.) The beef cows were only a sideline.
When Luce inherited the farm, she and Maynard packed up their parkas and headed south to start a career in cattle farming.
Maynard is a native Texan with no previous cattle background. But she must have a cowboy somewhere in her gene pool. What she lacks in know-how she makes up for with hard work and determination. In a short time, she became totally at home with the beef herd.
Luce, a librarian, approaches farming in a more studious manner. She's an avid reader and gathers information on pasture management and raising cattle. She and Maynard seem to have a lot of fun making herd-management decisions.
Sensing a need to upgrade animal health care, they worked with Warren County Extension Agent Marcia Elliott. They also give neighboring cattle producers credit for providing sound advice. When she had an opportunity, Maynard attended North Carolina's Beef Quality Assurance training.
"I was spending money on inputs," says Maynard. "But I wasn't getting the full bang for my buck."
That was a key lesson.
"We had one cow that raised beautiful calves, but she was crazy. We culled her because of her disposition," says Maynard.
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One of their goals for the cow herd is to reduce the calving season from being year round to four months in the fall. A controlled breeding and calving season produces uniform calves, which attract higher bids from cattle buyers. They've actually reduced their cow number by selling some of the less desirable animals. This combined with a new herd bull should produce high-quality calves.
As they worked on their cow herd, Luce and Maynard also improved the overgrown pastures.
Most of the fields were covered with broomsedge, a poor-quality species that indicates low fertility and high acidity in the soil. Luce had the pastures limed and fertilized according to soil-test recommendations. Fertilizer and lime converted land infested with weeds to a lush stand of cool-season grass and clover.
Maynard spends hours clipping the pastures with a tractor and mower to control weeds. They've sprayed the fence rows to kill poisonous plants, vines and woody sprouts. After a hurricane downed trees and damaged the fences, Luce had the perimeter fences rebuilt.
Besides the cattle, other animals share the good fortune of living on this renovated ranch. Luce and Maynard have adopted five dogs and two rescued horsesone 15 years old, the other 25.
Maynard bought a second-hand saddle and worked with the 15-year-old mare. She turned out to be a fine mount for their grandsons, who visit from California and Oklahoma. The old mare can't run, and the youngsters enjoy a slow pace as they learn to ride.
Sure, there's plenty more to do around the place. Maynard and Luce recently bought a posthole digger for the tractor, and they are building a corral/handling facility to perform herd health care. Luce plans to build a pasture water system so the cows can drink from troughs rather than from streams across the farm.
Watching the animals and the old homeplace respond to tender loving care gives the women a deep sense of pride. As late afternoon light sparkles on cattle and horses grazing across a deep green hillside, Maynard marvels at the picture.
"Isn't that a beautiful sight?" she calls from the back of the pickup truck.