Catch up with 6B Seed and Supplies this week from the insider perspective of Lisa Baruth!
Memorial Day At The Farm
Memorial weekend is a time to reflect on those who fought for our country and those that we lost. This is celebrated in many different ways across the country and on the farm it is one of the busiest times of the year. This weekend consisted of finishing up planting and hauling cow/calf pairs out to pasture, along with seed sales.
Having a diverse operation, we need to be able to divide and conquer.
Rob was finishing up planting a few acres of corn and forage after a moderately decent planting season. There were a few equipment breakdowns and other challenges due to the hard ground conditions, we are in a pretty dry pocket it seems right now. With all of the moving parts on a corn planter, one thing goes wrong, and it can cause a multitude of different issues.
Rob’s kids are good about being there to take on some of the heavy lifting to help fill the planter and move to different fields.
Having a seed business Rob is always testing out some of the new varieties, this allows us to get real life tests for our customers.
Moving Cattle To Their Summer Home
While the planter was rolling, Corey, Lisa and the kids were busy gathering their cows and calves that
were born this spring. We calve out around home, some in dry lots and some on grass, then the pairs are hauled to pastures for the summer.
Anyone who has dealt with cows knows this can go well or… it can go the other way!
We bring the cattle into a sorting pen and separate the mamas and babies so that they can be hauled safely. This comes with a multitude of challenges which this year included dust and heat, which causes additional stress on the cattle.
The main goal is to get the cattle moved quickly so that the calves are back with their mamas. This too had its challenges, a flat tire and a cow with her leg stuck in a gate, but overall things went well and we are happy to report all the cattle are where they need to be.
Day In The Life of A Family Business
With all this happening the 6B Seed and Supplies business is still in full operation.
We operate on farmers’ hours, so that if a neighbor is planting late on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon and they run low on seed they just give us a call and one of us runs to the warehouse to load them out.
We have been teaching the kids how to write out delivery tickets and invoices as well.
As full-time operators we know how important it is to be able to go when you can go. Planning is key when it comes to planting crops but we all know how fast something can change, so we carry a full line of seed on hand for just that.
People ask, “are you guys getting caught up”, I usually just laugh when they say that but it is true things should slow down a bit now. The summer will continue to be a steady busy for 6B with feed, seed and livestock equipment sales. As for the farm, when I say slow down, this will include more crop spraying, hay cutting and pasture management.