I would suspect that most people generally think of college basketball when they hear the term “March Madness”, but it is also a good way to describe a few things connected to agriculture this time of year.
Winter is finally giving way to Springtime (at least in the Southeast)and the weather, though unpredictable and sometimes severe, is generally improving. This means we’re really ratcheting up the activity on the farm as we begin to fertilize our pastures and cropland and prepare our fields for the summer crops that will soon be planted. As our spring forages resume their growth we’ll be constantly rotating our cows around through different grazing paddocks. And if we didn’t have enough to keep us busy this March, we have several heifers that are due to have their first calf and we are also breeding a sizeable group of heifers as well.
There is also a lot of madness happening in Washington, DC. Many of the issues both our elected officials and bureaucrats are wrangling with have a direct impact on agriculture, so I encourage everyone to follow the debate and let your members of Congress know what certain decisions would mean for you and your family.
So whether I’m herding cows from one end of my farm to another, trying to fertilize a field in between thunderstorms, or placing a call to Capitol Hill, it’s sure to be a wild month. If you call me on the phone and I sound a little out of breath or flustered when I answer, don’t worry…I’ve probably just been dealing with a little bit of “March Madness”.