Ok, its story time: Around May of last year while at the farm one day Dr. Higgins tells me that he had hired a new guy to help manage all the work that he had going on at ESF. I didn’t think much of it at the time because we were only 45 days into construction and there had already been several of these folks that had come and gone. The problem was I hardly ever saw them and communication was severely lacking.

The next time I saw Dr. Higgins at the farm he had this “new guy” with him. Turns out it was Lee Moser. I had went to college at UK with Lee and we had studied in the same major and I knew him pretty well. Turns out Lee had went on to get his Masters, was working in the UK system, and came to Dr. Higgins for some more opportunities. Lee and I hadn’t crossed paths in 10 years since we had graduated with our bachelor’s degrees. We shook hands as Dr. Higgins introduced us and we “hit the ground running” so to speak.

Lee was at the farm all summer and fall managing Dr. Higgins projects. He has tracked the supplies that have went into each project, as well as the cost, and taken pictures to document the before and after of each installment.  Lee has been vital to the coordination and installation of these projects at ESF. Most recently Lee has put together a “Virtual Tour” of all of the work that Dr. Higgins has done this past year. This virtual tour can step you through each project and why it was installed. It is complete with pictures of the BMP and a map showing where it is located on the farm.

I would like to thank Lee Moser for all his efforts in getting these BMP’s installed and helping us to share their applications with Kentucky cattle producers. Thank You Lee.

The link can be found on a tab at the top of this blog, or you can follow the link below:

The winter is a slower time on the farm and is often used to “catch up” on non-important things that slip through the cracks when things are busy. And Greg and I have been doing just that, catching up.
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We have been nailing some lose tin back down on several barns around the farm. There is always fence to fix and equipment that needs maintenance. And we have been rehanging some gates that needed it.

​This past week had some really nice weather, so we decided to clean up some trees around our hayfields. This tree had fallen last fall and was lying directly in the hay field. We cut it up and stacked it for firewood.

​We recently had some 70 MPH wind gust that brought a lot of limbs down all over the farm. This tree lost a lot of limbs, but did not blow down. There were limbs on the ground nearly 100 feet from the tree.

​We also went around all of our hay fields and cut back limbs that try to break the tractor mirror every year when we mow hay. In this field we cut several trees that were leaning out into the field. You can see here just how much space we had to give up to mow around the leaning trees. Under those trees there were some Himalayan black berries that were starting to get established. You can see just how much production we were losing.

​Being that we had the chainsaw warmed up we decided to trim some trees along Eden Shale Road. The limbs were just starting to grow out into the roadway. If you met someone here you would have to drag your mirror through the limbs making one heck of a racket. I’m sure the daily commuters will appreciate it, and it looks a lot nicer.

​Before you know it, calves will be hitting the ground and things will be running wide open again.  So I hope that in between the normal chores you find some time to “catch up” around your place this winter.