Dear On Pasture friends,
Let me start by thanking you for your support for On Pasture. I know it sounds silly, but truly, I’ve been thinking of you every morning for the past nine-plus years as I worked to bring you information that would be both useful and entertaining. I’ve written 1,641 articles and a great team of volunteer authors has added their own expertise, so today, On Pasture has a library of almost 3,000 articles. That’s a lot of great grazing information!
My news is that I am retiring at the beginning of September.
But that doesn’t mean the end of On Pasture.
Starting in September, and for as long as I can afford it, On Pasture will be a free library of grazing articles and information. While I won’t have a weekly or monthly publishing schedule, I will post new articles when I have something important to share. I’ve already been working on a website design that will make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for, or to just stop by and browse.
On Pasture will be down for just a few days at the very end of August so I can make the change. When it reappears, you’ll see the new layout and all the great information you’ve always counted on.
Ebooks!
Another way I’ll be making it easier for you to find what you need is with ebooks – collections of On Pasture articles with all the information you need on one topic. That way you don’t have to spend all day searching for something. It will be right there at your fingertips. They’ll be similar to what you currently find here. The small download price will help me cover costs for maintaining the site.
I already have several ebooks in progress. If you have ideas of something you’d like to see, do let me know.
Tips are welcome!
The On Pasture library will stay online as long as I can cover costs and it seems helpful to graziers. If you appreciate what On Pasture does for you, let me know and help me keep it going by putting a little something in the On Pasture tip jar. Every little bit helps! (You’ll find the Tip Jar on the new website in September.)
Housekeeping
If your annual subscription renewed in May or any time after that, you’ll have noticed that you only paid for the months up to September 5. I didn’t want you to pay the full subscription price if you weren’t going to get a full year. If you paid for an annual subscription and have time remaining after September 1st, you have choices. You can donate the remainder to the Tip Jar to help On Pasture stay online, or you can get in touch with me for other options. For those of you with monthly subscriptions, I will cancel all automatic payments as of September 1st.
Again, I appreciate your support of On Pasture as we worked together to put good grazing information out there. Thank you for being a part of the On Pasture community.
Take care. And thank you for reading!
Kathy
Prima fugit optima dies.
Wow. That’s too bad for us but great for you.
We only recently noted your efforts on training cattle to eat weeds which I think we discovered by accident. My neighbours cattle where always offered a browsing mixed diet and became very diverse eaters. They even eat our stinging nettles and clean leaves off trees that we fell for them to pre clean. Pastures become very evenly grazed even though they are relatively poor quality.
They are a bit like giant goats and perhaps the group of longhorns in the mix are training the others. They have moved to preferentially eating tree leaves so when presented with grass or leaves they inevitably head for the leaves which we typically need to have cleared away.
Anyway thanks for your efforts. Glad to know we aren’t the only crazy ones.
Thank you so much Kathy. One of our most valuable subscriptions. Very sad to hear you are retiring. All the best, you can leave knowing you have improved the productivity of our ecosystems and businesses. And minds!!
Please call if you visit New Zealand.
Hamish Bielski
Thanks for such a wonderful publication, I have enjoyed it for about 10 years, I think.
Enjoy your retirement and travel, if you get to Australia feel free to contact us and visit.
Wishing you all the best
Craig Carter