Author: John Marble

This piece is part of our discussion of moving toward a better life with grazing. Last week, Troy Bishopp share how he’s creating a more fulfilling life by building in time in his grazing management for family, friends and fun. This week, John Marble provides another perspective. Several decades back (well shoot, let’s be honest […]

Last month in The Thinking Grazier, John Marble got us thinking about our relationship with our animals and how behavior (theirs and ours), along with our fence and infrastructure, factors into getting them to do what we want them to do. Then last week, he concluded that leading was more efficient and cost effective than […]

To start, I’d like to thank my neighbors Ken and Debbie for inspiring this study. Ken and Debbie raise “stock dogs.” This provides me with endless hours of entertainment during the pleasant evenings of spring and summer as I listen to the strange commands, whistles, and threats that float across the pasture. They sound like […]

Editor’s Note: John Marble runs a seasonal grazing operation. That means he doesn’t over-winter cattle, and,each spring, he’s working with a new batch of cows, calves, and custom grazed steers. Because these animals are unfamiliar with managed grazing, he’s developed techniques that make it easy to work with and move them. This month, we’re taking […]

As a young man growing up in the narrow green valleys of western Oregon, I was routinely given the following advice: “If you want to be a rancher, you better move east, because that’s where all the real ranches are.” The “east” all those folks were speaking of is the huge sea of sagebrush that […]

The best cow I ever bought was a real beauty. Her name was Miss Unaweep Rafter 145, and she came with some fancy registration papers and a bull calf at her side that my mother thought could be our next herd sire. I know old Unaweep was a good cow. She must have been – […]

The US Weather Service has issued its drought prediction for the next 90 days and for some of us the news is not good. In fact, for some of us, the news is even worse than last year when Kathy and I shared this information with you. So here, updated from April of 2020 is […]

I try to keep in touch with our custom grazing clients, maybe call them once a month or so during the winter months. This helps remind me to pay attention to forage conditions here on the ranch and lets them know that I’m thinking about them. Often, these calls include some personal conversations or potential […]

In Part 1 of this series we talked about choosing the right animals for successful grafting. So, you’ve got a good, loving cow and a ripping good replacement calf. Now is when the work starts. If you have ever observed a normal birth, you know that the cow typically stands up, turns around and begins […]

Here on the ranch, calving season is generally a pretty happy time. My business model includes buying pregnant cows. These are cows that I don’t really know very much about, as in, we might have an estimate about what month she might calve in, and we know what color she is, but beyond that – […]

This week we share some of the economic reasons for moving calving time to May. But John Marble has noticed that talking about economics – a discussion of costs, inputs, margins, and all that other stuff that either: 1) Puts people to sleep, or 2) Makes them mad as hell. So he’s come up with […]

Some time back, I wrote about grazing management to reduce parasites, and in particular liver flukes. These modest management changes appears to be a simple way to reduce parasite populations and help us when parasites have developed resistance to the wormers we relied on in the past. To refresh your memory, here are the practices […]

I recently had the pleasure of hosting a pasture walk for a group of University students, young people who wanted to chat about plants, animals, grazing, fencing, water…in other words, all the things I am constantly talking about. Our conversation included bits of philosophy too, and some thoughts about the direction of our industry. Somewhere […]

Whether it’s fair or not, people seem to believe that northwest corner of America is a fairly unique place. Folks like to rave about the extraordinary degree of “greenness” in this country, while also whining and moaning about our soggy winters. I always find this entertaining. The truth is, we do have a long, gray […]

On September 9, John Marble’s short voice mail on my home phone said, “We have fire on three sides and we’re evacuating cattle.” He was running from the Holiday Farm fire that had been whipped into a frenzy by gale force winds two days earlier. By the next day, his part of the Calapooia Valley […]