Conditions in Southwest Kansas

Now here's more with my conversation with Cole Buffo from southwest Kansas. Do you raise your own feed?    "Yeah, we do all our own alfalfa. We've got about 140 acres of alfalfa ground that we put up. We can usually get about four cuttings a year out of, and it's all along the creek. So, I mean, it's usually pretty decent for us."   How's your moisture this year?    "We're a little dry. I know we're trying to figure out when to start planting milo. It would be nice to get a little rain to get a little moisture. Wheat's kind of turning.  I mean, it's either turning, dying, and got frost all in the same little bit."   Is it going to be zeroed out by insurance?    "We haven't fully got that far in getting it all checked out yet with insurance. So, they'll tell us that we'll still have to cut it."   Do you ever swath it?   "Sometimes we do. A lot of times we may. Our big focus is cattle, so we run registered, and then we've got a commercial herd. So, we'll do a lot of grazing on it. We don't do much swathing of wheat. We'll just either graze it or out or cut it for grain."   Do you do all of your own cutting?    "Yeah, yeah. We do all our own cutting. I mean, we're primarily wheat, alfalfa, and milo. It's our crops, and then cattle's kind of our mainstay, I guess."   Yeah, so how many years have you been doing the cattle now, did you say?    "I've been in the cattle business, I'd say, 25 years, but my in-laws, they've been in it. I mean, my wife's the third generation to be taking over the family farm, and our kids will be the fourth. I mean, they've been doing it since the early 1900s."   Cole Buffo from southwest Kansas.   Thanks again for listening, and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.