Here’s a breakdown of the articles we’ve featured in this podcast:

(1) If you’ve ever pounded fenceposts, you’ll want to stick around for this article. It’s all about virtual fencing, GPS collars and no wire stretching – a new fencing technique ranchers say is here to stay.

(2) You can trust the cow, you can trust your calving system, you can trust your instincts – but you can’t trust the cold during Idaho calving season. Paul Marchant reminds us in his column Irons in the Fire of the exhaustion, successes, failures and struggles of managing a calving herd.

(3) Idaho’s Speaker of the House Scott Bedke, is a rancher near Oakley. Frustrated with calves not gaining well from the time they were weaned until they shipped, he decided to start experimenting with annual crops and then perennial crops that could bridge the gap. He says his new model is the biggest game changer he’s made to the ranch.

(4) Parenting books make it look so easy, but what can they possibly know about farm life? Sure reasoning might work with a reasonable child – it’s conceivable to consider even a hotwire fence a reasonable measure, but when the two meet, you can trust there’s nothing reasonable about it. And that’s the camp that humor columnist Michele Coleman is in.