How we actually do it.

Breeding starts a little after the middle of November and runs until about August 20th. Stopping then means no calves arrive until the very end of August, so nothing is calving through the worst of the summer heat. "That way no chaos through the summer heat."

In heat and humidity most cows barely come into heat at all, and the ones that do have to be bred first thing. "No matter when you see them in heat, he breeds them early in the morning when the cow is the coolest, because otherwise there's no way they're going to settle in this heat."

Cows move down group by group every week so each one sits in the close-up pen for four to five weeks before calving, already eating that group's ration for close to a month. When one barn got too crowded, they split the close-ups across two barns rather than pack them in.

Most cows are bred artificially, so a bull gets limited use, and they grow out of the job. "By next fall they will be way too big to use on cows. So there's no need in keeping them."

It flags a bloody quarter so nobody forgets when she comes in. Blood cannot go in the milk, so that quarter gets stripped out by hand. "We have to remember it when she comes in so we can watch it, because you can't get the blood in the milk."

It moves through the year. Around 208 at one count, dropping below 200 and sometimes to 190 or 184 as cows are turned dry ahead of the heavy fall freshening, so each one gets her rest period before calving again.

So the cows cannot get their feet through the rods when they push against it. "You got to have the plywood on so that they don't get their feet through the rods. Otherwise they're fighting around."

Eight pounds. They weighed it out. "So if a cow eats at all, she can get 8 lbs each feeding. But a lot of the cows probably do not quite eat that much, especially this time of the year."

Sharply less, and it is not just one farm. "We're way less on feed because of the heat. The cows ain't eating much. I talked to the feed company and they said everybody's like that. Hogs, steers, everything is way down on consumption."

Two reasons: more tonnage, and the wheat physically props the hay up. "The wheat will help hold the hay up so that the alfalfa won't lay down if you get a wind in the spring. It makes better cutting, and it makes really good feed too."

The cutting mechanism. "A disc bine has got eight cutter heads and little blades on them, like a disc. They spin around real fast and cut the hay, where the other hay bines had just a sickle and a reel."

To buy time at chopping. The fungicide keeps the plant green longer even after the kernels are ready, "and the reason we do that on some of our silage fields is because that way it gives us a little more time to chop, in case we run into a wet spell or if you had a breakdown where you couldn't chop for a few days."

It is how many seeds go out per acre, set on the planter before you start. Moving to no-till changed the number: they run roughly 140 to 150 thousand on beans, adjusted more often than they used to.

Because the combine cannot stop. "That's why it helps to have enough grain trailers and wagons, so we can keep the combine rolling and get as much done as we can." One morning alone they moved a grain trailer, a grain truck and two gravity wagons, with four more still loaded in the shed.

About two hours at the peak, every year. That is why they fill everything overnight and hold loads back. "After a couple days everybody starts getting caught up on the combining, and then it won't be a long line. You can just go up there, dump and come right back home."

The guide rods and the feed roll guides. "The corn was dropping wrong as it was being cut off and going into the chopper, so we had to adjust the black rods that stick out that help guide the corn in. And there's two guides that have to be set so that they fit right up close to the feed rolls."

Release the tension first. "Once you're done baling you have to hit the buttons on the monitor and it will release the tension on these hydraulic cylinders. You let the baler run while it does that, maybe 20 seconds. Then the top and the two side panels open way up so it's easier to eject."

You lose everything at once. "It blew out at least 10 gallons, maybe more, of hydraulic fluid within 30 seconds. That's why I couldn't move nowhere on the cow lot." Nothing turns, so it will not even slide: it took a 1456 to drag it twenty feet off the lot so the cows were not bothered while they worked on it.

They went direct drive on the advice of mechanics. A clutch fan only kicks in at temperature, while a direct drive "starts cooling right away when you start that tractor." The failure mode decided it: "if them clutches ever go bad, they can throw the whole fan off, or it won't turn at all and then your tractor will overheat." They did it while the radiator was already out, because it is a hard job otherwise.

So you can see it is on. "It's just a light switch that when you flip it up, the switch itself illuminates, so you know it's on. Otherwise it's going to be potentially on all summer." They flip heaters on below about 40 degrees so things run smoother.

It is the wall and the wind direction. "You have a wall right there, and on the other side of the wall is another barn. Whenever you have that and you've got a northwest wind coming across the roof, it will suck right back in along a wall like that." The fix is a curtain rolled down before the snow comes and rolled back up when it warms.

More than comfort. Misters run, tanks are topped off and extra tanks go in at more spots, and cows still go off feed. In one July episode a cow lost a premature calf the day before filming, and they were fairly sure the heat was behind it.

Because lambing is next. "This is right before they start having lambs, and whenever we pen them up in the lambing pens they take up too much room. They have a better chance of laying on their babies whenever they've got a full of wool. So we shear them off this time of year to keep them a little smaller."

Gates make sheep kneel to eat. "Whenever we had the gates, they'd get to where they was eating on their knees once the manure got built up. Now this is high enough that they never kneel down to eat, they're always standing." It also means you feed from the alley instead of walking through the flock.

Check her teeth. "Their teeth are getting real sharp, and whenever they get sharp like that it means they're getting old and they're not eating good." You can see it in how long she takes to work through a mouthful of hay.

It collapsed and has not come back. "It's probably been 10, 15 years it's been bad. They just import it from Australia." Dad got a penny a pound the last time it sold, and now the wool mostly gets left behind at shearing.

Because they cannot get away otherwise. "You have to make sure that you have a safe place for them to roost, so that predators can't get to them, because they won't be able to fly."