I am sort of fascinated by mules

I am sure many of you feller farmers and ranchers have been noticing the traffic slowing down as it passes by John Burrun’s place. His lot is right on the highway and the big red barn can be seen for a long way before you get there.

In his lot, today, are the four mares with which he has raised many mule colts. They all have produced and the four little mules are all paints — I mean spotted up like with measles! They are the biggest attraction in the county and I have been by three times.

I am sorta fascinated by mules. I never have owned one and don’t need to now, but they are very interesting. My Pappy owned a pair of bay mules that we fed with and used to pull a wagon anywhere it was needed. They were mannerly mules, easy to catch and not hateful or balky. I don’t guess I had to handle them by myself much as I can’t remember any times by myself. They were fat, slick, shiny and pretty. I liked them but feeding was faster and easier when we got that first old tractor.

There are things in our past we hate to give up and that is why mules are still being produced. I have known of a mare mule producing an offspring and saw the picture in the newspaper about fifty or sixty years ago. I suppose there are others but it would be a very rare occurrence. So to raise mules, a real need is female horses and male donkeys. Most of the trouble would be finding mares who would be apt to produce good dispositions and great compositions of muscles and might. The cost of those kinds might make a man shudder at the thought of breeding them to a donkey. But then, we hate to give up mules!

I am moving around slowly here on the rock pile. The only things that keep the whole place from sinking to China in this mud are the rocks! I have worn rubber boots again for several days and you know how wonderful that is. No, I ain’t complaining about the rain, never that, but the mud is beginning to wear on my good nature! Then there is that transition to a different season, and the new one is cold!

The cattle are liking it all fine, calves are fuzzy little black balls bucking and playing. We are going to the feedlot in a few weeks with the big steers so we are pouring out a little grain there. It is a process that we all enjoy and have been making time to go together to do it. We watch and figure, pray for feed cost to be low and selling prices high. This is a pleasure I was not able to afford for many years but now, if they all die, we will not be homeless. Broke maybe, but not homeless!

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, as we prepare for the next phase of our lives in the beef industry, let us be aware of the constant pressure against the business of producing meat. We live in the part of the world that mostly expects meat on the table at least once or twice a day, and we expect a good portion of that to be beef. We need to make it appealing and healthy, and that includes the areas where we raise them. Folks pass by and look!

Smile today! It won’t be long and we will all be smelling baking turkey!