Ranching in the Sierra Foothills

Like everything and everyone else in 2020, our local fairs are adapting to the changes necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Can any of us remember a summer like this?! The work of ranching continues - irrigating pasture, checking livestock, preparing for calving or breeding season. And yet the COVID-19 pandemic casts a pall over everything we're doing.

For many ranchers in the Sierra foothills and Sacramento Valley, irrigated pasture is a critical component of our annual forage calendar.

Note: A version of this article originally appeared in the July 2020 edition of my New Foothill Rancher newsletter.

I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to get a fair bit of formal education - from my undergraduate days at UC Davis studying agricultural economics to the online coursework I took while obtaining my master's degree at Colorado State University.