Over the past month or so I’ve been talking with a fellow in Texas who bought my book and is in the process of teaching his cows to eat weeds. The weeds he’s chosen are the bane of people’s existence in that part of the country, but his neighbors aren’t ready to think of them as forage. He told me folks listen in on his conversations when I catch up with him in the local feed coop on his cell phone. When he hangs up they laugh at him for his silliness.
“Well!” I told him one day, “When your cows are eating weeds, you can show all your neighbors and then they’ll want to do it too!
“No,” he told me. ”I’m not going to tell them. I’m going to go out and lease up all that cheap pasture that nobody can use because the weeds have taken over.”
I guess that’s where the saying comes from “He who laughs last, laughs best.” This fellow has figured out that if his cows eat weeds, he’ll be able to raise more cattle on pasture that goes for almost nothing, and he’ll be putting a lot more money in the bank. I’d really love to hear the conversation at the feed coop once his neighbors figure out what’s happened.
So what weeds will his cows eat? It doesn’t seem fair for me to tell until he’s had a chance to train his cows and lease that pasture. So I’ll share with you later this fall.
