If you're wondering "what the heck is RAGBRAI?", it stands for Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. The Des Moines Register newspaper has been sponsoring this event for 37 years now. And this year the ride makes its first overnight stop in Indianola (home of EDJE)!

Exactly three weeks from today the town will be crowded with thousands upon thousands of bike riders. Not to mention all the curious on-lookers who will come to Indianola just to see this awesome spectacle and enjoy the free entertainment.

The town has been busy planning this event for months, and the folks here at EDJE have even gotten in on the fun. The indianolaragbrai.com website was designed here at EDJE, and the town logo was created by yours truly. Every week we sport our "Sweet Home Indianola" t-shirts and I'm sure we'll all partake in the festivities that night.

The American Goat Society, Inc. was founded in 1935. In 1937, AGS merged with the International Dairy Goat Record Association, which had been established in 1925: so some of the pedigree records of AGS go back more than 80 years.

The American Goat Society is among the most affordable Goat Associations that you can be a member of. Soon, the website will provide special content that is only viewable for members, including a membership roster, herd name listings, old issues of the THE VOICE, and much more.

There are three different levels of membership, depending on your needs, Individual Membership, Family Membership, Junior Membership, and Senior Membership.

Don't delay, become an online member today!

Congratulations to Big City Tavern for winning May's Design of the Month! 

Big City Tavern is located in beautiful Boca Raton, FL, a classic American restaurant with big city style. Their high tin ceilings and elegant brick walls are reminiscent of the great taverns of Chicago, Boston and New York. Along with comfortable seating and soft lighting, Big City brings back the "Grand Bar" of traditional American taverns.

Since opening its doors in 1998, Big City has been a hub of the community, bringing people together to enjoy great food, refreshing cocktails and "like home" hospitality.

If you are in need of getting some property appraised for Loan Inspections, Bankruptcy, Divorce Settlements/Disputes, Estate Settlements/Disputes, Buying/Selling Livestock or Equipment, Insurance Claims/Disputes, IRS Tax Audits
Inventory Audits, Tax Deductible Donations Other Miscellaneous need, take a look at American Agricultural Appraisals.

Wm Shane Hughes, CPA has over ten years of agricultural experience including owner of Liberty Delight Farms. Has completed the Principles of Valuation course and earned over 35 hours of education credit from the American Society of Agricultural Appraisers. He is a certified Public Accountant, Accredited Member of the American Society of Farm Equipment Appraisers, Accredited Member of the International Society of Livestock Appraisers (ISLA).

WELL FOLKS THE FIRST EDJE BABY IS ABOUT A MONTH FROM PARTURTION!

Well being as I’m the about the only one in the office that knows how the process of calving goes, I like to help my fellow co-workers that look at cows all day, rather it be updating or designing! So I keep telling Jonina (cow) and the rest of our side of the office the lingo!

First off I had to explain to all that Jonina (started a year ago at edje) is now officially considered a cow, b/c she already has passed the first and second calf heifer stages, because she already has two male offspring of whom which are 23 months and 3.5 years old! Also, that once you’re a cow you usually don’t have near the dystocia problems and the calf should usually pop out, unassisted! (Not that this will happen but it sounds good!) Unless you breed to some outrageous bull (guy), but no worries there folks she has the same sire for all of her three offspring! So once we got the cow thing established we quickly went into EPD’s such as Calving Ease, BW, Sex, Sire, etc.

So with this established Jonina is now considered heavy bred!!! Some signs of when you’re getting close to parturition are that you bag down, get fatter, walk with a wider base and move just a little bit slower, and become a little bit witchier, which Jonina hasn’t yet! Once you get heavy bred like this you have got to be careful to not have accidents!! Usually in cattle land you must worry about cows falling on the ice or getting head butted by another! However, Jonina gave us all a scare last week when she rolled her car 3 times on the way to work!! Talk about have the rest of the herd in an uproar!!! Once we found out her and the fetus were fine we were so relieved!!

Now there are some things she has taught all of us in the office too, and that is that your bag (chest area) gets extremely sore and rock hard, now I understand why some cows kick their calves away when they try to pump them for all they got!! She also informed us that just like cows you can defecate while giving birth, much to Hayley Maes’ dismay that is!! However, when you think about it and you’re pushing for this melon to come out why wouldn’t other things come out too!! So then me the scientist that I am wanted to know if you could get mastitis (cottage cheese like milk when you are lactating that can be bloody as well and smells to high Heaven) in humans and she said yes her friend had it once and from that point on I’m thinking someday 10 years from now when I calve surely they will have some vaccination that don’t make that region of the body larger and sore-formula sounds just great to me!!

The main difference is that when birthing for humans the worst part is to get the head and shoulders out then the rest should just slide out! Now in cattle the worst is the hips which come out last b/c cattle should come out head first like humans but beings usually the hips can be the widest part of the calf (minus the freaky ones that have shoulders wider then Peyton Manning’s), in cattle this is called hip locked which can be the death of some calves, if the producer isn’t there to help!! Also, in cattle we don’t have those handy dandy nose mucus suckers to get the crap out of there air passages one must use some straw shove it up their nose and take your finger to remove from mouth, another thing is that when born in the barn you don’t have machines to hook the newborn to you must use your own mouth to give it mouth to mouth if it is struggling breathing, there are oodles more but some are more graphic than one can probably stomach!!

Anyways God Bless Jonina for letting us compare her to a cow – she is an awesome sport and we all can’t wait for baby Kya to be here in a month!!!

Stay Tuned for pictures of the new baby, we are surely going to need to blog about that as well!

-Jen Smith-
cattle team paturating expert