I assure you, I won’t give you a long, boring, drawn-out history of how the Ruminations Blog came to be. 😊
That said, Ruminations Blog is no longer going to be what it originally was.
Originally, it was intended to be a place for a whole lot of myth-busting, and educating the general public about all things cows and cattle. It took me a bit of time to take a good second look at the main purpose of Praise the Ruminant and to whom its intended target audience.
All it took was looking at the past articles I have written. They seemed to be… out of place. Like, they didn’t belong…
It’s kind of difficult to describe.
Maybe, let me explain it in a different way.
I’ve had some thoughts about where I really need to focus my energy on Praise the Ruminant.
And that energy, I feel, should be on writing as many articles as I dare about forages, raising ruminants, grazing management, and similar for my producer audience as possible.
I feel like my efforts in writing quality content on Ruminations to counter the anti-ruminant nonsense have been taking a lot of time away from my other blogs: Keeping & Raising Ruminants, and Forages & Grasslands for Ruminants.
I have plenty of articles in draft form that are quite detailed. For instance, I’m currently trying to work on one that thoroughly debunks FCRN’s Grazed & Confused by Garnett et. al. (2017), which is taking a lot longer than anticipated. I’ve also promised my readers that I would complete a couple more crucial articles that talk about methane emissions and water use. I’ve also wanted to do a write-up debunking Cowspiracy as well as the feed vs. food issue. None of these has been completed; they’ve barely been started!
My goal IS to eventually complete those articles. Eventually.
However, as much as I’d love to spend time on them, I have to think about the farmers and ranchers whom I’m serving as an independent, private consultant. They are my primary audience, and whom I wish to help the most. But, I cannot do that if 100% of my effort is on those aforementioned articles.
This means three major things:
- Ruminations will no longer be the “mainstay” of Praise the Ruminant.
- More focus will be on Keeping & Raising Ruminants and Forages & Grasslands
- Much different content will begin to appear on Ruminations…
I feel like this will help me publish more articles more frequently. More often than every 5 or 6 months! And, much shorter articles. I know that’s something I’ve struggled with over the years. I get bogged down in the details, making a one- or two-page article end up being at least 10 pages… with long, wordy sentences… that even Grammarly can’t help with. Lol.
What of the other articles already in the Ruminations Blog??
Most will be moved to a new website that has been created for the sole purpose of defending bovines against anti-beef/dairy advocates, busting urban legends, and sharing basic cow facts everyone should know. It’s called In Defence of Cows or IDOC for short. I’ll explain more in another article.
However, I’ve chosen some of my more major works to remain in Ruminations forever. One, because they’ve already gained a fair number of views from sharing them to various social media platforms (Facebook and Reddit, to name a few) and I don’t wish to change their URL location. Two, they provide a basis on which Praise the Ruminant was formed, and while they represent that which will no longer is, they’re still valid and important.
I’ve also decided that some others still in draft form will also eventually get published. There are… nine I’d like to complete for Ruminations. I’ve already mentioned several.
Finally, when I get the time, the completed ones will be edited so that they’re a little shorter and not so dang wordy!
A tall order for the sole person responsible for looking after this site to do, but it will be done. In time.
Now, you can look forward to more farmer-focused content on ruminants, grazing, and regenerative grazing.
In the Regenesis of Ruminations, what other content can we expect?
Short answer: Everything else that doesn’t belong in either Forages or Keeping Ruminants. These are going to be agricultural socioeconomic-related content. I’ve always wanted to find a place (and reason) to discuss such issues plus the many stories of the people who praise ruminants… including myself.
I feel Ruminations might actually be the best place for that.
I’m reminded of the definition of “rumination” (not the icky psychological one of negative OCD-type dwelling of things a person doesn’t enact to change about oneself…):
… a deep or considered thought about something. E.g.: “philosophical ruminations about life and humanity”
Oxford Languages | Google Search
Basically, I’ve been holding back some deep and considered thoughts about topics and series like these:
- Women in agriculture
- Nostalgia: my farm kid stories
- The many socioeconomic issues in ag
- Greenwashing by “Big Ag”
- Mental health awareness in agriculture
- Religion in agriculture
- Ag’s a way of life and a way of death, sadly
- Guest blogs
- Book reviews
- Cool historical DYKs
This could be big.
Or, maybe I’m continuing to bite off more than I can chew, lol. I love to write and share things with people. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!