Farmerjan's journal - Weather

Yes @Bruce , if we had the "sight" we would all be rich. I did not expect that big of a drop in the market in one day. But I am not panicking and will just let things ride a bit yet. I have to call back on Monday to the guy that takes care of our retirement/401k investments.

Took 8 steers and a cull cow to the stockyards today. Actually one of the steers wasn't.... he was a bull that DS must have missed and turned the cows out to pasture last fall..... but anyway, he was crazy so he went; rather than cut and then sell later. Weighed 425 and brought 1.33 which was okay for a bull calf that we wanted to get shut of. The others were in the 360-395 range and brought in the 1.60's which was better than we expected. The cow was on the "last chance list" because she raised a crummy calf last year, had a crummy on one this year, doesn't milk much; so gone. She weighed more than I thought 1240 and brought $.58. She didn't carry much flesh. There were some really nice looking cull cows that were real nice, real good flesh but not gobby fat that brought in the upper 70's. I was surprised, very pleasantly.
Going to turn out these cows we pulled those calves off of, with the rest that still have their calves, for about a month-6 weeks.... then wean off all the calves, preg check the cows, and probably sell some more in August. Have about 35 + cows in this group to preg check... a few that got a 2nd chance after coming up open last fall. Those cows ought to be 5-6 months as the bull went in the first of the year. A few are rather thin so don't expect them to be very far along. The field he is going to turn them out into is real thick, they will put on some weight, and the calves ought to do pretty good. These were late late fall calves, most were born in Dec...... so they aren't as big as I would like, but this pasture they are on is not the greatest for grass. The grass just doesn't seem to have alot of nutrition in it and I honestly hate to have cow/calf pairs on it. But in the winter they get fed hay so it isn't so bad. This is at the "main farm" where we rent, and the friend was not one to put back into the pasture ground and it has been badly depleted. It will take years to get it back to where it should be. We have spread litter most every year for the past couple years, and it is looking a little better, but it is still not what it should be.

So after PT I came back, helped sort and load the calves and cow, I went to the sale barn, he stayed and did the tedding of the hay he cut yesterday. Then he was spreading fertilizer when I got back. I went up and let the nurse cow out from the calves, sat and talked to the daughter of the people who own this place, and then headed home after dark.

Tomorrow morning am going up to help them work the calves at the neighbors, that we do every spring, I help load syringes as we give shots and such, then get on the tractor and rake the hay for him to get baled tomorrow. One forecast is calling for possible showers/rain after 3 pm, the other says in the evening. Would prefer it waits to evening.

I had the farm set up for Sunday afternoon, and Tuesday.... well of course another one wants Monday aft. So I got them to change my PT appt to 8:15 a.m. Monday instead of 12:15 as I wouldn't get out of there in time to get to the farm. I guarantee you there will be no farms tested on Wednesday..... I will be lucky to be walking.....
Going to call and see if the "new one" I did last month wants Fri or Sat aft to test..... with everyone in the hay fields, I try to work with them . We are supposed to get rain/showers/storms whatever right for the next 4-6 days.... so there won't be any hay to rake on Friday anyway. It is supposed to be a little cooler.

We were down to a BEAUTIFUL 58 degrees this morning.... such a welcome relief from the sticky nights. Cooling off to the mid 60's already so good sleeping weather.
 
Oh, the guy who helps us out some saw a fox run across the road this afternoon from the neighbors field, right into the gateway where I pull in to do the chickens. He said the neighbors dog was going nuts and then he saw it race across the road. So I was probably right that is what was getting them. I guess the saving grace is that I lost them before I had much feed in them. There are about 15 left, a couple have just died in the pen; but the fox had gotten over 15. This bunch was not as healthy as they could have been, but the ones left look pretty good; as well as many of what the fox got were looking decent; 2 have bad legs though and don't get around the best but they are managing okay. Missed the chicken killing guy on the phone the other day, so plan to call him Monday morning. He also dairy farms, and if it is raining might be able to catch him with a few minutes of down time.
The other ones are due to go out around the 20th-21st... I will talk to him the end of the week. I hate to crowd them, and they will have to go together for now, because I sure am not going to let the bigger ones out..... we'll see. Might only be a half dozen left this time..... last time there were over 200...... Yikes.... If there's alot, I have a big "enclosed run" that is still in the box that I got at closeout a year & 1/2 ago (maybe 2 yrs ago) and we will have to put it up real fast. I was thinking at the time that it would be for when I got my own place since it was less than 1/2 price. Clearance and all that.... I bet with all the ones going into "homesteading" and raising their own food, that there won't be any closeout stuff like that this year. Just have to play it by ear.

July 11th falls on a Sat so no closing then.... I have to sign the sale contract and that will make it legal.... thinking about the 20-25 of July for closing which is fine with me. Really, it's only about a month away.
 
@Baymule ;The cattle prices were better than we were expecting. The only drawback is that they were smaller than we usually sell, being like late Dec calves so barely 6 months. We had sold off some Oct calves and they were in the 450-500 wt range which we prefer. But for this time of year, June is not usually the best month to sell since most have already gotten what they want for "spring grass"; the prices were good. So these steer calves were in the $6-650 range. Problem with that, it costs at least 550-600 a year to "keep the cow" when you figure in feed, hay, some grain, grazing equivalent...... you have to take your expenses and figure an average per cow cost to keep them. So on calves under 4-450, you are basically breaking even for that cow. The good thing is there are still more that will be sold in probably Aug., they are going back out with the cows for the next 2 months, all to pastures that have not been grazed yet, so they will definitely benefit from the grass. They will definitely gain weight and the cows will also.

The "kid" (young man now) that has worked for us off and on, came this morning and with another friend that helps on occasion, they did some pregnancy checks and this afternoon we wound up moving some of those cow/calf pairs out to the pasture. I am not entirely confident in his ability to get the preg checking right..... but I know that I am not very good if they are less than about 5 months. I would have preferred to have the vet do it, but we will see. Some he called open, so they will be going with their calves out to the pastures where the spring calving cows are , and will be back with a bull. Then this fall when we get them in, if they are very far along, then we will know that he was wrong and they were bred. I am more worried to have some called bred and have them not be. There is one cow that he called 4 months, and I saw her in standing heat yesterday...... several cows were riding her and she was full standing..... now occasionally you will get a cow to have "false heats" and still be pregnant. But I said I want her rechecked when the vet comes next time. If she is not bred, she leaves as she was open last time but since she was a first calf heifer and had raised a real nice calf, she got a 6 month later 2nd chance. With no calf pulling her condition down, she should have been at the 4-5 months stage. The bull went in on Jan 17th., so just a few days shy of 5 full months ago. He said she was 4 months, so that would be right but the full standing heat yesterday really has made me questioning.......

We went up and worked the calves for a neighbor; we have been doing their calves every spring for the past several years. Shots, ear tags, band the bull calves..... then in the fall we help catch them all up and haul them when he wants to sell. We also custom make their first cutting hay . Then they let the fields grow a bit and by then the cows have pretty much eaten all the pasture and he turns the cows into the hayfields for the fall and winter. It works out good for them and we get paid for the work, haying etc.... son pays the guys that come help.....my help is not compensated. Maybe I ought to start just working sor another farmer and get paid for what I am doing for free now......

After we worked their cows, I got on the tractor and raked the hay. It was nice, sunny, not humid, with a breeze. DS went up and baled it about 1- 1:30 or so. He got back to the barn about 3 pm or so and the skies had clouded over. We got a few sprinkles and then we moved some of the cows. Took 2 loads, had to drop some at 3 different places on the first load..... had one to go to where my nurse cows are, 2 older cows with calves to go to where the old cows with calves are; as they will not be getting bred back but will get sold in the fall when the grass gets short and we decide it is time for them to go. One has a real nice heifer calf and we may keep that heifer calf as a replacement as the cow has been around for 11 years and is out of some good animals. But the cows are all going to go from that place. We have kept too many "old cows" too many times and then they get down or have a calf and don't make milk, and we often bury them. So trying to be more practical and sell them before they are on their last legs. I would be inclined to keep a few of them if we were feeding silage regularly to them through the winter, but the last 2 years the silage is fed first to the weaned feeder calves in the barn. I want him to put in 2 bags of silage a year instead of one, and then feed these fall calving older cows a little better in the winter so they do a better job of raising their calves.
Anyway, the second load all went to the same place. Have at least one more load to go to this place so the cows and calves can take advantage of the pasture grass until say Aug or so.

I think that we will move some more tomorrow, and then I will be able to match up the 4 or 5 calves that I never did match up when they got turned out. I also have to get in the last few calves at the nurse cow pasture, to get tagged and banded. They are going to come off the cows just as soon as we have space down there @ Doug's ( the "main farm") so they can get fed some grain in the barn and then b e easy to get up to sell. Their momma's need a break.... they will get preg checked and they ones not bred need to go back out with a bull. They calved last fall, but I think there are a couple that will not be bred and then they will get bred this summer for spring calves next year. I really don't like fall calving first calf heifers, so I am not going to get too excited about the ones that are not bred yet. They are all doing a very good job with their calves, they are a nice uniform group.

Got a couple of heifers that are 2 that should be getting bred now too, so might be able to put together a group of 5-10 to go out and "get some groceries" and get bred for next spring.

The cooler temps the last 2 days, and the wonderful sleeping temps have made things a lot better. We will get hot weather in July and Aug but it was too soon to be so stifling so I am glad to see the swing back to 55 to low 60's at night.
 
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