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farmerjan
Herd Master
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Just a quick note. I was getting ready to leave and ds stopped to get some papers out of the truck of his, that is here, from when they all came to do the tank and then left to go do the hay baling and all on Sat. Got the check for the cattle that got shipped on Fri. Prices on the cull cows is off by $.10-.30 a pound and the steer was about $.35 less. He did not go back to watch them being sold.... he would have brought back home a couple of them if he had been there; but it is done. One of the members on the one cattle forum I go on, one of the guys that is in western Tx said that the ranchers are culling herds because there has been no appreciative rain since July. Sale numbers of cows is doubled, and they look for this to last for weeks as ranchers cull down to try to manage their hay supplies with no fall grass growing. Said it is happening in TX, AZ, NM. OK..... so beware to all those out that way. Hamburger will be cheaper....EXCEPT .... for the fact that some plants have reduced their operating capacity and rumors here that our JBS plant has closed again....
So it is a blessing that we have the silage as we will be feeding alot of animals for awhile. And I don't know if we get a window, once we get this next round of hay made, if maybe he will try to make the hay he was talking about bush hogging.
One thing about this, if they are thinning herds and culling heavy on cows, in the next 2 years, bred heifers and cows may get very expensive again. The price of the 2 smaller heifer calves, on 2 of those cows, brought nearly as much as the steer calf. He was a pretty nice steer calf too. I told ds this past spring that I thought that prices on "breds", would be up in another year or 2 and that was before they started to deal with lack of rainfall out west.... I know that I am going to push to hold back heifers and get the older ones bred for calves in 2022......
So this is just an indication of some of what we deal with. Granted most of you are not affected much by this, and most everyone doesn't have cattle or not the numbers that we have. But this is an indication of the way we are affected by the markets way down west of where @Baymule is..... and there was the drought up in the New England states that @rachels.haven has had to deal with. If you still have a way to get hay and store it, be smart and do so. If it is available next year, it might be very expensive. Remember, if kept dry, 2 yr old hay is like gold in the bank and much more edible for the livestock. You can always rotate it out and feed the older hay and keep your barn full; much like you should rotate out your home canned and store bought goods.... keeping a supply for the lean times....
So it is a blessing that we have the silage as we will be feeding alot of animals for awhile. And I don't know if we get a window, once we get this next round of hay made, if maybe he will try to make the hay he was talking about bush hogging.
One thing about this, if they are thinning herds and culling heavy on cows, in the next 2 years, bred heifers and cows may get very expensive again. The price of the 2 smaller heifer calves, on 2 of those cows, brought nearly as much as the steer calf. He was a pretty nice steer calf too. I told ds this past spring that I thought that prices on "breds", would be up in another year or 2 and that was before they started to deal with lack of rainfall out west.... I know that I am going to push to hold back heifers and get the older ones bred for calves in 2022......
So this is just an indication of some of what we deal with. Granted most of you are not affected much by this, and most everyone doesn't have cattle or not the numbers that we have. But this is an indication of the way we are affected by the markets way down west of where @Baymule is..... and there was the drought up in the New England states that @rachels.haven has had to deal with. If you still have a way to get hay and store it, be smart and do so. If it is available next year, it might be very expensive. Remember, if kept dry, 2 yr old hay is like gold in the bank and much more edible for the livestock. You can always rotate it out and feed the older hay and keep your barn full; much like you should rotate out your home canned and store bought goods.... keeping a supply for the lean times....