Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[fuzzi]

I've been buying locally grown beef and chicken. The beef were meaty soup bones, made a delicious broth. The chicken was drumsticks, cooked up yesterday. The meat was firmer, but not tough, and had more flavor to it. The drumsticks were smaller, four to a pound. The skin was thinner, too, and there was definitely less fat, not like store-bought stuff.

I'll be buying more local meat.

Yes, they were more expensive than at a supermarket, but I wasn't eating a pound of meat at a sitting. And I wasn't getting antibiotics, or marigold blossoms.

 

[Mini Horses]

Home grown meats are different. Unless you've eaten it, you wouldn't know.

My hunter neighbor, who's son bought the farm & now he visits weekends to hunt, has a great set up for butchering the deer. A shed to hang, gut, then pulls skin like taking off a glove (uses ATV to pull). It's slick . He did a goat for me a couple yrs ago.

Hunting season is close, I'll ask him if he'll do a goat for me this winter. I took tubs with ice last time, we section carcass and I drove home. His drive is on my property, deeded him a right of way. Yeah, the meat was good. I'll wether one & feed it up. Don't get big amounts but, it's almost beef taste....not a steak, for sure ... But cubed & ground, it's great. Not gamey since fed up.

I love the coloring of those longhorns pictured. And you know the were bred to a totally black bull. Color dominance rules.

 

[farmerjan]

Very late to bed but up now... It is cloudy, looks like we had a little misty clouds come through, but does not look like we had any precip fall to the ground here. It is very cloudy looking, but see a little breaking clouds to the north/east... says partly cloudy by noon. So, hopefully he will be able to get the stuff baled by early afternoon. There was a little green underneath when I turned the sorghum over while raking, but it was basically pretty dry and the hay was totally dry... very light amount but this place has to be cut. The lady living there had passed away this summer; it is for sale, but DS had talked to the real estate listing it, and told them how to find things there, like where the key was to get into the "pool room" she had closed off... because she had closed it off when her husband died... and then she had a stroke, and was totally unable to care for somethings at the house... although she had come back home and had recovered pretty good... but she passed this past year. Anyway, DS has sinced talked to her nephew that inherited it I guess, and he said to continue doing what we were doing until it is sold... and it might take some time since it is not a cheap place, at the top of a hill, beautiful views, but it seems higher end real estate has slowed down in this area a little bit. It will just take the right buyer....

So anyway... it is cut and will get baled and then worry about it in the spring.

Yes, @Baymule , the 12 her/hol cross heifers are pretty nice... They will stay until spring and then get re-evaluated.. funny how there are 11 b/w and the one red/white one... so the holstein cow she was out of had to have a recessive red gene in her background... you get that occasionally... she is one of the ones I least like the way she is built and carries herself... also, keeping track of the couple that got treated for pinkeye..... not something I want to keep if they are prone to it either... and herefords do tend to have it more with the ones that have the very pinkish skin around the eyes it seems... but not always. We have had enough of it in the black cattle too... Will see how they winter... grow etc... They are all 1/2 sisters... all have the same bull for a sire...

Got a few bags to go to the recycling center and some trash for the dumpster when I go out later to work... Have to go get a couple buckets of feed for the hol/her heifers in case they are off one one end of the pasture and I can feed them... they do come to the car most times... when I check the one lone "hold out" heifer that still hasn't calved.
There were a few heifers/cows yesterday that we could have/should have bought... breds... at more decent prices... I think that they will drop a bit more with it getting closer to the holidays... I mean, if you can trade some of these 500 lb size for some breds... say 3 smaller heifers for 2 bred cows... it is about what it has always been figured at... we just have trouble adjusting to the prices overall being so much higher than they were... BUT the RATIO is about the same as it has always been in that regard... 2 for 1, or 3 for 2, for replacements. DS is slow to pull the trigger and since he is looking at paying for these last calves he bought... I hated to add back any animals right now... PLUS... with the BS going on with the feeder markets, better to lay low a bit to let these "trade deals" and manipulating all the cattle stuff, a chance to play out.... still, there were a couple I think would have been a good buy... we'll see... maybe next month... people start to get nervous with the situations, a few weeks of dropping prices, and there might be more available for more reasonable prices. but I am more willing to take a little risk on these cows... he tends to take more risk with these feeder cattle like the bull calves he bought a week ago... they will be a faster turnover though..
Cull cow prices were still pretty good though... and will be as long as there is a demand for hamburger...

I need to go out and get a little bit of plastic around the one side of the turkeys for protection from some rain... and fill feeders and stuff this morning... and the other poultry pen... but it is bigger, has more roof cover to help keep the worst of the rain off them... but time to think about getting these pens ready for winter..
Need to get bottles in the trays/racks to take to test this afternoon... lots of stuff to work on...

DS wants to work the cows/calves that have already calved, and get them out of the calving field and moved into the other pasture... they will have to come across the driveway, into the barn... band the bull calves, blackleg shots, and then back across and up the "long alley" to the field in back... about half have calved I think now... and eventually need to get the heifers with their first calves, from snyder's, the "nurse cow pasture" across from me... moved out also... those heifers all can go with a bull that is not "easy calving" as they are mostly all good sized and can handle bigger calves for their next time around... And.... since DS is going to put the bull at the pasture we just moved the 9 to, I guess a bull can just go in at snyder's ... whoops... NO he can't... cannot take the chance of the "12" her/hol heifers coming in heat too young and getting bred... Hate to say it, but they are kind of in the way..... there are only maybe 4 other heifers we are not wanting to get bred... so either the 12 are going to have to get moved somewhere else...put them with the other ones we are not going to breed for the winter... or the ones with calves will have to get moved... and then I have to consider the jer x orphan that is stealing off a couple of those first calf heifers...... seen her on 2 different cows... yesterday morning while checking the one that hasn't calved yet... her "adopted mother" and a different one than who she was stealing off the other day... so she is making sure she gets a couple free meals... which is good... but I don't want to move her somewhere that she might not be with the tolerant "surrogate" moms to feed her... and I am not sure who all she is stealing from as I don't think that 319 has enough to fully feed both.. since she won't come in to eat grain by herself and I am not feeding all of them. One good thing about the protein lick tubs... at least they are all getting some added nutrition to help balance the hay they are eating since there is just not any fall grass for grazing with the drought conditions. That might get some help this next week... but it is too late for any grass growth.,....hopefully it will help the ground and start to alleviate the effects of the super dry conditions, so that there will be ample moisture for next year's growth...the moderate drought areas have grown in Va with the latest drought monitor release on Thursday of the conditions in the state. We are right on the border of moderate drought and severe drought ratings... it's not great. Thank goodness there has not been a problem with the water this year at snyder's like some years in the past... I have not had to haul any water... except for a little to the pen when I had someone locked in a couple times...

DS just called... he managed to get the 3 rams that have been at the barn, that each had 1 big horn broken on one side... and the other old one out at the pasture that has been there for a couple years, with a broken horn... all loaded and is taking them to a guy that is buying them... he talked to him at the sale yesterday earlier... when he got there and got unloaded... this guy comes and buys sheep and goats... ethnic market... and DS talked to him and showed him some pictures and they struck a deal... so that is good. He has taken an interest in "doing something" with his sheep again... and I am glad because it had gotten to a point of do something or he ought to get rid of them... but he had sorted off the ewes, moved some out to get bred, and moved the other ones around to get bred to a different ram... and wants to get back up to 15-20 ewes... Plus, he found another guy that has a friend in WV that is interested in the ones with "good horns"... and that may prove to be a lucrative market... but at this point, he wants to get them sold also if at all possible. He used one of them to breed, and has another 6 young rams coming up.... a couple 3 yr olds and a couple yearlings and 2 ram lambs from this past spring... He really wants to get the "good rams" sold as they are worth 750-1,000 a piece... once they get to fighting and break off a horn... they are maybe worth 250 for meat to the guy he is taking them to now... BIG DIFFERENCE. The ones with the broken horns have been at the barn a couple years now... they needed to be gone... and he was going to take them yesterday, but couldn't get them in with the heifers we had moved there... and took the bull instead... so it all worked out if the guy takes them this morning... he was on his way there when he called me...

We'll see if this "turn around", renewed interest holds for any length of time, or if it is another phase depending on her mercurial moods...

I am going to eat something.... a little late... and get some of the stuff done here that needs doing...

 

[farmerjan]

I've been buying locally grown beef and chicken. The beef were meaty soup bones, made a delicious broth. The chicken was drumsticks, cooked up yesterday. The meat was firmer, but not tough, and had more flavor to it. The drumsticks were smaller, four to a pound. The skin was thinner, too, and there was definitely less fat, not like store-bought stuff.

I'll be buying more local meat.

Yes, they were more expensive than at a supermarket, but I wasn't eating a pound of meat at a sitting. And I wasn't getting antibiotics, or marigold blossoms.

Marigold blossoms are for color and do have some nutrition... better than chemical coloring additives.... Just saying.... You are what you eat... including "coloring"...

 

[SageHill]

I love what you post about markets and the politics of all this. I know I'm not getting the full story in stories online. I keep thinking - why import? and being so freaking close to mexico that screw worm and then letting their cattle come here?? WTF. I screamed loud and clear when NAFTA came through - previously mexican avocados did not come through the border - at least here in CA for a long time - then NAFTA and boom we were flooded with mexican avos and most of the avocado growers quit. Between the fly (mexican fruit fly?? ) those avos brought in, the water, and the crash in the avo market for US growers (our county was the largest supplier of avos pre-NAFTA). Now it's cattle. No one cares about Ag. They have no idea, and worse don't care to even think about it other than how much their McD's burger costs. Or that they can get any produce any time of the year.
Keep on spreading the first hand info @farmerjan you're on the frontline.

 

[farmerjan]

Home grown meats are different. Unless you've eaten it, you wouldn't know.

My hunter neighbor, who's son bought the farm & now he visits weekends to hunt, has a great set up for butchering the deer. A shed to hang, gut, then pulls skin like taking off a glove (uses ATV to pull). It's slick . He did a goat for me a couple yrs ago.

Hunting season is close, I'll ask him if he'll do a goat for me this winter. I took tubs with ice last time, we section carcass and I drove home. His drive is on my property, deeded him a right of way. Yeah, the meat was good. I'll wether one & feed it up. Don't get big amounts but, it's almost beef taste....not a steak, for sure ... But cubed & ground, it's great. Not gamey since fed up.

I love the coloring of those longhorns pictured. And you know the were bred to a totally black bull. Color dominance rules.

It is funny how they are colored up... but this is the roster of her calves...she has had 6 so far... I raised her on a bought cow... and she is full longhorn as far as I can tell... and she has been bred to a BLACK angus bull all 6 times... 4 different bulls...
1st calf... #24B angus bull... speckled heifer like her.. no horns... wouldn't settle (get pregnant) so sold...
2nd calf...#24B bull.... black bull/steer calf... sold as steer... Looked more longhornish. Had short little scurs/ horns..
3rd calf... #10B bull.... black TWIN heifer calves... 1 died...no horns.... 2nd one was bred a little young, slipped pregnancy... rebred, due to calve shortly....
4th calf... #24 QH bull speckled bigger bull/steer...in pictures.... has nubs where horns would be but never grew.. not really even scurs.....
5th calf....#24 QH bull... black bull/steer... no horns, looked more chunky/beefy... sold...
6th calf....#9 QH bull.... speckled smaller bull/steer in picture...has nubs maybe???? not noticing them.... may just get sold if prices stay good. Bred back to #9 QH bull for spring calf again next year...
Both the #24B and #10B bulls are gone... we used them for years on the heifers...known as "easy calving bulls" for throwing smaller calves.... alternating so none of the heifers got bred back to their direct sire....
Then we bought both the #9 and #24 QH bulls at another sale several years ago...knowing that the other 2 were getting older, and bigger, and would be aging out..... both are also easy calving bulls... and throw nice smallish 60-70 lb calves....used #9 as a cleanup bull at one pasture and getting some of his calves on cows plus the 12 heifers that all calved, plus the one holdout.... were all bred to him... calves are nice... and he will be the sire of all the calves in the "18" bred heifers we are going to preg check... the 9 that are going to get bred are going to have to be bred to #9 also, as there are a couple of #24 QH daughters in that bunch. I rather like the #24 QH daughters... we kept a few... plus heifers out of some cows by different bulls....I hope to use #24 QH on some more heifers next spring....
I think I got the bull #'s right... going from memory, clipboard is in the other car..... the "letters" are to designate where they came from... which herd/sale we bought them from... Bull #'s are what tags they come with... easier to look it up in the sale catalogs if we need to reference them....

NORMALLY, black color and polled... no horns... are the dominant traits.... but longhorns and cattle in the "brahma" breeds do not follow the polled or color pattern dominance. Proven several times with my longhorn cow...

Most all the black bulls... if they are HOMOZYGOUS for black and polled... will throw black and polled... with the black replacing the red or other colors... EXCEPT... that black bred to charolais, will often throw a "smokey" or greyish colored calf... again, NOT dominant over the white/tannish gene in charolais cattle... so most times a black angus on a hereford will throw a black calf with some white... OCCASIONALLY... if a black angus has some "red angus" in the background somewhere... so heterozygous for black.... you will get a red white faced calf... so there are alot of twists and turns with color and horns... and the recessive gene can be many, many generations back... but will occasionally show up....
NOTHING is a guarantee....
I like the diversity of the longhorn colors... and that the calves are always a surprise with color... not getting horns is a plus for selling them... plus the black is preferred for selling... at least here in the more north and east... down in the hotter country, red cattle seem to withstand the heat better and are better for grazing in the hotter sun...

 

[murphysranch]

I agree beef prices are high... but if you figure what the increase in prices of things like cars, your fancy smart phone, and such has been.... beef is not nearly as expensive... and without FOOD in general... what good is anything else ?????? I am tired of working my a$$ off for people who will b$@#h and complain about $5 or $6 / lb for ground beef... but will spend $1,000 for a phone or the latest Ipad or Ipod or Tablet or other fancy electronic toy.... and want $25-50 an hour for an entry level job because they have a "degree" .... but then b@#%h and complain about the plumber or electrician that does the "dirty work" to make sure they have a toilet that flushes or instant water in their faucet or the electric in their house so they don't have to get hot or cold...or God forbid, break a sweat or need to put on a sweatshirt..... but have a "perfect climate controlled environment".... Our work equipment does not come CHEAP either....and we have just as much or more stress than most other jobs....

You are right on the bullseye!! Its all relative folks, and I for one, am sick and tired of the bi*&ching and moaning that goes on.

 

[farmerjan]

One reason that we import alot of beef... and it's not all bad... is that most beef from other countries is much leaner... and it gives us a market for our "fat" off the cattle from feedlots... we mix our fat into the leaner ground beef and makes up a good percentage of the hamburger sold in this country... so there is a plus... and also some of that fat is mixed in with the cull cows sold, that are for the most part more lean than fat... and that also goes into a lot of burger... We do not produce enough "lesser quality" beef in this country to supple the demand for hamburger.... one reason why we also export quite a bit of out Choice beef to other countries.. because we do so much "feeding" of cattle to make these Choice and Prime cuts"....
The fat off these "fat cattle" is mostly due to the diet they are fed... BECAUSE... once they start to pack on external fat over the carcass... they also are MARBLING ... so the little bits of fat that run through the better cuts of meat... are making them more tender and palateble... and that only can come 2 ways... feeding for fast gain and fat to be deposited under the skin... and somewhat from some age... older "calves" will marble after reaching their potential growth... so once a young animal reaches close to it's mature bone structure, they will put on some fat, and the meat will naturally marble to a degree... feeding them a ration to start to gain weight faster after a certain age... will put on more external fat which will signal an "end to their growth cycle" and they will "marble"... also. Yes, type of diet has something to do with it... but it is also somewhat in the genes and nature controlled... and then as cattle get older they will utilize the fat off their back for metabolism and such... so unless they are kept on the very best feed... they will lose fat as they age out...

 

[farmerjan]

I love what you post about markets and the politics of all this. I know I'm not getting the full story in stories online. I keep thinking - why import? and being so freaking close to mexico that screw worm and then letting their cattle come here?? WTF. I screamed loud and clear when NAFTA came through - previously mexican avocados did not come through the border - at least here in CA for a long time - then NAFTA and boom we were flooded with mexican avos and most of the avocado growers quit. Between the fly (mexican fruit fly?? ) those avos brought in, the water, and the crash in the avo market for US growers (our county was the largest supplier of avos pre-NAFTA). Now it's cattle. No one cares about Ag. They have no idea, and worse don't care to even think about it other than how much their McD's burger costs. Or that they can get any produce any time of the year.
Keep on spreading the first hand info @farmerjan you're on the frontline.

NAFTA was one of the worst trade agreements that happened to this country... for some of the very reasons you stated @SageHill .

 

[drstratton]

1st pic of silage... Dump truck dumping load, DS walking from tractor to talk to driver...2nd pic is of the Hereford/Holstein cross heifers from the dairy we picked up in August.....3rd pic of Jess, the longhorn...with her 4/025 steer calf in front and her 2023 steer that is going in the freezer in January...4th pic is the black snake in front of pasture gate I was going to open to feed some grain...I let him go on by then went in gate. About 3- 3 1/2 ft long.

Yay, pictures!