Farmerjan's journal - Weather

farmerjan · Friday at 9:46 AM

Had a good day Thursday. Looked at bulls at 3 different farms where they keep them... They will be getting moved today to the former auction barn where the assoc there has sales and other things... It is going to be a real job to move them all.... There will be about 60 to be moved.... there are 76-78 in the sale catalog but a couple did not pass their semen test and a couple will have to be retested... Young bulls will not always extend and then they cannot get a sample.... some did not have good motility to the sperm. Many will be carried over, let to mature a little more and then retested. They have a bull sale twice a year and their next one is in March? Some of the bulls will retest fine, and some will get sent for slaughter...
OF COURSE... 3 of the retests are ones we liked out in the field...
The one DS really liked from the video and the EPD numbers turned out to be very disappointing "in person".... he was especially bummed...
The 2 that I was impressed with in the video turned out to be real CHUNKS... and both tested fine... I thought it was almost funny. One of the 2, half brothers, DS likes a little better.... But we earmarked 6-10 in the catalogs... he had one book and marked preferences... I had another and marked mine... he was going to make some comparisons and then go from there...
I really want to go to the sale... but I was planning to go to the poultry show... One thing, the guy with the NH bantams that I was really planning to go to the show for... has had health issues this year and did not raise any NH bantams to sell.... So bummer.... I think I will go on to the show... and if there is not alot to hold my interest this year, might just leave to come back to the sale on the way home... We will see.... I might get to the show and be really glad I went....

We do not HAVE TO buy a bull.... but do not want to get down too far so that if something happens, we do not have a "spare" bull to pull and put with cows if the original one gets injured or something... So figured we would look now and see. Prices might be way more than we want to spend... we are figuring that we will spend $5-8,000 for a good bull... There are other bull sales around... most next spring early.... but we have 2 from this farm and like them both.
We walked out in the fields with the bulls... totally quiet and un-impressed with us in there... THAT's the kind of dispositions we like... several would come up and we could rub heads or scratch behind ears. They do not like to keep anything that has attitudes... Plus there are people in around these bulls constantly so are fully used to people but not PETS.... they give you space and you give them space. They come up and check you out and then go off about their own business...
Our bulls are about the same here. Just Roscoe that I do not really trust and that is because he has no sense of "respect your space" since she made him into a pet.... but the rest are pretty much okay... DS can go out in the field with a bucket of grain and get one to follow him through gates and such, and get them to load on the trailer... he got one up through 2 gates the other day and moved up on the hill with the cow/calf pairs we worked and then moved out the other week. You never forget they are a bull.... but you don't need to be running scared of them either... A cow with a new calf can actually turn on you quicker and hurt you worse if she is in an overprotective frame of mind... It is just that a bull is so much more massive.... and young ones can move pretty fast. But a bull will more often give you some warning, and let you know he is not happy; cows can sometimes just turn on you and you often do not expect a cow to "turn mean" at the drop of a hat...

So I had taken my car and left it in town at the co-op... we got back and I got the car and DS left to come back to the farm. I went on to work... It went fine, and got done and got home about 8. Forgot to stop and get my milk so I texted him and said I would get it this morning... I am going up there in a little bit.

It is cloudy and supposed to have showers later... Radar looks like it will mostly all stay south of here, but might get some of the 2nd "wave" coming through tonight. We sure could use it.
We did get .25 inch on Tuesday/Wed morning.... better than nothing but we are still in moderate drought. The farm I tested Wed that is an hour north.... where my "12" her x heifers came from... got .6 inch.... That was better for them... They are still in the area like us of moderate drought. It will take some serious 1 inch rains a few times to start to replenish the ground water.

It is cloudy and dreary out there... Temps are in the mid 50's... supposed to be like this all day.

I have computer work to do for the farm I tested last night. Other stuff that needs doing also... Venison that has been in the cooler on ice to work into stew meat cubes, as I really like venison stew and this will make a bunch of pkgs of it...

Mini Horses · Friday at 10:43 AM

Can you tell yet if you have tom/hen turkeys? I'm seeing some RPalm hens at decent prices. Usually only males for sale. Bourbons are my fav for looks but neither are good if poor coloring. It's on back burner but incubating for poults to sell keeps creeping into thoughts periodically.

RR Homestead · Friday at 4:53 PM

What breed are you looking at buying? I may have missed it in the posts. Sorry if I did. I'm guessing beef from your temperament descriptions.

fuzzi · Friday at 5:18 PM

RR Homestead said:
What breed are you looking at buying? I may have missed it in the posts. Sorry if I did. I'm guessing beef from your temperament descriptions.

I don't think @farmerjan has milking cows.

farmerjan · Friday at 8:01 PM

We buy beef bulls for the primarily commercial beef cow herd we have. We run 125-150 brood cows, cow/calf operation... 2 calving groups, spring and fall.... DS dabbles in buying, working, and weaning and selling some steers in groups, in the 525-575 lb range... Some of ours off the cows, some when he can find and buy some for a decent price to add to ours to have larger groups. We bought a group of 8 ; one owner, bull calves for a good price 6-8 weeks ago... worked them through the chute, banded, vacc, etc and then they went with another group of steers he had in the barn, and will get sold together... Has a guy looking at them now... there will be 22-24 in the group I think. Then we will be bringing our cows home from pasture, preg checking, and weaning off the calves. They will go into the lots there at the barn, get started on some silage and grain, weaned and available to get grouped to sell. Pick out the heifers we want to keep for replacements. There are some cattle coming and going every couple of months....

I have 2 holstein heifers that are bred for spring, and will most likely get sold at the monthly dairy replacement sale when they get springing up close.... Calves are just too expensive to buy to put on them to be nurse cows. Especially since they ought to be pretty good milkers; they were premie twins that a farmer didn't want to fool with because they needed alot of "special attention"... they did real good for me. This was a couple of years ago and calf prices were NOTHING close to what they are now.
I buried my old jersey nurse cow not too long ago.... have her 1/2 angus 1/2 jersey heifer calf .... and am looking for another nurse cow..... but again, calves are sooo expensive.... I normally would raise 2-4 calves on a nurse cow a year... Have a 1/2 hol 1/2 angus first calf heifer that is feeding her own calf... plus the heifer off the jersey... the jer/ang calf is also stealing off several of the first calf heifers in that group that I calved out the last 2 months... 13 in that group....
I mostly get my milk for drinking from a friend that milks a couple cows because it is easier for me. When I had my ankle replacement, 5 years ago, then both knees replaced almost 2 years later... milking was an impossibility. I put 2 springing jerseys and 4 springing holstein/jersey cross heifers on a dairy I tested... and I just got 12 herford/holstein cross heifers back this year from the farmer... After several years on the dairy, it was obvious that it would not be practical to bring the cows home... so we made an agreement and I got these weaned bwf half beef heifer calves this past summer... They actually "gave me" back more than I had thought ; with the increased value of cattle, much more than I felt was "fair"... so I gave them a little money to boot. The thing is now... the cattle I took to the farm are theirs, including any/all calves they have raised... in fact there is one daughter that is in the dairy milking, maybe 2 .... and these 12 are mine.... so whatever I do with them is up to me.... and they can do whatever they want to do with the ones that were mine originally. A couple have actually been sold .... we "traded" value ...and I think they were more than fair to me....
Anyway, so since I lost Betsy recently, I do not have any milking dairy cattle.... just the 2 bred holstein heifers... I may come up with another jersey or 2 for nurse cows down the road...never know when the opportunity will jump out in front of me... Betsy was a chance purchase at the stockyard with a calf on her... did a pretty decent job, added a 2nd calf that I had to supplement with a bottle daily for awhile...... made money on the calves.... she got bred back, but was old and milk fever complications happened. So she left me a 1/2 jer heifer...

RR Homestead · Friday at 8:09 PM

I thought you had some dairy cows and crosses but wasn't sure now. I'm really sorry about Betsy.

farmerjan · Friday at 8:27 PM

The bull sale tomorrow is mostly Angus... there are a few simmentals, and some Charolais... There are a couple angus we like, and a couple of the charolais also..... have been toying with the idea of possibly finding a 1/2 char bull to use on some of the cows to increase the weights on these calves a bit... and we like these smokey colored cows. We have a couple, and 2 or 3 bred smokey heifers to calve in the spring.
"Black" cattle are what sell here....and black white face as long as there is not too much white..... the smokeys take a little bit of a hit on prices...but the calves also seem to grow a little better so it is a trade off..... herefords get crucified on prices... We have some hereford cows, and bred back to angus, they will usually throw a pretty decent bwf calf that will sell good. We buy bred cows on occasion, we dabble a bit in buying and selling some cattle... anything to make a bit of money or add value to something we have..... Often will buy older bred cows at sales... some will raise one calf, some will stay for several calves... but the money to be made is in the BUYING.... you have to know what the markets are doing, what the projections are, gamble on what it will be like in 6-12 months down the road.

Right now we are being a bit conservative... with the drought this past summer... we are tighter on hay... we have bought about 150 rolls ... but we have already fed out at least that many due to no grass growth this fall... so not looking to increase our cow numbers much right now... Still, there is hay around to be bought, so we can pick up something if the price is right.
We also will be pulling out 5 or 6 cows with their calves, that will not be getting bred back. They will go to one pasture with the young heifers and NO BULL..... so they will only feed out their current calf and get sold in the spring... a couple are just old, no teeth, not making as much milk.... 2 had cervical prolapses and will not take a chance on breeding them back... one of them is real old also.... a couple are getting some age and walking a little slow... joints are starting to get bad..... So, they will get the winter, get to raise their calves, and not have to deal with a bull although they may come in heat , and should gain some weight with not feeding a calf AND carrying a pregnancy too.... When it comes time to wean their calves, they will be culled....

farmerjan · Friday at 8:32 PM

We got a few sprinkles today, and there is a little more light showery type precip this evening... Anything is good. Temps warmed up during the day... 45 to start, up to 58 and cloudy all day... temps are holding pretty good... 55 just a bit ago.... supposed to hold through the night, some showers into the morning, and then sun later and temps into the 60's....
We'll take every drop we can get. Need to replenish the ground water since the crops are done growing... might get a little growth in the rye and winter wheat and barley he planted as cover crops... but we need to get some moisture down in the ground....
Much as most will CRINGE... what we really need is some good decent snow to cover the ground and slowly percolate down into the soil and feed the root zones and replenish the moisture for spring growing.