Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Actually, holstein steers and all dairy in general except for maybe some Brown Swiss, will grade choice and prime... dairy beef is very high grading... alot of the steaks and things you see some of the "lower end" restaurants are actually from cull cow cuts... and mostly dairy cow cuts.. that is another reason they usually sell better than beef cow culls... because the meat grades better. These dairy/beef cross steers are filling a big gap with the lower beef cattle numbers.
Behind Wagyu, jerseys are the next most tender beef for "sheer" factor and holsteins come in 4th I think...
the reason holsteins fell out of favor was they took longer to finish out properly, AND for a long time holstein cattle had gotten so big that they did not want them in the kill plants because they could not handle the size carcasses. Now that they have come back down from the extreme sizes they had gotten to be, and the grading of the carcasses, and the fact that many dairy farmers that have quit milking are also real good at growing and feeding cattle, the dairy steers have had a "comeback" in popularity.
Now the funny thing is that there are not near as many around due to changes in breeding practices.
That is another reason that these beef/dairy crosses are bringing so much. They will grow and finish faster than a straight dairy animal... have more meat most of the time, and will be a little smaller than a straight dairy animal as far as frame size...
The beef cattle numbers are at all time lowest numbers since the 1950's... even dairy cattle numbers have dropped a little. The strange thing is that there are still more beef heifers going into feedlots than are being retained for replacements. Farmers/ranchers are taking advantage of the higher prices and still selling more than they are keeping. Heifers also finish faster on feedlots at smaller sizes... so are more in demand... especially the big lots sold out west that are spayed so they do not go through heat cycles which causes slower gains...
I hope to be able to benefit from these baby calf prices for a little bit... not having to raise them up to bigger sizes suits me fine.
Most nurse cows would not be happy with changing out calves weekly like that... and I do not really want to be milking with the colder temps... plus, putting the grain into a cow to keep her milking good would negate some of the saving of the milk replacer. When I get calves on milk cows, I want them to be able to take them and go with them into the field. If I was set up here to milk, then it would be a better deal, but I am not.

I think I am going to see about taking several to the sale, maybe next Saturday if DS is going to take some of the "odd ball" calves we have that will not mix in some of the groups... and I am hoping he will think about taking some of the steers that are separated out, to the next sale soon... They might go up some, but to me getting a good price now, and maybe missing the "high week" is better than holding and having it drop off too much too...

We'll see. These calves are looking and doing pretty good... so time to cash in on them. I can remember all too well that you would be lucky to get $50 for a real nice big hol bull calf...

Another load of laundry ready to hang... it is sunny and a very nice comfortable 50 out there and no wind...

 

[Ridgetop]

Let us now what prices those big calves bring. They are about 8-10 weeks now right?

 

[farmerjan]

Monday night. It was a real nice day out. Sunny, no wind, mid 50's...
2 loads of clothes on the line I will bring in tomorrow.

Got the couple of hog panels set up for a temp "yard" for the 2 bottle calves here so they could get out in the sun and clean/dry overgrown dried up grass. They kicked up their heels a couple times... seem really happy. Put a small pan of some calf grain out for them.
Let the 3 bigger calves out up at the nurse cow field with the creep gate so they could get out and get some exercise and go exploring... they came back to the barn and I enticed them in through the creep gate this afternoon...shut them in the lot/barn for the night with the others... Will do that a couple more times so they get it figured out, and then maybe the other little calves on the beef cows will start following them once they all start to play together. Not going to let the 2 sets of twins out anytime soon... but they get the lot and all so plenty of sunshine.
The bigger ones were born 11/3; the holstein might be a couple days younger maybe... so pushing 3 1/2 months or so... They look good, the holstein was not a real big calf at birth, so he is not huge, but still decent sized. They are not happy about no bottles... but oh well.....
Don't know when we are taking any to that sale... but I will definitely let you all know how the prices are when I do sell them. DS is thinking about possibly taking a load of the smaller steers this Friday or next... but those are all beef and not the place to sell any of the dairy type. I wish I was not doing this big farm with the other testers on Wed.... as it is the dairy/holstein feeder sale...

Went up this afternoon and got the truck and fed 2 rolls of the wheat/rye/mixed stuff and rolled out 1 roll of just grass hay for them. No rain for another couple days and they ought to have it pretty well eaten by then.

DS spent time with my brother and then they went to the local place that has a restaurant/sports bar type place with big TV's and they watched the Daytona 500... I went and met them after I got done bottles and they were running the 3rd segment and then we went back to DS's house for a little bit... then I came home when DS was going to bed... Brother is leaving in the morning... 8-9 hours home from here for him I think...
Had enough of his visit... once a year is enough for me... too opinionated and can be very crude/crass... my language is not the best sometimes, but his is really not good... oh well.....
DS said that maybe x-gf and I could get the cows in tomorrow and he could get off work a little early, and maybe get them moved to the barn. Guess I will see in the morning, what's what...
There was a new calf today too at the barn... so "spring calving" has officially started I guess...

Have to get bottles numbered tomorrow, for the big herd... I'm doing the first 1900+ and they are doing the rest... they do not have much room in their vehicle coming up here so can only bring about 14-16 boxes and I will have the rest... let's see... 60 per box... 20 boxes is 1200, so like 32 boxes ??? 60x32=1920... that's alot... but I am taking the explorer so will have room... and then I will pack them all for shipping... the boxes come to me in bundles of 4 so 8 bundles ... but I am going to have to unbundle them and number them because they use sample numbers here... not the cow numbers... so prenumbered is the best they said. This will be an interesting situation...
Then I plan to take the explorer down and see about getting the place to go over it like they said they would, and see what they will give me....at least with taking it there won't be any meters or anything like that to put in it... it will probably smell a little like cows from the boxes and our clothes... but it can be aired out... just not have alot of cow manure on the meters and hoses... It would be hard to get all the boxes in the outback unless I completely cleaned it out.... and I doubt that will get done tomorrow... although I might think about it... I will take some towels to put on the seats so we don't get them dirty if we get cow sh!t on our clothes. Been going to take the explorer down and have just not gotten there... when I think about it, it is late afternoon or on the weekends....

My farmer that cancelled the other day said his dad is doing a little better, and we are going to test on Thursday afternoon....

Past time to go to bed.

 

[farmerjan]

Nice start to the day. 25 but already up to 50... Sun is out, feels nice with no wind again.

Bottles all fed, washed out and explorer backed up to porch so I can start on the bottle numbering. Talked to DS a little bit ago and he said he wasn't sure yet if he can get off, but was going to talk to gf and see what she has going on... they will get done when they get done... I no longer am going to worry about it. There are calves at the other place that should have been weaned a month ago too... and there are the 5 at the nurse cow pasture that haven't been moved yet... but he didn't want them until he got some out of doug's farm... sold one bunch, hope these others go soon.

So, I am out the door to start numbering the bottles until he lets me know if we are going up to get cows in or not. I want to run up with the truck to get the tarp full of hay sometime in my travels today.

Wrist hurts today more than usual... must have gotten it banged yesterday.

Becoming a "PRIME" really really sucks some days....

 

[Mini Horses]

PRIME gets more offers to help load at feed store. That's about only pro for it

 

[murphysranch]

I used to purchase 1.5 million pounds of beef for the restaurant chain, where I was Dir of Purchasing. Only 2 items. The navel and the top round. All of them were spec'd from retired mamas. Yes, dairy cattle. THE BEST!!!! Always graded out perfectly for our two products.

 

[farmerjan]

Wednesday eve... Been a LOOOOOOONG day... will tell about it tomorrow, suffice to say, very interesting in the rotary parlor... and NOT FOR ME.... did it and not sorry I did, but not again; my feet, knees (muscles/ligs/tendons) hurt so bad... 7-4:30 in parlor on concrete and sat for less than 15 minutes total.... 8-4:00 milking. Had to take new inserts out of sneakers they hurt so bad...Too "prime" to do this again... Got to sit a total of about 15 minutes ....
Fed bottles when I got home and am headed to bed and off the poor sore feet/legs.

Have to test tomorrow afternoon...at the farm where the farmer who's dad had to go to hospital and cancelled..... 100 cows, less than 2 hours in barn, no set up... but I know I will still be foot sore...
Have to feed round bales tomorrow morning after bottles... and have the tarp of loose hay on the ranger to take up to baby calves tomorrow...
Going in to soak feet in tub for a little bit and go to bed... at least I did not have to pack/strap any of the samples to ship.... God bless the next times they have to test.... WITHOUT .... me or Lindsey....

 

[Ridgetop]

Wow! That many cows, they should split it up into 2-3 herds.

 

[farmerjan]

If you think that is alot of cows, what about the 3-5,000 cow herds in places... and some over 10,000 cows...herds in CA and NM and The cows will be split into groups.... but you cannot afford to have big parlors like this without the cow numbers to make them pay. There are several in NC and SC that are over 2.000 cows... in fact, I think that the AVERAGE size dairy in NM is over 2500 cows. CA has quite a few dairies in the 500-2,000 cow numbers.
It was an interesting day. The rotary parlor is kinda neat, the cows like to ride around on it... some going for more than one trip around... makes it hard to do testing as you might have 2 or 3 samples from the same cow as she is milked a 2nd time... and there is no way to determine that from where we were with them on the rotary, taking a space/stall and us just recording cow numbers and NO TIME to look up if she was already in there or not...
Over 200 discarded samples from this farm; partially because they were "regrouping" some cows after the milking and if they were moved to another group that had not been milked yet, they came through with the new group and got "milked again"... they sort cows on Wed I found out, changing groups if the cows were diagnosed pregnant, if they went to a different group to be fed different to be dried off, or had just come in fresh and were ready to go from that ration, to a higher production ration once they were "on their feet and milking better from the first few days of being fresh"...

Some cows numbers did not come up on the computer from the identifiers... they have an ear tag that has electronics that put their number up on the monitor for each machine... some were not reading right... some cows did not have numbered eartags that we could see to write down the number if the screen registered their "official number" but not their herd #.... the chip will have her "state number" usually 15 digits, that stays with the cow for life... like a microchip, but in an eartag.... then she gets a "farm number" like 1, 2, 10, 2900... those are numbers that they get either as they are born... or as they come fresh into the barn... usually with bought cows... You aren't going to say, go breed cow # xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx... you are going to say go breed cow # 797... since the 15 digit tags are assigned as their permanent ID #'s... you cannot request a certain series of numbers so that the last 3 or 5 digits are the same as the actual cow #... years ago we used a metal "bangs vacc" tag... It consisted of a "state number" VA was 52... then 3 letters... ABC.... then 4 numbers.

Many of my farms years ago, would request the series of numbers so that they matched the cow #'s... Say they were numbering their cows from birth... from #1, through 9999.... So if they were on say #300... I could pull a box of the metal tags with the last 4 numbers of 0300 0301 right through 0399.... then their metal tag corresponded with their "number" and if they lost one tag, they usually had the other one to be able to go look it up.... the plastic ear tags will get ripped out on fences, feeders, etc... I am sure everyone with any type of livestock have had some get torn out or just lost where the tag or "back" broke off... and the metal tags could get torn out or sometimes the ear would get infected... think pierced ears on people that get infected...

But when it changed to the official ID numbers... which start with 840.... in the US... it was impossible to get tags... which are randomly assigned... with corresponding numbers...so the farms that all have computers, will have both the 15 digit number and their "farm number" programmed in... and the "farm number" is what most use. This is opposed to the old days of 20-30 cow herds where they all had names... then as herds got bigger, they got numbers... Yes, we still name some of our cows, but they also have a herd number...

You have to understand that the cows on this rotary are constantly moving... so if you can't get a number off their computer read out, you have to look at their ear tag... in this case 10 ft above where you are standing, and you can NOT take very long to see if she has a tag and if you can read it, or too many other cows get by you and you are walking along the rotary turning, to try to get caught up on the numbers. We got lucky a few times and they would stop it to get a new heifer to go on the rotary, or they had some other problems... and once I had them stop it as we were having trouble getting the numbers...and a couple times it would stop for just 30 secs or so as a cow would be taking her time backing off.. But 2900 cows in a normal 6-7 hour milking is still over 400-450 cows per HOUR.... and we did that non stop for nearly 8 hours.....

As I said, it was interesting... and getting thrown into it with no "training" ... was not alot of fun... kinda got into a rhythm about 3 hours in,.... but then when the numbers did come up on the screen.... it was interesting...Lindsay and I got all the numbers... I had a clipboard and she read them out to me... they had to be written down in the list in groups of 72 ... and this all was given to the one guy punching in the numbers into the computer... because you do not write the cow number on the bottles... you have already numbered sample bottles..... that 2 other people were pulling near the end of the rotation... and so I wrote them down and then they would put them in the sample bottles and I had to write down what sample number they got... we did bunches of 10 or 20... she would say sample number 50 was cow #50 on the first trip around.... then sample # 100 was cow stall #38... the second time.. there were some that did not sample.... some empty slots where a cow did not come in so a skipped stall in say #42 and #60 as the cows were loading on the carousel
as the rotary was moving.....
Lindsay was a godsend seeing and calling out the numbers so all I had to do was write them down... but my arm got sore from holding the clipboard on my left arm and writing with the right hand... and we were coordinating if the cow number and the "stall number" was right on the paper....72 stalls to match as they went by...

So that was my day... I had to take the inserts out of my sneakers as my feet were hurting so much... I have only had these new ones for a week or so, and they are changing the way I walk/stand a little... so went "flat footed" after about 5 hours or so... you have no bending of the knees or anything... just flat standing with very little walking... straight flat hard concrete... Muscles in the legs/knees/calves ached so much...

But it is done... not worth the pay... will be about $15-20/hr when we get paid... I will pay Lindsay out of my pay (which I will be getting like 250-300 actual pay) and mileage... and I will split it with her or even give her a little more since I will get the mileage... yes, my vehicle... and I numbered bottles from 1-1920 (60 per box and I did 32 boxes) .... but she was a trooper with only having gone to my 500 cow herd with me one time... even she said that herd was a picnic compared to this...

So, I am going out to feed bottles and take the hay to the calves at the nurse cow barn in a minute... I did not sleep good as I woke up a couple times aching... took a couple tylenol and went back to sleep...

It is cloudier out today... will go take the bale truck up and get and feed rolls of hay... at the 2 pastures...
and get the clothes in off the line I didn't get Tuesday... because we moved the cattle from the pasture except the one we couldn't get in and another friendlier one that we let out with her for company... hopefully will be able to get both in, in a day or 2... I think the one was close to calving and would not leave the spot and she went down twice and I was afraid she would split or injure herself... kept going inbetween the trees in one place and I told "gf" to not try to force her again, did not want her to get hurt and gf agreed that she didn't want to try to force her anymore... she had the 4 wheeler and I was in the truck out in the pasture.... because of the loosening of the tendons and ligs in the hind end when they get close to calving... Not going to damage/lose a cow because of that... we can go back and if she has calved, get them to come into the pen with some hay and grain... grab the calf if we have to and carry it to the pen and cow will come... my cow that we turned out with her will come to a bucket pretty easily to get back in...she is also big as a house so going to calve soon also... but did not want a single cow left alone out there either...
There are all sized calves in with that group, so need to get the bigger ones weaned off too.. way past due to do that... and small babies tagged and matched up to cows... preg check the ones that we are not sure of... the bull is still in there so who knows what the status is of any of them... sooooo NOT the way to do things... at least gf agreed that these cows should not be having new calves without them getting a rest from the bigger calves that were turned out with them... and the calves are not getting the colostrum if the bigger calves are still nursing them and then they go and drop new calves... and she said she told him that they needed some time to get a break... maybe he will listen to her... he's not listening to me.....

So, heading out to get back to normal chores... have to test this afternoon.... 100 cow herd... bottles already in the tray to take... legs ache but not so bad as I was afraid of... don't know if DS is planning to take any calves this week... he talked to his friend the auctioneer, and there are a few taking some next week... will be advertised, so might be more buyers...knowing him, it will get put off to next week... GRRRRR

 

[Ridgetop]

Hopefully XGF was pleasant to work with. If she starts telling him what you have been saying maybe it will happen.