Mini Horses
Herd Master
Worse yet, we say " hey stupid, I told you don't" 
Farmerjan's journal - Weather
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farmerjan
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Long day and I am going to go test cows after all and get him done and out of the way. Leaving in a few minutes to go set up... and test tonight and tomorrow morning... tired of listening to him ..... got a bunch others to try to get fit in next week now that the weather is supposed to warm up some...
Finnie
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I made a corned beef last week and with the leftovers I made Reuben Calzones. Basically all the stuff in a Reuben sandwich except wrapped up in pizza dough and baked. They were soooo good!
Now you dun it. I need some pizza dough...
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farmerjan
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Saturday morning.. Was down to 15 overnight... Sun is creeping over the hill across the road, and we are supposed to have sun all day. Warming into the 40's and maybe even flirting with 50 in the next couple days. It is supposed to be nice on Wed when we do all the cows at Nelson's/Jason's...
Talking to DS yesterday, seems that there are something like 80 cows or so at Nelson's/Jason's... 30 that were first calf heifers, that they pulled the calves off of and sold yesterday. And about 50 + cows on the other side of the road that they have not pulled calves off of yet. It is going to be a very long hard afternoon. So far DS said there are going to be 4 of us... me, DS, Jason, and a younger guy that is the younger daughter's boyfriend that is living with them. Plus the vet. He doesn't know if Jason will go get his daughter from school early to come help. Seems DS xgf might be coming... but not sure...
It is going to be a long day.
They took a total of 28 calves yesterday, weighing from the high 6's (650+ and a few were actually 700) all the way down to 380 for the smallest... don't know how spread apart in age.. and one lame old cull cow that weighed... 1800 !!!! his cows are huge and they eat A LOT.... compared to our mostly 11-1200 lb cows average... plus those big cows get leg and feet trouble more due to carrying around all that weight. Yes, they wean bigger calves, but the market around here favors more the 5 weights as the sweet spot for the buyers... unless there is a full load. With having heifers and steers, there isn't a full load to sell all together as the sexes are sold separately. Will be interesting to see what they brought with all the prices right now being really good.
DS said that Jason said they were not keeping ANY calves this year... and that they needed to see where things were at once preg checked as to where their numbers were. They need to get back down below 60 cows because of the amount of pasture that they have, and the land they can make hay off of... They had gotten up to way too many head. Plus the past couple winters had not been so terribly cold and the cows were not eating what they have been eating this year. But when you get too many animals, the ground never gets a break and it has been getting way overgrazed. Jason has told DS he wants to plant some of the sorghum like we do as it makes alot of tonnage for forage for hay. Not the highest protein, but pretty palatable, so they get a good amount of roughage for their rumen. It will stretch the "better hay" by feeding it along with a roll of hay.. and you "make them" clean it up a bit before feeding more hay... and they mostly like it anyway.
I am hoping that if Jason got real good prices that it will push DS to send another load of calves off.. There are a bunch he has been feeding that need to get sold and I am not sure that waiting for the "spring demand" is going to be any better price wise, than getting more sold in the next month.
DS said if the weather warms up like they say, that he will get in to get those cows out of the last pasture this week... which should have been out of there a month ago... but hopefully the road in will thaw and the ice gone this week. They need preg checking and the calves need to be pulled. The one group at the barn that he turned out with the calves for awhile, are past needing the calves pulled off too... I told him that the other day when he was talking about who to move around to what pasture...
Yesterday, I tested early, came home... worked on the computer with the info from the farm that does owner sampler that I picked up everything on the way home from the memorial service. Then went back to the farm I had tested early, and got his computer work done. But, his printer wasn't working right so could not get the print outs. Since it was a smaller farm, I said I could just get the samples packed without the list. Came back home, got his samples and the other farm's samples packed and took down to the UPS.
Came back and got 500 lbs feed off the truck to take to the cows in the morning... Got several bags dumped into buckets at the house to make it easier to carry in to the barn since this shoulder does not like to toss feed bags very much. So it is ready for me to go in a few minutes, then go get more off the truck... or maybe take the truck up there and unload and then be done. The cows are a pain though wanting to get all around the truck.
DS just called, said he would bring the truck up with the rest of the bags if I wanted and would help unload at the barn, so I am getting dressed to go up there in a few minutes...be alot easier on my shoulder too... He is going to get Colt since his mom (sister of xgf) has to go clean houses this morning... This is her own business that she started and stays really busy with all the B & B places she cleans for.
Talking to DS yesterday, seems that there are something like 80 cows or so at Nelson's/Jason's... 30 that were first calf heifers, that they pulled the calves off of and sold yesterday. And about 50 + cows on the other side of the road that they have not pulled calves off of yet. It is going to be a very long hard afternoon. So far DS said there are going to be 4 of us... me, DS, Jason, and a younger guy that is the younger daughter's boyfriend that is living with them. Plus the vet. He doesn't know if Jason will go get his daughter from school early to come help. Seems DS xgf might be coming... but not sure...
It is going to be a long day.
They took a total of 28 calves yesterday, weighing from the high 6's (650+ and a few were actually 700) all the way down to 380 for the smallest... don't know how spread apart in age.. and one lame old cull cow that weighed... 1800 !!!! his cows are huge and they eat A LOT.... compared to our mostly 11-1200 lb cows average... plus those big cows get leg and feet trouble more due to carrying around all that weight. Yes, they wean bigger calves, but the market around here favors more the 5 weights as the sweet spot for the buyers... unless there is a full load. With having heifers and steers, there isn't a full load to sell all together as the sexes are sold separately. Will be interesting to see what they brought with all the prices right now being really good.
DS said that Jason said they were not keeping ANY calves this year... and that they needed to see where things were at once preg checked as to where their numbers were. They need to get back down below 60 cows because of the amount of pasture that they have, and the land they can make hay off of... They had gotten up to way too many head. Plus the past couple winters had not been so terribly cold and the cows were not eating what they have been eating this year. But when you get too many animals, the ground never gets a break and it has been getting way overgrazed. Jason has told DS he wants to plant some of the sorghum like we do as it makes alot of tonnage for forage for hay. Not the highest protein, but pretty palatable, so they get a good amount of roughage for their rumen. It will stretch the "better hay" by feeding it along with a roll of hay.. and you "make them" clean it up a bit before feeding more hay... and they mostly like it anyway.
I am hoping that if Jason got real good prices that it will push DS to send another load of calves off.. There are a bunch he has been feeding that need to get sold and I am not sure that waiting for the "spring demand" is going to be any better price wise, than getting more sold in the next month.
DS said if the weather warms up like they say, that he will get in to get those cows out of the last pasture this week... which should have been out of there a month ago... but hopefully the road in will thaw and the ice gone this week. They need preg checking and the calves need to be pulled. The one group at the barn that he turned out with the calves for awhile, are past needing the calves pulled off too... I told him that the other day when he was talking about who to move around to what pasture...
Yesterday, I tested early, came home... worked on the computer with the info from the farm that does owner sampler that I picked up everything on the way home from the memorial service. Then went back to the farm I had tested early, and got his computer work done. But, his printer wasn't working right so could not get the print outs. Since it was a smaller farm, I said I could just get the samples packed without the list. Came back home, got his samples and the other farm's samples packed and took down to the UPS.
Came back and got 500 lbs feed off the truck to take to the cows in the morning... Got several bags dumped into buckets at the house to make it easier to carry in to the barn since this shoulder does not like to toss feed bags very much. So it is ready for me to go in a few minutes, then go get more off the truck... or maybe take the truck up there and unload and then be done. The cows are a pain though wanting to get all around the truck.
DS just called, said he would bring the truck up with the rest of the bags if I wanted and would help unload at the barn, so I am getting dressed to go up there in a few minutes...be alot easier on my shoulder too... He is going to get Colt since his mom (sister of xgf) has to go clean houses this morning... This is her own business that she started and stays really busy with all the B & B places she cleans for.
Baymule
Herd Master
I agree on the BIG cows. They eat more, get out of condition faster. A 1100 to 1200 pound cow will bring a good sized calf, costs less to feed and doesn’t have the problems the bigger cows do.
