In response to forage.
Yes, we have cattle. Trying to get out, have been unsuccessfully trying to be out of the cattle business for about 14 years now... Over 300 back in the good old days of BSE. 100ish in recent years, and just bred heifers and a few cows here as of the past year.
My goal is to burn as little diesel fuel as possible to feed cows, and to feed them anything but marketable hay or grain.
Part of the reason why I have not succeeded in getting out of cows, is that we have ended up with feed that needed to be used, frozen canola, hailed barley, etc. year after year, or else the cows weren't worth anything. Generally don't start feeding until sometime in December. December 1st this year, has been as late as New Years. Have done swath grazing in the past, but the economics don't work at these land values.
I feed as rarely as once per week. Fill hay feeders with various qualities of hay, set up lots of portable windbreaks and straw bales for them to spread as bedding, all on whatever piece of ground needs the manure most, and has access to water. The bedding and windbreaks keeps them where I want, and away from the trees where I don't need manure. When I was going to University, I fed Sunday night and again Saturday morning, not exactly tied down to them. Doesn't take much fuel to drop 20 bales into hay feeders and take twines off by hand. Often hauled straight from the field to the feeders. Mostly using a 60 HP open station almost 60 year old tractor. When we put up silage to salvage a crop, I fence off the pile, set feeders up across from the fence and scoop it directly from the pile into the feeder with the track hoe. Takes a few minutes, and a tank of fuel lasts all winter.
Recently upgraded haying equipment, full line up still worth~ $10000. Ironically, doing less hay than ever with this "modern" equipment, maybe 500 bales total this year, the most I did in recent times was 3000 on a year with farm wide hail. With a 35 year old baler at the time, and an even older tractor pulling it.
I refuse to invest money into cattle equipment. They are here to convert unmarketable products, or unfarmable land into income. They only pasture land completley unfit for cultivation, and as of this year, I only hay land much to wet for farming. I aim for zero yardage costs, and come close.
This year they are actually getting to eat hay bales, which is rare, almost all slough/pasture hay, and year old bales. Most years I sell the good hay and feed anything but. In 2018 with expensive hay, I didn't feed a bale, sold it all.
Moving cows consists of opening a gate and calling them, with a couple of longer moves down/across roads. Don't own a stock trailer. Most feeders, gates, sheds, panels, squeezes, barn are home made or repurposed.
There is profit in cattle this way. But everyone else I know seems to need new MFWD tractors, balers, discbines, rotary rakes, bale processors, stock trailer, dually diesel, handling facilities worth more than all my equipment put together, side by sides, expensive heifers and even more expensive bulls, barns, and they can only eat hay, regardless of the cost. And they complain a lot that there is no profit in cattle.
Yes, we have cattle. Trying to get out, have been unsuccessfully trying to be out of the cattle business for about 14 years now... Over 300 back in the good old days of BSE. 100ish in recent years, and just bred heifers and a few cows here as of the past year.
My goal is to burn as little diesel fuel as possible to feed cows, and to feed them anything but marketable hay or grain.
Part of the reason why I have not succeeded in getting out of cows, is that we have ended up with feed that needed to be used, frozen canola, hailed barley, etc. year after year, or else the cows weren't worth anything. Generally don't start feeding until sometime in December. December 1st this year, has been as late as New Years. Have done swath grazing in the past, but the economics don't work at these land values.
I feed as rarely as once per week. Fill hay feeders with various qualities of hay, set up lots of portable windbreaks and straw bales for them to spread as bedding, all on whatever piece of ground needs the manure most, and has access to water. The bedding and windbreaks keeps them where I want, and away from the trees where I don't need manure. When I was going to University, I fed Sunday night and again Saturday morning, not exactly tied down to them. Doesn't take much fuel to drop 20 bales into hay feeders and take twines off by hand. Often hauled straight from the field to the feeders. Mostly using a 60 HP open station almost 60 year old tractor. When we put up silage to salvage a crop, I fence off the pile, set feeders up across from the fence and scoop it directly from the pile into the feeder with the track hoe. Takes a few minutes, and a tank of fuel lasts all winter.
Recently upgraded haying equipment, full line up still worth~ $10000. Ironically, doing less hay than ever with this "modern" equipment, maybe 500 bales total this year, the most I did in recent times was 3000 on a year with farm wide hail. With a 35 year old baler at the time, and an even older tractor pulling it.
I refuse to invest money into cattle equipment. They are here to convert unmarketable products, or unfarmable land into income. They only pasture land completley unfit for cultivation, and as of this year, I only hay land much to wet for farming. I aim for zero yardage costs, and come close.
This year they are actually getting to eat hay bales, which is rare, almost all slough/pasture hay, and year old bales. Most years I sell the good hay and feed anything but. In 2018 with expensive hay, I didn't feed a bale, sold it all.
Moving cows consists of opening a gate and calling them, with a couple of longer moves down/across roads. Don't own a stock trailer. Most feeders, gates, sheds, panels, squeezes, barn are home made or repurposed.
There is profit in cattle this way. But everyone else I know seems to need new MFWD tractors, balers, discbines, rotary rakes, bale processors, stock trailer, dually diesel, handling facilities worth more than all my equipment put together, side by sides, expensive heifers and even more expensive bulls, barns, and they can only eat hay, regardless of the cost. And they complain a lot that there is no profit in cattle.
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