Recent content by forageconverter

We sold our calves for years at one sale barn and always took them in on sale day. The sale barn closed and then changed hands, so we tried another barn for a couple of years. At this barn, we took the calves in the day before the sale. These calves were our first Gelbvieh cross calves and were...

You might want a cow to go with your bull… some grass and water…. a little salt…. someone who likes to work hard and long for no compensation… and maybe not a necessity, but would sure make things easier: a big bag of money.

Something is wrong. Something has been very wrong for a long time now. And what’s wrong is the market value is too low to be a fair price to the producer. Market value should support all operation costs and pay the producer/operator a descent enough salary to raise a family. Market value is...

Probably, but there again, all size cows would be bred to the same bull. Assuming all the cows are the same age, and assuming the smaller cow was incapable of having the same size calf as the larger cow; then could the larger cow rival the smaller cow in terms of percentage weight weaned? In...

Another thing to maybe consider is if all size cows are being bred to the same bull, since the bull makes up half of the calf. Could the large cows be more capable of handling be bred to a bull that would throw ‘growthier’ calves than the small cows could handle due to calving ease limitations...

You could maybe say steer or heifer? Or just say beef or beeves. On your site, you give a good simple definition of what the hanging carcass is. But sticking with the consumer-friendly theme, and this is just another suggestion, maybe instead of saying: “The hanging carcass is basically the...

I’ve always felt a cow should wean a calf close to a minimum of 50% of her body weight. However, many people claim their cost to keep a big cow is not much different than their cost to keep a smaller cow. Therefore, they are usually able to wean more weight for near the same input costs, even...

Looks like a nice site to me and answers all the common questions in a direct and simple manner. My only recommendation, which may just be knit-picking, would be maybe use a more ‘consumer-friendly’ term for slaughter and kill, such as ‘processing’. “All arrangements for slaughter(processing)...

A lot of good information in your post. But it seems all your profit was made in the purchase of the calves. $329 profit for two calves is $164.50 per calf. Assuming it cost 1.40 a day to keep a cow, and assuming a cow raises only one calf a year, those 400lb calves cost $511 to raise. Where...

Maybe or maybe not a potential problem: If you have 100 acres out of 105, you are already providing 95% of the land. The biggest expense in raising a cow is the feed, which is usually produced from the land. Seems to me, rather than paying 90%, you would be paying 95% of the biggest part of the...

Have you tested the hay for nitrates? Nitrate levels could be just high enough to be toxic for cows in third third stage, while still safe to feed to other cattle. I would test the hay.

Heck no! And that's the problem. And in my opinion, that problem stems for the effect of off-farm income being put back into the farm.

Exactly. And that in a nutshell is the real problem with the hobby farmer. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a free country and one can make and spend his money however he so wishes. But whenever off-farm income is used to pay on-farm expenses or to support what on-farm income should pay for, then the...

Does this happen every year? Do all your cows’ calves have scours, or is it just some of your cows? Is it the same cows every year? The reason I asked the questions is because I fought the scours a few years in some of my cows’ calves. I finally realized the same cows were having the scouring...

I agree 100%. One should use a ‘birth weight EPD’, or better yet, a ‘calving ease EPD’, to select a calving ease bull.