Recent content by IL cow man

Rotational grazing has a huge learning curve, but can give tremendous benefits. There are grazing charts or you can make one with a calendar to keep track of your moves and can get a history of pasture performance that will help plan for the future grazing. Just starting out you have to just...

I may never achieve year round grazing, but the goal is to reduce hay usage. I believe the hardest thing is getting the correct stock density and getting the right calving season. The other is realizing you will need to spend the time moving and adjusting temporary fencing to graze and develop...

I checked into a custom grazing contract and this fellow was in SE Iowa and he wanted a $1.20/hd per day for a year. He furnished mineral and winter feed.

You should be able to clear a fence line even if it is highly erodible soil. You will need to confirm this with NRCS, but should have no problem if it is going back into pasture. If you have multiple species of livestock, I would go with the high tensile woven wire. All fence is high priced...

In the long run economically it has always shown buying cows is cheaper than raising replacement heifers, but someone needs to raise them or we will have no cows. There could be an opportunity with good consistent F1's. We have an industry with huge variances in type of cows and that has to do...

If you have never calved heifers they are too expensive for you. The real issue is they are heifers and you plan to run them on cornstalks which is fine except you have to keep them growing and will have to supplement them, calve them, and sell them. Fancy heifers will lose you money. Older...

I would disagree with the others on making money raising hay on $45 an acre rent. It depends on the tonnage. It is too far for me personally to go for raising hay. In the long run it would be easier to plant to corn or beans.

Dun is correct. I believe it is too late to put N on the field. It may do more to stunt the clover. Good Luck!

Sorry i never got back to you. The 4020 will handle any of the nine foot disc mowers fine. Keep the cover in good shape because I assume you do not have a cab. These covers are for your protection as the mowers can really throw rocks and other debris.

When looking at disc mowers you need to look at the size of the tractor you are going to use with the mower. Mowers with individual gear boxes weigh more than the ones with the open bars where the oil moves up and down the whole bar. Does your tractor have weights and a heavy enough 3 point...

We need to have a plan in place for drought. I don't think anyone could have planned for the length of the drought this year in the south. I believe most times it is economically unfeasible to feed thru a drought( or a long drought). Plan to sell cattle, hire a custom grazer out of the drought...

The best thing will be to Manage intensive Grazing and possibly move up to High Density grazing(Mob Grazing). Get a some of Jim Gerrish's books..Look up: American Grazing Land Services

Sometimes when you medicate calves too long it kills all of the good or so called beneficial bacteria in the gut. I'm not big on probiotics but they can help in that situation. I find the best thing to do with scouring calves is give them electrolytes. I still use nuflor 3 cc in mouth and 3...

i'm glad to here that you were able to get fescue up in a timely manner. Your area is probably the closest with hay to the drought area. The biggest problem is the drought area encompasses a larger area than what your area will be able to supply in hay.

I would suggest staying away from the fescue hay this year. It is highly likely that most was mowed and baled tooooo late, because it stayed too wet in the areas where there is hay. Too wet too long means over mature most likely. You might be able to buy straw bales and ammoniate them with...