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Strongest argument for stockers is much more rapid inventory turnover compared to breeding heifers. This is particularly true is you are buying the stockers. Custom grazing there is less advantage to the rapid turnover concept. Contrary to what most people believe, there is generally more...

Each ton of hay harvested is equivalent to 68 animal unit days (AUD). (2000 lbs/ton /26 lbs DM/AUD X 88% DM/ton of hay) How much of those AUD you harvest is largely determined by your grazing management. With set stocking (continuous grazing) you may harvest only 30-50% of that yield. With...

Sounds like all the more reason to 'Kick the Hay Habit'... Stocker Steve is exactly right. You generally can't afford to harvest hay if the yield is less that 1-1/2 ton/A. If you do honest complete cost accounting, it is rare to find anyone producing hay for under $80/ton. The $120-$160/ton...

As described by others above, here is a photo of training fence in our corral. This was May 22 this year. We rarely get rain here in Idaho but this bunch of 177 hd had the privilege of meeting electric fence for the first time while standing on wet ground. I had about 200 ft of fence set up to...

Fenceline weaning is the least stressful and generally keeps calves gaining. You need to have adequate pasture on the side where the cows will be and very good pasture on the side where the calves will be. We originally did this with 5-strand electrified hi-tensile fence but found we did equally...

You should be able to largely manage the weeds with timely harvest and fertility. While P & K are always pushed as key nutrients for alfalfa production, do not forget to test for sulfur, boron, & molybdenum. Depending on your soil genesis & past cropping history, you may need one or more of...

Hey Thomas, I have come a little late to the conversation, but here are some things to think about. 1) Feed cost is the number 1 determinant of profitability in the cow-calf business. This is pretty well true regardless of where you are located in US.. In SC you should be able to graze year...

I haven't drug a pasture since 2007 when diesel fuel hit its peak price. If you have a healthy biologically active soil, manure piles break down from the bottom up. The connection between the pile and soil is key for the process to happen. When you drag the pasture to 'knock down the turds', it...

If this were true fescue foot, I don't think they could recover in as little as a week. Even if they were completely removed from the fescue, recovery usually takes at least a month and frequently longer. If the toxicity were severe enough to knock their tails off, the foot problems would linger...

Hi 3X, Fescue toxicity is, for the most part, reversible if the cattle are completely removed from the infected fescue. The recovery period is longer the more severe the exposure has been. Severity of exposure depends both on level of endophyte fescue in the diet and duration of time. A calf...

The soil temperature lespedeza needs germinate is same temperature needed for corn.

I'll echo some of what has already been said here. We have elk, deer, antelope, and occasional moose and many miles of electric fence. After the first couple months here (we are now in our sixth year), we have had virtually no maintenance issues with our fence. We don't even have them kocking...

As a self contained unit we have used the Stafix SX (.25 j output $275) in a lot of diferent situations. We find we can run up to about a mile of hi-tensile 1 or 2 wire on it and 3-5 800 to 1000 ft polybraid reels and maintain about 3500v. Any longer hi-tensile fence and we lose capacity. As a...

We've been using Stafix for about 20 years and have been very satisfied. We have had everything from the little SX solar unit up to the M36 w/ remote control. The output joule rating on a Stafix compared to stored on Gallagher is about 20-30% higher. If you pay the same money for a 3j Stafix...

Todd, I'm sorry to say it, but at your scale of operation, you need to just admit it's a hobby and then decide how much you're willing to spend on your hobby. Ranching for Profit ( http://www.ranchmanagement.com/) maintains a set of benchmarks for allowable expenditures for economically viable...

From what I understand, only the hard seed passes through the rumen undigested. If the cow grazes a clover plant that has mature seed on it, up to 80-90% can pass through the cow and still germinate. Once the seed is harvested and stored, the hard seed content decreases and the readily...

I think 9 times out of 10 it is simply a matter of grazing management that doesn't allow the newly seeded pasture crop to thrive. i.e. not managing for optimal leaf area for solar energy capture. Almost every pasture I have ever seeded has only gotten better over time.

fargus, I'm still missing something. What was wrong with your calculation? An acre 6" slice does weigh 2,000,000 lb and one percent of that would be 20,000 lb. So a 1% increase in OM would be 20,000 lb more OM added to the soil. I know 20,000 lb crop residue would not translate to 20,000 lb...

My point is our yields with legume mixtures were as high or greater than neighbors using N fertilizer so we had no motivation to use N. In our county in MO the average carrying capacity was 4-5 acres/pair for year-around, so we were over twice the stocking rate with no N-fert. In our valley in...