Keeping the legacy alive, eh?
Another..."last" update.
- Thread starter Warren Allison
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Mark Reynolds
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LOL! @Warren Allison, I just saw this. I've been over too much of the US! Think of a Douglas Fir as a Sweet Gum/Red Gum/Star Gum (your preference of name where you are) (Liquidambar styracifula) and you will get an understanding of @puzzled in oregon view of Douglas Fir.
Somewhere on here they mentioned about the government using Kudzu for erosion control (BTW: the government has advocated planting cheat grass, multi-flora rose, and autumn olive for various 'silver bullet' solutions including erosion) I found this:
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Oh, I would never intentionally plant it, but with 100cres of it, probably over 200 acres now with the new place, I try to make good use of it. Clay's boss, that I got the last 400 Corrs from, does NOT believe in pastures or hay! LOL. He feeds out 900-1000 Corr cross, polled black calves per year.. He starts them at weaning for four months, on a mixture of sorghum silage, the spent mash and hops from the Busch plant here in town, chicken litter and cotton seeds and gin trash. This is high protein, with good fiber and carbs... that we call his "growth formula". And that was what he fed these cows on, too, except by this time of year he doesn't use much cotton seed. He is amazed at how they are doing down here on the Kudzu! They have maintained and actually improved condition as well as weight, on this Kudzu diet. BUT...he doesn't plan on planting any , either!
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Mark Reynolds
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@Warren Allison . I know you would never plant it. You are just making "lemmonade out of lemmons". That never crossed my mind. I was just pointing out that our government and its employee and agencies in the past (which I am now one and work for) have advocated for some pretty poor solutions that seemed like a good idea at the time (planting kudzu being one of them. Now they are trying to eradicate it).Oh, I would never intentionally plant it, but with 100cres of it, probably over 200 acres now with the new place, I try to make good use of it. Clay's boss, that I got the last 400 Corrs from. He does NOT believe in pastures or hay! LOL. He feeds out 900-1000 Corr cross, polled black calves per year.. He starts them at weaning for four months, on a mixture of sorghum silage, the spent mash and hops from the Busch plant here in town, chicken litter and cotton seeds and gin trash. This is high protein, with good fiber and carbs... that we call his "growth formula". And that was what he fed these cows on, too, except by this time of year he doesn't use much cotton seed. He is amazed at how they are doing down here on the Kudzu! They have maintained and actually improved condition as well as weight, on this Kudzu diet. BIUT...he doesn't plan on planting any , either!
Famous last words: "It seemed like a good idea at the time"…lol
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Our legacy? No... we don't care about that. The ext agent that is over the 4H, and the ag shop teacher that is over the FFA, spend a lot of time with the kids...many nights and weekends, and if they do well, maybe a week or two a year at a state fair or something. They get the money they need to buy show supplies and other equipment, and when they go to a show or fair or sale, they are pulling a new aluminum stock combo trailer!
And these kids...they would work day and night for 3 days helping us put on the shoot every year. They were there to tend the fires, tote water, help cook, help prep, serve, park vehicles and cleanup Sunday morning. Ag kids aren't like a lot of kids these days...they will work! If the dove shoot the other farm is putting on, raises the same amount of money, Scott and I have talked about getting with the 4H and FFA guy, and see about maybe setting up a scholarship fund for a 4H and a FFA student each year, with our contributions.
Good planOur legacy? No... we don't care about that. The ext agent that is over the 4H, and the ag shop teacher that is over the FFA, spend a lot of time with the kids...many nights and weekends, and if they do well, maybe a week or two a year at a state fair or something. They get the money they need to buy show supplies and other equipment, and when they go to a show or fair or sale, they are pulling a new aluminum stock combo trailer!
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Farmer Makes Friend Out Of Kudzu
Most Southerners despise kudzu for its annoying ability to choke out everything in its path. But a North Carolina couple managed to turn the noxious weed into something good.
www.farmshow.com
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Mark Reynolds
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Give it a year or two, and it will be!
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Ok. So I said that I would tell y'all later on what the plan is for the 400 acres of converted row crop land. Well, we won't be doing the Corriente thing there. Would they do as well on that Bermuda- alfalfa and Bahia- peanut, etc? Probably so, but they would not do better. This place will be fertilized and limed to UGA specs, and sprayed to be kept weed free. Already built a couple of pole barns on it. The entire place has an irrigation system. The calves produced there would bring just as much, but it won't be zero inputs like the Corriente-Kudzu herd is. So, what me and my partner, both nearly 70 and with ticker problems.... and I think we may both be in the early stages of dementia.... have decided to go into raising Brahma cross replacement heifers! It is something we both have talked about from time to time. These we will have to worm, and vaccinate, etc. But, Joe ( our farrier and a great horseman and cowboy) and his wife Lisa( our vet, also a great horseman and cowboy), will have minority ownership in this operation. So that takes care of the vet stuff, and the help when it comes time to work them. We already have put up a corral. It is an old rodeo arena, made of pipe and it is 7'6" tall. I am going to get about 150 head of purebred Brahma cows. Registered will be ok, but I don't intend to keep up with it., or raise registered Brahmas. ( Well, if we get some that are registered, that may be an option for those cows). We are going to offer custom-bred replacement heifers for folks. f1 Braford, black Braford, Charbray ( using red Charolais), Simbrah, Br x Jersey....what ever you may want. Gonna AI them with sexed semen, using homo-for -polled bulls. Might do 10-20 of them with sexed for male semen, for my contact in Chihuahua. He has a market in Central America for bulls like this. I am going to buy the cows and develop markets for the heifers, and Clay and I will handle transport if the clients need it. Scott and Zeke will handle the fence, fertilizer, herbicide, irrigation, etc. Joe and Lisa will do the working of the cattle. Those Chi bull calves, as well as the heifers, will leave here at weaning unless someone wants us to supply bred heifers, which we will have to keep an extra 10-12 months.
I already have 12. 8 greys that will be calving Chi-Angus heifer calves soon, and 4 reds that are bred to Red Charolais. Right now, they and 4 of Mike's Brangus bulls are finishing up the 100 acres of un-harvested beans and the 100 acres of corn residue. Soon, we will shut them out of those 2 pastures, so Scott can sow it, and they will be on the 50 acre former dove field. The bulls will go on to the Corriente herd this week..4 of them are already over there. I am looking at 25 more grey cows right now, and will get more this spring when the Bermuda and Bahia starts putting out. The first 12 calves are already sold (have a deposit on them), and my goal is to never have any "for sale". I want to try to get them all pre-sold. Like the man Clay gets those Black Simm x Chi-Angus replacement heifers from. He produces 60 a year, and they are all sold to return customers before they are born. Same people get them every year, for the most part. Clay helped him at weaning in 2023, with the last crop of heifers and steers, and bought 20 of the first all-heifer crop. He started with the all heifers this year, and Clay got in then. When they weaned in July, Clay wanted to get 10 more for next year, but the man only had 5 left un sold for 2015. And that was because someone had backed out on those. I hope that soon, I can get ours to that point, that there are none unsold at weaning. We won't have a 30 day calving schedule... it will or can be, year round, depending on when the clients want them.
We are doing an 85%-15% split of the gross sale price with Joe and Lisa. $300 per calf. They will have the med and wormer costs to come out of theirs. If we need to, though Scott and I talked about going as high as 82.5%-17.5% ( $350) or even 80%-20%, giving them $400 per calf. The reason I did the percentages instead of just a flat $300-$400 per calf is because you never know where the prices will be, 18 or more months from now. We will be getting about $1600-$1700., minus inputs for these from the $2500 cows, vs the $1500 with virtually no-inputs from the $250 Corr cows. See why I said I ought to post it on the What is the stupidest thing I have done thread??! LOL
Seriously. though, Joe and Lisa can take their $300 per calf, and buy one of our Corrs with it. They will get $45000 gross off the Brahmas the first year we sell replacements, and that will buy 150 of the 400 Corrs. Next year they will get their $45000 off the Brahmas, plus $225,000 off their 150 Corrs. $75k of that will buy the rest of the Corrs, and that will give them $195k to buy 78 of the Brahmas with, and me and Scott will get the 15% or 20% on those. The next year they can buy the rest of the Brahmas and still make a $400k gross profit. That is mine and Scott's give-or -take-5-year exit plan. Once they own both herds outright, we will just rent them the 2 places...payable to Zeke's trust.... and finally get to just enjoy our quail and rabbit hunting!
Of course, it probably won't work out that way....but we can hope!
I already have 12. 8 greys that will be calving Chi-Angus heifer calves soon, and 4 reds that are bred to Red Charolais. Right now, they and 4 of Mike's Brangus bulls are finishing up the 100 acres of un-harvested beans and the 100 acres of corn residue. Soon, we will shut them out of those 2 pastures, so Scott can sow it, and they will be on the 50 acre former dove field. The bulls will go on to the Corriente herd this week..4 of them are already over there. I am looking at 25 more grey cows right now, and will get more this spring when the Bermuda and Bahia starts putting out. The first 12 calves are already sold (have a deposit on them), and my goal is to never have any "for sale". I want to try to get them all pre-sold. Like the man Clay gets those Black Simm x Chi-Angus replacement heifers from. He produces 60 a year, and they are all sold to return customers before they are born. Same people get them every year, for the most part. Clay helped him at weaning in 2023, with the last crop of heifers and steers, and bought 20 of the first all-heifer crop. He started with the all heifers this year, and Clay got in then. When they weaned in July, Clay wanted to get 10 more for next year, but the man only had 5 left un sold for 2015. And that was because someone had backed out on those. I hope that soon, I can get ours to that point, that there are none unsold at weaning. We won't have a 30 day calving schedule... it will or can be, year round, depending on when the clients want them.
We are doing an 85%-15% split of the gross sale price with Joe and Lisa. $300 per calf. They will have the med and wormer costs to come out of theirs. If we need to, though Scott and I talked about going as high as 82.5%-17.5% ( $350) or even 80%-20%, giving them $400 per calf. The reason I did the percentages instead of just a flat $300-$400 per calf is because you never know where the prices will be, 18 or more months from now. We will be getting about $1600-$1700., minus inputs for these from the $2500 cows, vs the $1500 with virtually no-inputs from the $250 Corr cows. See why I said I ought to post it on the What is the stupidest thing I have done thread??! LOL
Seriously. though, Joe and Lisa can take their $300 per calf, and buy one of our Corrs with it. They will get $45000 gross off the Brahmas the first year we sell replacements, and that will buy 150 of the 400 Corrs. Next year they will get their $45000 off the Brahmas, plus $225,000 off their 150 Corrs. $75k of that will buy the rest of the Corrs, and that will give them $195k to buy 78 of the Brahmas with, and me and Scott will get the 15% or 20% on those. The next year they can buy the rest of the Brahmas and still make a $400k gross profit. That is mine and Scott's give-or -take-5-year exit plan. Once they own both herds outright, we will just rent them the 2 places...payable to Zeke's trust.... and finally get to just enjoy our quail and rabbit hunting!
Of course, it probably won't work out that way....but we can hope!
Mark Reynolds
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With Climate Change (I call it Climate Destabilization, which is much worse) it will reach that level. Up this far, it is very slow to spread. These two areas (3 pictures, 2 areas, about 200 ft apart) were one area , close to about 3/4 the combined size of these 2 areas about 18 years ago. I've seen this patch both grow and shrink. It has grown just a bit each year for about the past 6-7 years each year.Give it a year or two, and it will be!
Mark Reynolds
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"Brahma cross replacement heifers"!?!?Ok. So I said that I would tell y'all later on what the plan is for the 400 acres of converted row crop land. Well, we won't be doing the Corriente thing there. Would they do as well on that Bermuda- alfalfa and Bahia- peanut, etc? Probably so, but they would not do better. This place will be fertilized and limed to UGA specs, and sprayed to be kept weed free. Already built a couple of pole barns on it. The entire place has an irrigation system. The calves produced there would bring just as much, but it won't be zero inputs like the Corriente-Kudzu herd is. So, what me and my partner, both nearly 70 and with ticker problems.... and I think we may both be in the early stages of dementia.... have decided to go into raising Brahma cross replacement heifers! It is something we both have talked about from time to time. These we will have to worm, and vaccinate, etc. But, Joe ( our farrier and a great horseman and cowboy) and his wife Lisa( our vet, also a great horseman and cowboy), will have minority ownership in this operation. So that takes care of the vet stuff, and the help when it comes time to work them. We already have put up a corral. It is an old rodeo arena, made of pipe and it is 7'6" tall. I am going to get about 150 head of purebred Brahma cows. Registered will be ok, but I don't intend to keep up with it., or raise registered Brahmas. ( Well, if we get some that are registered, that may be an option for those cows). We are going to offer custom-bred replacement heifers for folks. f1 Braford, black Braford, Charbray ( using red Charolais), Simbrah, Br x Jersey....what ever you may want. Gonna AI them with sexed semen, using homo-for -polled bulls. Might do 10-20 of them with sexed for male semen, for my contact in Chihuahua. He has a market in Central America for bulls like this. I am going to buy the cows and develop markets for the heifers, and Clay and I will handle transport if the clients need it. Scott and Zeke will handle the fence, fertilizer, herbicide, irrigation, etc. Joe and Lisa will do the working of the cattle. Those Chi bull calves, as well as the heifers, will leave here at weaning unless someone wants us to supply bred heifers, which we will have to keep an extra 10-12 months.
I already have 12. 8 greys that will be calving Chi-Angus heifer calves soon, and 4 reds that are bred to Red Charolais. Right now, they and 4 of Mike's Brangus bulls are finishing up the 100 acres of un-harvested beans and the 100 acres of corn residue. Soon, we will shut them out of those 2 pastures, so Scott can sow it, and they will be on the 50 acre former dove field. The bulls will go on to the Corriente herd this week..4 of them are already over there. I am looking at 25 more grey cows right now, and will get more this spring when the Bermuda and Bahia starts putting out. The first 12 calves are already sold (have a deposit on them), and my goal is to never have any "for sale". I want to try to get them all pre-sold. Like the man Clay gets those Black Simm x Chi-Angus replacement heifers from. He produces 60 a year, and they are all sold to return customers before they are born. Same people get them every year, for the most part. Clay helped him at weaning in 2023, with the last crop of heifers and steers, and bought 20 of the first all-heifer crop. He started with the all heifers this year, and Clay got in then. When they weaned in July, Clay wanted to get 10 more for next year, but the man only had 5 left un sold for 2015. And that was because someone had backed out on those. I hope that soon, I can get ours to that point, that there are none unsold at weaning. We won't have a 30 day calving schedule... it will or can be, year round, depending on when the clients want them.
We are doing an 85%-15% split of the gross sale price with Joe and Lisa. $300 per calf. They will have the med and wormer costs to come out of theirs. If we need to, though Scott and I talked about going as high as 82.5%-17.5% ( $350) or even 80%-20%, giving them $400 per calf. The reason I did the percentages instead of just a flat $300-$400 per calf is because you never know where the prices will be, 18 or more months from now. We will be getting about $1600-$1700., minus inputs for these from the $2500 cows, vs the $1500 with virtually no-inputs from the $250 Corr cows. See why I said I ought to post it on the What is the stupidest thing I have done thread??! LOL
Seriously. though, Joe and Lisa can take their $300 per calf, and buy one of our Corrs with it. They will get $45000 gross off the Brahmas the first year we sell replacements, and that will buy 150 of the 400 Corrs. Next year they will get their $45000 off the Brahmas, plus $225,000 off their 150 Corrs. $75k of that will buy the rest of the Corrs, and that will give them $195k to buy 78 of the Brahmas with, and me and Scott will get the 15% or 20% on those. The next year they can buy the rest of the Brahmas and still make a $400k gross profit. That is mine and Scott's give-or -take-5-year exit plan. Once they own both herds outright, we will just rent them the 2 places...payable to Zeke's trust.... and finally get to just enjoy our quail and rabbit hunting!
Of course, it probably won't work out that way....but we can hope!
Are you sure about the dementia diagnosis? I'm wondering if there might be other possibilities?
OP
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Yes. I have always been partial to Brahmas. f1 Br x Herf heifers and cows always sell extremely well, especially the black ones. The Blacklf1 steers sell a LOT better than the red or brindled ones, too. And I already have someone wanting some Red Char x Brahma heifers. and some Br x Jersies. I have 4, maybe 5 sources for the Brahma cows that are on Fescue, and all of these use horses to work them. If the new grass was ready, I'd go ahead and get 150 now. Scott wants me to go ahead and do that....he has enough Bermuda hay and peanut hay in the banrs to feed the every day for a year, if we need to. But I am gonna take my time. I want to lay eyes on any I get...won't be buying off of pics or video. There are 2 producers I would, but they are 2 hours and 1 and 1/2 hours away, so I will physically go see them and pick them out since they are so close."Brahma cross replacement heifers"!?!?
Are you sure about the dementia diagnosis? I'm wondering if there might be other possibilities?
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Carried Scott's brother 8 straws of homo for polled homo for red, Red Charolais sexed semen. He has some of his reg Grey Brahmas with 2 month old calves he was about to AI. The 4 red Brahmas I have now were bred with this semen, but I wanna see what the calves will look like outa white ones. Don't want brindled if it can be helped. I am gonna buy those cows once he weans those calves., anyway. I have about decided to just buy reg Brahmas when I can. Most of the time they don't cost much more at all, if any, than purebred commercial ones. I am gonna do what the dude that raises those Black-Simm x CHi-Angus heifers does...give a copy of the sire and dam's papers, along with all the heifers' pertinent info. As a matter of fact, ABBA has a "Golden Certified" registry for females by or out of registered Brahmas and out of or by a registered cow or bull of another breed. I am gonna research and see what the costs are. If not too much I will probably do this with the heifers by reg Red Charolais, reg Black or bwf Simms. and ChiAngus or Chianina bulls. If these f1's are bred to British bulls, like Herf or Angus, they ought to have a lot of high bred vinegar!"Brahma cross replacement heifers"!?!?
Are you sure about the dementia diagnosis? I'm wondering if there might be other possibilities?
Same with the 1/2 Angus and 1/2 Black Herefords...they should do well bred to a Continental bull. Well, even with the 1/2 Jersies, the bulls we use to AI will be registered, so may as well do them, too. And ,if anyone wanted Plummers, I will be AI-ing them to reg LH bulls. And having that pedigree will be valuable if they breed them to ABBI bulls.Ok, I have just talked my self into only buying reg Brahma cows.
Now I am sitting here thinking of making a FB for this project, then later on a website. FB pages are easy to make and maintain...and cheaper than a web site.
I am also sitting here thinking I am about to get myself into yet another full-time job!!! I wish I could talk Scott into just running that Brahma operation on his 460 acres of former row crops and dove field, and me just running the Corr operation across the road on the Kudzu Place, which is now 493 acres.
But his health would make it hard on him, even if he had the Corr operation. Man I wish we were both in our 40's right now, and knew what we know now that we are almost 70!!!Was talking to Mike and Clay today at breakfast ( Ole lady has been in PCB with her sister and daughter since Sunday, and ain't coming back til Sunday, so I am not bothering with cooking this week). Mike asked why I was only gonna run 150 cows on that 460 acres, and I told him if I don't t sell them all at weaning, ( because someone wants bred heifers) I will have to have a separate pasture for them to keep them from their mommas at weaning, and raise them, for 8 to 10 months. He said: " Well hell,. boy, haul them up here and put them on my growth feed in Clay's lot where he is keeping those 20 Black Simm x ChiAng heifers he got last month. " That is where I sent the half-Brahma/ half-dairy heifers. They really grow on that formula, I am telling you. Never could get him to tell me how much, though, and I will NOT do that unless he lets me pay him for that feed, at least. I figure it will work out as cheap or cheaper than it will cost to keep them separate and raise them for a year at our place...especially counting my time! Plus, if we did that, I could run probably 250 instead of 150 cows. and we talked about those 15+= acres over at Mattie's house, where we were keeping the dairy nurse cows, and sometimes the horses. he has the horse pastures in great shape now, and we won't be having anymore nurse cows at our place, so he is thinking about trying to sow Fescue on the 7 or so acres of open pasture and just see if it can grow even half-way decent down there. He will sow Creeping Red Fescue in the 7 or so acres that is the orchard. We know creeping red will grow down there in the shade. We won't to be able to say truthfully that any bred heifers we raise and sell has been on Fescue.
@Mark Reynolds , @kenny thomas , @Ky hills , does creeping red count as being on Fescue? Is there any problems with Creeping Red Fescue, like there apparently can be with cows on KY31, that were raised down here?
Edited to add. I looked it up....... $50 one time to be enrolled in the Golden Certified program, $20 a year after that admin fee, and the registration papers are only $7.50 per cow. So, I am gonna do it.
Certification & Qualification Fees
One-time enrollment fee, all participants: $50
Annual administrative fee: $20
Certified F-1 Brahman Female Certificate or Eartag: $7.50 each
Qualification inspections of purebred non-registered herds: $6/head
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Mark Reynolds
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Hey @Warren Allison, your question about creeping red fescue is a good one. I'll start out by pointing out that tall fescue and creeping red fescue are two different species. Let me follow that up with KY-31 (which contains the potentially harmful endophyte) is a variety of the tall fescue species. tall fescue has other varieties within the species, such as Max-Q, which do not contain the harmful endophyte. Creeping red fescue (a different species), also has multiple (a whole lot) of varieties within it. Upon looking (cursory research on the web) it DOES APPEAR that there are varieties of creeping red fescue that do contain endophytes that are potentially harmful to livestock. There are also varieties that appear to NOT contain endophytes that are harmful. If I were to wager to guess, the endophyte that is found in KY-31 has been introduced to creeping red fescue at some point in time to create a variety of creeping red fescue with the 'superman' characteristics of the KY-31.Carried Scott's brother 8 straws of homo for polled homo for red, Red Charolais sexed semen. He has some of his reg Grey Brahmas with 2 month old calves he was about to AI. The 4 red Brahmas I have now were bred with this semen, but I wanna see what the calves will look like outa white ones. Don't want brindled if it can be helped. I am gonna buy those cows once he weans those calves., anyway. I have about decided to just buy reg Brahmas when I can. Most of the time they don't cost much more at all, if any, than purebred commercial ones. I am gonna do what the dude that raises those Black-Simm x CHi-Angus heifers does...give a copy of the sire and dam's papers, along with all the heifers' pertinent info. As a matter of fact, ABBA has a "Golden Certified" registry for females by or out of registered Brahmas and out of or by a registered cow or bull of another breed. I am gonna research and see what the costs are. If not too much I will probably do this with the heifers by reg Red Charolais, reg Black or bwf Simms. and ChiAngus or Chianina bulls. If these f1's are bred to British bulls, like Herf or Angus, they ought to have a lot of high bred vinegar!
Ok, I have just talked my self into only buying reg Brahma cows.
Now I am sitting here thinking of making a FB for this project, then later on a website. FB pages are easy to make and maintain...and cheaper than a web site.
I am also sitting here thinking I am about to get myself into yet another full-time job!!! I wish I could talk Scott into just running that Brahma operation on his 460 acres of former row crops and dove field, and me just running the Corr operation across the road on the Kudzu Place, which is now 493 acres.
Was talking to Mike and Clay today at breakfast ( Ole lady has been in PCB with her sister and daughter since Sunday, and ain't coming back til Sunday, so I am not bothering with cooking this week). Mike asked why I was only gonna run 150 cows on that 460 acres, and I told him if I don't t sell them all at weaning, ( because someone wants bred heifers) I will have to have a separate pasture for them to keep them from their mommas at weaning, and raise them, for 8 to 10 months. He said: " Well hell,. boy, haul them up here and put them on my growth feed in Clay's lot where he is keeping those 20 Black Simm x ChiAng heifers he got last month. " That is where I sent the half-Brahma/ half-dairy heifers. They really grow on that formula, I am telling you. Never could get him to tell me how much, though, and I will NOT do that unless he lets me pay him for that feed, at least. I figure it will work out as cheap or cheaper than it will cost to keep them separate and raise them for a year at our place...especially counting my time! Plus, if we did that, I could run probably 250 instead of 150 cows. and we talked about those 15+= acres over at Mattie's house, where we were keeping the dairy nurse cows, and sometimes the horses. he has the horse pastures in great shape now, and we won't be having anymore nurse cows at our place, so he is thinking about trying to sow Fescue on the 7 or so acres of open pasture and just see if it can grow even half-way decent down there. He will sow Creeping Red Fescue in the 7 or so acres that is the orchard. We know creeping red will grow down there in the shade. We won't to be able to say truthfully that any bred heifers we raise and sell has been on Fescue.
@Mark Reynolds , @kenny thomas , @Ky hills , does creeping red count as being on Fescue? Is there any problems with Creeping Red Fescue, like there apparently can be with cows on KY31, that were raised down here?
@Mark Reynolds
What should be done by anyone wanting to plant creeping red fescue for livestock is to research the variety that you are considering selecting for planting for forage. That said, I'll help you do this if you have a specific variety in mind and I would thank @kenny thomas and @Ky hills for looking into any selected variety as well to check any research findings that get unearthed.
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Thanks! I would appreciate it any help I can get. I am betting, though, when people talk about wanting Brahmas that have been raised on Fescue, they are talking about KY31. Which leads me to think that when people tell you: " Yes, they were raised on Fescue", then it won't really be of any benefit if it was an endophyte free variety...would it?" Nor would it benefit them, if they were raised on endophyte-free creeping red either, would it?
Like I said, I never heard of Fescue being problems for cows in my life til I started reading these forums about 6 years ago. And every bovine I have ever owned since I was 4 years old with my 1st bottle calf, has never not been on Fescue pasture. And since the 80's, I dunno how many 100's....maybe 1000's..in the past 40-45 years I have bought in Fla, south Ga, and LA that I brought up here, and put on Fescue with no problems. I had only heard warnings about Fescue endophytes pertaining to horses, and it is no problem with stallions, geldings and open mares...just bred mares.
Little Joe
Well-known member
@Warren Allison , a lot of people have trouble with fescue in their cattle and don't realize it because there's not really any major indication. Example, one of my older neighbors will tell you he doesn't have any trouble with it but some of his cows have a rough haircoat in the summer and spend a lot of time in the pond which is a sign of endophyte toxicity from what I understand. I've not had much trouble with it over the years myself other than with broodmares. I had a 54" red roan Jack that I bred to a spotted saddle horse a couple times, first colt got weak a few days old and just died, tried again the next year and same thing and that's when I realized the mare wasnt' giving milk, bag looked full but was hard as a rock. I was in my twenties then and didn't know anything about raising colts but looking back I realize it had to be because the mare had been out on Fescue. I've had a few cows and calves lose part of their tale from it but for the most part no issues. I've read that it will effect weight gain in some calves as well. Where I live you'd be hard pressed to find a pasture that doesn't have fescue unless they spray and manage all the time for it.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
Very good points. I will add a couple things i have observed.
Until a few years ago every pasture had at least a couple ponds or a running stream. As you said the cows stood in the water all day. It kept the cows body cooler and negated the overheating of the fescue toxicity. Now we have installed water systems and fenced most of the ponds and streams for conservation reasons.
Until probably the 80's there were not a lot of Angus cows in my area. It seems the black hide cows without slick hair just cannot handle the fescue and the heat as well. I cant think of a cow that i have owned that lost a tail switch that wasn't black. I'm sure it happens but not as common.
Do Highland cows on fescue have the same issues. It makes me sweat just to see a Highland cow grazing on a 95°day.
Just my thoughts, don't bet the farm on them.
