farmerjan
Well-known member
If you want to cut numbers, selling for those prices is not dumb or crazy.... that is smart. If you are trying to build numbers, then it may not have been as good a move... except to get rid of real problem or poor producing cows. Seems to me that you were being smart and cutting back some numbers like you wanted. Cull cows here are bringing the same here, not many options to sell on the rail, and at $1.00 to 1.50 lb live weight for cows and 1.50-2.00 for bulls, it is time to sell any that you want to cull.
A dairy farmer had about 10 cows that he has on his cull list, but had just kept milking them. Been talking, and talking about that he ought to send them...,..... well, one came in heat, split and went down. A week later still couldn't get up and had to shoot her. Then a 2nd one came down with coliform mastitis and added to the "bone pile".
Said something to me about how that was over 3,000 he probably buried... and I looked right at him and said, OKAY, what are you waiting for now????
I mean, when you have put them on the cull list, and the prices are what they have been for months, how STUPID is it to keep on milking them????
Granted, sometimes timing is not right, and other things may come into play... BUT... if you make a decision like they are on the cull cow list, and you are at the max # in the barn, and it is taking longer to keep milking, and they are not making the herd average at the time, WHY keep on milking them?????
Same with the beef cows. You want to cut back, they are older cows, maybe not as good a producer as they were, WHY keep them. If you are waiting for the prices to get cheaper, then just bury a couple....
Everyone has to weigh their goals against what they have and make decisions... but once you do, DO NOT SECOND GUESS yourself for 3 months. You too often miss the opportunity to ship them and often...not always... will lose out. Especially when you know how good prices are now... Not like they are $.25 /lb..... and you are holding out to maybe try to get .50 in a month...
A dairy farmer had about 10 cows that he has on his cull list, but had just kept milking them. Been talking, and talking about that he ought to send them...,..... well, one came in heat, split and went down. A week later still couldn't get up and had to shoot her. Then a 2nd one came down with coliform mastitis and added to the "bone pile".
Said something to me about how that was over 3,000 he probably buried... and I looked right at him and said, OKAY, what are you waiting for now????
I mean, when you have put them on the cull list, and the prices are what they have been for months, how STUPID is it to keep on milking them????
Granted, sometimes timing is not right, and other things may come into play... BUT... if you make a decision like they are on the cull cow list, and you are at the max # in the barn, and it is taking longer to keep milking, and they are not making the herd average at the time, WHY keep on milking them?????
Same with the beef cows. You want to cut back, they are older cows, maybe not as good a producer as they were, WHY keep them. If you are waiting for the prices to get cheaper, then just bury a couple....
Everyone has to weigh their goals against what they have and make decisions... but once you do, DO NOT SECOND GUESS yourself for 3 months. You too often miss the opportunity to ship them and often...not always... will lose out. Especially when you know how good prices are now... Not like they are $.25 /lb..... and you are holding out to maybe try to get .50 in a month...
