Fall Run in Minnesota, Land of 100,000 ponds

[Stocker Steve]

Bigger feeder runs started last week. A mix of yearlings and sucking calves. A few folks dumped their sucking calves early, right after Labor day, but most still have them on pasture. Lots of washy fall grass this year. I am still rotating but also providing a couple bales per paddock.

Local buyers are not too interested in calves. Corn is too wet to make good silage. Fields and lots are really muddy. October weather is challenging... Hope is calf prices go up in November, maybe, but better odds are that corn prices will go up.

Stored forage could be short in the monsoon areas. We seem to be the dry island, only getting an inch or two per week. I expect many folks will cull cows rather than truck in expensive hay. I am thinking about culling cows and retaining lots of heifers. Have alot of fancy ones from my SOB bulls, and a few from my OCC bred bull.

 

[Aaron]

Bigger feeder runs started last week. A mix of yearlings and sucking calves. A few folks dumped their sucking calves early, right after Labor day, but most still have them on pasture. Lots of washy fall grass this year. I am still rotating but also providing a couple bales per paddock.

Local buyers are not too interested in calves. Corn is too wet to make good silage. Fields and lots are really muddy. October weather is challenging... Hope is calf prices go up in November, maybe, but better odds are that corn prices will go up.

Stored forage could be short in the monsoon areas. We seem to be the dry island, only getting an inch or two per week. I expect many folks will cull cows rather than truck in expensive hay. I am thinking about culling cows and retaining lots of heifers. Have alot of fancy ones from my SOB bulls, and a few from my OCC bred bull.

Guys are getting super depressed here. I think a vast bunch of the over 60 crowd is ready to quit altogether. Neighbor shipped 15 decent cows for slaughter and is down to handful. Two neighbor's are shipping all their calves and they usually keep a handful of best heifers. Another local sold everything this past weekend - super sad - young AI-sired cows with great young 250 lb AI-sired calves at side, cows to slaughter and calves to backgrounder. If any good comes of this, it will be to knock the horns off the young grain boys from running the price of land up continually around here. I know a lot of the young beef guys are starting to really get p!ssed about it.

 

[Stocker Steve]

No one will buy good young cows at slaughter price?

 

[Aaron]

No one will buy good young cows at slaughter price?

A lot are short of feed, many are already feeding as they are out of pasture. One neighbor has lots of feed (so he thinks) at 3000 bales but he is already on full feeding of hay on 300 cows on pasture, and he can't even come close to touching his corn for silage, so he might be short before he knows it. Some don't have money to spend on cows even if they really want too. I think there are a lot of young guys that are ready to pack it in too. Last year fall was hard, this fall is impossible. 400 cows have went to slaughter in the last month here, add to that what was shipped during the rest of the year and it equals to about 5% of the total cows in this area have left this year. And there is a lot of cows to go yet.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Seems like success at the breeding stock game requires one to cover a larger area than the feeder game.

I pushed one of the bigger traders, and he said you need to be ready to go at least 250 miles with breds.

 

[gcreekrch]

No one will buy good young cows at slaughter price?

A lot are short of feed, many are already feeding as they are out of pasture. One neighbor has lots of feed (so he thinks) at 3000 bales but he is already on full feeding of hay on 300 cows on pasture, and he can't even come close to touching his corn for silage, so he might be short before he knows it. Some don't have money to spend on cows even if they really want too. I think there are a lot of young guys that are ready to pack it in too. Last year fall was hard, this fall is impossible. 400 cows have went to slaughter in the last month here, add to that what was shipped during the rest of the year and it equals to about 5% of the total cows in this area have left this year. And there is a lot of cows to go yet.

No one over there grazing corn? A little early yet but circumstances say...…..

 

[Aaron]

No one will buy good young cows at slaughter price?

A lot are short of feed, many are already feeding as they are out of pasture. One neighbor has lots of feed (so he thinks) at 3000 bales but he is already on full feeding of hay on 300 cows on pasture, and he can't even come close to touching his corn for silage, so he might be short before he knows it. Some don't have money to spend on cows even if they really want too. I think there are a lot of young guys that are ready to pack it in too. Last year fall was hard, this fall is impossible. 400 cows have went to slaughter in the last month here, add to that what was shipped during the rest of the year and it equals to about 5% of the total cows in this area have left this year. And there is a lot of cows to go yet.

No one over there grazing corn? A little early yet but circumstances say...…..

Nope. A few do silage, but at $300-400 per acre investment, not one is going to take chance on possible trample waste by cows. They chop and pile it all. Not a game I, or many others, can afford to play in the first place.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Grazing corn can work well with dairy cows and stockers, who need the higher energy. On the surface, cow hay is usually cheaper than grazing corn in this country. Quite a bit of cow hay is available for U$S 66 to 90 per ton.

Lots of accounting issues with getting at a total feed cost:
Are you capturing your costs for hauling and feeding hay?
What are the effective fertilizer values?
Is there a biology benefit from growing annuals?
Do you need to provide supplements?

 

[gcreekrch]

A lot are short of feed, many are already feeding as they are out of pasture. One neighbor has lots of feed (so he thinks) at 3000 bales but he is already on full feeding of hay on 300 cows on pasture, and he can't even come close to touching his corn for silage, so he might be short before he knows it. Some don't have money to spend on cows even if they really want too. I think there are a lot of young guys that are ready to pack it in too. Last year fall was hard, this fall is impossible. 400 cows have went to slaughter in the last month here, add to that what was shipped during the rest of the year and it equals to about 5% of the total cows in this area have left this year. And there is a lot of cows to go yet.

No one over there grazing corn? A little early yet but circumstances say...…..

Nope. A few do silage, but at $300-400 per acre investment, not one is going to take chance on possible trample waste by cows. They chop and pile it all. Not a game I, or many others, can afford to play in the first place.

A good corn crop will do 200 cow days per acre. Three years of grazing corn and the chemical inputs are no longer needed.
Wish I could grow it here.

 

[Stocker Steve]

You are saying no weed spray needed?

 

[Aaron]

No one over there grazing corn? A little early yet but circumstances say...…..

Nope. A few do silage, but at $300-400 per acre investment, not one is going to take chance on possible trample waste by cows. They chop and pile it all. Not a game I, or many others, can afford to play in the first place.

A good corn crop will do 200 cow days per acre. Three years of grazing corn and the chemical inputs are no longer needed.
Wish I could grow it here.

I would have to invest in a seed drill and a sprayer and a boatload of fertilizer to even start. Plus the extra hours on tractors and fuel to work land. A lot of cost and cross your fingers everything goes in your favor. I can't handle that much risk. I like sure bets. I let the young bucks with big farm credit accounts take risk.

 

[gcreekrch]

Nope. A few do silage, but at $300-400 per acre investment, not one is going to take chance on possible trample waste by cows. They chop and pile it all. Not a game I, or many others, can afford to play in the first place.

A good corn crop will do 200 cow days per acre. Three years of grazing corn and the chemical inputs are no longer needed.
Wish I could grow it here.

I would have to invest in a seed drill and a sprayer and a boatload of fertilizer to even start. Plus the extra hours on tractors and fuel to work land. A lot of cost and cross your fingers everything goes in your favor. I can't handle that much risk. I like sure bets. I let the young bucks with big farm credit accounts take risk.

Custom seeder and let the weeds look after themselves.