herofan":1gin60nd said:
Jogeephus":1gin60nd said:
One thing I believe you should consider is how much will it cost to maintain the property if it were cowless. You can find all sorts of good information on how to increase a herd's productivity but little attention is given to finding that sweet spot where the cows basically do the farm upkeep themselves and you have little input whatsoever. Surprisingly, this later option is often the most profitable in many situations.
We had wondered about this often. We figured there has to be a magic number of cattle for our acres and available pasture. Are there websites that address this?
None that I am aware of. Most of the university studies are directed toward maximizing yields however yields don't necessarily equate to profit. I used to work on the coastal plains grazing station where the USDA did a lot of research on minimal inputs and sustainability before sustainability was a catch word. When they shut this down and turned it over to the university all this research was mothballed and put in a basement where I doubt it will ever see the light of day and that may be well enough because the numbers are not easily quantifiable and its more of an art than a quantifiable science that can be put into a pamphlet or some cookbook recipe.
This idea differs greatly from what you will read in cattle magazines or extension journals and I'm not saying it is the right way only another way to do things. I'll try and outline some of the general principles so you can think about them.
First off comes your land and the type of forage it is capable of producing. Take for instance my land. I have a variety of forage types ranging from fast producing to slow producing forages. While different, each is capable of producing the same amount of tonnage per acre in a years time. Take my Tift85. It can easily produce 17,000 lbs/acre of terrific forage in 3-4 months whereas my bahia will produce roughly the same amount of forage in 9 months. Which is better? Neither really. Each is important in its own right and each has its limitations.
Another thing is fertilization and mono cultures. This method relies on little of these because it relies on forage diversity. Take T85, if my whole place was covered in this I would fertilize and be able to carry five pairs an acre for 4-5 months but then I'd be screwed for the rest of the year. Another thing this method recognizes is the wastefulness of some fertilizer applications. Here, many people will jump out and fertilize all their pastures in the spring of the year. This produces excellent forage quality for a brief period but after 29 days the forage starts going backwards and will require mowing, haying or your just having your cows eat low quality forage. So why fertilize it all at one time? Or why even fertilize if you are going to grow more than they can keep trimmed down. This is where the art comes in. Finding that balance and having the cattle eat what is fertilized naturally by nature's nitrogen cycle.
Gains. A lot of emphasis is put on gains. Its nice to see a calf grow off fast but if you are not into breed stock production why does it matter how fast your calves grow as long as they are healthy? Afterall, your cow is only going to produce one calf per year so what's the rush?
Productivity of your land. Everything boils down to your soil and what it is capable of producing. In my situation, my soil can produce 8.5 tons of forage an acre a year without a lot of inputs. Knowing the cow needs 3-4% of its body weight in forage is simple enough, however, the timing of the forage growth is where it gets tricky. I have this covered for 9 months of the year but its those three that are a real bytch and why I've often said if I could only grow fescue I'd have it licked - but I can't so I have to deal with this challenge. Some deal with this void by stockpiling grass or planting winter grains like wheat or rye but in most cases the latter - when used with brood cows - is an expensive, money losing proposition and offers more in the way of convenience than economical food value because if you cannot get 120 days of grazing off the planting you are losing money. (here anyway)
In this method it is important to govern your production of both forage and cattle and I'm fixing to commit sacrilege here by saying a controlled breeding season is the last thing you want. Nothing wrong with a controlled breeding season if you are raising pot loads and need uniformity but if you are not why bother when its only going to hurt you. I say hurt you because your land has an average monthly production it is capable of producing. A carrying capacity so to speak. This is the sweet spot I mentioned earlier. For a simple example I'll use my bahia. It will produce roughly 1900 lbs of forage per month. One brood cow will require at least 700lbs of this per month. Put a 600lb calf on her side and you are looking at 1240lbs/month which is beginning to push the limits here. Expand this over a whole herd and you will see there will be times of plenty and times where the fences will get strained if all the calves are born at the same time and heaven's forbid a drought or something come along and stress things further. When that happens you will surely be selling calves light and not getting what you should for them - not to mention the stress and sleepless nights or the calves getting out of your fences seeking greener pastures.
However, this is easily remedied by having an open breeding program. With this you will probably find in time you'll have a fall and a spring calving season. What this will give you a more steady consumption of your forage and keep your yearly pounds of beef grazing to a more constant and controllable level. Not only does this offer better insurance on hard times it provides you with the luxury of carrying more weight in the fields during the ideal times and you will rarely be forced to sell prematurely.
This method also avoids monocultures in some respects and unlike many cattlemen who want to spray herbicides every time they see a weed you look at these weeds and determine what if any nutrient value they have and when they do you learn how to manage them and use them so rather than spending money on eliminating them you let the cattle convert these weeds to money. This is a hard thing to get your head around I admit. I have one pasture that surely won't win any extension awards for beauty but the diversity of the plants in the field makes it one of the most productive fields I own. It took me a while to realize how good it was but if you watch the cattle they will teach you a thing or two about what they like.
Bottom line is cows are magnificent animals who can turn worthless forage into money if you will just let them be cows. However, a cow will eat all the food you can afford to feed them also so don't rush them and don't work with a sharp pencil just relax and let them do their thing. I went to this method after I stopped trying to fill potloads and its worked out pretty well for me and its a lot less stress and less job like. I figure everything on a per acre basis so I can compare apples fairly and the year before last my net after expenses with the cattle was $800/acre which I thought was pretty good. Granted, I do not charge the cattle with the land taxes because in my mind I would have this expense whether I owned cattle or not but in the end they did pay the land taxes and they did keep things groomed well with little headache overall.
If you are interested and this makes a little sense to you I'll look for a book I think would be helpful in understanding these forage production cycles. Its good information and while it doesn't address this directly you might be able to draw some inferences from the information which would apply in your situation because each situation is different but in general we all face the same challenges.
I apologize for being so wordy. Didn't mean to be.
