FIRST WINTER!

[Alberta farmer]

hillsdown: I still haven't sold my cattle. Trying to put some more weight on the calves before they leave.
I don't bale any significant amount of hay...haven't for years...it just doesn't make economic sense, in my opinion. Even in a year like this with high prices it doesn't work.
Check out the Alberta Ag website for prices on hay and straw and I think you will agree the prices I quoted are realistic?
My family have been raising cattle in Alberta since 1905. I have raised cattle all my life. I owned my first cow before I went to school and that was close to 50 years ago.
I am sorry if I offended you by pointing out that most cow/calf operations aren't economically viable in central Alberta this year. I do realize different people raise cattle for different reasons, and that is okay too...for many it isn't about money.

 

[novaman]

hillsdown: I still haven't sold my cattle. Trying to put some more weight on the calves before they leave.
I don't bale any significant amount of hay...haven't for years...it just doesn't make economic sense, in my opinion. Even in a year like this with high prices it doesn't work.Check out the Alberta Ag website for prices on hay and straw and I think you will agree the prices I quoted are realistic?
My family have been raising cattle in Alberta since 1905. I have raised cattle all my life. I owned my first cow before I went to school and that was close to 50 years ago.
I am sorry if I offended you by pointing out that most cow/calf operations aren't economically viable in central Alberta this year. I do realize different people raise cattle for different reasons, and that is okay too...for many it isn't about money.

Ok I think your running in circles here. You are jumping on HD because her hay is worth too much to be feeding to her cattle, yet you say it doesn't make sense to bale up your hay and sell it? If you could get $100/bale I think that makes economic sense. Are there other factors that we don't know about or are you just having fun jumping all over people trying to pull through?

 

[Alberta farmer]

nova: It doesn't make sense for these reasons: The hay coming off that acre of land is greatly reduced in a drought? One ton per acre would be optomistic this year. That ton of hay would be worth $166? Which sounds fairly good? Compare the same acre in barley at 75 bu/acre at $3/bu and it loses its shine? In a normal year here we can expect close to 100 bu/acre barley.
Unless you are doing a large hay acreage how do you justify a decent line of equipment? Fact is you don't.

 

[Alberta farmer]

hillsdown: In regards to you basically calling me a fake and a liar...I will give you my bonafides.
Both my great grandparents and grandparents were pioneer breeders of Hereford cattle in Alberta. Both families are in the Hereford history books. My grandfather sold the highest selling bull(and the highest selling string)up to that time at the Calgary bull sale in 1949. The money he recieved from this single bull bought three quarters of land which he gave to my uncle the same year for a wedding present....my uncle recently sold one quarter of that land for $700,000! Not a bad return.
I live on the farm my father bought in 1945 after he came home from being wounded at Arnham, Holland. He farmed on crutches the first three years. He raised purebred hereford bulls until the early 1980s at which time we went exclusively commercial using AI extensively.
In 1988 my father died from complications from his war injuries.
I am the secretary/treasurer of my local community association(30 years).I was the representative for my district on the local recreation board for several years. I am a licensed AI technician and a licensed industrial sprayer. I am a director in the fastest growing Surface rights group in Alberta. I have served on the Red Deer County Ag service board.
My farm/landowner relatives in the area are Colliers, Underwoods,Darlings, Waltons, Smiths, Johnsons, Gowans, Grahams, Lougheeds, and Malsburys.
I have never been ashamed of my relatives,my anscestors, my siblings, my parents or myself! I am not a fake and I am not a liar....And I sure don't mind putting my name to that fact
Anyway thats my farm/ranch pedigree...hows yours?

Douglas J. Malsbury
Red Deer County
Alberta, Canada

 

[Bez+]

Remind me to never raise you on a bluff

Bez+

 

[SRBeef]

...Anyway thats my farm/ranch pedigree...hows yours?

Rather than comparing family histories, maybe what we could use is a bit more civility all the way around.

jmho.

Jim

 

[HerefordSire]

hillsdown: In regards to you basically calling me a fake and a liar...I will give you my bonafides.
Both my great grandparents and grandparents were pioneer breeders of Hereford cattle in Alberta. Both families are in the Hereford history books. My grandfather sold the highest selling bull(and the highest selling string)up to that time at the Calgary bull sale in 1949. The money he recieved from this single bull bought three quarters of land which he gave to my uncle the same year for a wedding present....my uncle recently sold one quarter of that land for $700,000! Not a bad return.
I live on the farm my father bought in 1945 after he came home from being wounded at Arnham, Holland. He farmed on crutches the first three years. He raised purebred hereford bulls until the early 1980s at which time we went exclusively commercial using AI extensively.
In 1988 my father died from complications from his war injuries.
I am the secretary/treasurer of my local community association(30 years).I was the representative for my district on the local recreation board for several years. I am a licensed AI technician and a licensed industrial sprayer. I am a director in the fastest growing Surface rights group in Alberta. I have served on the Red Deer County Ag service board.
My farm/landowner relatives in the area are Colliers, Underwoods,Darlings, Waltons, Smiths, Johnsons, Gowans, Grahams, Lougheeds, and Malsburys.
I have never been ashamed of my relatives,my anscestors, my siblings, my parents or myself! I am not a fake and I am not a liar....And I sure don't mind putting my name to that fact
Anyway thats my farm/ranch pedigree...hows yours?

Douglas J. Malsbury
Red Deer County
Alberta, Canada

Good post. Douglas, put those other Sheetzen don't stink Canadian folks on ignore.

 

[hillsdown]

Most people know me personally here. I will not post all my info because I have actually been stalked before in person and the guy ended up doing 2 years in jail. If you are worth it you will get my info you can ask a few around here that even have my home phone number and we have actually spoken in person.

HS back off !!!!!!!

AB I will take all of your info and tell my neighbors who have been in the business of cattle for 100 + years and tell them that they need to get out because they do not know what they are doing and are losing money everyday. In fact every Canadian cattle person needs to quit the business too.

AI tech, I guess business is pretty slow for you with everyone selling off and not wanting to spend money.

I am sorry you are so bitter to the industry, but I have made a crap load and lost a crap load but yet still everything is payed for and not inherited.. What we have, my husband and I both work are @sses off for and I will be d@mmed if someone will ever tell me what to do. Or basically call me out as a dumb @ss for raising cattle which is what you have done and you can shove your condescending attitude ,,well I think you get the inference..

I have money in reserve for such circumstances as this, if you and others do not this is not my fault.

I am a business person and the bottom line comes first. For you to evaluate MY FEED and say that any cattle are not worth it then you are dead wrong. I don't
care who the h#ll you are.

Thanks for making this a p@ssing match. :roll:

 

[mnmtranching]

Fact is. The internet/these forums are a perfect way to reinvent your identity. Be whatever you want, claim whatever you want. be a cattle rancher, a fighter pilot, whatever. So who's to prove you wrong. :cowboy:

 

[dun]

Fact is. The internet/these forums are a perfect way to reinvent your identity. Be whatever you want, claim whatever you want. be a cattle rancher, a fighter pilot, whatever. So who's to prove you wrong. :cowboy:

Seem like I heard a song like that a while back

 

[Alberta farmer]

Hillsdown: Please do ask your neighbors. I know everyone of them personally.
You implied I was a fake. I gave you the info to prove I wasn't.
Everyone has to make their own decisions regarding their business. My leaving the cattle business has nothing or little to do with the drought. In fact many people can come up with some fairly reasonable cost by feeding straw and corn/barley.... right around $1.20/day. I am at the age where I want to retire, planned a long time ago, before BSE or drought. I look forward to winter in Arizona.
I do not do AI for anyone but myself.

 

[HerefordSire]

Hillsdown: Please do ask your neighbors. I know everyone of them personally.
You implied I was a fake. I gave you the info to prove I wasn't.
Everyone has to make their own decisions regarding their business. My leaving the cattle business has nothing or little to do with the drought. In fact many people can come up with some fairly reasonable cost by feeding straw and corn/barley.... right around $1.20/day. I am at the age where I want to retire, planned a long time ago, before BSE or drought. I look forward to winter in Arizona.
I do not do AI for anyone but myself.

We fought our way to independence unlike your country. As a result, we can even feed our cattle chicken litter. I am glad you chose our great country. We need more honest respectable people just like you. You are welcome anytime!

 

[LazyARanch]

Getting back to the point of winter and feed, how do you all stack your big round bales??

we have found that laying bales on the ground on the round is much more wasteful than stacking them on end
and placing one on the round on top of that

the bales don't seem to absorb the moisture from the ground so much
but we do try to stack them all on higher and drier areas of the property

 

[rockridgecattle]

we row our bales. We rarely stack them because it seems like we get more waste due to weather.

Alberta Farmer, I know HD can take care of herself on these boards. But i ask you to show a bit of compassion. HD just gave up close to if not 80% of her herd to get through the winter. I think that was an amazingly tough call for anyone. That shows she can pencil out the numbers and take into consideration the feed values of her hay. I understand what HD is saying and feeling, we did the same last year with 50% of the herd. Might do so again this year depending on feed quality, and calf prices.

Herford Sire, if you think feeding chicken liter is a good thing, please keep your cows to your country and do not under any circumstances send them to Canada

 

[Bez+]

Herford Sire, if you think feeding chicken liter is a good thing, please keep your cows to your country and do not under any circumstances send them to Canada

US of A beef imports are up

If only people knew

Bez+

 

[HerefordSire]

we row our bales. We rarely stack them because it seems like we get more waste due to weather.

Alberta Farmer, I know HD can take care of herself on these boards. But i ask you to show a bit of compassion. HD just gave up close to if not 80% of her herd to get through the winter. I think that was an amazingly tough call for anyone. That shows she can pencil out the numbers and take into consideration the feed values of her hay. I understand what HD is saying and feeling, we did the same last year with 50% of the herd. Might do so again this year depending on feed quality, and calf prices.

Herford Sire, if you think feeding chicken liter is a good thing, please keep your cows to your country and do not under any circumstances send them to Canada

chicken litter = independence

I feed chicken litter to cows once a year on July 4th. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[Alberta farmer]

Well I was trying to point out the high cost of wintering a cow in the traditional manner and you are probably right, I should have left out the sarcasm in my first post!
The old time cattlemen around here who intend to keep their cows are busy as bees baling up all their straw. A whole lot of cows this year are going to learn how to eat barley and straw!
Straw is running around 2 to 3 cents a pound. Barley is around 6.5 cents a pound. 20 lbs. of straw/10 lbs of barley works out to $1.20/day? 200 days $240 dollars? If you are calving in January I doubt this will work out that well though.
Of course that doesn't count rolling the barley. There are a lot of old rollers around...I told a neighbor he could use mine if he fixed one tire that is flat. Roll the barley out on top of the straw...takes a bit of work and time is all...but we all know farmers like to work for free!
Most of the cattle guys either have their own straw to bale or basically get it for free from the neighbors to bale.
I don't think it makes sense to feed cows 200 days a year at $240...not in this market, but that is just my opinion.

 

[novaman]

Well I was trying to point out the high cost of wintering a cow in the traditional manner and you are probably right, I should have left out the sarcasm in my first post!
The old time cattlemen around here who intend to keep their cows are busy as bees baling up all their straw. A whole lot of cows this year are going to learn how to eat barley and straw!
Straw is running around 2 to 3 cents a pound. Barley is around 6.5 cents a pound. 20 lbs. of straw/10 lbs of barley works out to $1.20/day? 200 days $240 dollars? If you are calving in January I doubt this will work out that well though.
Of course that doesn't count rolling the barley. There are a lot of old rollers around...I told a neighbor he could use mine if he fixed one tire that is flat. Roll the barley out on top of the straw...takes a bit of work and time is all...but we all know farmers like to work for free!
Most of the cattle guys either have their own straw to bale or basically get it for free from the neighbors to bale.
I don't think it makes sense to feed cows 200 days a year at $240...not in this market, but that is just my opinion.

So if I am reading this correctly you suggesting that $240 per cow for a winter is too much? I think that would be considered fairly common in a northern climate. I would have to think that $1 would be the bare minimum and that's only $40 less than you are suggesting.

 

[Alberta farmer]

nova: Personally I can't make it work. I expect to be able to winter a cow for right around $150...but then I do alot of banked forage etc. which I probably don't put the proper values on.
In a recent article the "beef specialist" at Alberta Ag said 3.5 cent hay loses the cow/calf operator $20 per cow....I figured at 3 cent hay the loss would be worse than that...but whatever...I'm just the dumbie who owns the cow...not the boy with all the letters behind his name! I truly have trouble with 8 or 10 cent hay? It takes creative bookeeping to say the least to pencil in a profit?
I have no fight with anyone here. It is your dime spend it how you like.

 

[CanadianCowboy]

First of all i would like to apologize to BEZ and thank everybody for there input the reason i was not on sooner my computer was down its a 2000 model i finally decided to upgrade.

Thank you very much for your input. :cboy: