For Jed

[plumber_greg]

Jed, you like to see other parts of the country, so do I. Here is some spring pics of NW MO. Things looked good then.

This is just my little valley that I have south of me. You can see my cows is the distance, which is only about 1/4 mile. Looks further.

I am standing in 80 acres of native pararie grass here looking north. This has never had a plow in it, ever. One of the few places left in Mo. Isn't very productive, but sure is pretty in the summer with the flowers. It makes about 150 big 6' bales of hay a year.

That's all I had I guess, thought I had more. My new computer is a lot faster at this, so I'll try to get more. It looks pretty sad compared to what it looked like in May. Went over Wed. and don't know what I'm gonna' do abgout water next year. I rent some out to Bill Conley, and we may have to just cut hay if we don't get some runoff. gs

 

[jedstivers]

Good pics. That's cool about the native prairie.

 

[HOSS]

Nice looking place. I really like your cows. They look like real good stock.

 

[Bigfoot]

Nice looking place. I'm no world traveler. Never really been around your native grass. Does it make 150 rolls with or with out fertilizer?

 

[Isomade]

That's some fine looking calves Greg. :tiphat:

 

[plumber_greg]

Yes, Big foot, fertilizer just turns it greener. I read once where putting 40 lbs of nitrogen in late May was the only thing that paid, and it just barely did. With the price of nitrogen now, there's no way.
Iso and Hoss, thanks, took some more pic of cows and heifers yesterday, but I'm too stupid to get them on my new computer.
Jed, this whole farm has never really been farmed. Grain farmers drool over it. 50 acres was in continus corn for about 25 years, the rest was plowed out in the early 60's and planted to corn for 2 years, then seeded to improved grass. You can dig a post hole 4' deep anywhere on it and find nothing but topsoil. Even on the side of really steep hills.
I am next week gonna' develop a spring on the native grass pasture, just hate to do it, but gotta' get some water somehow. The spring takes up about a half acre with cattails and willow trees. It's running water still even now, so I taking it to a ditch and hoping to let it run and water 2 pastures along the ditch. Just don't like destroying the natural state of the 80 acres, the cattails and trees are part of it.

 

[Ouachita]

I had a hard time hetting my head wrapped around the idea that it's even possible to own a fine piece of ground like that, in this century. The intrinsic value alone would preclude ownership by someone like myself, I think. I know it's rude to talk about other peoples money, but I have to ask; Greg, what's an acre of virgin prairie worth? I thought native/virgin prairie was all locked up by our fed

 

[sandyhill]

Wow very green. Nice place.

 

[plumber_greg]

Quschita, I don't know what it's worth. The Mo. Dept of Conservation tells me that I should just let it go. Don't spray brush, don't cut for hay, don't do nothin'. My uncle's wishes were that someday they would own it. Never in my liftetime will I ever see it in soybeans. No one's ever gonna' own it but my family for maybe 200 years. I gotta' at least hay it, so their recommations are out the window. We have several people wanting it. Probably the Conservation Dept. will someday own it, even if it's a gift. gs

 

[jedstivers]

How does the part that was worked in corn in the 60's compare to the unworked part? As far as grass and hay production.

 

[cow pollinater]

Beautiful country. Great looking cattle to.

 

[plumber_greg]

Jed, the part that was in corn for 2 years is way more productive than the native grass. The brome and clovers always produce really good. The 50 that was in continous corn was a flat ridge. Even now you can tell where the old dead furrows were, and parts of just simply won't produce like the back part. The stand just appears different, but the same grass.
The 80 acres of prarie grass is hard to make hay on. You gotta' wait on the grass to be at the correct stage to cut, to get the most production, then 2 weeks later it's no better than straw. I always wondered what the buffalo lived on. We tried to -pasture it in the winter, it had grown back and was about a foot tall, in 1980. I couldn't force the cows to eat it. They grubbed the edges down where brome and fescue had invaded, but never touched the native grass. I finally moved them and forgot about that experiment. The hay, however, is really good stuff, can test up to 20% they tell me. I have never had it tested, but the cows will eat a bale of it in half the time they will eat any other. gs

 

[jedstivers]

In Ar we were mostly forrest but have a region that is called the Grand Prarie. It had few trees and was easy to put into rice production. My granddaddy used to go to it in the summer to make hay that was loaded onto boxcars and shipped somewhere. There is still a few pieces of virgin prarie left on some old abandoned railroad right of way that are protected now. The grass doesn't look like much but I don't think they let it burn like nature did. It is allowed to burn some though.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

P_G - BEAUTIFUL!!! cattle & land.

 

[Arkansas]

Nice, the pastures there are beautiful!