Grazing stockpiled grass (under snow!)

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Here's how successful it is to stockpile grass in New York!

The first pic shows our main cowherd on our 3rd (cutting) hay field. Actually, they have gotten along quite well foraging thru the snow. We fed hay 1 day when it was blizzarding really nasty.
The 2nd pic is of our fall calving cows. We have 7 cow/calf pairs, 5 in this group & 2 in the main herd group (they were born prior to our moving the cowherd). We are feeding this group hay along with their grazing thru the snow.
Pics are a little fuzzy because I lowered the pixels REAL low so they would load quicker.

Here's a pic of a few of our heifers while I was feeding mineral.

Another pic of our fall cows, showing our new arch steel building Ken & I put up last year. Also shows our silo top that we are using as a calf shed.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Nice pics
Glad I don't have any snow yet but I have a feeling it is coming

 

[dun]

Glad I don't have any snow yet but I have a feeling it is coming

BITE YOUR TONGUE!

 

[ALACOWMAN]

bet the building doe's great under snow

 

[srockcastle]

I live in Western New York and we have over 2 feet of snow. How do they do in that much snow? Is it still possible to winter forage in that much snow?

 

[bigbull338]

you have some goodlooking cows an heifers thats for sure.an all that snow makes my old bone ache.

 

[bandit80]

Nice cattle and usual, and bbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

 

[Angus Cowman]

Glad I don't have any snow yet but I have a feeling it is coming

BITE YOUR TONGUE!

Thats alright Dun if the weather patterns continue like the last 2 yrs I won't get any but (some folks) living North of me will get it hard
kinda like the ice storms
I wouldn't wish that on ya Dun
but if you do get it and I don't do ya want me to send the wife to feed for ya

 

[dun]

but if you do get it and I don't do ya want me to send the wife to feed for ya

That would be great. I could stand in the house and stay warm and point everything out to her that needs doing!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

It had been bitter cold with nasty wind, but this past Sunday, it turned nicer, temps in low 30's daytime, & most nights in mid to low 20's. Got down to 7 one night this week - crystal clear out.
srockcastle - no, don't think they would do well over 12 inches of "fluffy" snow. Right now it's been snowing daily with a very WET snow. There's probably only about 8" now, and I fed them a day's worth of hay yesterday (4 bales). They had been scrounging pretty hard the day before with the wet snow, so I gave them a break yesterday. Supposed to get up to high 30's next few days, so they may be back grazing.
I have hay for sale and am asking $50/bale, so everytime I feed 4 bales, I think "that's $200 worth of hay" eeks!!! Probably won't sell any till we really get into winter, or maybe not til spring.
Here's hoping that nasty ICE stays away from everyone!!! I love the snow, but sure don't want to deal with the ice like Dun did. We did get a generator, so we are a little bit more prepared for bad situations.

 

[badroute]

Those are nice-looking simmental cows, out here the Simmy's look nothing like that. They are all shotgunned bodied and terribly leggy. If you brought your deep-bodied cattle out here they would put most of the Simmental breeders to shame. Thanks for the pics.

 

[alexfarms]

Jeanne,
Very nice cows and you sure can have that snow. I am pasturing some standing brome in Kansas and will be interesting to see how that goes with some winter weather. I am visiting my sister in Omaha, Nebraska for Thanksgiving and the weather here is very nice, just like at our home in Kansas. Have a happy holiday.
John

 

[BIZIN]

badroute if you want some good simm cattle like the ones in her picutes, you just gotta go north into southern saskatchewan. Marlin LeBlanc at R Plus Simmentals could get you some cows like that. Good, deep bodied, thick, and real easy fleshing for a commercial cattleman.

Ya we have been stockpile grazing for a few years now. Let the grass grow all year and throw the cows out on it in Mid January. Doesnt matter how much snow, they will dig for it and do really well. Our cows graze till end of January most years.

 

[greenwillowhereford II]

Good looking cattle.

I bought a generator during the ice storm, had been out of power for 3 or 4 days. Thirty minutes after I hooked it up, the electric came back on. Now generator has quit performing, runs but no juice. I've started it several times through the year. There is a procedure according to the manual of "exciting the magnets," so I guess I'll have to try it. Generators were scarce at the time, and I got stuck with one with a Tecumseh engine, which I never have liked. It has surged and coughed from day one until you get it under a load, then it smooths out some.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Good looking cattle.

I bought a generator during the ice storm, had been out of power for 3 or 4 days. Thirty minutes after I hooked it up, the electric came back on. Now generator has quit performing, runs but no juice. I've started it several times through the year. There is a procedure according to the manual of "exciting the magnets," so I guess I'll have to try it. Generators were scarce at the time, and I got stuck with one with a Tecumseh engine, which I never have liked. It has surged and coughed from day one until you get it under a load, then it smooths out some.

you might see if it has a trip breaker on it or a reset I had one we had to energize after we had it worked on the guy had a device that we plugged into the elec in the shop and then into the gen outlets it put elec into the generator for and then it worked after that

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Thanks Badroute, Alexfarms & Bizin. Appreciate the comments.
So far, knock on wood, we haven't NEEDED the generator for emergency work. But, we have loaded it into our truck (with frontend loader) to do work out in the fields. Boy, that's slicker than ---.
I never did have any gutless wonders, but--- I sure did have some tall ones. Many were 9 & 10 frame, but we never sacrificed volume & muscle for height. Also, wouldn't tolerate bad legs. When "short" finally paid good money, it was real easy to get our herd short, thick & structurally correct. Easy to go small compared to trying to build height & keep all the good traits. This is the right kind of cattle as far as I'm concerned.
We gave up trying to finish grazing our stockpiled hay. Snow was dense & crusty underneath. Cattle were trying to forage, but not very successful. If I just had the mature herd out there, we may have let them scrounge some more, but I had all of them except the open replacement heifers & 5 c/c pairs. Can't afford to let our bred yearlings lose condition this time of year. You don't put weight on them in our winters.
Hope everyone had a great holiday.
We had family here since Wed. Most left yesterday (Sunday) & my sister & brother in law will be leaving this morning. They helped up move our cows home yesterday. We had 11 people here - our floors were wall to wall air mattresses! (we just have 2 bedrooms.) Had a super great time. We all hunt except for 3 (sister, neice & baby). And I don't have to COOK, they do everything - yippee!!!

 

[greatgerts]

Those cattle do look great. I met with some folks in October that live in Greene and Filmore, NY and they had snow on the ground then. They were saying how if cattle can look good in that type of weather, they can thrive anywhere. After seeing their cattle, and pics of yours, I'd have to agree!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Thanks greatgerts. If they live in NY & have beef cattle, I may know them. I am involved with the state beef cattlemen's assn. & know most breeders of ALL different breeds.
Yes, we had a "short-lived" blizzard in October. It was super nasty for 2 days.

 

[greatgerts]

The 2 I was referring to were Josh Stone, Lonesome Stone and Mark Stone, Stone Mountain. Old Oak Farm in Geneva, is probably the largest gert breeder in New York, by the looks of things from the Santa Gertrudis website.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Yes, I know Josh & Mark quite well. Mark runs the Allegany County Fair, and we have shown there several times. Plus, the gerts show at the NY State Fair the same shift as the Simmentals.