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How can we make a better cattle future in Ky
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<blockquote data-quote="bigbluegrass" data-source="post: 1554369" data-attributes="member: 15537"><p>For me, there were two changes I made that have had a positive impact on my cattle operation.</p><p></p><p>1) AI. You can get much better genetics for an affordable price if you AI your cows. I couldn't pencil out a $10,000 bull every couple years. With AI, it costs me around $75 a cow to AI my small herd of cows to top quality bulls. That includes the cost to keep nitrogen in the tank, breeding supplies, semen, etc.</p><p></p><p>2) Rotational graze. This KY grass recovers so much better if you rotational graze. The next step for me is to stop feeding hay and graze stockpiled grass all winter.</p><p></p><p>Both of these changes were made to reduce expenses, not necessarily to increase my income. Cattle, regardless of where you are, is a commodity market. We are not in control of the prices we get. We are in control of how much we spend.</p><p></p><p>I do think there are some things that could be done to help bring farmers together to market their calves. If buyers wanted top quality calves, they could come up with a way bypass the sale barn and buy direct from the farms. Cattle buyers don't seem motivated to deal with 100 small producers. They seem to prefer the sale barn buying system that is in place now. The sale barn buying system in KY doesn't reward producers for producing top quality beef. When the CPH calves sell for the same or even less than the "junk" calves, producers have no reason to do the extra work. </p><p></p><p>We could probably use more farms with seasonal stockers and fewer with cow calf operations.We could add some cheap pounds to calves during the growing season before shipping them out to the feedlots.</p><p></p><p>There is also a problem, at least in my area, of finding affordable land. I doubt that problem is limited to KY. There are more idle farms here than there are stocked farms. Some of that land is used exclusively for deer hunting and it is hard to compete with the deer hunters on land prices.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="bigbluegrass, post: 1554369, member: 15537"] For me, there were two changes I made that have had a positive impact on my cattle operation. 1) AI. You can get much better genetics for an affordable price if you AI your cows. I couldn't pencil out a $10,000 bull every couple years. With AI, it costs me around $75 a cow to AI my small herd of cows to top quality bulls. That includes the cost to keep nitrogen in the tank, breeding supplies, semen, etc. 2) Rotational graze. This KY grass recovers so much better if you rotational graze. The next step for me is to stop feeding hay and graze stockpiled grass all winter. Both of these changes were made to reduce expenses, not necessarily to increase my income. Cattle, regardless of where you are, is a commodity market. We are not in control of the prices we get. We are in control of how much we spend. I do think there are some things that could be done to help bring farmers together to market their calves. If buyers wanted top quality calves, they could come up with a way bypass the sale barn and buy direct from the farms. Cattle buyers don't seem motivated to deal with 100 small producers. They seem to prefer the sale barn buying system that is in place now. The sale barn buying system in KY doesn't reward producers for producing top quality beef. When the CPH calves sell for the same or even less than the "junk" calves, producers have no reason to do the extra work. We could probably use more farms with seasonal stockers and fewer with cow calf operations.We could add some cheap pounds to calves during the growing season before shipping them out to the feedlots. There is also a problem, at least in my area, of finding affordable land. I doubt that problem is limited to KY. There are more idle farms here than there are stocked farms. Some of that land is used exclusively for deer hunting and it is hard to compete with the deer hunters on land prices. [/QUOTE]
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