Silver
Well-known member
It's people like this that give our industry a bad name. (Assuming this keeps going the way it's headed). And they are the reason outfits like the SPCA get teeth.
I see train wreck coming
- Thread starter Dave
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farmerjan
Well-known member
Agree 1000%.....
Twisted
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I drink a 12 cup pot of coffee every morning before daylight, black, then throw some more grounds on top of the last and run her again. I take that one to work. Wash the pot at least once a year.
Mark Reynolds
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Right now, we, and Dave, can't really do a thing and the heifers aren't in dire straights......yet. Like the thread title states "....coming". The wreck isn't actually here yet. @farmerjan is right, IF they get too bad. The thing is, we (Dave) needs to be prepared ahead of time to respond. It's too late to prepare when the disaster actually hits. If the heifers aren't conditioned for the -5 weather, they won't starve, but will start succumbing to the temp in 24-48 hrs from now. If they are OK for the temp, give them 4-6 weeks with below maintenance levels of forage mixed with the cold to get to a 'serious' condition. 'Bad' levels might start in about 2 weeks. We will be watching for a while, maybe not long, but at least several days, before we start seeing problems, unless the temp becomes an issue. Then it will be much faster. Slow motion train wrecks are painful to watch because you know what is going to happen yet you can't do a thing to stop them, and you have to wait until the wreck is done to help. You can't help during the wreck taking place usually.
Let's see how he reacts.
Let's see how he reacts.
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Dave
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Well so far the wreck has been avoided. Curiosity got the best of me. I saw the heifers arrive a month ago. But never saw the heifers in the field. So I drove over there one day. There is an area which one can't see from my road about a mile away. That is where the heifer were at. There is 2 round bale feeders in there with the heifers. And outside that area was a stack of about 40 or so small squares of alfalfa. I talked to a buddy who live on that road. It appears that he comes over every 3 days or so and puts a bunch of hay into those feeders. Apparently money so not an issue. Small squares of alfalfa ($$$$$). There is a brand new Powder River squeeze chute, crowd alley, and sweep tub sitting there like it was just unloaded.
farmerjan
Well-known member
So glad that they are getting fed some and that there is hopefully not going to be a train wreck at least as far as the feed/hay situation is concerned. Calving still to be concerned about... but someone is at least taking come care of them.
What does a set up like the chute/squeeze and tub cost?
What does a set up like the chute/squeeze and tub cost?
Dave
Well-known member
That brand new Powder River set up is somewhere in the $12,00 to $15,000 range.
A.J.
Well-known member
I'm glad to hear that they are doing ok so far, and he is coming by to check on them. That doesn't sound like many feeders for the number he is feeding, but I guess if they have some stockpile to eat as well they aren't all piling in at once, maybe. I bet it was really expensive, but I'm glad he has working facilities for when they are needed. Hopefully he will check in more regularly on them close to calving time.
Dave
Well-known member
He has some of what is needed to build a working facility. But none of it is set up. And he will need to build a corral of some sort to capture the heifers in order to get them into the sweep tub.
Construction has been booming over in Boise. That is the business that he is in and where he lives. He must be doing real well the way he is throwing money into this property.
midTN_Brangusman
Well-known member
Doesn't sound much like a train wreck to me but more of a case of a nosey a$$ neighbor lol
Dave
Well-known member
When the man who doesn't live here (lives 100 miles away) told me he had 25 bred heifer coming all the way from Oklahoma on January 5. I asked about feed and he pointed to hay field which wasn't harvested last summer. We do get winter here Less than a week after they arrived it was -5 with a foot of snow. The only way from here to where he lives is the freeway. There are no alternate routes. And this time of the year the freeway often gets closed from the state line all the way to Pendlton (150+ miles). There was certainly the potential for a train wreck. The bad weather didn't last long this year. And he brought in hay after the weather hit.
StrojanHerefords
Well-known member
To be honest, I would much prefer those days when neighbors were nosey. Things didn't go off the rails.
I have seen it to many times to count. Somebody comes in and takes over land with more money than sense. They spend way to much on land, fancy cattle, expensive working facilities but don't care about the day to day workings. In a sense they use cattle as a way to flaunt their wealth. I am a bit frustrated, all I want is to have the chance to at the end of the day hear' Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things ,I will make you ruler over many things.' Yet as a farmer working off of cash flow, I am priced out of the land market.
As a society, we give lip service to the values of hard work, and conservation but in the end the farmer is being reduced to a sharecropper.
Dave
Well-known member
Well he kicked the heifers out of the smaller area they were in to the irrigated field. They are just across the fence from me now. There is plenty to eat there. I would just question how nutritious it is.
He also moved those round bale feeder and they look to be stacked full of those small squares of alfalfa. Given a choice I would thing the heifers would prefer green alfalfa hay to old over mature grass. If he was limit feeding the alfalfa he could make them fill up with the old grass. But limit feeding would require daily feeding.
You can see where they are. The few who weren't at the feeder were at the river getting water or walking back from the river. I think some of his ideas have already been proven wrong. Oh well, education isn't cheap. And if it is just his money and not the animals well fare I don't care.
He also moved those round bale feeder and they look to be stacked full of those small squares of alfalfa. Given a choice I would thing the heifers would prefer green alfalfa hay to old over mature grass. If he was limit feeding the alfalfa he could make them fill up with the old grass. But limit feeding would require daily feeding.
You can see where they are. The few who weren't at the feeder were at the river getting water or walking back from the river. I think some of his ideas have already been proven wrong. Oh well, education isn't cheap. And if it is just his money and not the animals well fare I don't care.
GoWyo
Well-known member
They can tank up on alfalfa then the protein should carry them 3-4 days eating old meadow grass. Kind of limit feeding, but over a longer time span and not as good as a few pounds of alfalfa every day and go hustle for the fill.
midTN_Brangusman
Well-known member
Dave have you actually spoken with the neighbor about your concerns on his heifers or do you just post pictures of his cattle/land and talk about how stupid he his on the forum?
MurraysMutts
Well-known member
There aint a belt on any of em!
I automatically thought belted when u said galloway....
I automatically thought belted when u said galloway....
farmerjan
Well-known member
Read the first post about the new neighbor referring to the galloways as being foragers, and again to post #172, which was in answer to a post of yours.
puzzled in oregon
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Looks to me like they all have "black belts. I would be cautious stepping into the pasture with them."
greybeard
Well-known member
Everything's a forager if they get hungry enough.
