pasture disappearing? Dry lot?

[mncowboy]

How many folks out there are seeing the pasture disappear and be turned into row-crops? Has anyone tried dry-lot'ing cow calf pairs and if so, how did it work?
Thanks in advance

 

[iowafarmer]

Yes, pasture is disappearing in my area and has been for the past 8 years. Corn pays more per acre if you get a crop, if not insurance still makes you about the same amount of money. If you can pencil it out with these feed costs to be able to dry lot a cow and feed her year round then you have a magic pencil.

 

[dun]

We used to drylot and it worked great, But my partner had 1500 acres of alfalfa and kept us supplied with hay.

 

[jasonleonard]

Large amounts of acreage are coming out of CRP in my area and being planted to corn and beans.Seems like the young farmers would rather go deep in debt and gamble on these grain prices staying up high ,than ever think about running a few head of cows. I guess cows are not as glamorous as those fancy combines. As to dry lotting I don't see how it could ever pencil out for me. I am envious of the guys just a little south of me that are able to stockpile and graze almost all year round. As the dairy farmers retire here seems like they have no problem renting their crop ground but almost have to hunt for someone to run cattle on their rougher pasture ground. FWIW crop ground is going from $80 an acre up to maybe $200. Pasture ground is usually lump sum with a head limit. Some pasture can be had for just clipping once a year.

 

[dun]

We had a guy move down here from NY and was going to show these hillbillys how to dairy. After a year he sold his cows and rented the pasture out. His latest brainstorm(fart) was to spray and kill out all the pastures and he drilled in winter wheat. In the spring he's going to turn it under and plant corn. Sure hope that corn likes rocks and that his picker doesn;t mind them.

 

[AllForage]

Besides the very high hay prices, one would be working too hard for too small a pay out. Hauling hay in and hauling manure out. Just ain't worth it in my opinion.

 

[ChrisB]

When I see the asking price for rent on some pastures you could feed them for less most years. I think if you had the numbers to justify a TMR mixer and used corn stalks, wheat straw, etc. as a good part of your ration it would work.

 

[Limomike]

We had a guy move down here from NY and was going to show these hillbillys how to dairy. After a year he sold his cows and rented the pasture out. His latest brainstorm(fart) was to spray and kill out all the pastures and he drilled in winter wheat. In the spring he's going to turn it under and plant corn. Sure hope that corn likes rocks and that his picker doesn;t mind them.

HAHA.. dun you make me laugh picturin all that he has done. I dont like to laugh at a mans failure.. but if he was the arrogant type.. it does make ya snicker a little bit

 

[dun]

We had a guy move down here from NY and was going to show these hillbillys how to dairy. After a year he sold his cows and rented the pasture out. His latest brainstorm(fart) was to spray and kill out all the pastures and he drilled in winter wheat. In the spring he's going to turn it under and plant corn. Sure hope that corn likes rocks and that his picker doesn;t mind them.

HAHA.. dun you make me laugh picturin all that he has done. I dont like to laugh at a mans failure.. but if he was the arrogant type.. it does make ya snicker a little bit

I'm tempted to make a video of him either picking rocks or fixing his cutter, maybe both

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Besides the very high hay prices, one would be working too hard for too small a pay out. Hauling hay in and hauling manure out. Just ain't worth it in my opinion.

2x.

 

[inyati13]

dun, your post reminded me of sitting beside a guy from Indiana at the Paris Elite Heifer Sale in Paris, KY this fall. He has his two daughters with him. He was interested in getting them started in cattle. The cattle started coming into the ring and the first lot went for about $2200 per bred heifer. These were State certified bred heifers to qualify for the cost share program. He leaned over to me and said that the first lot was a fixed sale to get the prices up. They will come down he promised me. The next lot went for maybe $2150. He said, I told you. It went on like this and if anything they were drifting higher. About half way through the sale there was a technical problem and things stopped. He and I talked. The bred heifers were going for about $2200 to $2300. They were nice but that was ridiculous. Some were going for $2400 if they were black with white on their face. Most were Simmental/Angus crosses. He says, you know, I have been doing this a long time. I also sell hay, I have over 200 acres of hay. I sell it by the tractor trailer load. We have a big farm and that has been in the family for a long time. He said a big surgeon from Indianapolis came out to his place and ask his advice on buying a big grain farm next to his. The Doctor told him how much it would cost. He said what equipment goes with it. He said none, I am going to buy all new equipment. He told him, to keep his money that it would be impossible to make the operation pay. The Doctor seemed hurt by that advice. He heard the surgeon bought the place and he bought all that new equipment, big combines, etc. After about three years, the surgeon stopped by again. He told this guy from Indiana that he had spent millions of dollars of his accumulated wealth and he did not think he would ever get half of it back. This guy next to me said he offered the surgeon some simple advice for the future that went like this, there are times in your life when you want to spend a lot of money so you can show the world all that you have, but it might be better to spend just a little money on a real nice couch and just spend your time relaxing in it. He looked at me and said this sale is one of those situations. I rather buy a nice couch and sit in it than buy these heifers for what they are selling for. He went back to Indiana that night without a single heifer. I went home too without spending more than the cost of my gas and time.

 

[dun]

dun, your post reminded me of sitting beside a guy from Indiana at the Paris Elite Heifer Sale in Paris, KY this fall. He has his two daughters with him. He was interested in getting them started in cattle. The cattle started coming into the ring and the first lot went for about $2200 per bred heifer. These were State certified bred heifers to qualify for the cost share program. He leaned over to me and said that the first lot was a fixed sale to get the prices up. They will come down he promised me. The next lot went for maybe $2150. He said, I told you. It went on like this and if anything they were drifting higher. About half way through the sale there was a technical problem and things stopped. He and I talked. The bred heifers were going for about $2200 to $2300. They were nice but that was ridiculous. Some were going for $2400 if they were black with white on their face. Most were Simmental/Angus crosses. He says, you know, I have been doing this a long time. I also sell hay, I have over 200 acres of hay. I sell it by the tractor trailer load. We have a big farm and that has been in the family for a long time. He said a big surgeon from Indianapolis came out to his place and ask his advice on buying a big grain farm next to his. The Doctor told him how much it would cost. He said what equipment goes with it. He said none, I am going to buy all new equipment. He told him, to keep his money that it would be impossible to make the operation pay. The Doctor seemed hurt by that advice. He heard the surgeon bought the place and he bought all that new equipment, big combines, etc. After about three years, the surgeon stopped by again. He told this guy from Indiana that he had spent millions of dollars of his accumulated wealth and he did not think he would ever get half of it back. This guy next to me said he offered the surgeon some simple advice for the future that went like this, there are times in your life when you want to spend a lot of money so you can show the world all that you have, but it might be better to spend just a little money on a real nice couch and just spend your time relaxing in it. He looked at me and said this sale is one of those situations. I rather buy a nice couch and sit in it than buy these heifers for what they are selling for. He went back to Indiana that night without a single heifer. I went home too without spending more than the cost of my gas and time.

A couple of years ago some folks were out here from califonia on vacation. They saw pretty little farm, brick house, nice barn, etc. on 80 acres. It wasn;t for sale but they stopped by and offered the guy 500k for it. He couldn;t say yes fast enough. The folks moved in and within 6 months wanted to sell and move back to california. The pace of living was a little too slow for their taste. The farm was worth maybe 170k. They're still here. Barn has fallen into disrepair, pastures are gorwn up in bruch and weeds. They're POed at the old owner for not telling them that the price was too high. They bad mouth everyone around here for being crooks. Most of us don;t bad mouth them for being stupid, we just get a great laugh at them.

 

[cowboy43]

In Central Texas the good farm and ranch land is being turned into subdivisions and covered in pavement from city people out of Country and State, The old Texas ways are slowly being eaten away to never be the same. The large ranches are being high-fenced and turned into game ranches.

 

[inyati13]

dun, that happens everywhere. In Montana they would come in from California and want to leave after the first winter. You would see a home on the market that was over-priced. It would sell and you knew it was someone from the west coast. Then shortly it would sell again and once through that it was always on the market longer the second time.

I sometimes wonder about land values. If you get out on the backroads in the county where my farm is, seems like a lot of idle land. Most of it is growing up in bushes and weeds. The terrain is hilly and is not suited for crops except maybe tobacco. People in town buy it to hunt turkey and deer. In this area, only 1 out of a 1000 that have beef cattle make their living w/o a town job or retirement income. With that supply of land, you wonder what holds up property values!

 

[dun]

With that supply of land, you wonder what holds up property values!

Morons is what keeps prices up. Morons that think that because land is skyhigh in california that it must be the same all over. All I can figure is they don;t have the ability to read (or maybe comprehend) that the prices in the paper or the land catalogs isn;t a typo.

 

[James T]

In Central Texas the good farm and ranch land is being turned into subdivisions and covered in pavement from city people out of Country and State, The old Texas ways are slowly being eaten away to never be the same. The large ranches are being high-fenced and turned into game ranches.

That's slowly happening out my way too. Exotics are in. More and more are getting into deer genetics also.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

With that supply of land, you wonder what holds up property values!

Morons is what keeps prices up. Morons that think that because land is skyhigh in california that it must be the same all over. All I can figure is they don;t have the ability to read (or maybe comprehend) that the prices in the paper or the land catalogs isn;t a typo.

Now Dun, I'll try not to take offense to that comment :D
We moved from California to Missouri around 7 years ago and never looked back. We bought raw land for the average price for our area, and sat on it for several years while still living and working in CA. When my husband was medically retired from California Department Fire and Forestry (he was a career firefighter for 26 years) we moved out here and built our farm. We had to put in a well, build fence and built our own shop that we lived in for three years before building our house.
Now, me being an Ag teacher might have made a big difference on our success, since I did a bunch of research on land values and carrying capacity before we bought. :tiphat:

 

[dun]

With that supply of land, you wonder what holds up property values!

Morons is what keeps prices up. Morons that think that because land is skyhigh in california that it must be the same all over. All I can figure is they don;t have the ability to read (or maybe comprehend) that the prices in the paper or the land catalogs isn;t a typo.

Now Dun, I'll try not to take offense to that comment :D
We moved from California to Missouri around 7 years ago and never looked back. We bought raw land for the average price for our area, and sat on it for several years while still living and working in CA. When my husband was medically retired from California Department Fire and Forestry (he was a career firefighter for 26 years) we moved out here and built our farm. We had to put in a well, build fence and built our own shop that we lived in for three years before building our house.
Now, me being an Ag teacher might have made a big difference on our success, since I did a bunch of research on land values and carrying capacity before we bought. :tiphat:

We moved here from california too, but we fit right in with the locals. The majority of the californians that move here don;t and can;t wait to get away from the hillbillys.

 

[skyhightree1]

Seems like the young farmers would rather go deep in debt and gamble on these grain prices staying up high ,than ever think about running a few head of cows. I guess cows are not as glamorous as those fancy combines. quote]

Jason, I am a young farmer "32" that has a few fancy combines as you call them.. im also on this site and have cattle. No matter row crops or cattle we are all farmers. I hear it on both sides the somewhat animosity between farmers that raise row crops and cattle its ridiculous. Yes, row crops make a ton more money for me than cattle but I like cattle and will raise some as long as I possibly can do so.

 

[AllForage]

The animosity comes from Govt subsidies and ridiculous programs like CRP which raise the cost of pasture or make sure none exists.

I agree with Jason, row cropping is 6-7 months of work and then winter off. Younger Folks just don't seem to want to fuss with livestock.

I'm 35 and little to no debt is nice.