Pharos Bulls and philosophy?

[mtnman]

Pharo doesn't produce cattle for grassfed beef systems, maybe grass only mommas is what you mean.

He talks about it a little, but very few really are.

He sure isn't.

He wouldn't know a critter finished on grass if it bit him in the butt.

He's way too disconencted from the end product to have a clue about whether his will do it on grass or not.

mtnman

 

[Aero]

The grassfed angle has always intrigued me. I don't see how with rising energy and input costs, industrial agriculture can continue on for the indefinite future. I find my self more and more disgusted with the factory farming/confinement mentality and treating animals like machines.

i am amazed farmers can have enough grass and land to do anything grass finished at any scale.

 

[OK Jeanne]

We do produce grass-finished beef and sell direct. It does
take more land and especially more long-term planning
than weaning and hauling to the sale barn.

 

[Brandonm2]

I suspect that he is producing cattle for the grassfed market and doesn't really give a hoot about carcass results and or quality from a grainfed/feedlot perspective.

The grassfed angle has always intrigued me. I don't see how with rising energy and input costs, industrial agriculture can continue on for the indefinite future. I find my self more and more disgusted with the factory farming/confinement mentality and treating animals like machines.

It seems to me that there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

I agree. Puting 750-850 lb stockers in a feedlot does not really bother me at all; but I remember when my grandfather put up 2 rolls of hay per mama cow wintered and used grain sparingly during winter months only (before somebody from a mountain in Idaho jumps on me...remember that I am talking about old style English cows grazing fescue/clover pastures in ALABAMA) and stockers were raised on grass. Too many cows today are built for daily grain supplementation six-seven months plus out of the year and I know people who feed a lot more than that. While that MIGHT make a better feedlot calf, I am not sure that is profitable for this industry if we ever have to pay $3++ a bushel for grain.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

I suspect that he is producing cattle for the grassfed market and doesn't really give a hoot about carcass results and or quality from a grainfed/feedlot perspective.

The grassfed angle has always intrigued me. I don't see how with rising energy and input costs, industrial agriculture can continue on for the indefinite future. I find my self more and more disgusted with the factory farming/confinement mentality and treating animals like machines.

It seems to me that there has to be a happy medium somewhere.

I agree. Puting 750-850 lb stockers in a feedlot does not really bother me at all; but I remember when my grandfather put up 2 rolls of hay per mama cow wintered and used grain sparingly during winter months only (before somebody from a

• mountain in Idaho jumps on

me...remember that I am talking about old style English cows grazing fescue/clover pastures in ALABAMA) and stockers were raised on grass. Too many cows today are built for daily grain supplementation six-seven months plus out of the year and I know people who feed a lot more than that. While that MIGHT make a better feedlot calf, I am not sure that is profitable for this industry if we ever have to pay $3++ a bushel for grain.

$20 say's he does anyway ;-)

 

[OKJeanne]

Better get ready..........all grains(IMO) will be going up
with the increased energy cost and so much corn going
into ethanol. I believe world-wide grain stocks are the lowest
in decades.

 

[SEC]

Grain Stocks down, ha ha ha ha hah aha haha hahahahahahaha


What a joke!

Come to Canada, we will sell you any kind of grain for not a lot of money.

Lentils, an excellent source of protein are worth 7cents lb.
Pellets can land in your yard for $95 /ton.

Depends where you live.

 

[jhambley]

Here's a couple reports for you:

Energy Demand May Impact Feed Industry
http://www.ilfb.org/viewdocument.asp?did=11735&r=0.7393915&r=4.220217E-02

Ethanol and Peak Food
http://www.energybulletin.net/16544.html

 

[OK Jeanne]

I generally read the energy bulletin every few days.
This morning I noticed that it would not come up on
my computer---and just now the link did not work.....
maybe they are off the air for some reason.
It's an excellent site for all energy related news.

 

[jhambley]

The Energy Bulletin site appears to be back up now.

 

[SEC]

I suppose that everyone believes there is an Oil shortage also.

 

[Brandonm2]

I don't believe that there is an oil OR a grain shortage; I just don't believe that world governments are going to continue subsidizing crop farmers to produce grain for less than $2.45 /bushel indefinitely. U.S. gov is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while it is subsidizing roads, sewers, M16s, etc for every podunk town in the nation motivated enough to fill out a grant application, while paying medical bills for every old person, subsidizing all the hospitals and nursing homes, writing out checks to everybody with a bad back or just for being 65 and up, while paying out student loans, medical research grants, grants to buy wildlife habitat, etc etc and they are doing all this by writing new T-bills to everyone in the world, and then paying the interest on all that debt by printing yet more bonds. EVENTUALLY the bills will come due and the govt is going to cut out all the fat.....and I think crop programs will go before Foodstamps, interstate projects, prisons, or the military get cut. I think break even for corn (without govt. assistance and price supports) is around $2.80 and rising fuel and fertilizer costs should push that closer to $3.00

 

[Beefy]

i dont have any idea what or who y'all are talking about.

 

[SEC]

Fair enough, I wonder what will happen to agriculture I know in Canada the dirt farming looks pretty bleak.

I don't think the govt should subsidize creating a false feeling. I know that I don't want to see thousands of farmers leaving the land either.

Agriculture is in a sad state of affairs.

 

[Brandonm2]

Fair enough, I wonder what will happen to agriculture I know in Canada the dirt farming looks pretty bleak.

I don't think the govt should subsidize creating a false feeling. I know that I don't want to see thousands of farmers leaving the land either.

Agriculture is in a sad state of affairs.

I like cheap grain. It means that the cost of the grain in a loaf of bread or a bag of flour is an almost insignificant amount of money. We can grain fatten our calves, hogs, lambs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, catfish, tilapia, shrimp, etc. and sell the stuff so cheap that anybody with any kind of job can afford most of our products. Grain is so cheap that hogs and poultry spend their entire lives in confinement eating cheap milled grains. We have been using tax dollars to keep the stuff cheap for 70++ years. During that time the number of farmers and particularly the number of grain farmers has plummetted. They are not the powerful voting constituency that they once were. Big agribusiness corps like ADM and Cargill still wield influence; but is that enough to keep all the grain programs and price supports off the chopping block when the day comes that govt. descides to balance it's budget??? I don't know.

 

[MoGal]

I think corn has already gone up.... according to the Mid-America Farmer Grower weekly paper I get a few weeks back the December 06 futures for corn was $3.00 bushel and since they are building (or in planning) ethanol plants in southern il and western ky, I don't see corn going down anytime soon. Last year corn was $2.00 bushel in this area.