farmerjan
Well-known member
Good for you to have an area where inputs are so inexpensive. Does not happen in many other areas. You also keep changing the scenario and now list that you lime and such and the owners are paying for it. You do not tell the whole story and then tell everyone else that they are basically stupid for the way they are managing their own places. Can't know "anything about anything" if you only tell part of the story.
And with a 150 cow/calf operation... if we only had an average 75-85% calf crop we would be hurting. We try to run 90% .... and except for a problem with a bull this year that was good and suddenly quit preforming, our preg check rate has been running better than 92%....and we normally only have 1 or 2 that are checked preg that don't deliver a calf.....
I usually will graft a calf on a cow that has a dead one, so normally after buying a replacement calf, the "profit" off that cow might be zero, but I have salvaged the lactation of an otherwise good cow. We average maybe 1 born dead calf every other year...might go 5 years with no born dead calves, then have one or 2. The cows are paying for the mtg on the new farm we bought; plus the fertilizer we so "foolishly" put down on our productive hayfields. We average much more than 1 1/2 to 2 rolls an acre... with our bales running 1,000-1200 lbs... so 2,000 lbs to the acre... FIRST CUTTING.... usually more... then there is 2nd and sometimes third cutting....
With the increased costs of fuel and fertilizer (that we DO believe in, to increase the productivity of the hayfields and the pastures), there will be no hay around here in the $25-30 range....
If you can still find it there, all the more power to you.
But to tell people that they should shoot their cows and bury them with a bull dozer because others methods do not meet your criteria is being childish. This forum is a place where people mostly talk about, complain about, and learn about, others ways of doing things without being subjected to the abusive attitude that you have displayed.
And with a 150 cow/calf operation... if we only had an average 75-85% calf crop we would be hurting. We try to run 90% .... and except for a problem with a bull this year that was good and suddenly quit preforming, our preg check rate has been running better than 92%....and we normally only have 1 or 2 that are checked preg that don't deliver a calf.....
I usually will graft a calf on a cow that has a dead one, so normally after buying a replacement calf, the "profit" off that cow might be zero, but I have salvaged the lactation of an otherwise good cow. We average maybe 1 born dead calf every other year...might go 5 years with no born dead calves, then have one or 2. The cows are paying for the mtg on the new farm we bought; plus the fertilizer we so "foolishly" put down on our productive hayfields. We average much more than 1 1/2 to 2 rolls an acre... with our bales running 1,000-1200 lbs... so 2,000 lbs to the acre... FIRST CUTTING.... usually more... then there is 2nd and sometimes third cutting....
With the increased costs of fuel and fertilizer (that we DO believe in, to increase the productivity of the hayfields and the pastures), there will be no hay around here in the $25-30 range....
If you can still find it there, all the more power to you.
But to tell people that they should shoot their cows and bury them with a bull dozer because others methods do not meet your criteria is being childish. This forum is a place where people mostly talk about, complain about, and learn about, others ways of doing things without being subjected to the abusive attitude that you have displayed.