HDRider
Well-known member
How would you suggest I improve that?
Someone is bullish on the market
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
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Stocker Steve
Well-known member
Grazing yearlings can work well as long as the market is not going down. Pre selling can address this.
The cow calf operator has some potential grazing yearlings advantages by retaining the "best" calves and reducing the middlemen. If you know how to raise decent pasture - - the return per acre will be higher than with cow calf.
HDRider
Well-known member
Not that it impacts the situation all that much, but I might be a little high on the per bale weight. I have never weighed one.
I do have about 15 calves and a bull in that mix.
bird dog
Well-known member
HD are you feeding all they can eat? Rolling out your hay? When are you calving? Are you willing to let your cows get a little thin?
HDRider
Well-known member
I calve in the fall and in the spring, about 50/50.
They are hungry when I put hay out. I waste very little hay. I do not roll it out. I feed in hay rings. They are not over conditioned, but not super thin.
HDRider
Well-known member
To add more color.
My ground is not frozen. It is muddy most of the time. I much prefer putting hay out when it is froze, but most of the time I am simply trying to minimize the damage to the pasture going to and from.
The problem is 150 days if that's how long you're feeding. Bet you could get that down to 110 or so. Save some serious money. I hay feed for 90 days assuming grass is good by late April.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
Get it down to 25 days or less changes a lot.
Dave
Well-known member
Superior sold several loads of 850 pound steers out of Kentucky for $1.40 last week. That is $1,190. Not $1,250 but close. I don't know what your commission is at the sales there but Superior is 2% less than our local sales. That is $23.80 savings on those $1,190 steers.
25 days of feeding would completely solve the problem here. All would be winterkilled.
Mrcopier
Well-known member
You should get a hay unroller. From my experience cows only need about 35-40lbs of hay a day. Figure hey bale weight and divide by number of cows and roll out that much per day. Free feeding hay is a waste. The draw back is ya have to hay everyday or have separate pens you could open daily. Worked for me and the unroller paid for its self within a month
HDRider
Well-known member
I am working on it.
HDRider
Well-known member
There is no way
Carry 12 cows over the winter and you can.
HDRider
Well-known member
Sure. That would be easy. I would never need hay, or much else. It would be a free ride.
kenny thomas
Well-known member
Yes there is a way if your in the fescue belt. Get the number of cows to match what will still make a profit by feeding less. Put your fertilizer on grazing stockpile fescue instead of hay..
But if it snows 12" have hay ready.
HDRider
Well-known member
Kenny - I am sure what you does works for you there.
I am as much Bermuda as I am Fescue. That speaks to our climate differences. It gets drier in the summer, it gets hotter here, and it gets colder here and I expect my winter temperature swings are more wide ranging.
I lived in upper east Tennessee and I would call it and where you are much more temperate than here.
The Bermuda is a problem. Mob grazing is one way to deal with it. Another way may be to move your feed bunks onto the Bermuda spots and let the cows destroy it. May be worth a shot?
Stocker Steve
Well-known member
A key here is fescue belt. There are other ways to stock pile like using annual mixes or OG, but you run the risk of getting snowed out. Standing corn is the most weather proof, but it is not as cheap as perennials.
The other key is not overstocking, and then using all the potential profit to hay extra cows. Many of us would make more money with 30 to 40% less cows and a longer grazing season.
