Springin

[tapeworm]

actually caustic if i couldn't make more profit than a 100 dollars on a cow i would have been broke years ago. i could buy hay to feed one year around for less than 200 dollars. when they figure that average, they are figuring your labor at over 10 dollars an hour or more.

10 rolls of hay aint much hay You sell the average calf (commerical) at the salebarn for 600 bucks. So you are saying the cow cost nothing to upkeep for a year. Your not being realistic if you don't include all cost.
You may be like VD4 with astronomical profits.
You have Taxes, mileage,fuelcost, equipment cost, repair cost. medical cost. Takes a while to pay off a 40,000 dollar tractor a 15,000 dollar baler a 30,000 dollar truck 7,000 dollar trailer etc. These are all cost of doing business.

Now Burro dont make people think they ahve to spend all that money...you can be a true cattle rancher without all that money tied up in junk....all depends on who you try to impress. Good for you if you got that 100 thousand in stuff that wears out...everbody dont need it!!!!

 

[tapeworm]

is something thats 6 months bred or better at 6 months heifers start dropping their baggs an at 8 months bred or better they start bagging up depending on the breed and will bag till they calve and some will wait till they are ready to calf before they bagg scott

Nothing sure about heifers as far as timeline......you may be a big bull in texas but everbody knows that about heifers. Only sure thing about heifers calving or bagging or springing is that theres nothing sure about em

 

[Caustic Burno]

actually caustic if i couldn't make more profit than a 100 dollars on a cow i would have been broke years ago. i could buy hay to feed one year around for less than 200 dollars. when they figure that average, they are figuring your labor at over 10 dollars an hour or more.

10 rolls of hay aint much hay You sell the average calf (commerical) at the salebarn for 600 bucks. So you are saying the cow cost nothing to upkeep for a year. Your not being realistic if you don't include all cost.
You may be like VD4 with astronomical profits.
You have Taxes, mileage,fuelcost, equipment cost, repair cost. medical cost. Takes a while to pay off a 40,000 dollar tractor a 15,000 dollar baler a 30,000 dollar truck 7,000 dollar trailer etc. These are all cost of doing business.

Now Burro dont make people think they ahve to spend all that money...you can be a true cattle rancher without all that money tied up in junk....all depends on who you try to impress. Good for you if you got that 100 thousand in stuff that wears out...everbody dont need it!!!!

Yeah your right Parasite if you are a hobby boy I guess a Ford Ranger and 25 HP tractor is all you need for 10 to 15 acres. You don't need a 30 foot float to move hay, a 70 hp tractor to cut and bale. But for ten rolls a year you don't need equipment at all. Buy a an old wore out two horse trailer to haul your entire ranch in. But there is still cost for that old wore equipment and upkeep. Ya'll keep BSing yourselves.

 

[tapeworm]

You right about that upkeep caustrated Burro...sometimes i think my old truck is the parts mans gold mine...good hearing from you...hope you keep em straight all the times I cant be here. LOL

 

[stocky]

in alot of ways, i agree with jerry on equipment and costs. our hay machinery wore out about 7 years ago and we couldnt justify borrowing all the money it would take to buy new equipment, so we just have a Long Tractor and buy all our hay. 4x6 and 5x6 net wrapped good bales of fescue, clover and orchardgrass run from 10 dollars to 15 dollars per bale each year if you buy them in july. Each bale feeds 30-35 cows per day so 1 bale does 1 cow 1 month---we have to feed hay here some in dec and then full in jan, feb, march, so 4 big round bales feeds 1 cow for the winter. they have grass the other 8 months. without putting up our own hay, we are able to run more cows and buying hay is cheaper than fertilize and equipment, and we are able to graze more cattle because we dont save ground for a hayfield. we normally buy 1000-1200 large round bales per year, so we are a busy cattle farm. a tractor with a front end loader and a bale spike on the back of the old farm truck does all the feeding of as many as 15 large round bales per day in the winter. we just have never been able to justify the cost of the equipment

 

[jt]

stocky... seems to me if you can buy hay that cheap, you definitely did the smart thing... i doubt seriously you could ever roll your own that cheap once you considered everything. to me a very important point you made is how much a roll will feed. i too figure a roll per cow per month... if i dont get that, then i look into why..

jmo

jt

 

[WORANCH]

in alot of ways, i agree with jerry on equipment and costs. our hay machinery wore out about 7 years ago and we couldnt justify borrowing all the money it would take to buy new equipment, so we just have a Long Tractor and buy all our hay. 4x6 and 5x6 net wrapped good bales of fescue, clover and orchardgrass run from 10 dollars to 15 dollars per bale each year if you buy them in july. Each bale feeds 30-35 cows per day so 1 bale does 1 cow 1 month---we have to feed hay here some in dec and then full in jan, feb, march, so 4 big round bales feeds 1 cow for the winter. they have grass the other 8 months. without putting up our own hay, we are able to run more cows and buying hay is cheaper than fertilize and equipment, and we are able to graze more cattle because we dont save ground for a hayfield. we normally buy 1000-1200 large round bales per year, so we are a busy cattle farm. a tractor with a front end loader and a bale spike on the back of the old farm truck does all the feeding of as many as 15 large round bales per day in the winter. we just have never been able to justify the cost of the equipment

If your buying net wrapped hay for $10-$15 . someone is going broke in a hurry.
maybe he just bales hay for a hobby ;-)

 

[Campground Cattle]

in alot of ways, i agree with jerry on equipment and costs. our hay machinery wore out about 7 years ago and we couldnt justify borrowing all the money it would take to buy new equipment, so we just have a Long Tractor and buy all our hay. 4x6 and 5x6 net wrapped good bales of fescue, clover and orchardgrass run from 10 dollars to 15 dollars per bale each year if you buy them in july. Each bale feeds 30-35 cows per day so 1 bale does 1 cow 1 month---we have to feed hay here some in dec and then full in jan, feb, march, so 4 big round bales feeds 1 cow for the winter. they have grass the other 8 months. without putting up our own hay, we are able to run more cows and buying hay is cheaper than fertilize and equipment, and we are able to graze more cattle because we dont save ground for a hayfield. we normally buy 1000-1200 large round bales per year, so we are a busy cattle farm. a tractor with a front end loader and a bale spike on the back of the old farm truck does all the feeding of as many as 15 large round bales per day in the winter. we just have never been able to justify the cost of the equipment

If your buying net wrapped hay for $10-$15 . someone is going broke in a hurry.
maybe he just bales hay for a hobby ;-)

Now thats the truth I figure it cost me 14 dollars a bale, and I haven't adjusted for the fuel price jump this year.

 

[bigbull338]

well let me tell you if your buying hay that chep the people selling it are going broke let me tell you so buying 1500 rolls a yr id be buying new equipment b/c in 2yrs the equipment is payed for based on $45000 for the yrs hay b/c here they going to $20 a bale baling cost scott

 

[jerry27150]

caustic, seeing as you are smarter than some of us maybe you can explain how i always make a good living in this business. sure as hell takes more than 7500 dollars a year for couple with three boys to live all those years

 

[Caustic Burno]

caustic, seeing as you are smarter than some of us maybe you can explain how i always make a good living in this business. sure as hell takes more than 7500 dollars a year for couple with three boys to live all those years

"I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you."

 

[stocky]

here, custom balers charge 14-15 dollars per bale to cut, rake and bale the hay. the last 6 or 7 years there has been way too much hay put up around here, so people have had to sell it cheaper than it costs just to cut, rake, and bale. that doesnt even take into account the fertilizer costs, etc. i agree that the people selling this hay are taking a beating, no argument from me there---that is why i quit putting up my own hay, around here it just doesnt pay. i never buy combined hay, that doesnt have enough food value, but alot of people take the fescue seed then cut and bale the fescue, that makes sorry hay but alot of people dont know the difference and will pay the same for that as they will for real hay----to alot of people a round bale is a round bale, so they will pay the same amount of money for a 4x5 that they will a 4x6 or a 5x6. I have a city farmer neighbor that couldnt understand why i wouldnt pay 12 dollars for his 4x5 round bales, but i paid 12 dollars for some 4x6 bales. later, another guy came and bought his for 12 dollars and was glad to get them----he was a guy who was buying a round bale---thinking all of them are the same.

 

[bigbull338]

we grew wheat for yrs and even combined some and then tested the straw and it was 6 to 10% protine so you could feed that with higher protine feed and cut your cost as far far as what balers charhe here was $15 to $17 but with fueal at $2.20 a gal they going to $20 a bale scott

 

[dun]

We but up a good bit of combined fescue hay and the cows did well on it. But I think the key is that it was mostly all leaf and around 50% clover. Also low endophyte beacsue of the seeds having been removed.

dun

 

[stocky]

dun,
i have seen some very good combined hay, especially if it is alot of foliage and alot of clover like you are talking about. the problem with my area is that most of the combined hay is put up after it gets hot and dry and the food value has gone back into the ground and it doesnt have alot of foliage------to use combined hay, you have to be very picky and buy hay like you are talking about.
i am sure that the custom balers will go up in price here also with the rise in fuel prices----14-15 was last years prices and i dont see how they can pay for and keep up their machinery at that rate.

 

[dun]

dun,
i have seen some very good combined hay, especially if it is alot of foliage and alot of clover like you are talking about. the problem with my area is that most of the combined hay is put up after it gets hot and dry and the food value has gone back into the ground and it doesnt have alot of foliage------to use combined hay, you have to be very picky and buy hay like you are talking about.
i am sure that the custom balers will go up in price here also with the rise in fuel prices----14-15 was last years prices and i dont see how they can pay for and keep up their machinery at that rate.

We figured out log ago that we can buy better hay for less then we can put it up ourselves. The only stuff we hay is pastures that we just don;t have enough cows to graze down well enough to keep in a vegative state. This year so far looks like it's going to be the same problems we had last year, too wet to hay. I've got 15 acres of mostly clover with a little grass thrown in that I'ld like to hay now, no way it would cure with rain every other day. The bad part is that it isn;t even a decent rain, just that little 1/10 of an inch and cloudy. Ah well, in august and september I'll be whining about being too dry.

dun

 

[stocky]

dun, lol, you are right----rain all day for a tenth of an inch. makes calves sniffle and people also. I agree totally about buying better hay cheaper than putting it up yourself unless it is excess pasture that will go to waste. i would bet we wont see these temperatures and light drizzle in august, but it would feel nice, i am sure