Thinking about selling

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callmefence

callmefence

Keyboard cowboy
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Fencemans place...central Texas
I think it's gonna be a hard summer.
Tanks are a small fraction of where they should be. Creeks not running.
Lots of folks having to lower their wells.
Prices are still good. Probably keep enough to run in the woods and rough pastures at a very low stocking rate.. 1-25 acres I'm thinking. Haying everything I can get a tractor to and holding hay until it gets valuable.
I'm not wanting to get caught with a bunch of cattle, no grass , shortage of hay and prices going off a cliff.
Learned about that the hard way.

If I go with it , it's bound to start raining... lol
 
If you do that and it starts raining, take credit for it and send your neighbors a bill for rain stimulation.
 
Thinking much the same. My tanks are in good shape but the grass, not so much. We have had some rains but they have been small quantities. My oats/Rye grass looks good from the road for baling but when you walk the field you notice it is thin. For some reason the Rye grass has just not done much this year, Its there, but its just a couple inches tall. The ground already has large cracks. Thats very troublesome for early April.

I no tilled a bunch of Rye grass into some field that didn't have much. It came up and I was proud. Its still there and still the same height. I weaned fall calves last week. Weaning weights were pitiful. Calves look good, just smaller this year. I don't think I will be able to keep them 45 days this year without impacting the rest of the herd. Feed is to expensive for more than just getting them started. Prices and demand are good at OKC and I may get them going that direction if we don't get rain this week or next.

It seems the big freeze has had more negative effects than first noticed. I'm glad I have forage insurance again this year.
 
why not sell them all and let your pastures come back? Make whatever hay you can in the mean time.
 
There is no way to know for sure what to do, but I suspect that most people tend to wait too long to decide to cut back. When water and moisture are low in April, it usually gets worse pretty quick.
 
We're in much the same situation here. We plan to sell the older calves ( 4-5 months old) in a couple of weeks. They'll be weaned on diesel fumes. Next up will be the yearling heifers.... I hate that but you got to cut numbers some where. Followed by the older cows.

It's much more fun when the tanks are full and the grass is deep. ;)
 
Time marches on and history repeats itself.
What were my cows now all belong to someone else, tho they are still here on the property.

Grass is green and ponds are full but how long that lasts is unknown, because the grass seems to be growing slower this spring.

Good luck to all that stay in it.
 
greybeard said:
Time marches on and history repeats itself.
What were my cows now all belong to someone else, tho they are still here on the property.

Grass is green and ponds are full but how long that lasts is unknown, because the grass seems to be growing slower this spring.

Good luck to all that stay in it.
Click to expand...
10 to 15 years ago I'd be baling by now but I was managing grass a lot different than now. Their are some patches around that that has had the fertilizer poured to it. It will probably be cut in the next couple weeks.
 
If the drought last 2-3 years you'd be Money ahead selling early, if it last 1 year you'd be better feeding hay. Problem is you just never know. One thing to remember is it's raining somewhere and you can ship cattle to that market at anytime
 
greybeard said:
Grass is green and ponds are full but how long that lasts is unknown, because the grass seems to be growing slower this spring.
Click to expand...
Cold weather can "burn" grass and set it back quite a bit. Delaying spring turnout helps it come back.

Odds are that there will be a drought scare this spring and grain prices will go up, again. It may pay to sell some cattle sooner.
 
I was also thinking it may be a hard summer, having to water garden on the first part of April is a BAD sign
 
Historically a freak winter leads to drought here in central Texas.
Also this time of the year the fronts coming down hitting hot gulf air generates thunderstorms.
If you live here and work outside, you don't have to watch the weather. A strong humid south wind for several days means it's coming as the gulf air rushes toward the low pressure.
As the front approachs storms form out west and build as the move east.
When you see the storms try to form and then weakening and falling apart just giving a light sprinkle... that trend continues through the summer.
Fences long range forecast... hoping mother nature makes a fool of me.
 
Our lower elevation turn out ground has good deep moisture but is dry on top. It could sure use a shot of rain. The higher elevation and north slopes have a lot of snow sitting on it still. So that will grow good grass as we move forward. We don't need a heavy warm rain to take that off too fast. The man in charge of the reservoir called a couple days ago. He is starting to let a little more water go. The reservoir will be full by the end of next week. Then what ever comes in he will be letting out. So we will have plenty of water for irrigation on the hay fields. Very little of the irrigated ground is grazed until fall. A few have started putting water on the hay fields. I still have cows on mine so I will have to wait for them to move into the hills before opening my ditches.
 
Dave said:
Our lower elevation turn out ground has good deep moisture but is dry on top. It could sure use a shot of rain. The higher elevation and north slopes have a lot of snow sitting on it still. So that will grow good grass as we move forward. We don't need a heavy warm rain to take that off too fast. The man in charge of the reservoir called a couple days ago. He is starting to let a little more water go. The reservoir will be full by the end of next week. Then what ever comes in he will be letting out. So we will have plenty of water for irrigation on the hay fields. Very little of the irrigated ground is grazed until fall. A few have started putting water on the hay fields. I still have cows on mine so I will have to wait for them to move into the hills before opening my ditches.
Click to expand...
Looking forward to seeing photos when you open your irrigation ditches Dave.

Ken
 
callmefence said:
Historically a freak winter leads to drought here in central Texas.
Also this time of the year the fronts coming down hitting hot gulf air generates thunderstorms.
If you live here and work outside, you don't have to watch the weather. A strong humid south wind for several days means it's coming as the gulf air rushes toward the low pressure.
As the front approachs storms form out west and build as the move east.
When you see the storms try to form and then weakening and falling apart just giving a light sprinkle... that trend continues through the summer.
Fences long range forecast... hoping mother nature makes a fool of me.
Click to expand...
Did you get any of that rain yesterday?
 

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