@RDFF, The man who bought our Corr herd last year, is located to the east and a little south of us, but basically has the same climate and conditions. He has 150 acres I think, and 20 acres is in irrigated hay. Russell Bermuda, fertilized to UGA specs, and he tests and reapplies what is called for at each cutting. He sprays herbicides to keep it weed free, Johnson Grass free, crab grass free, etc. , and you can't kill Johnson grass or crab grass with just cheap 24D. He raises this hay for his cows, and to sell as horse-quality hay. Half of his pastures are Alicia bermuda, and about half in the new World Feeder/Alfalfa that UGA has been experimenting with for pasture forage, not hay. These too, he fertilizes to specs, and keeps weed free. He has protein tubs out, has rubs all over for fly control, and he worms and vaccinates, the whole nine yards, like he did his other cattle. He has these same input costs as any other cattleman . These cows we had bred to Brangus before he got them. Those calves weaned at exactly the same weight we had been averaging. Granted, they didn't get half the protein in their forage as they did when we had them. I just don't see the advantage for him with those kind of inputs, other than he can raise 3 on what he could raise Angus or Herford on, and 4-5 on what he could raise Continentals on. He bought 95 from us, where as, when he had Braford, BM, and Gert cows and bred to Brangus he had 50 cows at the most. I guess it is a situation like what @Lee VanRoss advocates: Lbs per acre instead of head per acre. He gave us $98k for the herd, a little over $1k per pair. Dunno if he sold his eared cows as pairs or just heavy breds, but either way he probably got $2k to $2500 per head, so he started out in the black.
If someone with an operation this nice called me about getting Corrs and breeding them to beef bulls, I would probably be hesitant to push Corrs on them...would probably advise against it. In fact, we met this man at our 2021 dove shoot, and Scott and I both pointed out the cons on him trying to replicate what we do on his place. Now, if someone called and had some rough, un-improved land, like cut-over timber, or just land that had grown up wild and unimproved for years, especially if it was full of Kudzu, then yeah, I would tell them to string a fence around the place and load it up with Corrs.
If someone with an operation this nice called me about getting Corrs and breeding them to beef bulls, I would probably be hesitant to push Corrs on them...would probably advise against it. In fact, we met this man at our 2021 dove shoot, and Scott and I both pointed out the cons on him trying to replicate what we do on his place. Now, if someone called and had some rough, un-improved land, like cut-over timber, or just land that had grown up wild and unimproved for years, especially if it was full of Kudzu, then yeah, I would tell them to string a fence around the place and load it up with Corrs.
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