Caustic Burno
Well-known member
preston39":8v4ymm19 said:=======Texan":8v4ymm19 said:Yeah, Caustic. I kinda doubt that apology will ever happen, too. But I thought you deserved a chance at it for calling him names and making fun of him instead of admitting you were wrong. But since you elected not to, I'll go ahead and put in my two cents worth---Caustic Burno":8v4ymm19 said:Texan":8v4ymm19 said:Maybe Caustic will apologize to you.
I doubt that will happen I hate to bust your bubble but an acre is not a pasture lawn maybe ,small lot at best. Cattle eat grass will browse once in a while on leaves, love collar greens turnips and vegatables. So if your cows are eatin weeds there are dang hungry you better break out that cub cadet and pump garden sprayer and get after them pastures ROTFLMAO.
Maybe old peanut the bull is so bored he is eating weeds , nothing else to do.
The fact is, a lot of cattle in this country graze weeds from time to time. Many of the early season grazing leases for stocker cattle in this country consist primarily of lush green weeds. Maybe you should tell the guys that run thousands of calves on weeds getting them ready for summer grass that their calves just won't eat weeds, according to Caustic Burno. Truth is, cattle will eat most grassy weeds and will also eat many problem broadleaf weeds like buttercup and others if you can graze them before they get too tall. It's a simple fact, but weeds are free until we start spending money on them. A lot of cattle in this country do good on weeds. So do the cattlemen that choose to utilize them before they throw money at them.
I guess poor folks has got poor ways, but I try to graze weeds hard early in the year. I know a lot of you can afford to spray all of your pastures and spread seed and fertilizer in all of them every year, but all of us don't operate like that. My cows don't know the difference between two inch buttercup and two inch clover. I do, because the buttercup is free and I have a brief window of time to use it before it gets too big and unpalatable. Then, it just becomes another invasive weed. Isn't grazing some of it better than spending money on it? My problem is that, unlike Lancemart, I just can't (or don't) concentrate enough cattle in that area to knock them all out. Young weeds also provide early season protein for me. Thank goodness for that. That's protein that doesn't have to come out of a sack. And if a cow only pulls a weed up and spits it back out, I feel like I have done a better job than spending money out of my pocket to control that weed. That's not really all that hard to figure, is it?
Some of you seem to think that manicuring your pastures with chemicals and shredding/bushhogging is the only way to operate. Many of us choose to spend our resources on things other than chemicals, diesel, and wearing out equipment. Don't get me wrong---I do plenty of shredding and use my share of chemicals, too. But I wouldn't if I could make a cow eat those weeds and not hurt production out of her. Being a low-cost producer obviously isn't something that many of you are familiar with. And I realize that many of you don't even care about learning. But running tractors over land adds a tremendous amount of expense to your annual cow costs. Of course, I realize that some of you don't ever figure things like annual cow costs. But every time I shred pastures, I can't help but think of what it is costing me on a per cow basis. It is constantly on my my mind how foolish it really is if there is another alternative.
Bottom line, the way it looks to me---Lancemart is doing a good job of managing his grazing and seems to be utilizing his resources with better management than many of us do. The size and location of his operation doesn't change that, Caustic. All of us should do the best we can with what we have to work with, no matter where it is. Especially if we're not even familiar with their area. I'd hate to think that I had somebody from Rhode Island trying to tell me how to manage my pastures. And then calling me names if I disagreed.
I'm sure that many of the rest of you do a good job of managing your pastures, too. Just in a different way than Lancemart does. Tractors at $30-40,000, burning $2.00 diesel, pulling an $8,000 shredder or spraying $70 a jug chemical with a $4,000 sprayer is also an effective means of controlling weeds. It just wouldn't be my first choice. I'd rather be more like Lancemart.
Caustic, whether you ever choose to admit it or not, cattle graze weeds! That's a fact! Not all weeds, but the more of them that we can graze, the less money we have to spend on controlling them. Lancemart is doing a good job of controlling his through grazing. I don't have any trouble admitting that he's doing a better job than I do. Maybe even a better job than you do, Caustic. A real cattleman should be able to admit when he's wrong. If he doesn't, he is doomed to making the same mistakes over and over again.
Texan,
You are absolutely correct. Cows seem to get into moods and head for the scrubby areas and chow down...there is a reddish type weed with small seed tops that have briars on them round these parts that will stick your hand...cows go out of their way to eat 'em. I can't believe it when I see the cows go out of the pasture and get into a over grown area..... ready for the bush hog treatment... and eat away. Don't let anyone tell you that cows will not eat certain weeds, leaves and young bushes...they will.
Presto find something orignal to say I try not to tag along with the cattleman. Never said cows don't browse.
