Feed is high....how does this change your plans?

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cowz

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Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,492
Feed is high as we all know.  Are you changing your plans or operations because of it? 

My junior exhibitors are scaling down.  Word is only 3 steers and 4 heifers this year.  This is a small relief to the feed bill.  We usually feed some yearling bulls.  I think that is cut down to 6. 

Luckily, hay is plentiful for us this year ... do not have to buy much!  Hooray!
 

shortyjock89

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Joined
Mar 6, 2007
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4,465
Location
IL
We really cut back on our program, the number of cows especially.  We sold 8 cows, and now we only have 8, plus three bred heifers.  We also are selling more calves this year that we would love to keep and show, or put in the cow herd.  We can't afford to feed them all, and on top of that, we have next to no hay (Central Illinois), so we are buying all we can.  It might be a rough winter, but we have the best set of calves we have ever had, including a heifer we raised, who is the best one in the bunch, so we are are in pretty good spirits actually....Oh, I almost forgot, the cows we sold were on a bred cow sale and all of our cows sold well over market price, and a first calf heifer and her calf raised by my sister was the high selling lot..that made us feel pretty good too! Sorry for the novel, but we've been busy around here

SJ89
 

TJ

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Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
2,036
shortyjock89 said:
We really cut back on our program, the number of cows especially.  We sold 8 cows, and now we only have 8, plus three bred heifers.  We also are selling more calves this year that we would love to keep and show, or put in the cow herd.  We can't afford to feed them all, and on top of that, we have next to no hay (Central Illinois), so we are buying all we can.  It might be a rough winter, but we have the best set of calves we have ever had, including a heifer we raised, who is the best one in the bunch, so we are are in pretty good spirits actually....Oh, I almost forgot, the cows we sold were on a bred cow sale and all of our cows sold well over market price, and a first calf heifer and her calf raised by my sister was the high selling lot..that made us feel pretty good too! Sorry for the novel, but we've been busy around here

SJ89

I know what you mean.  We baled 147 round bales of corn stalks last week & as soon as it quits raining (I'm not complaining... we needed it!!) we are going to finish baling 25 acres of millet.  But, even baling all those extra round bales, it's still going to be tight around here. 

 

Show Heifer

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Joined
Jan 28, 2007
Messages
2,221
Hate to say this....but I kept 5 replacement heifers, 3 bull calves and only selling 3 cull cows due to age and lack of milk. My logic: I have a bit of left over silage in my silo. Bought enough hay (although it was expensive) and with everyone else selling cows and shipping calves and not replacing....well, the price has to stay solid at least and at best, go up.
And my herd bull babies will be a minority, as most will be sold as steers to a feedlot, so they should sell well.

So that is my theory!
 

pigguy

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Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
662
Location
kansas
we have plenty of hay( 1000 plus bales) but everything else is high. going to the sale barn tomarrow to fill up the feedlot. If feed wasnt so high i woul dbe showing 14 calves instead of 8
 

justintime

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Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
4,346
Location
Saskatchewan Canada
Not much changes around here with the higher feed costs.... just the cost of doing business. I am planning on selling some older cows but that has been planned for a few years now. We will be keeping even more bulls as we have been selling out. We are starting a bull test and sale with some other breeders near here, and it will be held at their place. We have what should be two years of alfalfa bales, but we are so dry right now that we have started feeding cows already. ... Makes for a very long winter when you start feeding in September. 
 

red

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Joined
Jan 20, 2007
Messages
7,850
Location
LaRue, Ohio
We'll send our not as desirable females to the farm to be either replacement heifers or feedlot. Won't change how I feed my show/sale heifers. Just not worth tinkering w/ their program. The cows might end up w/ a poorer quaility hay yhan they like but they are over conditioned as it is.

Red
 

frostback

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Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
2,068
Location
Colorado
We will have to see how preg checking goes to see about the cows. The open ones will be going to town with a very few exceptions. The show animal numbers will remain the same unless you talk to my husband. I am too afraid to only weigh in one steer, too much can go wrong and they can die and I want her to have something to sell. As far as the heifers we will have two of them too. I hate only taking one head anywhere. If it were up to me the barn would hold 8 like it could. I guess in two years it will when the boy can show.
 

TJ

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Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
2,036
TJ said:
shortyjock89 said:
We really cut back on our program, the number of cows especially.  We sold 8 cows, and now we only have 8, plus three bred heifers.  We also are selling more calves this year that we would love to keep and show, or put in the cow herd.  We can't afford to feed them all, and on top of that, we have next to no hay (Central Illinois), so we are buying all we can.  It might be a rough winter, but we have the best set of calves we have ever had, including a heifer we raised, who is the best one in the bunch, so we are are in pretty good spirits actually....Oh, I almost forgot, the cows we sold were on a bred cow sale and all of our cows sold well over market price, and a first calf heifer and her calf raised by my sister was the high selling lot..that made us feel pretty good too! Sorry for the novel, but we've been busy around here

SJ89

I know what you mean.  We baled 147 round bales of corn stalks last week & as soon as it quits raining (I'm not complaining... we needed it!!) we are going to finish baling 25 acres of millet.   But, even baling all those extra round bales, it's still going to be tight around here. 

Wouldn't you know it.  We are ready to cut & bale hay & now it can't quit rainning!!  We've had several hard rains during the past 2 days.  However, as I stated yesterday, I'm not going to complain... we needed it!   
 

cattlejunky

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Joined
Jun 22, 2007
Messages
538
Location
indiana
We modified our feed.  Not using the steam flaked and using other ingredients in a pelleted form.  cost is half,  calves like it and are gaining okay.
 

Rocky Hill Simmental

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Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
397
Location
Missouri
We're fixing to sell some really old cows and some 2 year old heifers that should be showing already but aren't. We already sold a lot of nice looking young commercial heifers that we planned on keeping for breeding.

We already sold all the goats except two earlier this summer when we noticed the price was starting to drop on them.

We might sell some horses too - especially the stud horse. We don't need anymore foals and he keeps figuring out how to eat from the creep feeder. We had to set a cattle pannel on it so keep him from sticking his head over the top and eating from it. And one day the horses got the back open and were eating from it.

We've been running the horses and cattle together lately because the horses had a lot of pasture they weren't eating so we let the cows in to have some more because they were getting a little low.

It rained yesterday. :) Hopefully the hay grows a little more. I'd like to have about 50 more bales and I've heard hay's going to be selling for 100 dollars per bale and I can't afford that... So hopefully this rain really helps. ;)
 
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