We have rented a neighboring farm since 1953. My Grand Father rented it and I took it over from him an my sons took it over from me. Good ground and fairly good barns/cattle sheds but no house. The old house burnt in the 1950s and the owners moved to town rather than rebuild at retirement age.
What is going on that is new??? We emptied out the cattle yards this afternoon. There will be no cattle in them for the foreseeable future. There is not much of a profit showing on finishing cattle with the current prices or the futures price you can get. Leaving these yards empty takes about 2 hours off chores everyday year round and 3 hours a day in the winter. When you count in travel time and these yards not being as labor friendly as the home yards. It takes more time to clean them out and rebeding them is not fun either.
I can not remember these yards ever being empty in my life time. They where split into hog and cattle yards until about the mid 1990s. I had gotten out of hogs by them and finally spent the money to rebuilt the hog yards for cattle. They will hold five hundred head of fats easy. So it has been over sixty years or more since they were empty.
So we are going to set gates by the road and lock the driveway down for the winter. It will feel funny going by and not turning in to do chores. I bet that I will slow down a few times before remembering that. LOL Old dog and old tricks.
This winter will feel different. After Jan. we will have half the cattle we have been running. We will finish our own cattle and any calves that can be bought right compared to the fat cattle market. Too many fellows are thinking to feed cheap corn to recoup their loses on the corn growing side. This is part of the reason cash prices and futures are in the dumps. Also the demand is not solid right now either. So we will focus on what we can make money on and cut back on the other stuff. We will not keep doing some thing just "because" we have always done it.
What is going on that is new??? We emptied out the cattle yards this afternoon. There will be no cattle in them for the foreseeable future. There is not much of a profit showing on finishing cattle with the current prices or the futures price you can get. Leaving these yards empty takes about 2 hours off chores everyday year round and 3 hours a day in the winter. When you count in travel time and these yards not being as labor friendly as the home yards. It takes more time to clean them out and rebeding them is not fun either.
I can not remember these yards ever being empty in my life time. They where split into hog and cattle yards until about the mid 1990s. I had gotten out of hogs by them and finally spent the money to rebuilt the hog yards for cattle. They will hold five hundred head of fats easy. So it has been over sixty years or more since they were empty.
So we are going to set gates by the road and lock the driveway down for the winter. It will feel funny going by and not turning in to do chores. I bet that I will slow down a few times before remembering that. LOL Old dog and old tricks.
This winter will feel different. After Jan. we will have half the cattle we have been running. We will finish our own cattle and any calves that can be bought right compared to the fat cattle market. Too many fellows are thinking to feed cheap corn to recoup their loses on the corn growing side. This is part of the reason cash prices and futures are in the dumps. Also the demand is not solid right now either. So we will focus on what we can make money on and cut back on the other stuff. We will not keep doing some thing just "because" we have always done it.