rrlund

How is farming going on your side of the lake? You do not post up top anymore and I always enjoyed following your farming operation as it somewhat like mine. We milked cows for 20 years and now have beef cows. We finished shelling corn on Sat. night and baled 60 round bales of fodder. It was way to wet but we need the bedding and are planning on wrapping it. This has been the worst year ever for us as far as mudding the crops out. Had some sorghum on low ground that finally froze enough for us to get it chopped. Not sure yet what for feed it will be. To many more years like this and I might just quit and rent the farm out. Tom

I chopped a load of corn by going all one way yesterday. I got a load last week and mixed it 50/50 with the fermented stuff. I baled 12 rolls of stalks Saturday where I had picked some corn one way. The bales are full of mud and ridiculously heavy. I need 100 more,but it needs to freeze up good without any snow,so who knows how that's gonna go. I'm headed out in a few minutes,as soon as my coffee's gone and try to pick in a different field. I chopped all the high ground,so everything that's left is a mess. The wind's starting to take it down pretty bad.

There's some corn and beans coming out here and there on light ground,but we hauled a load of cattle yesterday and there's a lot of ruts in the fields and spots that have been worked around.

There's a fair amount of abandoned edible beans and potatoes around. I want to wait another 20 months or so to take my Social Security and even if we have to sell off more cattle I think I can make it to there,but I didn't want to sell down too far until the wife can get hers too. We took 20 800+ pound feeder steers to a special feeder sale on November 1. I'd take more to the next sale on Dec 6 if I was guaranteed I'd get what I got out of the ones I sold. They averaged $900. First check I've had in years that I wasn't disappointed in.

I'm glad you are happy with what you got, but that's not enough for cattle like yours. I am guessing your cattle are as fine as they come too. I sold mine at about 425 lb average and averaged $500 a head. Pretty discouraging considering all one puts into it. Neighbor has better cattle than me and does it like you, rrlund...corn silage, fully nnalert...his cattle averaged about 500 lbs. or so and he took in about $750 a head. Did 1.49 on the bigger steer calves, but the heifers knocked him down. That was a big sale down in Bloomington (WI). Search Bloomington Livestock if you are interested.

I get it that it is good for the current market, but still not enough.

Considering what fats have been bringing all summer and how short on feed I am,and what it would cost to buy feed to finish them,I 'm not complaining at all. I did OK on some fats yesterday,I hope it's a sign of better things to come.

We sell everything through United Producers. The auctioneer who sold the feeders,sells my fats and knows my cattle,so he really talked them up.

I saw fats were up a bit. That is a good sign.

Misery loves company, so they say. And after reading this post, I know I am sure not alone. We had a rainy wet spring, and crops went in late, then it forgot to rain again for two months. Now that it has remembered how to rain, we get rain or snow every few days. Forage supplies are low, as are bedding. I have sold down quite a few head to make my herd fit my feed supply. Truly a year to forget!

That's how it was here. It quit raining after the fourth of July and didn't start again until after Labor Day. I didn't get done with first cutting until July 10. We got a half way decent second cutting off the newest seedings,but not much of a third. The second on the older seedings was poor to say the least.

I don't know how much rain we got overnight,I don't have the gauge out anymore,but there's water standing everywhere again. It was starting to look pretty good,but not now. If it was July it would have taken a foot to make this much standing water.