Saving feed

I sure didn't want to do it,but it was desperation time. I haven't done any field work in over two months. Some of the silage corn is still in the field and about all of the grain corn with no hope in sight. We never sold any feeders before,always finished everything out,but on November 1 we sold 20 feeder steers.

We hit phase two and started selling cows last week. I've always had about 75 mama cows with half on each side of the road. I just finished hauling and got down to 43. We moved all of them left on the south side to the north side. Hopefully it'll save me two round bales a day so I can get through the winter. It about put me in tears to cull some of the cows we sold,but I'm a big boy,I guess I'll get over it. The silage will be pretty much gone by spring,so I'll turn this years calves out on the south side and pasture them so I don't have to feed up next winters feed to them in the feedlot all summer.

We'll see what happens. I'll be 66 and 2 months in 20 months and can get all my SS without any penalty. I can bring ten cows back across the road and breed some heifers if I have to and get built back up if I can ever get back to having a surplus of feed. I guess it'll be fewer chores to do next summer if they're all on pasture,that's one good thing,but so far,it's about the only good to come of it.

It is unfortunate you had to sell some cattle to get through the winter, but you will be in a better position this way than you would have been in had you held on to them and had to sell later when there is no feed to be found to buy.

You are not alone, either. Here in western MN/eastern SD, very little good hay was baled. Some farmers are still trying to finish harvest, and bedding is in short supply.

Having to sell good cows when you would rather keep them is hard. Hopefully you can build on what you have in a few seasons, turning this year's heifer calves into future productive momma cows.

Best of luck!

Lon

The very best to you,,changes are tough,,but you will get through it

Things are running much the same over in Ontario, feed is short. I culled down my herd some, carrying fewer cattle over this winter then I have in many years. Not much point in keeping more cattle than I could feed well. Kicker is dairy cattle are almost worthless right now. This last couple years has really sucked the fun out of farming for me

This'll probably be the only time in my life when I'm glad I'm not any younger. At least I have SS waiting for me when this all catches up. I'd planned to cut down to about 35 when the wife can draw hers,but she's got closer to five years before she can get it.

I wish I could someone to sell me feeder calfs locally. I got plenty of cheap corn and a good amount of hay. I have been buying holstein/ Angus crosses from my wifes cousins. I prefer beef calves but there hard to find.

That?s tough for sure. Things aren?t much better in MN. We sold our feeders the beginning of November, but weren?t very happy with the prices we got on them. Cows are continually dropping in price, and are just too cheap, in my opinion, to sell them. I ended up buying 125 bales of hay, but that was $5,000 out of the meager calf sale money. Literally will be lucky to break even this year. It would be very difficult financially if wife and I didn?t have full time off the farm jobs. Chopped all the corn we could to save on hay, but we were down to pulling the 4x4 tractor that was on the chopper with another tractor to get the chopper and small wagon through the field. Finally gave up and figured we?d pick the rest after ground froze. Of course we got 16? of snow the first of December and the ground never froze. I picked two loads of ear corn last weekend with the 4x4 and tire chains on it. Rest is a no go. Deer are going to eat good I guess. It?s just been a tough year for many guys..............

Some years never seem to catch a break! I'm glad I told my dad to rent out most of the farms, the condition he is in and me working or over the road I knew I would never have time to do it all! Seems I have one day a week anymore to farm, plus the wife wants household projects done on that day! I got maybe half of my corn picked, and I only had 20 acres but with the rain and mud plus snow it doesn't get done very fast!
Hope you have a better next year!

I finished filling silo yesterday (Dec 13). Two and a half months later than normal,two months later than ever before. It got froze up good and I chopped east west rows all day Thursday. I went out yesterday thinking I'd have a good day and get finished. I was in north south rows and it was down so bad that the CaseIH low profile,gathering belt head wouldn't pull it in.

I cut a gathering belt to shreds after about five minutes. I threw in the towel and hooked on to the picker. That pulled it in,but the corn is too immature to pick. It's rubbery and some isn't even dented. I had another gathering belt and put that on. I chopped two loads along one side where it was standing alright,but it was warming up and I got out in to the water and had to quit. So much of the rest is down,I won't be able to chop anymore anyway.

It's supposed to be cold and fairly dry for the next week,so I hope I can get some picked.

I couldn?t finish chopping my corn till end of November, just too much snow, too early. Cows are eating the chopped corn just fine, and kernels are still soft. I have a buddy milking 90 cows, that still has 40 acres of corn to chop for silage. And he needs the feed too, but ground isn?t frozen hard enough to carry the equipment, and it is snowing today. He is 66 and his son is 37. They are thinking about getting out. I have never chopped corn this late ever. And don?t want to again!!

I watered it for about six hours then covered it up. I fed out of it this morning and could smell it starting to turn alright. It's no fun bounding around on the ruts and chopping all one way,but it looks like it's gonna be OK feed. I don't know what I'll do with the rest of that rubber stuff that's still in the field. The way it's been going,nature will reclaim it and I won't have to worry about it.

I shed a few tears when my neighbor's milkers left 8 years ago. You did what you had to do. Many times people refuse to act and just watch things go from bad to worse.

It didn't break me up too bad when I sold my dairy herd 16 years ago,but selling off some of these good black cows just because feed is short and next year wouldn't get me in to recovery mode if I had to use all of next winters feed next summer.

I was hauling bales about a week and a half ago and started counting bales and days until spring and they just didn't match up. I was going to be out of feed by March the way it was going. I think I'm on track now OK. I'd been afraid that I'd have to use this last ditch plan,but had been hoping things would turn around and I'd be able to pull it out of the fire at the last minute. It just didn't happen and I had to rip the Band Aid off all at once.

I still have hay standing in the filed due to not having any place to store it plus the weather was such I could not get the last of it done before we got a few hard frosts. I could have put up maybe another 100 squares but that would have all my barns would held

Randy, hate to hear about this. We don't have live stock but many of our friends do. We had a fairly rough summer due to a drought and most folks only got one good cutting of hay and a poor 2 nd. Usually get 3-4. Folks know I'm self employed and folks know I'm willing to drive to haul hay......its getting expensive and farther away. Found some last night for sale 200 miles away and $65 for round bales........folks used to paying $25-30 local............. Maybe a tough winter everywhere. Will keep yall in our prayers. Hope you have a merry Christmas

Thanks Kevin. Merry Christmas to you and the Mrs too. We'll be alright I think. Having calves on pasture next summer instead of in the feedlot will free up some time for us. As long as we have a good calving season in the spring we can get by with fewer calves. We'll get some ground seeded back to alfalfa in the spring and hopefully get back on track after loosing some rented ground with hay on it and taking on some new ground that didn't. I wanted to cut back anyway,just not until the wife can get her SS. Plans change.

I'm almost done picking corn. It's OK,but I'm going to be a little shorter than I thought. If those calves are in good green pasture in the spring,they won't much grain for a while anyway. I'll plant oats with the alfalfa in the spring and will have those to mix with the corn later on. We'll make it. You just have to plan ahead.