Oh, thank god for grass that the stupid cows can harvest for themselves. That can supply them with the highest quality feed at a bargain basement price. For the next five or six months, the farm bank account, given enough rain, will grow.
Today, I'm delivering a gorgeous seven week old calf to the Chenango County Fairgrounds to be auctioned in the Chenango County 4-H calf sale which takes place tomorrow. It's a March calf, -recently weaned, broken-colored and huge. The Calf-Tel calf pens that I bought last year yield the biggest calves I've ever seen. This particular calf, despite the "loss" of her mother, has, starting with the granddam, four generations of excellent cows (90 points or above, which, out of 68 cows, we have 14!) behind her, ending with the venerated, Stornaway Brook Jasmine, 93%, the erstwhile matriarch of the herd. If this calf, about which, it has been said, there is a great deal of interest, sells for less than $1500 I will be disappointed. If it sells for $2000, I will be thrilled. A lot depends on the auctioneeer. An auctioned animal must be "started" at the right price if she is to reach the price she is capable of.
The present matriarch of the herd, I'd have to say, is Stornaway Hallmark Cherry, Ex-92%, daughter of Stornaway Kahn Chaka, Ex-91%, granddaughter of Stornaway Lester Cherie , Ex-94% whom I found dead in her stall one morning for no apparent reason. Cherry is the ideal bovine. Placid, Beautifully uddered, deeply bodied. Jerseys are skittish and antsy. Cherry is not.
The Class III milk futures average > 20$/ HUNDRED WEIGHT for the rest of the year. Yes, fuel and corn are high, but as long as the cows are on grass, the high prices will have only a marginal effect on Stornaway Jerseys. Pray for rain of a moderate nature.
In the fall, I intend to sell 30 or so cows to reduce the workload in the winter time. I'm also entertaining the notion of a 16 hour milking schedule. Milking 3X in two days during the winter. The winter is oppressive and I need solutions. I don't make as much milk in the winterand I think the cows could handle 16 hour intervals without more than a minimal loss in production. Yes, it' s counter to trends in the industry, but it may work very well here. I'm still thinking.
Caleb, have I spoken of this before? For a scouring calf, run a liter of LR or NS, SC, 250 ml per site, one in front of and one behind each shoulder. The effect, a few hours later is dramatic. You don't have to worry about being in the vein and you don't have to worry about fluid overload. I brought a scouring calf once to a vet who worked with Finnegan and O'Shea. He kept it overnight. The calf died. I got a bill for THREE liters of fluids. The stupid effer drowned my calf!! And he might be my only choice for a new vet. Finnegan and O'Shea retire in two weeks. ARGH.
Anyway, I had a few minutes for breakfast and I thought I'd catch you up. The grass, actually, is very slow in coming on. We need a little global warming. Back to work.
9 comments:
You are a lucky farmer Dad. Here the snow is still lying on the fields. In the "mountain" they are still driving snowmobiles. Maybe my farmer neighbor can begin to spread fertilizer in 14 days.
BTW they are milking twice a day, he says the loss in production from 2 versus 3 isn't more than a few %
If we get a very good summer maybe his cows are out 2-3 months.
Fascinating planet this earth
Agreed. I can't imagine how your neighbor can grow enough feed to get through that long winter.
I'm also lucky to be farming in a country with a mostly free market and smaller than most governmental interference in agriculture, ethanol mandates notwithstanding. Farmers are generally free to grow their businesses without buying quotas, and prices are very responsive to the market.
When we finally get summer, we have summer 24/7.
Short but intensive the summer in the land of the midnight sun.
"governmental interference" With our present government it looks like we headed against communism, absolutely everything must be regulated. The ugliest word they know is "Private".
luckily its election next year.
A little Boris Jeltsin in this guy?
I couldn't understand a word he said.
We have elections coming up, too. The heavy favorite wants to raise the capital gains tax, and hangs out with terrorists and a preacher who, while building his $1.5 million house, hates America. And then there is his wife.
And the other possibilities are not very promising either. Sigh.
What's the hangs out with terrorists thing? That's news to me.
This is all worth reading but the terrorists part is on the second page under Bill Ayres and Bernardine Dorhn:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YThjYTU1ZDBjNmQ2YzcwNzU1MmYwN2JiMWY0ZGI0NDA=
Somebunny's gotta teach me how to make links in comments.
Ah, right, the guy from the Weathermen. I'd only ever heard they were neighbors and that the Obamas tried to downplay their relationship.
That article's pretty damning.
I think they mean the cradle of the human race, and I'm pretty sure that's accurate archaeologically and anthropologically speaking. As for civilization, well...
Yeah. Neither facts mean anything though in terms of race. I don't understand why so many black people try to get self-esteem through a racial identity and make up lies about Africa being the cradle of civilization.
Actually, after reading Malcolm X's autobiography I understand it a lot better.
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