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Feeding cattle on the JF Ranch

Soapweed

Well-known member
A few days ago while driving down the highway, I spotted the proprietor of the JF Ranch hard at work feeding his cattle. I pulled off the road to take pictures of the feeding method and his heavy duty cake/corn hauling rig. He stretches winter grazing by giving his cattle one pound of 35% cake and four pounds of ear corn per day.

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Scooping corn on the JF Ranch
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A man with a plan
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Kernels of korn kreate kontented kows
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Sliding corn down for the next go around
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Works pretty good
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I jumped in with him to go feed his next bunch. He cakes the cows first and waits until they clean that up before giving them their corn.
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Cake coming to the cows
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Two parallel lines that don't intersect
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Good stuff
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High capacity rig
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A good guy, my second cousin, and a life-long compadre
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His method works like a charm.
 

JF Ranch

Well-known member
We hadn't talked for a couple of weeks, due to our hectic schedules. It was a nice surprise to look up from my cornin' to see my old friend driving up to see me. I say "old" because for three months out of each year he is one year older than me! We had a lot of ground to catch up on and it was a pleasant visit while he opened gates for me to feed my last bunch of the day. These impromptu get-to-gethers help to make life more interesting.
 

Stretch

Well-known member
Darn impressive rig there JF, cattle look great. I am curious though do you raise the corn or do you have it brought in from outside the ranch? Back in the 70's dad picked corn with a 620 and a 2 row 227 JD corn picker and put it in Behlen corn cribs. Man that was some of the best feed you could ask for, even though it was more labor it was still worth it. Every time I get the grinder out I wish I still had that ear corn around.. 8)
 

alabama

Well-known member
It looked like you were feeding ear corn without grinding and on the ground. I never tried it that way. I was thinking you would have alot of lose but then you don't have mud this time of year. Your ground is frozen.
That is sure one stout rig. Do you feed this way every day?
I grind my ear corn and mix with cotton seed.
 

efb

Well-known member
Thanks for the great shots. You guys up there sure have some great looking cows. Whenever I've tried feeding whole corn it always looked like about half of it was coming through unused. So, I've gone to chopped or rolled corn for my young bulls. I was just curious if he felt his cows were digesting most of it ?
 

JF Ranch

Well-known member
We do not raise any crops except for native grass hay, so the corn is purchased from a neighbor about 30 miles away. I like ear corn when grazing or hay is in short supply. I feed it only to stretch the available forage.

When we started using ear corn about 20 years ago, someone gave me a rule of thumb: 1 pound of ear corn= 2 pounds of hay. I feed 4-6 pounds per head each day on that basis, depending on the weather and it is amazing to see how well cattle do on short grass or a limited ration of hay.

Yes, there is some loss, as the cows do not clean up all the kernels, but it gives the geese something to scratch for! Whole shells come through the manure and I do not know the science behind that. All that matters to me is the results I get from feeding the stuff. It is quicker and easier to haul out a load of corn than to take hay to them, but once the grass is gone, we bring them in closer to the hay.

I got the 2006 F550 two years ago after breaking down the springs in several other outfits. This one is heavy enough to handle any load I can put on it. The dump trailer has a hydraulic lift and makes scooping the corn by hand much easier because I can keep it piled up at the back where I walk along and slowly count the number of scoops for each bunch.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
While those two don't raise any of their own corn yet, I have heard it from a reliable source that they were going to sell down a few cows, buy some equipment and start farming. Evidently, JF has always had a secret hankering to be a sod buster and Soapweed puts on overalls and a seed corn cap when he thinks everybody has gone to bed.
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
While those two don't raise any of their own corn yet, I have heard it from a reliable source that they were going to sell down a few cows, buy some equipment and start farming. Evidently, JF has always had a secret hankering to be a sod buster and Soapweed puts on overalls and a seed corn cap when he thinks everybody has gone to bed.

Aw face it, Sandhusker. You know my farming ability enough that you wouldn't even loan me the money to start such a project. :wink: And I would be mad at you if you did. :)
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Soapweed said:
Sandhusker said:
While those two don't raise any of their own corn yet, I have heard it from a reliable source that they were going to sell down a few cows, buy some equipment and start farming. Evidently, JF has always had a secret hankering to be a sod buster and Soapweed puts on overalls and a seed corn cap when he thinks everybody has gone to bed.

Aw face it, Sandhusker. You know my farming ability enough that you wouldn't even loan me the money to start such a project. :wink: And I would be mad at you if you did. :)

I don't know, I'll bet we could make room for a circle. Maybe you and JF partner up so you get broken into the business a little easier. Once you develop your green thumb, we can add a few more circles until you're giving Danielski some competition. I can see it now, "Soapweed JF Farms....natural corn from natural farmers."
 

JF Ranch

Well-known member
I once heard a top notch, older rancher refer to his circular irrigation system as his "Irritation System". I took that as good advise and have never had the desire to own one. I like Soapweed would make a very poor dirt farmer.
 

Shorthornguy

Well-known member
We used to feed our Holstein steers like that. We used a tractor and barge box. Only we mixed the cob corn with corn silage. 15 lbs corn silage, 5 lbs cob corn. They had free choice mineral and hay. We would dump in a scoop of silage with the loader and then shovel 10 scoops of cob corn on top and repeat the process. When we dumped it on the ground it came out pretty even. It was a poor man's mixer but it worked.
 

sandhiller

Well-known member
too late for more irrigation, NPPD has all the water locked up now no more wells can be put in or no more acres irrigated.

If those guys that Have gates in the creek to flood their meadows in the spring want to close them, they are gona have to sign their life away to NPPD and then they will have the privilege to buy the water.
 

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