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fescue foot and other pics

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I feed "fescue mineral" when the cattle want to stand in the water - - - about 4 months of the year in central Indiana - - - If not the cattle will stay in the water and not eat and lose weight in grass that is belly high - - - don't know if it would work for you or not - - - Purina sells a lot of the fescue mineral here
 
Faster Horses: I had read an even earlier post of yours discussing chelated mineral with someone and now this one about Fescue Balancer and would like to ask some questions. I am a former Vigortone dealer and am wanting to get back in. I sold my previous dealership in 2005 prior to the Cargill deal. To me there was nothing to compare to Vigortone until about 2007-2008 and things changed. I am hoping by what I read in your earlier posts that those problems have been eliminated and the quality is there once more. We handled mostly Grass Grazer CTC and Fescue Balancer as well as 35S CTC-IGR. When we had dairies, we sold tons of premixes and Ration Fortifer. We started selling in 1989 and was proud to provide a product to our customers that would do what it was supposed to do. I am really needing assurance that it will do that again before I take the gamble. Could you offer some reassurance? Thanks
 
I have been a dealer since 1994 and still have 95% of my customers if that tells you anything. I'm not sure what you are referring to after 2007-2008. Cargill kept Vigortone as they wanted a mineral superior to what they were producing/selling. The company backs their product if there is any problem; and though I can't say there has never been a problem, there have been very, very few and the company took care of it and still does, or I wouldn't continue to be a dealer. Taking care of customers is utmost with me. I sell mostly Western Range formula products, either plain or with Bio-Moss, Hi Mag, CTC, IGR, etc. I'm not sure if they were offered when you were a dealer, but Western Range 6S is close to the old 32S PLUS that was Vigortone's top selling mineral.

You realize now that CTC requires a VFD before it can be sold, I would imagine--I am pointing that out merely because you mentioned Grass Grazer CTC. I don't know anything about dairy products, as my customers are mostly range cattle producers plus a few feedlot customers. We now have access to more products than before, such as protein tubs, so that's a plus. Trucking out west was an issue at one point in the past, but that has been resolved.

I'm still happily a Vigortone dealer and my customers are still satisfied with the product and the service we provide.
I hope this helps and if so, welcome back!

Feel free to private message me if you have other questions or need to know more.
 
I've had cattle in pastures I bring home that are limping. I dry lot for about a week and the limp is gone. I thought it was due to the wet pastures and strain. i am beginning to think this is more of a culprit. These are just pastures though. Not grass seed fields.
 
Grass and cattle look great! The feet, miserable for cows and caretakers alike to deal with! Guess I'll stick with our dry, native grass (mostly Big and Little Bluestem) and other native northern plains grasses. Never have planted much except to get some more uniform hay crops.

This was a much higher than normal rain year, to date, and looks like we may get some more pretty soon. Pastures look great, but something is wrong with the native trees. Since we don't have many planted trees, I'm not sure if they are similarly affected. For much of the summer, they have looked like they were touched with frost, or insects, but haven't seen any of those. Suppose there could be something very small eating on those leaves, tho. Seems quite universal across the species, from Box Elder to American Elm, Ash, Choke Cherry. Even our tough, old, Pine trees look a little 'off', with more yellow needles than usual for this time of year.

Re. the sore feet, we can get what we call foot rot, but pretty rare, probably similar effect in that cows get awfully lame and don't do well. Forget what we use to doctor that stuff, probably whatever our vet is getting good results with at the time, but wonder if it's a problem in wetter times/places. Too much moisture is a problem we RARELY have here, tho this year has been a little different, even 'blessing' us with a few inches in our 'walk out' basement. And strangely enough, that came in through a window that is at least six feet above the floor, but was deluged with a stream of water running across our front yard, on the 'up-stairs' level. One of those 'can't win for losing' situations, I guess. Sure do have lots of great grass for going into winter, tho. We really appreciate that, since our cows graze all winter, unless we get really buried with snow they can't push aside to graze.

So...…….I will really appreciate any pretty fall color tree photo's any can post! Hint, hint! Most years, the drive of about 90 miles from Pierre to Wall, starting at Ft. Pierre and taking the Bad River Road to Midland, then Hiway 14 the rest of the way, is well worth the trip just to see the beautiful colors...…..but not so much this year, as so many of those trees have leaves which appear diseased, and looking like they are already turning brown and forgetting about the colors we enjoy so much! Maybe they got too much water! I believe we have had about 18" here, which is at least double our normal amount for this point in the year.
mrj
 

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