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Grain fattened range calves

A

Anonymous

Guest
Even with the dry weather- should be some fairly nice calves come in... We're looking at grazing several hundred (thousand ?) acres of wheat fields...Wheat is running anywhere from 3 bushel an acre to 20 bushel ( county yearly average is 22.5) so there is a lot thats going to be left- turned in for crop insurance and grazed ( too short to hay or cut )....

Still might have a week and half to two weeks of cutting even if we leave a bunch- just slow going because even the stuff we're cutting is only 8-10 inches high which makes it an inch or two between the heads and the boulders...... :roll:
 

Turkey Track Bar

Well-known member
Hey OT...what do the grazing prospects look like? I'll admit I was raised in country where you never grazed stubble, but since becoming an "Dakotan" I've learned. Want to take some cows in???? I'd guess there are 8,000 plus here looking for better digs.

Cheers---

TTB :wink:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Turkey Track Bar said:
Hey OT...what do the grazing prospects look like? I'll admit I was raised in country where you never grazed stubble, but since becoming an "Dakotan" I've learned. Want to take some cows in???? I'd guess there are 8,000 plus here looking for better digs.

Cheers---

TTB :wink:

TTB- Grazing around here is gettting slim-- everybody in about the same situation with grass running out.. We usually don't move cows onto the stubble until well into Sept- but as soon as we get what we want to cut, cut out we'll turn them on it....

Whats really sad is that right next to where we are cutting now there is a 500 head tribal lease sitting empty-- tied up in a big battle over leases, sub leases, sub sub leases, etc.... But you wouldn't want in the middle of that mess- one fellow already has lost about $30-40,000 thinking he had the leases in a sub lease...BIG MESS- but big waste of grass..

I'll keep my ears open if I hear of any extra wheatfields to graze.....
 

Badlands

Well-known member
Pray for a hailstorm on the wheat, OT.

We did that 6 years ago.

Had a hailstorm in August, then a little rain, put the calves in before weaning on the new sprouts.

Weighed them early Sept at about 515 pounds, then again midOctober, at 680.

The calves gained over 4 pounds/day.

Badlands
 

pknoeber

Well-known member
Badlands said:
Pray for a hailstorm on the wheat, OT.

Why not just hook a chain onto each end of a stick of 2" oilfield pipe and pull it behind the pickup. That would get the same thing done.

Or is the wheat stubble/failed grain of actual grazing value? I know down here the only thing that would be used for is dairy bedding. But do you actually just turn the cattle into wheat stubble & the cattle graze the stubble? I'm interested b/c there's quite a few acres of failed wheat still standing that guys just sprayed out down here.

Phil
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
pknoeber said:
Badlands said:
Pray for a hailstorm on the wheat, OT.

Why not just hook a chain onto each end of a stick of 2" oilfield pipe and pull it behind the pickup. That would get the same thing done.

Or is the wheat stubble/failed grain of actual grazing value? I know down here the only thing that would be used for is dairy bedding. But do you actually just turn the cattle into wheat stubble & the cattle graze the stubble? I'm interested b/c there's quite a few acres of failed wheat still standing that guys just sprayed out down here.

Phil


Wheat stubble is staple in the diet of many cows in Sask. come fall. Even after it has been threshed.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
pknoeber said:
Badlands said:
Pray for a hailstorm on the wheat, OT.

Why not just hook a chain onto each end of a stick of 2" oilfield pipe and pull it behind the pickup. That would get the same thing done.

Or is the wheat stubble/failed grain of actual grazing value? I know down here the only thing that would be used for is dairy bedding. But do you actually just turn the cattle into wheat stubble & the cattle graze the stubble? I'm interested b/c there's quite a few acres of failed wheat still standing that guys just sprayed out down here.

Phil


Wheat stubble is staple in the diet of many cows in Sask. come fall. Even after it has been threshed.

Yep- theres a lot of cows up here that have wheat stubble fields and the grass surrounding the fields as fall pasture every year...And I've seen several that have calves 50-60-70lbs over contracted weight because they turned their cows into hailed out wheat fields...

Many of these fields up here this year don't need hail--ours was looking so bad we didn't even buy hail insurance, only crop insurance-- plants are only 6-9" tall and whats in the heads is kernals smaller than most rice kernals- so they are pretty much uncuttable- but the cows will sure take advantange of them...
 

Badlands

Well-known member
Yep, sounds like they sure would, OT.

Different deal than what happened with the wheat crop here that year. It was a decent crop, so kernels took right off and sprouted.

Badlands.
 
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