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Kt Pharo Seminars, etc

F

Faster horses

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Pharo Philosophies 102 is scheduled to air this coming Monday, February 11th at 7:00 pm Mountain Time. Pharo Philosophies 103 is scheduled to air on Monday, February 18th at 7:00 pm Mountain Time. These two seminars will focus on "Making the Most Efficient Use of your Available Forage Resources". Based on past experience, I expect them to generate even more discussion and questions than last night's seminar.



You will need to "register" with DVAuction to watch these presentations. To do so, go to www.DVAuction.com. If you have any problems, call DVAuction at 402-474-5557 or call Dan Broz at 402-649-3172. If you watched Pharo Philosophies 101, all you will need to do is "login".



Some have asked if there is a charge to participate in these seminars. No, they are FREE.

The following excerpts came out of a recent Cattle-Fax Update:


Cattle being placed on feed today are forecast to have a total cost of gain (TCOG) near $100/cwt. This is creating concern in the market.



· If the TCOG exceeds fed cattle prices the market has significant risk. This means cattle feeders actually lose money by adding more weight, which would force them to sell cattle earlier than previously scheduled at an aggressive rate.



· Bottom Line: During the first half of 2008, corn prices must decline significantly or fed cattle prices must rally significantly to prevent TCOGs from moving above fed cattle prices. Otherwise, there is significant risk for a substantial decline in fed cattle values if this occurs.



· Continued volatility in both the cattle and corn futures markets is expected to continue and will influence market psychology.



· Bottom Line: Close attention must be given to the current fed cattle market. If a lower cash trend develops, calf prices will be hard pressed to move significantly higher into the spring months.





I presume most of you have already read Al's Obs in the latest Stockman GrassFarmer. If you haven't, you should. Allan Nation makes some pretty bold and unsettling predictions.




Kit's Opinion: The beef industry is in a VERY precarious position at this point in time. A few people are in a position to benefit from this situation – but I'm afraid most cow-calf producers will suffer. Low-input producers will definitely have a BIG competitive advantage over mainstream, high-input producers.



Cow-calf producers need to pay attention to what is going on – but much more importantly, they need to make the necessary changes in their operation and in their cowherd to remain profitable when times get tough. I believe time is of the essence! What has worked well for the past 10 years will NOT work for the next 10 years. As I have said many times, those who are quickest to adapt and change will be in the driver's seat. Those who are slow to change may not make it.





Quote of the Week –



"The more petroleum and iron you put between the sun's solar energy and your cow's belly, the less profitable you're likely to be." ~ Jim Gerrish



NOTE: Jim Gerrish will be the featured speaker at our Spring Bull Sale. We may plan a PCC Pasture Walk with Jim prior to the sale.
 
This is great...I can listen to Kit and post here too! :D
FH, wish I had seen your post sooner...missed the presentation. :cry: But then I'm already doing much of what he advocates.
 
Some of us claim that Kit is using our ideas. He is just using observation and Sense (formerly known as Common Sense). Good for Kit taking intuitive knowledge and preaching it.
 
I am going to try calving later for one thing. I'm 44 years old and I haven't slept through a March or April snowstorm since I was about 22. I can hardly imagine doing it but am looking forward to it next year.

I haven't quite been convinced about the cow size issue yet. Seems like every time we get a little extreme in this business we find ourselves back in the middle somewhere eventually.
 
We calve in May/June and love it. We wean off more live calves and weight than ever before. Kit has some good ideas and then some other ideas, but like he says, he does make you think outside the box, and he is a heck of a salesman.

I do not agree on the cow size. Moderate is good, but small is another thing. We still need to be able to sell this product and using a bull under a frame 5 is to small in my book unless you have frame 7 cows. Heck he uses alot of bulls in the 3 or less area. Not for this guy!
 
Per, good point! :oops: :) The seedstock provider I have gotten my foundation seedstock from is located due west of Kit and has been doing the same basic philosophy for 70 years...they call it the "Six Essentials".

Spring/summer calving...
If you look at it from the cows perspective(not the human perspective), there is a reason a cow has a gestation of about 9 months. That puts her on tract to have one calf every year. Regardless of the species, Nature will almost always coincide new borns with abundant food supply. Having the cow calve when your pastures have the most abundant forage supply puts her reproductive cycle in sync with your forage cycle.
Kit got some questions about breeding in the heat of the summer...I put the bulls with the herd in July and I'm in the deep south. I've had no problem getting cows bred...in fact, year before last, every cow was bred in 54 days. I remember reading about some electronic heat detection systems...they found that most cows are bred between 12 midnight and 6 AM!!!!!! Not too hot then!!

Cow size...
Gearld Fry changed the way I look at cow size...looking at the cow's silhouette, the distance from the top line to the ground, the cows body should be over 50% of that distance(I like well over). The distance from the cow's belly to the ground is totally worthless. If you cut a few inches off the legs of those frame 7 cows and keep the volume, you have a cow close to what Kit is talking about(they look like Soapweed's cows :D ) I've been 100% forage with my herd for about 8 years...my big cows are gone...my small(low volume) cows are gone!
 
There are times when I wonder if were practicing selection or evolution lol. if you start with the wrong type of cattle it's a long arduous journey to get to your goal.Sometimes it might be better to just replace what you have with something closer to what you want. A good rule of thumb is to buy bulls from an outfit that ruins them a bit tougher than you do. if I see another add with hogfat 'sensibly grown out' bulls I think I might just puke.
 
I personally like the ones stateing that "Our bulls really can do it all". I don't believe such a bull has been born. If you know of him, let me know.
 
I look for the ones that when you call in January they say that they are all out grazing, and the ones that want you to see their cows. Not hiding them from view. Evaluating a bull is a lot easier when you can see his momma and her friends.
 
per said:
I look for the ones that when you call in January they say that they are all out grazing, and the ones that want you to see their cows. Not hiding them from view. Evaluating a bull is a lot easier when you can see his momma and her friends.
Click to expand...

That would also be the one that is breeding his own genetics and not AIing and ETing someone else's genetics.
 
I guess I just don't get it. I've seen a few bulls and some calves produced from this program and I'm yet to be impressed. Just my opinion.
 
CattleArmy said:
I guess I just don't get it. I've seen a few bulls and some calves produced from this program and I'm yet to be impressed. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

For once we agree. :wink:

From the article "Packaging Calves to Top the Market" by Dillon Feuz, from information compiled with Superior Livestock Video Auction results. Small frame calves were discounted about $4.50 per cwt compared to medium and large frame calves.
 
Soapweed said:
Small frame calves were discounted about $4.50 per cwt compared to medium and large frame calves.
Click to expand...

That's only half the story...if the only change you make in your program is to produce small framed calves, this would be true. Moving calving season to calve on green, growing grass will more than offset $4.50/cwt.
 
:roll: What works for Kit Pharo will not work for everyone. Kit will be the featured speaker at a grazing conference here on March 12 so I will listen to what he has to say. I will keep an open mind as long as he doesn't try to sell me a bull. :wink:
 
RobertMac said:
Soapweed said:
Small frame calves were discounted about $4.50 per cwt compared to medium and large frame calves.
Click to expand...

That's only half the story...if the only change you make in your program is to produce small framed calves, this would be true. Moving calving season to calve on green, growing grass will more than offset $4.50/cwt.
Click to expand...

About 35 or 40 years ago, there was an article that came out in one of the beef production magazines. I didn't read those worthy publications in those days, but my dad did, and he called my attention to it. The article was entitled "Calve or Die Trying." The guru that wrote the article had a lot of ideas. He was a farmer and needed to be in the fields at the same time his cows were calving. He said his farming time was too valuable to worry any about the cattle. They were on their own, and if they died while calving, tough. He then went on to say that any cow that lost her calf for any reason went to town. If he drove through the pasture to check the water, and killed a calf by driving over it with his pickup, the mother of that calf was sold. After all, it was her fault that she wasn't protecting her calf from his pickup. Anyway, the article had a lot of that type of thinking.

My dad was not impressed. He said, "If we want to be ranchers, and stewards of God's livestock, it is up to us to do the best we can in taking care of that livestock." I agreed with him at the time, and still do. The following month there were lots of letters to the editor of that magazine chastising the writer of that article. The general consensus was the same as what my dad and I both thought, and it was emphasized that it gave the whole ranching industry a black eye if city people didn't think we cared for our livestock any better than that.

In those days, there were a few local outfits that kind of ran their ranches with that sort of "kiss off" attitude. It is not surprising that they are no longer in operation today.

I am not insinuating that the Kit Pharo school of thought employees these beliefs, but on the other hand there are enough similarities that it makes me a bit of a skeptic. Don't forget, he is probably making much more money from peddling his "expertise" and his bulls that supposedly "fit the program" than he is from actual proceeds of running his commercial cattle under these conditions.
 

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