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Which would have the most value?

We still have quite a few two-year-olds for the Kosmo Kid to calve out, but just not as many now as before. He will still get plenty of practice. :wink:

The new heifer calves are pretty nice, but don't know yet if we will keep them ourselves or if they will be for sale next year. At the moment, all of our cows are home-raised. We kept quite a few of our own heifer calves over also, to breed this next summer. I asked a friend yesterday which is the best deal, bred heifers at $2150 or heifer calves at $1300. He said, "That is about a toss-up. If the bred heifers were $2000, and the heifer calves were $1400, the answer would be easy." If nothing else, the trade keeps life interesting. :-)
 
i my opinion you did good on both sides Soap. the price you got for the the bred heifers is darn sure towards the high end from what i've seen sold around here. and the price of quality replacement type heifer calves is only going up especially those weighing 600lbs+.

As i said, i think you done good, i sure wouldn't lose any sleep over the deal. :D
 
eatbeef said:
3words said:
I would have kept the bred heifers,and told Kosmo Kid to find himself one or maybe 2 good hired men that he would and could work with.
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Around here I would like to know how to find 1 "good" hired man,let alone 2, without having to give away my arm for it.
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check your local coop or coffee shop...usually a lot of guys in there talking about how they could manage your farm better than you every day...... they have loads of experience and wisdom, and normally a bankruptcy or something like that to prove their management skills
 
I think you did good on both deals. I would guess you made money on the bred heifers. So no matter how you look at that, you did good. As far as the replacement heifers go. You can run round 40% more of them on grass than you can cows, so you can spread it out a bit more and have a possibility of making money on a few more head next year. Lots and lots of guys are breeding heifers guessing the market will remain or get stronger. I think they are correct. Plus someone might come along and want to buy them come grass time, and you could turn your money a little quicker. Usually come May, we get calls from guys wanting to breed heifers and they will usually pay a big premium, because they can't find them anywhere. I think we are going to do that with our grass steers. They are really high priced now, and I think we can turn them and make a nice profit, so we will be using the grass another way.
 
eatbeef said:
3words said:
I would have kept the bred heifers,and told Kosmo Kid to find himself one or maybe 2 good hired men that he would and could work with.
Click to expand...
Around here I would like to know how to find 1 "good" hired man,let alone 2, without having to give away my arm for it.
Click to expand...

They may not be locals,but with the amount of cows soapweed has,i'm sure he can afford to pay them well.The brother in law was telling me his neighbours grain farm has all russian hired men,hard workers and are just happy to have a job.He said the mafority of people be it from united states or canada under the age of 40 are just a waste of skin,and i have to agree with him.Who is going to run the farms and do the work after our generation is gone?
 
eatbeef said:
3words said:
I would have kept the bred heifers,and told Kosmo Kid to find himself one or maybe 2 good hired men that he would and could work with.
Click to expand...
Around here I would like to know how to find 1 "good" hired man,let alone 2, without having to give away my arm for it.
Click to expand...

I have been married for 6 years and have been on my dad that we need some help cause I don't want to work daylight till dark the entire year with 4 little kids. Since then we have had probly 8 different people come out for a job. The shortest one lasted was 4 days longest was 3 months. Everybody gets excited when we say what we will pay but that runs out real quick once the work starts. It's not like we have them scrubbing the shop floor with a toothbrush. I always do the crappiest jobs just to try to keep moral up. Not to many want to work any more. Couple college kids are good help but they know it's part time and they get free beer so they don't complain to much.

I think you did good soap. Like someone else said earlier you can run quite a few more animals. And less labor right now for sure.
 
I struggle with the thought of help as well. I know as I get older I'm going to have to hire some. My problem is I'm to stubborn to ask or know I need help. My wife gets mad cause I never go anywhere or do anything but I just don't trust anyone to do the job as good as I can. I don't know I'm trying to change but it's pretty hard. Soapweed, I don't know you. But just what little I've seen of your outfit you haven't made to many wrong business decisions. Looks to me like you run a good outfit.
 
Ho55 said:
I struggle with the thought of help as well. I know as I get older I'm going to have to hire some. My problem is I'm to stubborn to ask or know I need help. My wife gets mad cause I never go anywhere or do anything but I just don't trust anyone to do the job as good as I can. I don't know I'm trying to change but it's pretty hard. Soapweed, I don't know you. But just what little I've seen of your outfit you haven't made to many wrong business decisions. Looks to me like you run a good outfit.
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Just had this discussion with a friend. We buy a lot of equipment in place of labor. If I were home more, dogs would be for the same reason. I am not around enough to work with dogs. I love them, but they need consistent guidance IMO.

I think time away is when you choose to let things ride a bit. Maybe before calving when calves are weaned and cows are dry?
 
3words said:
Soapweed how is your health,do you notice it is improving?
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Slowly but surely, my health is improving. It feels good to have graduated from a walker to two canes, and now just to one cane. There is still a hitch in my get-along from a left leg that doesn't fully want to cooperate, but it gets a bit stronger with each passing day. Tonight I drove a different pickup that didn't have a running board, and it was sure harder to get into. I finally figured out to parallel park next to the curb, and this helped immensely. Automatic transmissions are easily handled, but my left leg doesn't have enough strength to push a clutch. There is no way I could get on a horse unless the horse is taught to kneel. A Polaris Ranger suffices for most "horseback-type" of jobs I need to do.

PPRM said:
Ho55 said:
I struggle with the thought of help as well. I know as I get older I'm going to have to hire some. My problem is I'm to stubborn to ask or know I need help. My wife gets mad cause I never go anywhere or do anything but I just don't trust anyone to do the job as good as I can. I don't know I'm trying to change but it's pretty hard. Soapweed, I don't know you. But just what little I've seen of your outfit you haven't made to many wrong business decisions. Looks to me like you run a good outfit.
Click to expand...

Just had this discussion with a friend. We buy a lot of equipment in place of labor. If I were home more, dogs would be for the same reason. I am not around enough to work with dogs. I love them, but they need consistent guidance IMO.

I think time away is when you choose to let things ride a bit. Maybe before calving when calves are weaned and cows are dry?
Click to expand...

I am thankful we have kept our equipment updated. With a Polaris Ranger and a pickup equipped with a Hydra-Bed, I can still be fairly useful around the ranch. The Ranger is my horse, and the pickup is my feed outfit. My work is slow and methodical, but by taking time and trying to be careful, I can still feed quite a bit of hay fairly easily. We haven't started a tractor all winter, but have them available if there is deep snow. Peach and the Kosmo Kid also each have Hydra-Bed pickups with which to feed hay. I do miss the old me, but life is still very enjoyable. :-)
 
Just remember me, with the replacement heifers. They'll feed out good too. :) I think you made the right move as far as calving out the heifers, IF Peach sticks to her guns, and doesn't night calve for you. You took a lot of pressure off of Kosmo, butttttt added another year onto your money before you see a return.
That is why I don't own a whole bunch of cows. I am not the gambler you are nor do I gamble the way I used too.
 
Soapweed said:
. My work is slow and methodical, but by taking time and trying to be careful, I can still feed quite a bit of hay fairly easily. We haven't started a tractor all winter, but have them available if there is deep snow. Peach and the Kosmo Kid also each have Hydra-Bed pickups with which to feed hay. I do miss the old me, but life is still very enjoyable. :-)
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Heck Soapweed, for a few years now, my work has become slow and methodical, too, and I haven't even had West Nile, so at least you have an excuse! :lol:

I just said to Mrs. Sparkle the other day that everything takes me far longer than it used to and often I just have to be content to plod along until the jobs are all done.

Not like it used to be . . .

However, like you, I take a lot of satisfaction in the fact that - in spite of everything taking longer - I still am able to do a fairly decent job of what I do. And there's no feeling like that of looking at a row of cows or calves all lined up and eating when the feeding is done, or watching them lay there in the cold chewing their cud.

But I just gotta remember at calving time that I can't get out of the way as quickly as I once did . . . :shock:
 
Glad to hear you are on the mend Soap!

FWIW, I think you have done good. Since your new heifers are gonna be off the place until May, that should give your grass a chance to get ahead for a little bit before they get trucked in.
 
Soapweed said:
3words said:
Soapweed how is your health,do you notice it is improving?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Slowly but surely, my health is improving. It feels good to have graduated from a walker to two canes, and now just to one cane. There is still a hitch in my get-along from a left leg that doesn't fully want to cooperate, but it gets a bit stronger with each passing day. Tonight I drove a different pickup that didn't have a running board, and it was sure harder to get into. I finally figured out to parallel park next to the curb, and this helped immensely. Automatic transmissions are easily handled, but my left leg doesn't have enough strength to push a clutch. There is no way I could get on a horse unless the horse is taught to kneel. A Polaris Ranger suffices for most "horseback-type" of jobs I need to do.

Thats good to hear you have improved,i hope all the best for you and you recover to your old self again!
 

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