You Can't Do That Here! (Photos)

[Ben H]

I never would have thought I would still have cows grazing this late in the year.

The first pictures is exactly 1 week ago before we got the ice storm, that melted with a day in the 50's and some rain, then we got this snow yesterday.

I did a spreadsheet last year to figure out my cost of raising a calf to comapre it by the pound to buying them in for my grass fed program. It made a huge difference in my cost cutting just 1 month of hay feeding. Last year I made it to Dec 5th I think. I may make it to January 1st this year.

That's not my house in the background, that is a guy who builds houses with his Dad, his fathers place is the one on the right.

 

[Richard Doolittle]

Nice pics. When do you wean the calves off?

 

[HAY MAKER]

Your pictures are proof,what h2o will do,you are still grazing cattle,we are in the deep south,been feeding cattle all year.................good luck
PS Thanks for the picture story & Merry Christmas.

 

[per]

Cows look in great shape. The right cows and the right management for your environment.

 

[RobertMac]

Ben, you're obviously listening to the wrong folks. :wink:

Your three strand looks like polyrope...what are you using for temporary?

What brand have you found to work best...last the longest?

And your cattle are the wrong color too! :wink: :wink:

 

[Soapweed]

Nice pictures, Ben. Your cattle and grass both appear to be in good condition. Looks like what you are doing is working well.

It does seem that on occasion, an extra inch of timely rain will take the place of a whole lot of "management." :wink:

 

[per]

My Dad reminds me of that often, Soapweed. "Good rain and lots of sunshine makes good grass". "Drought (or maybe sandhills) separates the managers out".

 

[Ben H]

The calves will be weened in March to become a seperate group, 10 months on the cow. I don't sell calves, I keep replacements and finish the rest on grass. Replacements will go back with the cow herd next summer for breeding.

The three strands is GalFan High Tensile. It's the lower quaility of the photo (cell phone) giving it that appearence.

For temp I use Gallagher Turbo Wire and the Geared mediaum reals. For temp posts I use their HD Pig Tails.

I'm running a Portable B200 Solar Charger. I checked it at 6.7 kv this morning.

The permenant fence on that field is almost done, I plan to finish it Saturday.

 

[Triangle Bar]

Interesting looking country & good honest workin' cows. Hope you can utilize all your pasture before the snow buries it. I started feeding the 9th of Dec., 11th of Dec. last year. Was just about to start putting in some elec. fence on my north farm, had about a month of graze there, when it started in to snowing. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

What's a ton of hay sell for in your country?

Good quality cow Alfalfa is selling for $150/ton here.

 

[Ben H]

I would probably say on average around $125 for average quality hay, I would have to dig a little deaper to find good quality alfalfa prices. Most of the hay here is not sold by the ton but by the bale.

 

[PureCountry]

Great pics Ben. Not much snow, and an abundance of grass is a great recipe for cutting costs. Looking forward to having that problem next year. The stockpiled forage we used this winter ran out way faster than we had hoped, but we also knew than it was on nitrient defficient soils and the cows would have to eat more to maintain weight.

The key to all of this grazing year round is far more than just raising cattle in a certain manner. It's a combination of soils, forage, water, management and cattle.

 

[Big Swede]

My stockpiled forage or maybe it should be called stockpiled grain is in my irrigated corn fields. Windstorms and blizzards knocked down probably 20 to 30 bushels of corn per acre so the herd is being herded in and out of these fields for a couple hours a day. Then they are being supplemented with 15# of alfalfa after their treasure hunt every day. They get used to the routine and it's not that hard to get them back out of the field. My neighbors left their cows in the corn field recently and they found out which ones could eat the most and the fastest. Plenty of coyote bait around this country this winter.

 

[theony]

Interesting and nice photos, I would think of Maine as heavy snow country. Looks like a good way to make a profit running cows.

 

[Faster horses]

Interesting.

I'm wondering about keeping those calves on the cow for 10 months.
Do you rebreed your cows so they calve every 365 days?

 

[Ben H]

Maine is variable with it's snowfall. The major influences are elevation and proximity to the ocean. For the good snowmobiling I need to trailer 3.5-5 hours North. I don't have the time for that much anymore. I got out once on a local recreational ride last year. We can have anywhere from zero to 3 or more feet where I live. We typically have a "January Thaw" and loose most of the snow mid January but last year we got almost a foot the beginning of December and kept gettiing more and more all winter without a break. I remember one year I came home from college for Christmas, we had plenty of snow then when we had one day and lost it all with some rain. I'm about 200 feet in elevation and 20-30 minutes from the coast.

I am now breeding for cows to be on a yearly calving interval, I am calving them on green grass in mid to late May. The calves stayed on the cows last winter and I'm doing it again this year. The little bit of milk they get that late in the lactation seems to help, by the time I wean them they are nearly naturally weaned. I time bred with AI this year, then a couple weeks later turned a bull in for cleanup. I used CIDR's for they sync. Waiting to turn the bull in allowed me to take a blood test and determine which cows took from the AI. I have not re-checked the rest, I'm going to wait at this point unitil probably April. I am keeping my open cows to give them a month on green grass then put them in the freezer. I can afford to put them through the winter selling their burger for $5.48/lb. The other factor in all this is trying to find the time, I work another job durring the week. I'm trying to grow my herd size and expand the infrastructure to keep up with it.

 

[leanin' H]

Maine is variable with it's snowfall. The major influences are elevation and proximity to the ocean. For the good snowmobiling I need to trailer 3.5-5 hours North. I don't have the time for that much anymore. I got out once on a local recreational ride last year. We can have anywhere from zero to 3 or more feet where I live. We typically have a "January Thaw" and loose most of the snow mid January but last year we got almost a foot the beginning of December and kept gettiing more and more all winter without a break. I remember one year I came home from college for Christmas, we had plenty of snow then when we had one day and lost it all with some rain. I'm about 200 feet in elevation and 20-30 minutes from the coast.

I am now breeding for cows to be on a yearly calving interval, I am calving them on green grass in mid to late May. The calves stayed on the cows last winter and I'm doing it again this year. The little bit of milk they get that late in the lactation seems to help, by the time I wean them they are nearly naturally weaned. I time bred with AI this year, then a couple weeks later turned a bull in for cleanup. I used CIDR's for they sync. Waiting to turn the bull in allowed me to take a blood test and determine which cows took from the AI. I have not re-checked the rest, I'm going to wait at this point unitil probably April. I am keeping my open cows to give them a month on green grass then put them in the freezer. I can afford to put them through the winter selling their burger for $5.48/lb. The other factor in all this is trying to find the time, I work another job durring the week. I'm trying to grow my herd size and expand the infrastructure to keep up with it.

Wow! 500 LBS of burger will get ya $2740.00 I'd think you might be able to keep a cows or two extra over the winter for that! Who buys the burger, Bill Gates? :wink: Forget breeding and calving, just sell burger cows and relax more!

 

[Ben H]

I think I mentioned, if not here elsewhere, that I'm selling direct market. In the summer I sell at a Farmers Market, The Weston Price Foundation group is a good market for grass fed products. I don't have a store front yet, just some freezers in a few places, I just bought a 4th one last night. This grass fed niche works well, my advantage is proximity to the customers. I'm 20 minutes from Portland and 2.5 hours from Boston. I haven't had a surplus of product over what I can move directly so I've had no need to get product into health stores, colleges, reastraunts etc. My friend 2 hours North of me takes the opposite approach, he doesn't ahve the local market so he brings it down to my area selling to reastraunts and Whole Foods. Whole Foods is selling his Grass Fed burger for $6.99/lb. One of the large grocery sells a "Natural Beef" product under their "Nature's Best" label. Thiis is a Maine company that processes 10,000 head a year, they just got a controact to supply Whole Foods on the East coast, their burger is $5.49/lb.

Everything I've mentioned sounds great, now for my number one biggest disadvantage with farming here. That is the high value of land, ok so I can lease it, but the ubran sprawl and breakup of farmland. This burst of the good thing coming out of this housing bubble is the freeze of farmland being put into house lots.

 

[Blkbuckaroo]

I think I mentioned, if not here elsewhere, that I'm selling direct market. In the summer I sell at a Farmers Market, The Weston Price Foundation group is a good market for grass fed products. I don't have a store front yet, just some freezers in a few places, I just bought a 4th one last night. This grass fed niche works well, my advantage is proximity to the customers. I'm 20 minutes from Portland and 2.5 hours from Boston. I haven't had a surplus of product over what I can move directly so I've had no need to get product into health stores, colleges, reastraunts etc. My friend 2 hours North of me takes the opposite approach, he doesn't ahve the local market so he brings it down to my area selling to reastraunts and Whole Foods. Whole Foods is selling his Grass Fed burger for $6.99/lb. One of the large grocery sells a "Natural Beef" product under their "Nature's Best" label. Thiis is a Maine company that processes 10,000 head a year, they just got a controact to supply Whole Foods on the East coast, their burger is $5.49/lb.

Everything I've mentioned sounds great, now for my number one biggest disadvantage with farming here. That is the high value of land, ok so I can lease it, but the ubran sprawl and breakup of farmland. This burst of the good thing coming out of this housing bubble is the freeze of farmland being put into house lots.

Beh you're like my eastern cousin.LOL! That's exactly where i',m kinda headed with this whole cattle deal.Direct marketing,at farmers markets and such.A friend of mine runs a grassfed operation out here,and they do very well.Wondering if you folks have a USDA slaughtering facility out there?I mean how do you go about legally selling without selling the whole animal in shares and having folks pay the cut and wrap,from the local traveling butcher.Access and proximity to a legal USDA facillity is one of the major draw backs to this kind of venture.Thanks.Oh buy the way i hear what you're saying about land aquisition,have to lease myself,as you can imagine land prices in California are through the roof.More value in condos.

 

[Blkbuckaroo]

I think I mentioned, if not here elsewhere, that I'm selling direct market. In the summer I sell at a Farmers Market, The Weston Price Foundation group is a good market for grass fed products. I don't have a store front yet, just some freezers in a few places, I just bought a 4th one last night. This grass fed niche works well, my advantage is proximity to the customers. I'm 20 minutes from Portland and 2.5 hours from Boston. I haven't had a surplus of product over what I can move directly so I've had no need to get product into health stores, colleges, reastraunts etc. My friend 2 hours North of me takes the opposite approach, he doesn't ahve the local market so he brings it down to my area selling to reastraunts and Whole Foods. Whole Foods is selling his Grass Fed burger for $6.99/lb. One of the large grocery sells a "Natural Beef" product under their "Nature's Best" label. Thiis is a Maine company that processes 10,000 head a year, they just got a controact to supply Whole Foods on the East coast, their burger is $5.49/lb.

Everything I've mentioned sounds great, now for my number one biggest disadvantage with farming here. That is the high value of land, ok so I can lease it, but the ubran sprawl and breakup of farmland. This burst of the good thing coming out of this housing bubble is the freeze of farmland being put into house lots.

Ben you're like my eastern cousin.LOL! That's exactly where i',m kinda headed with this whole cattle deal.Direct marketing,at farmers markets and such.A friend of mine runs a grassfed operation out here,and they do very well.Wondering if you folks have a USDA slaughtering facility out there?I mean how do you go about legally selling ,without selling the whole animal in shares and having folks pay the cut and wrap,from the local traveling butcher.Access and proximity to a legal USDA facillity is one of the major draw backs to this kind of venture.Thanks.Oh by the way i hear what you're saying about land aquisition,have to lease myself,as you can imagine land prices in California are through the roof.More value in condos.

 

[Ben H]

I have a USDA plant 15 minutes away, I can take up to 6 animals there in a day. This fall I tried out a State inspected plant 40 minutes away and think they do a better job, the best I've ever done for yield at the USDA place is 58% (of HCW), at the State plant I think I got 64%. I said the best I've done at the USDA one is 58%, I've seen as low as 45% with them.

I don't take anything out of State, so there isn't really an advantage to USDA inspection. I do have out of State customers (Mass.) but they come to Maine to pick it up. The USDA plant tried to tell me that it was illegal for me to sell the State inspected meat to someone out of State knowing they are going to take it back to their home State (they are picking it up here). I checked with the person in charge of State inspection at the Capital and was told that's a bunch of BS.