March 28, 2024

From the Barns: Trying to beat heat

The Fourth of July is now passed and now we wait and see how many folks threw caution to the wind and will contract the coronavirus as a result of the big crowds on July 4. The similarities of this coronavirus thing and any of the viruses our stock has to be protected from makes me keenly aware of how simple it can be to become exposed and how widespread this pandemic could become if we give up on prevention too soon. Additionally, getting vaccinated just like our cattle appears to me to be the only permanent solution.

The cool and wet conditions that plagued us during corn planting have given way to hot and wet in our part of the state. Linda and I drove up to see our parents last weekend, and there’s a line just south of Elmwood that marks the replant zone for corn. Everything north looked great all through Peoria and Stark County. South of the line, a lot of replanted corn was hustling to catch up. We have a couple of fields of corn we planted after we chopped off the wheat and applied manure that came up uniformly and look excellent thanks to timely rains. They may be our best corn yet.

We got started vaccinating the new calf crop and will continue after a brief round of holiday and vacation staff shortages. This little July heat wave has cow working hours restricted to very early morning only. Our well house took a lightning strike and wrecked a pump and some controls. Pumping enough water for all the cattle is critical and it’s easy to take free-flowing water for granted, but reality is that we need more water every day than most of the communities in our area. Constant vigilance of our water system needs to be a priority.

How we price and market our fed cattle has and needs to be addressed. We moved away from selling cattle live many years ago yet most of the carcass grids and formulas used around the country still base their start on a lightly traded cash market of what in my opinion are poorer quality cattle offered in some live market. There are several groups across the nation studying the issue and after experiencing last fall’s packing house fire and the pandemic caused spring market disruption there may be some new ideas surfacing to help find the true value of fed cattle being marketed. Time will tell, but with a lot of folks spending more time at home, I hope they all run out and buy a new grill and get to barbequing, these cattle prices need to be good for somebody and if we’re going to sell them so cheap we need to be building market demand for the future.

The second crop of hay is ready to cut and this 90-plus heat will do the trick getting it cured if we can negotiate around the thundershowers. A couple more dry days and we can get back to pumping manure on one last wheat field that we saved for forage sorghum. If it keeps raining and the pastures stay in good shape, we will chop this field, but if it dries off, we can shift gears and graze it. It’s nice to have options. Looks like the sun is up, so this guy needs to get moving. There’s only a limited amount of “cool” time out there and meltdown happens pretty early these days. Be safe.

Astoria, Ill.