March 29, 2024

From the Barns: Good, bad and ugly

With livestock farming, producers often get the good, the bad and the ugly. When you do both cow/calf and feedlot, as we do, that is even more of a possibility. First, the good. We are getting good enough growing conditions that this Wintergrazer cereal rye is doing very well and providing a lot of good grazing. As I have said before, it is a pretty sight to see all those cattle out there on that green grass, especially when the sun is shining and the days are nice. We are using multiple fields and doing rotational grazing with it. Separately, we have weaned heifers, yearling heifers, bred heifers and first-calf heifer pairs all enjoying the bounty of it.

Second, the ugly. We continue to get lots of rain and often. The feedlot pens are a muddy mess and just no good conditions to get any of it cleaned out until things dry substantially. When we are able to get to it, there will be hundreds of loads to haul. We have many pasture and hay fields that need manure applied, so hopefully we can utilize the majority of it.

We did get our fall-born calves weaned almost a month ago. They bawled for several days, but transitioned easily over to the feed and are doing well. I think we have treated maybe three head. I think that was mostly related to changing temps and cold rains. It is a wonder they don’t all get sick living in those conditions. We have already pregnancy tested their mothers and the pregnancy rates were very good. Very pleased with those results and those dry cows are now worked and turned out on their summer pastures.

Calving season is going smoothly and should about be done by the end of April. Brett and David are making the breeding plans for them already, so we can make sure we get our AI synchronization plans in place and semen and natural service sires lined up for those matings. Same for the 140 head of yearling heifers that will be bred and last week we ran them through and gave them their first round of pre-breeding vaccinations. Will receive their second and final round in three weeks.

We shipped the other load of good, black fats to USPB a couple of weeks ago and they graded pretty much the same as their pen mates the previous month. We shipped two loads of fat heifers out today to Tyson and will be sending another six loads in early May. Have some additional loads to sell after those and hope to have most of those gone by the end of May. The 225 head of 800-pound heifers that I couldn’t get sold a month ago, I decided to go ahead and finish. We recently sorted, weighed and implanted those. Currently averaging 925 pounds, so should sell late August through October. If the market continues to go higher, we should end up doing well with them — at least that is my optimistic thought at this time!

One of the joys of farm life is spending time with family and I have been blessed to get to do that with my recently turned 2-year old grandson, Teddy. He gets to come down and spend the day at the farm at least one day every other week. He spends most of the day with Grandma Angela, but he loves to come out on the farm and see the cattle. Riding in the feed truck and feeding is his favorite pastime and I believe he would be satisfied to spend all day in there. Angela takes lots of good pics that I get to post on Facebook. He has enjoyed the new baby calves and just likes being around the cattle in general. He is learning to call the cattle to the trough, “heying” them on and driving them with me in the Ranger. So much fun. God is indeed good.

Jeff Beasley

Jeff Beasley

Creal Springs, Ill.