From the Barns: Rains continue

Down in southern Illinois we could almost make the claim that it hasn’t stopped raining since December. Sure, there have been some stints of a week or 10 days maybe with no rain from time to time, but by and large it got wet and has stayed that way for a majority of the time. The row-crop community has gotten virtually nothing done, and those that did get some fieldwork done early probably wish they hadn’t. The obvious problems are muddy lots and saturated pastures. Other problems include pastures that are so wet that the grass isn’t growing in the way it should so the cattle are not getting much out of it. Can’t move or spread manure, or do any mowing or spraying, pugging and tracking up pastures — and the list goes on and on.

Last week we got the breeding heifers their second round of pre-breeding vaccine and also dewormed. Their synchronization protocol will start later in May for the AI breeding. This year we are going to try heat detection as opposed to timed AI. Also making plans and scheduling for the cows, as well. All told, I think we will have in the neighborhood of 250 head to breed.

We did manage to squeeze in time recently to sort, weigh and implant about 250 head of steers that we had been backgrounding, but had already started and in some cases completed their transition to a finishing diet. Just got them into their feedlot pens later than I had hoped, but they were all doing well and I don’t think there was any harm done in keeping them out on the traps for so long. These steers weighed from 950 to 1,150 pounds.

We penned and implanted them accordingly, and waiting this long allows me to get a closer projection as to when they will sell later this summer. Once I had that information, I purchased Livestock Risk Protection coverage on them, not wanting to take the position of not having a risk-management plan in place, so now feeling comfortable with that decision.

Will be shipping a load of fats out in a few days. Should have a couple more loads go out within 30 days, then after that I anticipate we may not have any ready until early August. We are hoping to buy in some weaned calves from producers that we normally source cattle from fairly soon. A little scary with what it is costing to purchase replacement feeder cattle.

Trying to do some hard penciling and projections, along with adding risk protection of LRP insurance and input pricing. Margins going forward just aren’t going to match what they have been, and hoping we can pencil in a profit. Need to have cattle on hand to keep the cash flow turning, but at what cost and risk?