From the Barns: Make more money

They lifted the burn ban due to some rain through last week, but less than an inch didn’t do much to break the continuing drought. There is some mud in our dry lots where we have the feeder calves and where feed is stored on ground. The over 300 feeders require quite a bit of feed storage, so we are looking to make another area with rock base and lime top.

The September-seeded rye really greened up with the rain and temperatures, so some grazing may be taking place soon. It sounds like we may have calves already on hand to be in on the grazing project similar to what we did last summer on our row-crop acres with sorghum-sudangrass. In other words, instead of being part of the crying mob of grain farmers, we will again adopt beef calves grazing and make more money per acre than the corn or soybeans.

I just returned from Elizabeth in northwestern Illinois and attendance at the Profitable Pastures Grazing School on March 6-7. The school was sponsored by Jo Davies County Soil and Water Health Coalition, our own Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition, Fields of Sinsinawa, Golden Sands Resource Conservation and Development Council and others.

The school was organized by Nathan Koester and the instructor was Canadian Steve Kenyon. It was a fast-moving, well-fed 16 hours of instruction and networking. Most everything grazing was covered: people and personalities, economics and gross margin analysis, grazing principles and grazing concepts, cell design, grazing charts, pasture planning and winter grazing. Steve may be contacted at skenyon@greenerpasturesranching.com. It was well attended, free of charge and some serious discussions were heard by all. I’m hoping Nathan might hold No. 2 next spring.

What are the best messages to deliver to producers who do not believe that reed canary grass can be utilized successfully for beef cow grazing? That seems to be my task for several situations where the grass is completely ignored or misunderstood. If good practices are adopted, success can be achieved and beef cows can be maintained. The success is magnified when producers realize that good management results with a grass that loves wet feet, but also thrives in severe drought.

We are shooting video here at River Oak on March 9 to make available for viewing on the Forage Hub next fall. If you haven’t visited yet, do so; I think you will find it interesting. Good luck with your bull selections at producer sales this month or next. I hope you find the inheritable traits to maximize profit and stay safe and sane.