From the Barns: Heat lowers hunger

The heat and humidity this summer has been hard on feeding cattle and at least one somewhat-round cattle feeder. I read the bunks every morning and intakes have been all over the board. Weather patterns come and go and so do the cattle appetites. As things warm up, especially the overnight heat and humidity, the intakes come crashing down and I have to adjust the intakes.

As cooler weather returns the fats come charging the bunk again and act like wolves on a fresh kill. Overconsumption is a constant threat and has been a real challenge that is continuing still this week. I’m certainly looking forward to a cooler, drier fall and the return of consistent intakes.

Fat cattle marketing has taken a wrong turn lately with some lower prices being offered and passed in some cases. I don’t see any big shift in the numbers of cattle available for slaughter, so I expect the market is mostly due to the packers’ chest beating in a valiant attempt to secure some profitability for their sector. Such a game we play.

Any cooler days the cowboy crew has been taking advantage of the chance to work through the various cow herds and get the initial calf work done and pulling off any dry cows they might find.

The bulls are turned out now and the guys are constantly looking for and reshuffling bulls that are overworked, underworked or injured and have to go back to rehab. Unfortunately, cooler calf-working days have been rare and with fall sports commencing time to finish calf work is an even rarer commodity.

Kaden and Karter have been running the drone fleet consistently and have been applying fungicide to corn and beans, as well as pressing the aerial attack on brush from above. Riley has been blasting away at the brushy understory all along paths I’ve been grinding into the Russian olive and locust jungle. A multipronged attack plan is just what this brushy invader deserves and that’s what we are delivering. It looks very fall-like around the ranch with a lovely green interior.

As soon as we got our wheat seed harvested Brett and Keegan hustled around and got manure pumped on those acres and Jett was right there to level out the tracks. The drone guys flew on forage sorghum seed and Morgan hopped right on and curried the seed in with the Turbo disk. A timely rain made us look smart and the powder-dry seedbed responded with a beautiful carpet of sorghum seedlings. The geese and doves are loving the bare dirt and new seedlings, but with this heat and the growth rate of the forage their playground will vanish nearly overnight.

As is typical most years, I expect a cold front will show up about the last day of August and all the doves we are seeing now will pack up and head south just before the hunting season arrives on the first of September. I expect we will be chopping corn about that time and that further scatters doves. Only time will tell how the first hunting season of the year will turn out.

While we wait for the corn to mature so we can get to chopping the manure guys have been applying to pastures and getting the buildings pumped down enough to let us take a break and focus on corn harvest.

The extra forage from the moisture and midsummer fertilizer is welcome as the grass had gone dormant for the most part from the heat, but now the cows have dispersed and are enjoying grazing with renewed enthusiasm on the enhanced pastures.

Pre-harvest shop projects and a dirt project or two will fill the gaps as we await the fall run of sporting events and corn harvest. See you on the sidelines.