Humm what's up with that?

[cousinit]

Sorry guys but gotta bring gp up again.

This time it's different. I gotta agree with his post #65 today in the Ag Outlook thread.

Raising heifer calves is a really expensive proposition. We should be culling some of ours out at an early age. We just don't want to get caught not having enough replacements, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NEVER HAPPENED TO US BEFORE, we somehow think that we should raise every darned heifer calf, but we shouldn't. If I knew the exact hour that we will retire, we will sell all heifer calves 2 years earlier. There is zero dollars in raising heifer calves, possibly negative dollars.

Ditto on treating probably cull cows. We are dealing with that scenario right now. Have a cow we dry treated in
Sept and after she calved her feet fell apart, but can't ship her cuz the Qmaster is still in her urine. Do not go by the label because if you have a sick/lame cow, it takes for-ev-er for the cow to rid herself of the drug residue.

I think many Cali dairies will be ok. They must be because there is still too much milk on the market. So for most, the Cali style of dairy is alive and well. The ones with high debt and/or bad mgmt suffer the most, just like any dairy.

[cousinit]

I disagree with the freestall guys who say raise 'em all up, I don't care how much room you have or think you have, overcrowding does hurt every cow in the overcrowded situation, not just the last ones you put in to cause the overcrowding. It's thinking like that that causes overproduction and milk prices to drop.

If people are hoarding heifers, milk will be in the low teens soon.

We will be done with this dairying soon enough, but will never sell the farm. Row cropping is calling us.

[bentover]

Cousinit I don't know if you are talking about a thread on Agweb, but there is a similar thread over there.
The BTO's will often raise all their heifer calves. If the price of milk goes up you have the extra animals ready to freshen and if not you can always cull harder and treat less sick cows. The heifer calf price is not real high and if you have the space and the feed, you are probably better off raising them all. That decision also may hinge on how long you plan on staying in the dairy business

Cousinit. About the time you get into rowcropping you probably will get non-stop rain and $4.00 corn. Then row cropping won't be calling so loud...LOL

[cousinit]

Corn doesn't need to be pulled at midnite, & only needs attention 8 weeks a year. The 8 weeks a year thing is huge. How much money do you need to make for 8 weeks a year?

[kwestfarms]

Hey Cousin , That's kind of a softball you threw out there......in 8 weeks you have to make enough money to live a year and put the next crop in the ground.....lol John

[cousinit]

I suppose there's come-a-parts in corn farming, too. But we would hire it all done, kinda like ICF LOL!

Had a come-a-part today that resulted in a swear-fest. Had to get the skidsteer door out to put new glass in. The eldest son had a fight with a big square bale and the bale won, lol. Anyhow the hubby cut his finger on the glass. Also couldn't find his metric wrenches. Hubby is only average with fixin stuff.

Found a dying dry cow yesterday. She died an hour later. Don't know what was up with that. A sick dry cow is a dead cow, aye Sheer Herder!

[bentover]

Cousinit As a dairyfarmer you should know you either have livestock or dead stock. Holsteins have two missions in life eat until they die mission completed Sometimes you choose and sometimes the cow chooses when death will occur.

Being a row crop farmer is not a walk in the park or in the corn field. There are nearly as many things that can go wrong for grain farmers as dairy farmers. Just remember you sell your haylage and corn silage as milk. There is usually an increase in the value of those crops when you put those crops thru dairy cattle. Thats part of the reason that those 4x4x44 farmers run so many more acres then dairy farmers run you make way more per acre.4x4s only have one chance to grow a crop to sell as grain

Bentover