Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Farming...

I hope you guys catch a good one!

Just broke 230 hours on tractor for the season. Have only seeded 16 days. There is a reason I’m tired... we gotta get cows out to grass. Like ASAP young ones starting to look kind of tough from the poor hay. We have been putting liquid mineral on all the hay this year to try to increase feed value. Fee an awful lot of pea straw all year.

Well, if it's just you and your dad I know it can turn into a handful.

I would love to find a guy we could trust to run tractor/drill but it's hard.



We still have about 80 head of late calvers camped out in the pens and they NEED to go ASAP as well! Flies are showing up, and it's just too many head for the area.

But we can't haul out week old calves either.


Need to bit the bullet and sell all the late cows in Feb/March. Late calving does not work well when most of your grass is 70 miles away.

How do you haul them that far? Are you putting them in pots?

Yep, everything goes out by semi.

We keep around 50 pair here close to home but that's it.




Every load has 42 pair, the tricky part is making sure each load is paired up right.



Grass right out the gate would be a dream.....

And if it weren't for a couple highways and railroad tracks we'd have a much easier setup but the home place on the river bottom is split up away from decent sized pasture.

Southern Kansas Report: According to the latest drought index we have improved from drier than Hell to drier than schitt. I really can't say it's much of a difference, but they think so. Started getting a little moisture, but, this time of year it comes with a price; wind and hail. Wheat here is short. As my Grandfather would say "you couldn't hide a jackrabbit. Haven't heard how it's filling out. Some guys really got hosed by the late freeze, some of the wheat was in the joint at that time.

Do you guys have pots? I always wanted one but not really sure what for. We haul 120 pairs about 7 Miles. The rest is all chased right out the gate. Our setup for calving is not ideal either and we are way short on windbreak. Need to do a lot of updating. But it takes time and money. Both of which we are short on.

Bkraft, it must have rained just enough for the grain traders to drop the winter wheat market......

When you're that dry it takes inches not a tenth or two to get back on track.





C, no we don't truck our own cattle and I straight up told my dad that I am not going to. Not unless we find some more help!


We are always busy sorting up the next load while the trucker is making the 4-5 hour round trip.


It would be really nice to have your own personal truck/trailer ready to go whenever though. Our old trucker had a NICE tractor and newer quad axle but he retired. Luckily we have a new guy and he is great.

There are some sketchy outfits hauling cattle.

These guys are pro's and have insurance, good equipment, etc..



Wilson pots appear to be the best.

I wish I had a good back. So many opportunities and I'm a gimp.

kwg

There is just certain stuff it so much easier to hire done. We been hiring trucking of lentils and peas. To Williston and a lot goes to Canada actually. We end up trucking quite a bit hauling hay and grain even tho neither of us have our CDLs. Should probably go take it just to have it. I’ve finally started to actually enjoy tucking takes a long time to learn and not be worried about if you are going to be able to find a gear or not. Ha

Good luck!

Yes....that would make me grouchy.

Especially since that was about the price I paid for my first farm!

Slave, thats a nice looking setup.

We have a couple box drills like that too. Use them for seeding a bit of grass here and there.


What the hell were you listening for in that picture?

Jim,
I'm just singing to myself in that photo.
I believe I was cranking out "Welfare Mothers Make Better Lovers"......Neil Young.

I actually had the muffs on my ears while discin' that day.
That old Sumbitch hasn't seen grease in 30 years (it screams like Axel Rose) why start now?

I grease the drills though.

Looks like the ones made by Van Brunt way back when.

I have one that is labeled IH.

Had a John Deere for a while.

Highway 2 or bust!

Goin' over Wolf Creek!

Got another 8 10ths of rain today! Came just right after the 1.7" a couple days ago.

Truly a life saver rain.

Last cow had her calf today as well! Damn glad to have that done.

And it was actually runnin' water!


You DO NOT want to be moving equipment at 8-9AM or 4-6PM. It's a 70 mph chitshow.....


These guys farming out in the country don't know what they're missing.....grin



Good deal on calving and the rain.


We still have 20-30 head to go and plan on hauling them out to pasture and just run 'em as slicks.

Yeah. Down here too...

I road my big tractor enough to make me nervous...

Idiots texting on cell phones.